Green power appears costly amid recession
NOV 08, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024809
New York Times : Wind, solar, and other sources of renewable energy face one of the same financial challenges as nuclear energy. In a recession when state budgets are tight and fossil fuel prices are low, renewable energy appears significantly more costly than its climate-threatening alternatives. As Matthew Wald and Tom Zeller of the New York Times report, other countries, notably China and Germany, have made renewable energy a national priority and have been willing through regulations and subsidies to pay for it. The US, however, has no such national policy, leaving cash-strapped states to find the money needed to sustain a renewable energy industry.
“One of the problems in the United States is that we haven’t been willing to confront the tough questions,” said Paul Gipe, who sits on the steering committee of the Alliance for Renewable Energy, a group advocating energy policy reform.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Do we really want renewables?’ ” he said. “And if the answer to that is yes, then we’re going to have to pay for them.”
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
