There is an opinion piece on the Weekly Standard today titled, “No Hope For A Sensible Energy Policy.” The article presents a very dim portrait of the chances for major changes in the U.S. energy landscape no matter who wins the race for the White House. The article makes points that touch on the real problems facing the development of every clean or emissions free power generation technology.

On ethanol, “Obama supports continued subsidization of corn-based ethanol production, despite the inflation in food prices that the switch to growing fuel instead of food is causing.”

On nuclear power, “Nuclear plants are dauntingly expensive–estimates of their cost seems to double every six months–and new nuclear plants cannot compete with existing coal- and gas-fired generation.”

On wind and solar, “Neither is the favorite of many environmental groups. Wind machines spoil their views, as the Kennedys argue from their Hyannisport waterfront compound…And solar installations take up huge swathes of land–almost 20 square miles in the case of one being built to service a tiny portion of the
electricity consumed in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco area.”

On electric vehicles, “McCain would offer a taxpayer-funded prize of $300 million, and the infrastructure to service them. But the Arizona senator has given no indication of the government subsidies he has in mind to fund the replacement of your once-friendly gas stations with battery-charging substitutes.”

On cap and trade, “Neither concedes that consumers will end up paying the bill, or that the system has been a fiasco when tried in Europe…”

I think that the aforementioned points (and others in the article) do indeed address the real challenges facing the development of clean (or cleaner) energy technologies. It’s certainly not all about money. Throwing $150 billion at the cleantech industry guarantees nothing. And even if the investment (from government or otherwise) exists to develop new technologies there are many political and legal issues that could prevent those technologies from being deployed.