How can the USA catch up to Germany & the European Union?

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

I was trying to listen to what he was saying, but I couldn't help but wonder what person or animal he had swallowed, certainly that wasn't his moustache!

[DrBuzz0]

Man this douchebag really gets under my skin. Apparently no mention of the fact that Germany is building and upgrading dozens of coal burners and even more gas burners.

Seriously, with the exception of China no other country in the world is planning on building more new coal plants.

This dude has been lying for years. He has no nuclear or energy sector background. He's almost as lame as his mustache.

[waddlerobloxxxx]

@DrBuzz0 Failfag

There not building new coal burners, THEY ARE DOING BUGFIXES ON THEM BEACAUSE OF AL GORE

[CobaltX07]

Why not just make the newer pebble bed plants, and use breeder plants? Meltdowns are virtually impossible, the amount of radiation leaked is minuscule compared to the radiation of our drinking water, let alone everything else we're exposed to. It's far more cost effective than current alternatives and all of the plutonium in the waste can be recycled as fuel, meaning no mining is necessary.

[tomricc]

Germany is the largest Exporter and the largest High Tech/ Value Added Exports and Manufacturing in the World. a Huge Creditor Nation, The World's best Infrastructure, 9 time less per Capita Prison Population then the USA, High Savings Rates, Great Wages/Benefits/ Welfare Safety Nets, Leader in Renewable/Sustainable Development, Highly Educated/Trained Workforce and one of the best Quality of living Rankings in the World -mercer, Forbes, International Living.

Germany is a Progressive Powerhouse

[SplittingAt0ms]

US population:

304,059,724 - Jul 2008

Denmark Population:

005,484,723 - Jul 2008

Do you see those TWO ZEROS at the beggining of Denmarks population??? That's righ, there's approximately 299 MILLION more people in the US than there is in DENMARK. WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO GET ALL THAT WIND?! Nuclear power is safe, it's considerably cleaner than ANY fossil fuel, and will save our country money. Solar & wind power have two horrible flaws. Calm n cloudy. They are not consistent power.

[conradmillermd]

Remember that the USA has been called the 'Persian Gulf of Wind' The DOE has said that just the Dakotas alone have enough wind to supply 2/3'rds of US electricity and Texas could supply the other third. The problem is transmission, and that is one place where moneys should be spent, not on nuclear power, which is unsafe, 30 of 104 plants are leaking, radioactivity can concentrate and cause cancer and is very difficult to detect. Remember 1 microgram of plutonium is the cancer causing dose.

[SplittingAt0ms]

Forgive me for doing a google search on your "Persian Gulf of Wind" comment, but the only one that seems to be using that phrase over and over is you. I DO feel that wind and solar power should be considered as part of a comprehensive energy plan, AS WELL AS nuclear power! Question? When will I be near one microgram of plutonium? Our Plants are leaking because we've been unable 2 update the reactors to safer, more efficient ones because of laws preventing new const. Carbon causes cancer too!

[conradmillermd]

@SplittingAt0ms Try the DOE and the Nation Magazine for the Persian Gulf of Wind comments, for starters. One microgram of plutonium is probably in some of the contaminants leaked out of a plant, with 30 of our 104 plants having leaked. It is not specificially measured or looked for, and tiny portions can even be in our so-called 'low level radioactive waste' that the nuclear industry wants to get rid of, even into our dumps like the 5 OK'd for this in Tennessee.

[CossacksChampion]

I dont think the USA could catch up with Germany. Germany is too supreme and advanced in technological knowledge and experience. The Germans have explained that they plan to keep the poleposition, if they'd see the USA would attempt to catch em up, they would increase their effectivity and production.

[conradmillermd]

@CossacksChampion The USA already has caught up to Germany in the windpower department. In fact, we put up 10,000 megawatts worth of windpower in 2009 vaulting us to the number one windpower nation on Earth with 35,000 megawatts total, and Germany and China at 25,000 megawatts approximately.

[s1mmelOne]

@conradmillermd Lol nice argument.... look at the size of the countries and the amount of ppl living in them. Your comparison is faulty here! Don't stop with the megwatts, put them in relation to the amount of ppl getting windpower and you'll get a completly different result ;-)

[Lintflas]

@conradmillermd

Nope, you didn't catch up to Germany yet, because they're also leader in solar energy. When you take renewable energy as a whole, Germany is still world leader.

They have the most advanced engineering solutions and technology in wind and solar, because they already started working on this in the early 90s.

[conradmillermd]

@Lintflas Do you know that the USA is #1 in windpower now? Few do. The media is not displaying this for us and we should be proud of it. We put up 10,000 megawatts of wind turbines in 2009, putting us at ~35,000 megawatts vs Germany and China being at ~25,000 MW each. By the way 10,000 MW=~3 nuclear plants. Project that for 10 yrs, assuming we don't increase the deployment of wind turbines, & that could equal at least 30 new nuclear plants worth of wind without the cancer or pollution.

[Lintflas]

@conradmillermd

Of course you put up more wind turbines because you have a bigger country with more space to place them, so you have more megawatts in the end. This doesn't change the fact that Germany still is world leader in renewable energy technology. Germany started research in the early 90s long time before others, but it's good to see Americans following the same path.

Next step for USA should be energy saving standards for houses and fuel-efficient cars.

[conradmillermd]

@Lintflas Yes, Germany has been way smarter in garnering wind and solar technology. But guess who will be number one shortly if the USA and Germany don't step up their game radically like they could and should to vastly increase their wind turbinage and solar roof panelling: China! Ready to rock the wind world, they are. Tho they're also building lots of nuclear reactors. The way of the world sez that if there's gonna be a next Chernobyl it'll be in a corrupt poorly regulating country like..

[DrBuzz0]

He might not want to mention this but because of the nuclear phase-out in Germany, they're building coal plants as fast as they can. Yes, dozens of multi-gigawatt coal power plants are under construction. Some of the largest coal fired power plants in the world are located in Germany and they're expanding them. Yes, they are building wind turbines as well, but the wind turbines are so unreliable and low power than they need more and more coal just to keep pace with demand.

[nexus8126]

So who pays for the MILLIONS of wind turbines as they break. WHO will grease all of those bearings. It's not practical at all.

[conradmillermd]

@nexus8126 There are thousands of jobs for technical wind repair people as the wind turbine industry expands. Wind turbines will improve and they won't emit radioactive strontium or tritium or leak cancer causing long-lived waste and blow up like a Chernobyl that now has 980,000 premature fatalities according to the latest book by Russian biologist Dr. Alexey Yablokov.

[damatt08]

the comments on the box, 2/3 of the US electricity from nebraska or wherever?

thats so wrong its not even close

[conradmillermd]

@damatt08 Made by the Dept of Energy or the DOE. 2/3 of USA electricity can be supplied by winds of the Dakotas alone; the other third from the winds of Texas (now our #1 wind power state). We're the Persian Gulf of Wind, mate! & #1 in windpower in the world right now. 10,000 megawatts went up in 2009 in our USA=to three nuclear power plants (33% capacity factor for wind, theoretical for nuclear 92% when on line). 7-8 yrs to build Ga plants could have 24-27 nuclear plant equivalents wind

[juscurious]

This guy is as dumb as a box of rocks.