Not the Way to Go Green

Governor Cuomo has chosen the wrong way for NY to go green.

He could have worked to promote wind energy. Being near the Great Lakes we receive an incredible amount of wind. Continuously. And new windmill designs are coming out that have a much smaller profile, look more aesthetically pleasing, and generate more electricity. Nope.

He could have promoted solar. This would certainly be a boost for Buffalo with the building of Solar City and the advances being made in battery technology. Elon Mush released his home battery plans as open source material. Anyone can take the technology and develop it. A firm in St Catherines has demonstrated that it can produce the same battery as Elon Musk has for about 20% of the cost. Could we get that proved and get them to put a plant in over here? Nope.

The Great Lakes have currents in them (until global warming wipes them out completely) that could be used to generate tidal energy. Just like windmills but below the water where we don't have to see them. And they are below the lever where boat hulls could strike them. Double win – the boating community sails or motors about and we get electricity. Nope.

Instead the Governor has chosen to pucker up to his campaign donors posteriors and is pushing for fracked gas pipelines to Canada and Connecticut and the other New England States.

Seriously? This is green energy? How? From the radioactive elements that are released from the fracking wells?

Fracking is one of – if not the absolute – environmentally dangerous ways to produce natural gas. And we all know that we need to break away form the carbon based fuels if we want our children and grand children to have land to live on.

And then there are the multi million dollar subsidies to the out old, out dated, near ancient nuclear plants that are, according to nuclear specialists, getting to be too dangerous and too inefficient to operate.

Think about this – all nuclear plants are doing is using deadly radiation to boil water into steam that will turn a turbine and generate electricity.

Like we can't do that with solar? A friend on mine was at a camp in Northern NY that used solar powered water heaters. They never ran out of hot water, even in winter, and you had to mix cold water with it because the water was at 160 degrees F.

With new advances in solar technology we can get that up to 212 easily and consistently. And we won't need fracked gas as a “bridge fuel.”

So let's can these nuclear plants and put our money into something that is not going to kill us and will actually create jobs. With solar panels becoming more affordable all the time they are going to become more popular and why produce them overseas when we can do it right here? And the batteries too.

The only demand for nuclear will be to dismantle those ineffective and inefficient plants.

If we are going to go green, let's at least make it environmentally friendly. Now.

Not in however the half life or uranium or plutonium is.