Your Military Industrial Complex at Work

[Octafish]

21. We could have rebuilt the energy grid with 100% renewable systems for the cost of the Iraq war...

Of course, this would impact those holding petroleum industry stocks, so we must be very very careful to tread softly...

For the Price of the Iraq War, The U.S. Could Have a 100% Renewable Power System

By Washington's Blog
Global Research, April 11, 2013

What Are We Choosing for Our Future?

Wind energy expert Paul Gipe reported this week that – for the amount spent on the Iraq war – the U.S. could be generating 40%-60% of its electricity with renewable energy:

Disregarding the human cost, and disregarding our “other” war in Afghanistan, how much renewable energy could we have built with the money we spent? How far along the road toward the renewable energy transition could we have traveled?

The answer: shockingly far.

Cost of the Iraq War

The war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion through fiscal year 2013, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. That’s trillion, with a “t”. Including future costs for veteran’s care, and so on, raises the cost to $2.2 trillion.

SNIP...

If we had invested the $2.2 trillion in wind and solar, the US would be generating 21% of its electricity with renewable energy. If we had invested the $3.9 trillion that the war in Iraq will ultimately cost, we would generate nearly 40% of our electricity with new renewables. Combined with the 10% of supply from existing hydroelectricity, the US could have surpassed 50% of total renewables in supply.

However, this is a conservative estimate. If we include the reasonable assumptions suggested by Robert Freehling, the contribution by renewables would be even greater.

Freehling’s assumptions raise to as much as 60% the nation’s lost potential contribution by new renewables to US electricity supply by going to war in Iraq. With the addition of existing hydroelectric generation, the opportunity to develop as much as 70% of our nation’s electricity with renewable energy was lost.

And unlike the war in Iraq, which is an expense, the development of renewable energy instead of war would have been an investment in infrastructure at home that would have paid dividends to American citizens for decades to come.

CONTINUED...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/for-the-price-of-the-iraq-war-the-u-s-could-have-a-100-renewable-power-system/5330881

Thanks to capital's saptraps, our "capitalist system" has become a form of slavery for the masses. I am most grateful to know so many are not afraid to see it for what it is.

PS: Brought this up at a wedding reception last night. Everyone who heard grokked immediately. Unfortunately, I made everyone who heard sad to think that Washington's gridlock benefits a certain criminal class. So, after that, I was all happy talk.