Media misrepresentation of energy issues

UtahBill · 06-29-08, 09:45 AM

Not sure this is in the most appropriate place....
Making wind power sexy? That was the title of a long article in a local paper about wind turbines. The Herald Journal Serving Logan and Cache Valley > News > Making wind power sexy
According to what I read, the citizens of Spanish Fork, Utah are giving away a 70% property tax break for 10 years to help bring about a facility that could supply 74% of their homes (when the wind blows) but the power is actually going to California.
Rocky Mountain Power will pay 5 or 6 cents per kWhr of any excess capacity, but there is no mention of what the actual generation expenses are.
And it lauded 2 marketing professors from Utah State Univ. for spending 4 years pushing this project down the throats of rightfully skeptical local residents.
If we are to have any kind of energy policy in the USA, shouldn't the media be responsible for accurate reporting?
BTW, shouldn't we have an ENERGY category?

GottaHurt · 07-04-08, 08:37 AM

Agreed, the media and their scare tactics.

I keep hearing 10-15 years to get oil wells online. What a load of crap.

Working on a platform measuring nearly twice the height of the Empire State Building poses plenty of risks, as the team building Petronius found out the hard way. Work on the platform began in 1997, and in December 1998, one of the two 2.25-in. cables being used in construction snapped, sending a $70 million section into the side of an installation barge before plunging to the gulf floor. Salvaging the project wasn't easy, but on May 4, 2000, the second of two decks was completed, and Petronius began pumping in late July.

Giant Oil Platforms - Popular Mechanics

That platform is in the Gulf of Mexico, land based ones should easily go up in less time.

If we can't believe the media and the naysayers on the time it takes to get a platform online, then why should we believe them on yield and financial impact?

PeteEU · 07-04-08, 11:14 AM

There are many scare tactics in this debate.

CNBC, Fox promoting the idea that China "stealing" US oil by drilling off Cuba... no they are not, and it has been debunked time and time again.

Right wing politician's claiming there were no serious oil spills after Katrina.. again false.

Left wing politician's not countering enough with the facts that the there are plenty of areas already given the green light for drilling and not being drilled and the media ignoring this fact.

Panic has broken out basicly, and the rule of the mob is going on.

UtahBill · 07-08-08, 12:06 PM

August issue of Reader's Digest has another badly researched article, this one is about nuclear power. I emailed them about the erroneous and misleading statements, will have to wait a month to see if it gets published.

American · 07-17-08, 09:16 PM

Of course their biased, they're Democrats aren't they?

GottaHurt · 07-24-08, 01:03 PM

I'm tired of the media telling us 10-15 years on oil drilling, 20-30 years on nuclear, when the facts are readily available through a simple search.

I'm not a big fan of France, but if they can put up a nuclear power plant in 54 months, we should be able to as well.

In May 2006 the EdF board approved construction of a new 1650 MWe EPR unit at Flamanville, Normandy, alongside two existing 1300 MWe units. The decision is seen as "an essential step in renewing EDF's nuclear generation mix". After considerable preparatory work first concrete was poured on schedule in December 2007 and construction is expected to take 54 months.

French Nuclear Power: WNA

My position is, if we do nothing, we'll get nothing.

We should be investing in oil, coal, nuclear and solar, proven resources.

Wind should be on deck, as well as the bio fuels.

Electric is a nice alternative, but electricity is dependant upon the power grid.
We'll need to address that before throwing millions of electric cars on the market, only to find out we don't have sufficient energy to charge them.