Originally Posted by
PlanoFuji
Your sarcasm is noted. I didn't say whether we should or shouldn't change the regulatory process. I simply pointed out that your perception of the cause of the reason that we haven't built one is flawed. I know of no business that would be willing to risk the capital required to perform just the EA/EIS process on such a facility with the real risk that it wouldn't be approved. By your prior argument, the government can build such a facility upstream of the town water supply (BTW, everything is upstream of somebodies water supply) and simply ignore their own regulations. Is that what you propose?
What I propose is that we become a hell of a lot less dependent on petroleum, for both strategic and environmental reasons.
Barring that, I believe in very stringent government regulation of energy and related industries. Another weakness of capitalism, besides the one I mentioned earlier, is that there is no economic incentive for producers to safeguard the common good. That is the role of government in a well run capitalist economy.
i think any sympathy for the "over-regulated" energy companies is comically misplaced. They have managed to eke out some pretty impressive profits year after year. And they certainly don't give a damn about you or me or anything else in the world.