The 1900's showed us how to NOT build dams. Plug, flood, and reap. In the book Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, he presented the egos and competitive nature of entities such as the Army Corps and the BLM, and, let's not forget, the TVA. Big, complete, and definitive projects. Yep, it's all about the bottom line. Small scale hydro. It has potential, but the known environmental impact of hydro have to be mitigated. Obama recently mentioned something about diversified energy sources. One of which was nuclear. Bad idea. But the concept of diversification is needed, badly. Still, IMHO, we should invest concertedly in solar and wind. And then apply the other technologies when these two won't work. And then again there is the bastard cousin called....conservation. But getting back to how the machine works, until the American political machine can move away from it's polarity of views, I don't see much getting done. Too much power to broker.
building a better mouse trap...
Yep, it's all about the bottom line.
Small scale hydro. It has potential, but the known environmental impact of hydro have to be mitigated.
Obama recently mentioned something about diversified energy sources. One of which was nuclear. Bad idea. But the concept of diversification is needed, badly.
Still, IMHO, we should invest concertedly in solar and wind. And then apply the other technologies when these two won't work.
And then again there is the bastard cousin called....conservation.
But getting back to how the machine works, until the American political machine can move away from it's polarity of views, I don't see much getting done. Too much power to broker.