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• Monday, June 30, 2008 09:02 AM

  A second "Tenessee Valley" project

  In 1933, the federal government hooked the rural south to the "grid," fundamentally changing that region forever. What is needed is a second Tennessee Valley project that offsets the cost of installing solar panels on private residences and businesses and hooking people up to the grid so that they can "sell back" excess energy. The technology is already available and individuals are already doing this, but to have a measurable effect it would need to be done on a large scale.

  This would not work everywhere. But, in places like Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona-it would substantially reduce the need for fossil fuel consumption. If this were done en mass, I cannot conceive of a reason why cities such as Phoenix AZ should not be completely energy independent.

  This would be beneficial in a second way. This would STIMULATE the economy. Production/Installation/maintenance would necessitate the creation of thousands of small and medium sized businesses who would need to employ millions of US workers (can't do hardware installation/maintenance from India).

  The Repubs are always blathering on about tax cuts as a way to stimulate the economy. Across the board tax cuts are bullshit. But, if you target tax cuts to stimulate a new industry (like say the Internet), you can produce sustainable REAL growth.

  This is a win-win, good for the environment and the economy.

  —fancynancy1984 Read fancynancy1984's other letters
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