Realville is a place all too few energy dreamers seem to have visited. They mistake heavily subsidized energy as a practical alternative on a large scale to real energy. Wind has its place but…

I recently read that Tammy Reiss of Unadilla took a biking trip through wind country in Lewis County, NY. She talked to friendly, well paid employees of the Iberdrola wind farm complex and observed tidy farmsteads existing in harmony with a local energy source. She contrasted that with fossil fuels’ destruction of the planet and implied renewables are the key to the future.

Ms. Reiss sent us a picture postcard, but here’s Realville. We live in a carbon based society because carbon based fossil fuels provide a cheap, abundant, efficient energy and heating source and supplies the chemical feedstock for millions of items that are the fabric of modern life.

Regarding energy, reneewables can’t compete in cost unless mandated by government and propped up with massive subsidies and tax breaks. Wind and solar are several decades away from the technology and systemic solutions in storage and transmission that give them a significant market share in energy. Finally, the world can’t wait. We need a bridge fuel. And that fuel is shale gas.

http://naturalgasnow.org/back-to-realville-where-shale-gas-is-our-e...