What is it with Republicans and any kind of new technology?

[Freeper]

hedgehog  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat Feb-05-11 01:08 PM
Original message
What is it with Republicans and any kind of new technology?
   
The Republican run county legislature here in Oswego Co, NY turned down a wind farm that would have brought in much needed jobs. The republican governor of Ohio has turned down any development of high speed rail. Now, they've taken a stand against compact fluorescent bulbs:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x354524

Well just because it is new doesn't mean it will work.

SpiralHawk  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat Feb-05-11 01:10 PM
Response to Original message
1. As they have so often said, Republicons want America to FAIL
   
Edited on Sat Feb-05-11 01:15 PM by SpiralHawk
The chief overpaid RepubliCon SpokesWanker -- Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh -- has said it often...

No we want America to succeed and in order to do so Obama must fail with his agenda.
Now if Obama has a change of heart and wants good things then we will want him to succeed.

[thundley4]

They're building a wind farm in my county, but it isn't bringing a lot of of jobs.  The electricity generated isn't going to benefit us either, it's going up to northern Illinois where the liberals can feel good about paying for "green energy".  It's also taking a few acres of good farmland out of production.

[BlueStateSaint]

There's a few wind farms near Karin.  I've rode through a couple of them, on trips to hydros or to substations that I had to visit.  While I'd be up for someone putting a wind farm near me, a natural gas peaker turbine--something in the neighborhood of 10 MW or so--would probably make more sense.  Hell, there's a story in the Albany Times-Union today about the Albany landfill, and all of the methane it generates, and how that methane pisses off the neighbors of the landfill.  Put in an electric-generating plant to be fired by the methane generated, and you'd get another 3-4 MW going to the grid.

Our new Representative, Chris Gibson (R, NY-20) has proposed a nuclear power plant for his district.  I'd be all in favor of that.

[GOBUCKS]

Wind farms = incredibly expensive, unreliable electricity from horribly ugly, land-gobbling windmills
High speed rail = bottomless money pit to operate empty trains
Compact fluorescent bulbs = dim, slowly brightening light from exorbitantly expensive bulbs that won't work in many fixtures

Stupid Republicans.

[Chris_]

Maybe it has something to do with a conservative approach to adopting everything all shiny and new. My Old Man always warned me against buying a car in the 1st year or 2 of it's model introduction. I'm the same way today.

Oh sure I have a lot of my music digitally stored and played, but I still have my 8-track player and tapes on a shelf in the garage, ya never know.

[jukin]

Win The Future with 19th century technology!!!!!1111!!!!eleventy

[DumbAss Tanker]

Compact fluorescent bulbs = dim, slowly brightening light from exorbitantly expensive bulbs that won't work in many fixtures

Also containing toxic materials, instead of an inert tungsten filament. In my own experience with them, I have been completely unimpressed by their average lifespan, which seems to be no more than three times that of the incandescent bulbs costing a tenth as much.

[thundley4]

Also containing toxic materials, instead of an inert tungsten filament. In my own experience with them, I have been completely unimpressed by their average lifespan, which seems to be no more than three times that of the incandescent bulbs costing a tenth as much.

IIRC, CFLs have also been subsidized to make their prices as low as they currently are. Once the ban on incandescent bullbs takes effect, that subsidy will vanish.

[Texacon]

IIRC, CFLs have also been subsidized to make their prices as low as they currently are. Once the ban on incandescent bullbs takes effect, that subsidy will vanish.

I read the other day that CFL's were set to increase in price by at least 3 fold once the ban is in completely.  Wish I had kept the link ...

KC

[JohnnyReb]

Lighting a candle and shitting in the woods is not an advancement...DUmmies.

[thundley4]

I read the other day that CFL's were set to increase in price by at least 3 fold once the ban is in completely.  Wish I had kept the link ...

KC

This from Sept. 2009.

Some argue that C.F.L. cost is no longer a barrier. Non-incentivized prices for C.F.L.s have come down dramatically in the last few years, with retailers selling the basic spiral types for two dollars apiece or less.

Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California, Davis, believes incentive programs can be very effective, but only if they go hand in with good products.

Government officials “are hanging the hook on the lack of incentives. It’s a little chicken and egg,” Mr. Siminovitch said. “We’ve had C..F.L. incentive programs for years and years. You have to have a sustainable product that survives on its own attributes.”

Large utilities in California are phasing out mass-market C.F.L. promotional programs, but regulators in the state just approved a $78 million incentive budget to be spent between 2010 and 2012.

Ratepayer advocates in California have lobbied for a near-term phase out of such subsidies because they claim the market is already flooded with C.F.L. bulbs. As evidence, they point to an assessment by energy industry consultant KEMA which estimates about 42 million C.F.L.s purchased through utility programs are currently in storage in California residences. And then there are the promotional C.F.L.s being auctioned off on eBay.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/as-cfl-sales-fall-more-incentives-urged/

Here in Illinois, some stores stock certain brands of CFLs that are subsidized by the power companies.

[TVDOC]

Going back to the OP.....I have a (somewhat embarrassing) question for them.......what on G*d's green earth makes you folks think that windmills for power generation, and "high speed" rail are new technology?!?!

Windmills have been generating electricity for over a century, and for all that time, their practicality from a mass generation standpoint has been shown to be severely limited, and far from cost effective.......therefore just old, impractical technology warmed over to create political points.

Rail has been with us for nearly TWO centuries, and the only question remaining is "speed", and whether it actually meshes with today's transportation requirements......it doesn't, hence the decline of passenger rail in the US, with the advent of better roads, and the final nail being driven in the coffin by airlines.  Rail, as a medium for mass cross-country transportation is simply far too expensive to ever be practical.  One can purchase a new airliner for the same cost as every ten-mile stretch of high speed rail infrastructure expense.

In the US, with large distances frequently traveled, and many destinations possible, rail transport as a commercially viable entity was dead half a century ago......

doc

[Freeper]

Also containing toxic materials, instead of an inert tungsten filament. In my own experience with them, I have been completely unimpressed by their average lifespan, which seems to be no more than three times that of the incandescent bulbs costing a tenth as much.

Of the ten or so that we put in our house 1, count them 1, is still working. And it's only been 18 months.
Now we have a house full of regular bulbs with no noticeable change in our power bill.

[zeitgeist]

Wind farms = incredibly expensive, unreliable electricity from horribly ugly, land-gobbling windmills
High speed rail = bottomless money pit to operate empty trains
Compact fluorescent bulbs = dim, slowly brightening light from exorbitantly expensive bulbs that won't work in many fixtures

Stupid Republicans.

Gobucks -- speaking Truth about Power

Dummies remain baffled. Film at eleven.

[true_blood]

SpiralHawk  (1000+ posts)     Sat Feb-05-11 01:10 PM
Response to Original message
1. As they have so often said, Republicons democrats & Obozo want America to FAIL

FIFY for the truff.

[Randy]

LED bulbs, they are a-comin'.

If they can work out the hashneess of the light they'll be better accepted. Even at their OMG!!!111-high price.

[diesel driver]

DUmmie SpiralHawk needs to pull his head out of his ass and learn to read.

According to Wikipedia, Rush Limbaugh DID NOT DODGE THE DRAFT, unlike a certain former Dim president.

"Limbaugh was not drafted during the Vietnam War draft lottery, as his birth date's high rank (152) was well above the 125 rank below which service members were drafted. He was classified as "1-Y" (later reclassified "4-F") due to a Pilonidal cyst."

If DUmmies can't get something so simple right, how in the hell can they be believed with anything else they say?

[AprilRazz]

So is that why Teddy Kennedy threw a fit and did not allow a wind farm in view of the family compound?

How many other dims would be about wind power if it were right next to their houses?

[NHSparky]

Not to mention several of the wind projects in Maine have gone Tango Uniform because they never delivered anywhere near the electricity they promised and the companies subsequently went bankrupt.  A lot of the wind farms in central CA are sitting idle because they aren't cost-effective, even with huge subsidies.  And let's not get into what my current employer is going to do when the tax teat dries up for wind.

[jukin]

The windmills in England not only did NOT provide any power during this winter but actually used power (a net draw from the grid) so they could stay warm and not turn into ugly landscape sculpture.

I'm really beginning to become a less honorable man and start conning the insane left out of the welfare checks with some unicorn in the sky promise of socialist utopian schemes. It got AlGore several mansions, private jets, and a carbon footprint 1000 times bigger than the typical American.

[Randy]

There's a few wind farms near Karin.  I've rode through a couple of them, on trips to hydros or to substations that I had to visit.  While I'd be up for someone putting a wind farm near me, a natural gas peaker turbine--something in the neighborhood of 10 MW or so--would probably make more sense.  Hell, there's a story in the Albany Times-Union today about the Albany landfill, and all of the methane it generates, and how that methane pisses off the neighbors of the landfill.  Put in an electric-generating plant to be fired by the methane generated, and you'd get another 3-4 MW going to the grid.

Our new Representative, Chris Gibson (R, NY-20) has proposed a nuclear power plant for his district.  I'd be all in favor of that.

They hooked a generator to our landfills methane a year or so ago. It should be good for a long long time. The dump has only got a few more years of permitted operation left in it before they have to move.

[BlueStateSaint]

They hooked a generator to our landfills methane a year or so ago. It should be good for a long long time. The dump has only got a few more years of permitted operation left in it before they have to move.

I was at one last March that had 20 more years of space available (for garbage), and 25 years of methane generation beyond that.  Said municipality was negotiating for more land that would allow them another 20 years of garbage disposal . . . and at least 25 more years of power generation.

[DumbAss Tanker]

LED bulbs, they are a-comin'.

If they can work out the hashneess of the light they'll be better accepted. Even at their OMG!!!111-high price.

LEDs I could deal with, I am a huge fan of them for hunting, tactical, and outdoor use.  Super battery life and more impervious to impact and G-forces from being dropped than about any kind of shell they come mounted in is made.

[AllosaursRus]

Wind farms = incredibly expensive, unreliable electricity from horribly ugly, land-gobbling windmills
High speed rail = bottomless money pit to operate empty trains
Compact fluorescent bulbs = dim, slowly brightening light from exorbitantly expensive bulbs that won't work in many fixtures

Stupid Republicans.

How many incandescent light bulbs have ya broke inside your home? No big deal, just sweep up the glass. Now, what if they had one of the deadliest poisons known to mankind inside them? Mercury is not somethin' ya want layin' around in your house after ya break one of these bulbs no matter how small a quantity it is! Especially with pets and kids runnin' around!

If we broke fluorescents at the HD, we had to treat it like Haz Mat. What are we gonna do, have a Hazardous Material recycle bin in every home? Boy don't that sound like a good idea!

[BlueStateSaint]

How many incandescent light bulbs have ya broke inside your home? No big deal, just sweep up the glass. Now, what if they had one of the deadliest poisons known to mankind inside them? Mercury is not somethin' ya want layin' around in your house after ya break one of these bulbs no matter how small a quantity it is! Especially with pets and kids runnin' around!

If we broke fluorescents at the HD, we had to treat it like Haz Mat. What are we gonna do, have a Hazardous Material recycle bin in every home? Boy don't that sound like a good idea!

I asked a similar question of the maintenance staff at our apartment complex, and the guy looked at me as if I had three heads.