Wind is already our second cheapest way to bring new capacity on line and on the way to being the cheapest. Onshore wind will not need assistance much longer.

Solar prices are dropping very rapidly. That would not have happened with out government assistance. Solar in on track to be cheaper than natural gas in the next few years. It is already cheaper than gas peaker.

If you’re worried about your tax dollars being spent somewhere than isn’t benefiting you then look to coal, oil and nuclear. We’re throwing hundreds of billions of tax dollars into those rat holes and their prices keep rising.

Renewable/green energy has received only a tiny portion of what fossil fuel and nuclear have received and the cost of green energy keeps dropping.

Supporting green energy is a wise use of our tax dollars.

But since none of our grids are 100% coal EVs are cleaner than gasmobiles. Even in the states that burn the highest amounts of coal EVs are cleaner than burning gas.

With every wind turbine and solar panel we connect to the grid EVs get cleaner.

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Better to think of battery life in terms of miles rather than years. Our longest “in service” batteries are in the Tesla Roadster and they are doing well at 100,000 miles.

For the average 13,000 miles per year US driver that would be about 8 years. And “used up” for an EV battery really means that range has dropped to 80% of when the battery was new.

When lithium batteries hit 80% they tend to lose further capacity slowly. Someone who buys an 80 mile range EV and has a 40 mile or less daily driving routine may never need to replace their battery.

BYD’s lithium iron phosphate batteries are going strong at 150,000 miles. And that’s with close to 100% rapid charging. They are being used in taxis that stay on the road 24 hours a day.

Lithium batteries are recyclable and Toyota already has recycling in place.

If you have information that you feel is more reliable then present it.

There’s no appreciable environmental damage created by wind turbines. There are minor changes in wind speed and ground moisture in the immediate vicinity of the turbine but it is extremely minor compared to the damage caused by coal, coal mining, and uranium extraction.

Per MWh of electricity produced bird kills are very much higher for coal and nuclear than for wind.

It is the case that papers are published frequently which are flawed.

It is also the case that sometimes a scientist will put the known facts together in a way that makes a prediction and then further research will show that their prediction is wrong.

If you go back through the history of any scientific topic you will find faulty papers. That’s just how science works, people put out their ideas and then other scientists confirm or disprove those ideas.

Science is self-correcting which is why it emerged as the dominate branch of philosophy.

China is capping their coal use starting in 2015 at 2011 levels. That means that starting in 2015 they will burn 6% less coal than they did in 2012. China’s coal acceleration is over. Any coal plants they are building now are replacing inefficient ones so that they can get more electricity out of the coal they do burn.

Japan increased their level of coal burning following Fukushima which caused them to shut all their nuclear plants.

Japan is considering building more coal plants. That decision has not been made. At the same time Japan is increasing solar and wind installations. Japan has no desire to increase their CO2 emissions. I expect few, if any, coal plants are actually built.