hmmm.... Green Energy, not so Green?
 

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Thoughts?

Solar industry grapples with hazardous wastes - Yahoo! News

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the law of unintended consequences raises its head.

I just quick skimmed the article, but 2 things popped out at me-
1. The amount of fossil fuels used to transport the waste...
Um yeah... because the foods on a person's plate didn't have to travel very far to get to your plate.......:wink:
2. Quote from the article-
Right....
At least there are approved places to take the waste.
Not so with the fracking solutions used for marcellus shale. Most waste facilities had to stop taking the nasty stuff, so the wise "powers that be" decided to just drill a big hole and dump the stuff in the ground....because dead livestock, earthquakes and poisonous drinking water are just soooo much nicer...
(Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic :-))

Green energy push was never about being green and the energy is anything but green. The only truly green energy we have is hydro and even the environmentalist fight that saying its not green. In Oregon we are around 45% hydro powered, legislature came out and said they want 25% green energy by 2025 (cute aint it?). Since we are already over that with hydro they downgraded hydro from green to dirty energy.

Let's face it, our energy is dirty. Solar has its waste products, our "green" compact fluorescent bulbs have mercury in them, the process for making the batteries in our hybrid cars is nasty.....on and on and on.

But, do you really think the waste products and pollution created by the petroleum and gas industry is any cleaner? Really?

Technology will tackle the problems, just as they did with the scrubbers placed on stacks spewing toxic fumes into the air. The question is to demand that these companies continue to work on the technological skill to create cleaner energy, not just sit on the old methods of drill drill drill/frack frack frack and refine as they always did.

Is wind energy clean, or does that come with a nasty byproduct too?

I don't know - I heard those windmills can hurt little birdies...:rofl:

These things are never truly 'green' as the amount of toxins created to manufacture them and dispose of waste usually outweighs any gain
If you're looking to save money I think that it takes years to recoup the initial outlay of purchase and installation over the cost of electricity
The only thing they will do is reduce the drain on other rapidly disapearing or costly resources - fossel fuels, oil, natural gas etc. but thats only going to have an impact if they are built to last for a really long time.

Well the oil sands killed a few ducks once and the world almost ended *rolls eyes*. It's not just energy that creates toxic by products. If it wasn't farmed or grown, it was mined, and mining creates Tailings, ARD, etc.. so your computer, your car, your house, etc.. all have created hundreds of tons of waste rock, Tailings and in some cases, acid drainage into the systems local to that deposit.

Everything is basically "dirty" by any standard...
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^^^ I think the point that the OP was trying to make is that these things are being sold as 'green' and good for the environment when in fact they often arent
We all know that industry is toxic and that nature can be deadly