Until he was suspended without pay after yesterday’s revelations, Kaloyeros oversaw $43 billion in tech investments, including private money leveraged by state funds. He also did quite well for himself, collecting more than $10.4 million in pay over the past seven years, supplementing his $549,947 salary in 2015 with $877,078 from the SUNY Research Foundation.

Meanwhile, regardless of what happens in the corruption cases, New York taxpayers are locked into what amounts to a business partnership with SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, who’s proposing a takeover of heavily indebted SolarCity.

If it doesn’t work out, Musk can always fall back on SpaceX, which has announced a partnership with NASA to launch an unmanned mission to Mars — where Musk has suggested he’d like to retire. And if not the Red Planet, there’s always Buffalo.

http://nypost.com/2016/09/22/cuomos-solarcity-disaster-could-become-a-monument-to-corruption/

Just another example of Corporatism

And don't think it is just the left. Here is a right wing favorite:

Pharmaceutical Company Supports Cannabis Prohibition To Protect Its Profits

The left loves its environmentalists and the right loves its prohibitionists. Corporations/Government take advantage of both.

williatw wrote:

MSimon wrote:It was once thought that we were running out of petrochemicals. That is no longer true. So why is he still playing?

He is playing the long game...even with fracking eventually we will run out of petrochemicals; especially with the inevitable rising consumption of oil the boom will likely cause; better if the next technology (renewables or for that matter polywell) are developed before we really must have them. Makes the transition easier for us.

The long game? There is no point in deploying technology we don't need. For a problem 50 years in the future. Twenty five years of tech advances ought to be a big help. 

But there is all that money on the table isn't there?

The Chemical Rockets needed to lift a Polywell into orbit will probably need a unique design. 

Space travel is possible already. Making long distance travel affordable seems like a good long term goal. And it solves a few problems on earth as well.

Tesla battery production creates as much CO2 as 8 years gasoline powered driving.

http://www.nyteknik.se/fordon/stora-uts ... er-6851761

At least initially, solar was subsidized to encourage development and adoption of solar electricity generation. It has definitely become much more widely used that it was 10 or 20 years ago, not to mention the improvements in efficiency and price.

I've never heard of base load power being required for solar to function. If it was, you'd have to plug your solar powered calculator into the wall outlet to use it. With enough panels and proper storage it could be used for base load, but I agree that other solutions (hydro, fission, fusion, hydrocarbon) are much better in that role.

CO2 is included as a 'major factor' because "everyone" "knows" its the amount of CO2 created that matters. /s Solar panel providers/manufacturers tout CO2 output in manufacturing/usage because that is the going thing to do when discussion power generation today. If the makers didn't talk about it, the detractors would.

And even with fully functional, in production pB11 plants solar electric generation would still be a thing. I doubt it would be a growing percentage of power generation like it is now, but it would most definitely still be useful : satellites, small (or not so small) remote locations, homes, covered parking lots (i wish this would catch on here in Texas, where it would be useful), and probably a number of other things.

choff wrote:Tesla battery production creates as much CO2 as 8 years gasoline powered driving.

http://www.nyteknik.se/fordon/stora-uts ... er-6851761