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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Solar Short Sell in A Shovel-Ready World

This morning at 10:35 a.m. (June 21, 2011) there was a short piece on CNBC about solar energy being in the doldrums, and being in the doldrums for a variety of reasons.

Case in point: FSLR. Down today in an "up" market, and down to 125 from its yearly high of 175. Meanwhile Arch Coal (ACI) is up 4 percent today. Just saying. But I digress.

I had written a post on the CNBC story, about solar being in the doldrums, but then decided to cancel it; it wasn't much of a story, and perhaps was only serving my personal agenda, and not of much interest to readers.

Now, some hours later, I ran across this story: the administration's promise last year to put solar panels on the White House roof have not yet materialized. The reason: federal contract rules too complex. Wow, talk about shovel-ready jobs and even the White House doesn't have sufficient clout to maneuver through the federal maze of contracts. I love it when I get one link with two stories: a) challenges of solar energy; and, b) federal contracting in a shovel-ready world.

I can't make this stuff up.

Link here.
Last October, the Obama administration announced plans to install solar panels on the roof of the White House by the spring of this year, returning the power of the sun to the pinnacle of prominence a quarter-century after Jimmy Carter's pioneering system was taken down.
Spring has come and gone, and the promised panels have yet to see the light of day.
Administration officials blame the complexities of the contracting process, and say the solar project is still an active one. But they can't say when it'll be complete. [That was 1979 when Jimmy Carter put them up. Ten years after we put a man on the moon. I guess federal contracting rules have changed significantly since then. And may explain the economic malaise we're in.]
Environmental groups say the symbolism is telling _ and disappointing.
The environmentalists, in the article, lament that yet one more summer will go by with all that summer sun wasted. Why worry? My understanding is that it will be at least a century before we see "results" of global warming, the reason "we" are pushing solar energy. 

Speaking of climate forecasts, the weather forecasters predicted a less-than-beautiful Saturday here in Boston just a couple days ago. It turned out to be a great day. A two-day forecast. Hmmm.

As with other posts of this nature, comments won't be posted unless presented with factual data, or the comments add something to the discussion.

1 comment:

  1. "As with other posts of this nature, comments won't be posted unless presented with factual data, or the comments add something to the discussion. "

    I am not sure you realize how stupid that statement makes you look. And how revealing. You are saying that your opinons are the only ones that count. You routinely take situations out of context to push your agenda. Nothing wrong with that but then you supress(censor) other comment.

    I could run through a list of dictators past and present who adopt/ed the same or similar approach. I am sure you would be extremely offended to be compared with these folks. Yet, there you are.

    If you think you need a policy of censorship on a blog then your blog postings probably need some serious rethinking????

    I realize that old man rants like yours can be fun but you are taking old man rants to a new level of stupidity with your censorship policy.

    I know this post wont pass your screen because you dont have the cajones to reply and I dont expect to see this posted. But I believe that you should not post opinions that are subject to your censorship. Your tone is very arrogant, disdainful and rude many times because of your polital slant and the desire to score points. You may attract attract a few morons now and then but folks who are capable of thinking see through your nonsense. For me, it is kind of entertaining in the same way as watching a train wreck to see a somewhat intelligent person ch as yourself sumake a fool of himself. so keep up the good work!!!!

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