{"id":12131,"date":"2015-02-05T10:58:02","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=12131"},"modified":"2015-02-05T10:59:44","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:59:44","slug":"pipelines-are-bad-economics-invest-in-renewable-energy-instead-harvard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/pipelines-are-bad-economics-invest-in-renewable-energy-instead-harvard.html","title":{"rendered":"Pipelines are bad economics: invest in renewable energy instead &#8211;Harvard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nLet&#8217;s stop wasting money on the slide-rule technology of Keystone XL<br \/>\nor Sabal Trail: they&#8217;re both bad investments, either short-term or long-term.<\/p>\n<p>\nAndrew Winston wrote for Harvard Business Review 30 January 2015,<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2015\/01\/why-the-keystone-pipline-is-the-wrong-u-s-energy-debate\"><br \/>\nWhy the Keystone Pipeline Is the Wrong U.S. Energy Debate<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2015\/01\/why-the-keystone-pipline-is-the-wrong-u-s-energy-debate\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none\" src=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/resources\/images\/article_assets\/2013\/09\/110-andrew-winston.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nIn the short run, with oil at $50 per barrel, Keystone will connect<br \/>\nrefineries to oil that may be unprofitable to extract. In the long<br \/>\nrun, as the world turns away from fossil fuels aggressively, the<br \/>\npipeline will be moot &mdash; a relic of the past.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nEither way it&#8217;s a poor investment.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nWhat, then?<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/product\/the-big-pivot-radically-practical-strategies-for-a-hotter-scarcer-and-more-open-world\/16554E-KND-ENG\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;width:300px\" src=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/resources\/images\/products\/16554E_500.png\"><\/a><br \/>\nSo the real question is, what kind of infrastructure do we want to<br \/>\nbuild? Do we approach every project as a one-off way to create some<br \/>\ntemporary jobs, or do we have a strategy in place that improves our<br \/>\nlong-term competitiveness? Imagine if we were thinking today of<br \/>\nbuilding our education infrastructure by investing in blackboards<br \/>\nand slide rules. Instead, many school districts, including my son&#8217;s,<br \/>\nare wisely handing out Chromebooks and iPads to every child.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSimilarly, why would we invest in yesterday&#8217;s energy technologies<br \/>\nwhen we have smarter options? Our investment choices should make our<br \/>\ncountry more resilient, healthy, and prosperous. By that logic, the<br \/>\npipeline is a bad investment choice. That&#8217;s just simple arithmetic<br \/>\nand economics. Given the challenging future facing unconventional,<br \/>\nexpensive fossil fuels, the Keystone XL is literally a pipeline to<br \/>\nnowhere.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, like the Keystone XL tar sands oil<br \/>\npipeline, is a bad investment, both short-term and long-term.<br \/>\nNo more money-pit fossil fuel pipelines (or nukes).<br \/>\nLet&#8217;s get on with<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/fixing-climate-change-is-profitable.html\"><br \/>\nwhat actually is profitable: renewable energy to fix climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s stop wasting money on the slide-rule technology of Keystone XL or Sabal Trail: they&#8217;re both bad investments, either short-term or long-term. Andrew Winston wrote for Harvard Business Review 30 January 2015, Why the Keystone Pipeline Is the Wrong U.S. Energy Debate, In the short run, with oil at $50 per barrel, Keystone will connect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,14,15,264,265,6124,559,6687,24,36],"tags":[8214,8212,8719,8704,8705,8754,8755,308,8701,8213,6176,8702,12,7,562,8782,6076,7063,8211,8714,6072,6,8716],"class_list":["post-12131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-economy","category-education","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-natural-gas-2","category-oil","category-pipeline-2","category-solar","category-wind","tag-andrew-winston","tag-blackboard","tag-climate-change","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-fracking","tag-georgia","tag-harvard-business-review","tag-keystone-xl","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-oil","tag-pipeline","tag-sabal-trail","tag-slide-rule","tag-solar","tag-tar-sands","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12134,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12131\/revisions\/12134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}