Bill Gates Says The Cost Of Switching To Wind And Solar Would Be “Beyond Astronomical”

Bill Gates points out that wide scale wind and solar energy are a farce, and that people who claim it isn’t have no idea what they are talking about.

Retired software kingpin and richest man in the world Bill Gates says today’s renewable-energy technologies aren’t a viable solution for reducing CO2 levels, and governments should divert green subsidies into R&D aimed at better answers.

Gates expressed his views in an interview given to the Financial Times yesterday, saying that the cost of using current renewables such as solar panels and windfarms to produce all or most power would be “beyond astronomical”. At present very little power comes from renewables: in the UK just 5.2 per cent, the majority of which is dubiously-green biofuel burning1 rather than renewable ‘leccy – and even so, energy bills have surged and will surge further as a result.

In Bill Gates’ view, the answer is for governments to divert the massive sums of money which are currently funnelled to renewables owners to R&D instead. This would offer a chance of developing low-carbon technologies which actually can keep the lights on in the real world.

“The only way you can get to the very positive scenario is by great innovation,” he told the pink ‘un. “Innovation really does bend the curve.”

Gates says he’ll personally put his money where his mouth is. He’s apparently invested $1bn of his own cash in low-carbon energy R&D already, and “over the next five years, there’s a good chance that will double,” he said.

The ex-software overlord stated that the Guardian‘s scheme of everyone refusing to invest in oil and gas companies would have “little impact”. He also poured scorn on another notion oft-touted as a way of making renewable energy more feasible, that of using batteries to store intermittent supplies from solar or wind.

“There’s no battery technology that’s even close to allowing us to take all of our energy from renewables,” he said, pointing out – as we’ve noted on these pages before – that it’s necessary “to deal not only with the 24-hour cycle but also with long periods of time where it’s cloudy and you don’t have sun or you don’t have wind.”

Bill Gates: Renewable Energy Can’t Do The Job | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)

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96 Responses to Bill Gates Says The Cost Of Switching To Wind And Solar Would Be “Beyond Astronomical”

  1. Bill Gates for president.

  2. gator69 says:

    The ultimate cage fight! Bare knuckle nerd smackdown!

    Bill Gates vs Elon Musk

    Order your pay-per-view now!

    • Dave1billion says:

      Bill Gates vs Elon Musk.

      Unless Musk can get some government assistance my money is on Gates.

      Bill Gates built his business with (as far as I know) no government subsidies.

      A lot of of Elon Musk’s enterprises depend on a hefty chunk of government subsidies (Tesla) or government contracts (SpaceX). His proposed Solar City and Hyperloop would also be feeding at the government trough.

      • spren says:

        As far as I recall, Bill Gates and co-founder Paul Allen, were in a collaboration with Ross Perot to establish MSDOS and the standard for DOS on IBM personal computers, which at the time was the leading-edge producer. There is much debate on whether MSDOS was actually the superior operating system or whether they were able to leverage their way to become the standard.

    • V. Uil says:

      Musk is a subsidy junkie. He is taking the American tax payer for a ride and laughing all the way to the bank as he does it. Everything Musk does, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity depends on government subsidies.

      Turn those subsidies off and he goes bankrupt.

      • gator69 says:

        Those subsidies, and other subsidies for wind and solar could save millions of lives per year, if spent correctly.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtbn9zBfJSs

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4YcxAXkfQ

      • spren says:

        I have had this argument with my son several times about Musk. But my son takes the position that regardless of his exploitation of government funding, Musk is a visionary and far ahead of most of his contemporaries.

        • Kingofnyc says:

          Tesla is already profitable and has paid back the government investment and in the process created wealth for many in thr stock exchange. Now they are working on battery technology that will be puchased by millions of homeowners and windfarms to drastically reduce the carbon footprint and more importantly than all of this will stop urban pollution. Do you want to breathe in soot and gasoline? Theres nothing wrong with governments investing in the private sector in fact they are supposed to. Thats how you avoid governments stealing and concentrating wealth like fascists.

      • Kingofnyc says:

        This is factually inaccurate. Musk has received government investment and paid it back. Musk also has received contracts from the government which is perfectly sound capitalism. He is offering them superior technology at half the cost they normally spend. Those savings saves the taxpayer more money.

        Also the difference between Bill Gates and Elon Musk is that Elon uses every penny of his own personal wealth to fund his own ventures. He has risk hundreds of millions from his own pocket to launch these companies. You dont see Gates doing that.

        Sure Gates is donating philanthropic monies but those monies he didnt earn from his own investment it was mostly acquired through 25 years of illegal monopolistic practices and selling Microsoft shares. He has no skin in the game and that is why he is a loser.

  3. henryp says:

    Gas is best
    For now.

  4. Choompa says:

    Gates knows full well that technology that can infinitely power the world already exists and was invented, demonstrated, built, patented more than a century ago. Quantum Vacuum energy technologies of many kinds continue to be built and demonstrated all the time but you’ll never be allowed to have them, and it is not oil companies suppressing it. It is only about money so far as infinite energy (since energy is so intimately intertwined with this artificial construct called ‘economics’) really means the end of economies and the beginning of something entirely new. Suppression of these systems is all about control. The UN, various govts and world bodies have been repeatedly informed about such systems by the likes of Adam Trombly, Steven Greer, Tom Bearden, John Bedini and so many others. The historical list of inventors of such technologies is huge. Ignorant scientists and others who claim such technologies violate the laws of physics demonstrate that they don’t in fact understand those laws and need to go back and learn about physics that is not in textbooks. Rather than do that they will choose to be willfully ignorant of the Nobel prize winning work that had been done and recognized for many decades. Gates will only pour his money into limited and small minded tech that will continue to enslave us. Gates will never do anything that endangers his power and real energy solutions will do just that.

  5. omanuel says:

    It is good news that Bill Gates has awakened to reality.

    • omanuel says:

      If Bill Gates is serious, he can and should finance an immediate review of the exaggerated dangers of nuclear radiation

      See Galen Winsor’s video on the “Nuclear Scare Scam.”

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ejCQrOTE-XA&feature=player_embedded

    • Chris Barron says:

      The reality of climate change threatening the earth ?
      Does it actually exist ?

      • omanuel says:

        Earth’s climate has changed and the Sun itself has evolved over the past five billion years (5Ga ago), when the planetary system was fresh supernova debris circling the pulsar remant that would evolve into our present Sun.

        • Chris Barron says:

          Yes yes yes, but is it threatening us today……should we fear a Bill Gates validated climate catastrophe ?

          When you said it was good that Gates had awakened to reality you didn’t mean that in the sense that there is an impending climate catastrophe heading our way did you ?

  6. Chris Barron says:

    You just know that Gates is soon to announce his involvement in R&D of ‘low carbon’ energy, when he starts talking like this

    He will lie that carbon is a problem on one hand, but on the other look to take people’s money for offering what he will call viable alternatives.

    I’m not biting….he stole the idea of the GUI from Jobs, who in turn was handed it on a plate by Xerox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpMeFh37mCE

    He got rich by churning other people’s ideas, his own coding skills were never considered to be brilliant.

    And where did Xerox get their idea from ? The guy who’s team invented the first mouse, Douglas Englebart, who demo’d it in 1968

    Scroll to 6:50 to see freeform graphical hypertext https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a11JDLBXtPQ

    And Bill Gates is said to be the clever one ? Yeah right ……..just a money man

    • Disillusioned says:

      “You just know that Gates is soon to announce his involvement in R&D of ‘low carbon’ energy, when he starts talking like this

      He will lie that carbon is a problem on one hand, but on the other look to take people’s money for offering what he will call viable alternatives.”

      Agree.

  7. Chris Barron says:

    Climate change believer attempts to achieve sainthood status

    “Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates said there’s an urgent need for high-risk investments in renewable energy technology to avoid a climate-change catastrophe so he’s doubling his current investments in green energy to $2 billion. – See more at: http://afkinsider.com/99126/bill-gates-doubling-his-investment-in-renewable-energy-to-2b/#sthash.BN6grUNV.dpuf

    He’s gonna save us all from a non-existent catastrophe…..they do this sort of thing to convince us it is more real than ever, all the time…

    You don’t suppose when you have enough money to burn that you can do what the fuck you want to win friends and influence people ?

    • There should be a law that if a person has more money than the government, he can’t get subsidies from the government.

      • markstoval says:

        I like that Idea. And since the government has no money of its own and is trillions in debt — everyone has more money than the government. So no one should get a dime.

      • Chris Barron says:

        Gates has already said that he thinks subsidies are wrong, for all industries, including gas, oil, motor car manufacturers, farming and so on.

        • gator69 says:

          Fossil fuels are not subsidized, we have covered this numerous times.

        • Chris Barron says:

          We haven’t covered it. I simply recall you saying ‘No, no, no’. Sorry old mucka but there’s a distinct lack of detail in that for me.

          Preferential loan rates and purchase obligations are just two examples of the way which government subsidises the oil industry.

          Why should oil companies get low rate business loans just because they produce oil, when many other important businesses get either nothing at all or have to pay full interest rate tariffs ? You haven’t said.

        • Keitho says:

          Do you have examples where government has given low cost loans, like for Solyndra, or instructed banks to do so? Likewise with any special supply contracts.

          Thanks.

        • gator69 says:

          What a moron.

          Chris, I know idiots have trouble with simple definitions, so let me help you out, again.

          sub·si·dy ?s?bs?d? noun
          1. a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

          What part of this do you not get? Now STFU.

        • Chris Barron says:

          Tax breaks are just one area of subsidy where the oil industry wins. Last year or the year before (can’t remember the exact year) saw the government give low interest loans of $18 billion for ‘exploration’

          http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04bptax.html?_r=0

          Why can oil companies get a tax break down to 9% to buy drilling equipment, when a steel plant operator has to pay full rate when buying a new furnace ? Can anyone explain how that is fair ?

        • gator69 says:

          What a moron. Life isn’t fair. Subsidies aren’t fair. Why don’t fossil fuel companies get subsidies?

          Chris, I know idiots have trouble with simple definitions, so let me help you out, again.

          sub·si·dy ?s?bs?d? noun
          1. a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

          What part of this do you not get? Now STFU.

        • Chris Barron says:

          “The flow of revenues to oil companies is like the gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico: heavy and constant,” said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who has worked alongside the Obama administration on a bill that would cut $20 billion in oil industry tax breaks over the next decade. “There is no reason for these corporations to shortchange the American taxpayer.”

          Don’t forget that in some ways the oil companies have the government by their balls…because petrol at the pump incurs a lucrative sales tax for the government. high gas prices benefit them both. But as the government has a moral position to respect and give the tax dollars back to the country, the oil company does not.

          But that doesn’t mean to say that the oil companies cannot turn to the government and say “Look, you earn huge amounts of tax from our activity, how about a bit of a break here and there”

        • gator69 says:

          Time to adjust your meds Chris.

        • Chris Barron says:

          $2.4 Billion: subsidies to the Big Five producers debated and defeated in the Senate in 2011 and 2012

          The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act, sponsored by Senator Menendez (D-NJ) was debated and defeated by the Senate for two years running, and would have eliminated $2.4 billion in annual tax deductions for the five major oil companies: BP, Exxon, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips.

          Although the move would have been an initial step, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. So called “independent” oil companies are hardly small businesses. Major integrated oil companies also include Occidental, Amerada Hess, Marathon, Murphy Oil and dozens of others. Together, these companies produced 53.5 percent of U.S. oil in 2009.

          $4 Billion: Subsidy cuts President Obama proposed in every budget he has sent to Congress

          President Obama has proposed cutting certain subsidies to the oil and coal industries every year he’s been in office. The projections for savings have varied slightly each year but always hover around $4 billion annually. Congress has never even agreed to vote on all of them.

          $10 billion. Pre “All of the Above” low end credible comprehensive estimates. Several independent estimates of U.S. fossil fuel subsidies all arrived at roughly this number, although they consider slightly different things. Recent studies include those conducted by Management Information Services, Environmental Law Institute, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD. (The OECD numbers compiled and analyzed here.)

          The Sanders / Ellison “End Polluter Welfare Act” also clocked in at $11.3 billion annually – and was also proposed and estimated prior to the U.S. oil and gas production boom.

          $18.5 billion: Oil Change International 2014 estimate: federal exploration and production subsidies. Since President Obama took office in 2009, federal fossil fuel production and exploration subsidies have grown in value by 45 percent, from $12.7 billion to a current total of $18.5 billion. This rise is mostly due to increased oil and gas production: the value of tax breaks and other incentives has increased along with greater production and profits, essentially rewarding companies for accelerating climate change.

          $21.6 billion: Adding in the states we have data for, the United States as a whole provided $21.6 billion in production and exploration subsidies to the oil, gas, and coal industries in 2013.

          $32.8 billion: Adding in consumption subsidies at the Federal and State levels which are on the order of $11 billion a year. Thus the total annual value of all known U.S. state and federal fossil fuel exploration, production, and consumption subsidies is $32.8 billion.

          $37.5 billion: U.S. financing of fossil fuel projects overseas increased by 14 percent from $4.1 billion in 2009 to $4.7 billion in 2013, driven by an increase in bilateral oil and gas project lending. This brings the U.S. fossil fuel subsidy total for consumption, production, exploration, and international finance to a staggering $37.5 billion annually.

          $52 billion. Highest credible comprehensive estimate (pre All of the Above energy). Includes some costs associated with defending pipelines and shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. Earth Track, an NGO that specializes in subsidy valuation, estimates that annual oil, gas and coal subsidies total about $52 billion annually.

        • gator69 says:

          What a moron. Chris believes the newspeak, because it appears in print.

          Chris, I know idiots have trouble with simple definitions, so let me help you out, again.

          sub·si·dy ?s?bs?d? noun
          1. a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.

          What part of this do you not get? Now STFU.

        • Keitho says:

          Even if you are correct how much does that work out to per kW/hr?

        • Chris Barron says:

          Gator stop being an idiot by palming off wind subsidies to save lives elsewhere….because if you really did have other people’s lives in mind then you would also suggest give ALL subsidies to starving people…..or in fact why not just build it into all annual expenditure as ‘money to save the lives of others’ ? Or is that one too far 😉

          your kind when it suits you I reckon

          Happy 4th July anyway.

          I reckon some of the subsidy could go on education instead…

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhCOPh48ew&feature=youtu.be

        • gator69 says:

          Moron, I am against all subsidies. Shove it up your arse.

        • Chris Barron says:

          “What part of this do you not get? Now STFU.”

          Is that just the end of your personality ? :)))

        • gator69 says:

          It is the end of my patience with your unending stupidity. Let’s review!

          The village idiot just keeps burnishing his credentials! 😆

          stoning to death by christianity, as spelled out in the bible

          That is what intelligent people call ‘The Old Testament’, and existed before Christ, you moron.

          When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
          -John 8:7

          Come on Chris! Show us your vast knowledge! 😆

          Do I need to repeat that you were wrong, again? Yep!

          Chris the village idiot spews:

          “Islamic Law”…Nobody fears it. It doesn’t actually exist

          Why do you feel it necessary to keep proving that you are an idiot? We know already! 😆

          To Arabic-speaking people, sharia (/????ri???/;[1] also shari’a, shar??ah; Arabic: ?????? šar??ah, IPA: [?a?ri??a], “legislation”) means the moral code and religious law of a prophetic religion.[2][3][4] The term “sharia” has been largely identified with Islam in English usage.[5]

          Sharia (Islamic law) deals with several topics including: crime, politics, and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, everyday etiquette and fasting..

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia

          Find somebody else who does not yet know you are a fool, and enlighten them for a change. 😆

          I could go on. like when you could not tell North from South, but I believe people get what a f*ckup you are.

      • Marsh says:

        Morgan, no wonder people like you struggle with basic knowledge, when you can’t even recognise basics like England & Scotland being Countries.

        • Yes I struggle with basic knowledge all the time. I don’t know, for example, how you can think Scotland and UK are both countries and still consider yourself a high grade imbecile.

        • Marsh says:

          Morgan Wrong – good Research will show what an arrogant imbecile you truly are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland

          I have a UK Passport and I would say you have Never lived in the UK judging by your extreme lack of knowledge & warped attitude. Aside from the Olympics, almost all other Sports are “individual” Country represented around the World such as FIFA World Cup Football (Soccer) Rugby, Cricket, etc, with English & Scottish teams plus they are separate in the Commonwealth Games… plus the Flags of all UK Countries are flown.

          Even the birth & death Certificates require specific Country, ( not UK ),, England has been a Country for more than a thousand years . England did not cease to be a Country after King James United the Kingdoms ; why are you acting like a troll ?

    • Keitho says:

      It’s his money Chris, so he can burn it anyway he likes.

      • Chris Barron says:

        Of course !
        He can do what he likes…….and that includes him sharing his opinion. Just like me

        In my opinion he’ll do his best to get the price of fossil fuels up (due to added taxes) under the guise of global warming, to the point where he can become even more profitable about his alternative.

        he stood by his defence of the price of the Windows OS, justifying it with ‘all the research which went into it’….of course it did too………..but to become the richest man in the world as a result suggests he isn’t going to become altruistic about any alternative he might find.

        What Gates wants is a climate disaster, an end to fossil fuels, and another “Do you know how much research went into it” scenario.

        And all along, coal can be dug up from the ground and burned ? That is precisely what he doesn’t like about it !

  8. Chris Barron says:

    Scroll to 8:50 to see the first mouse….from 1968 !

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61oMy7Tr-bM

    Kinda ends the argument about if it was Microsoft or Apple who invented it doesn’t it.

    I wonder if Douglas Engelbart believed in global warming ? hhhhmmmmm

    • Billy Liar says:

      Whoever suggested it was Microsoft or Apple? Most people know it was invented at Xerox PARC.

      • Chris Barron says:

        “Most people know it was invented at Xerox PARC.”

        Ask the next 10 people you meet and see what they say. Very few people here know of the actual existence of Xerox PARC.

        They invented Google Glass before Google too 😉

  9. docfjs says:

    Note bene. Practically everything that Mr Gates is trashing as a waste of money is stuff the federal government is pouring billions of tax dollars into. I would rather not have my tax dollars go to making Elon Musk a billionaire, thank you very much.

  10. Cowboy79 says:

    Gates is a businessman and a politician. Good for him.
    At least he realizes the folly of attempting carbon decrements using present technology.
    I’m all for things that work. I’m all against things that don’t work.
    Trouble is, we have a fallacious president who is only a politician and has no business sense.
    That said, we also have an ignorant population who believe in intentions over results.
    The best argument in favour of Mr. Gate’s point of view is the concept of bifurcation as regards differential equation based models. All of the models fail and go chaotic in a limited time.
    It would be nice if our elected officials were somewhat literate.

    This is why weather forecasts are utter crap beyond 3.57 days.
    To imagine differential models are valid in 100 years is proof of total delusion.

    http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/cogsci/chaos/workshop/BD.html

    • rah says:

      “Cowboy79 says:
      Gates is a businessman and a politician. Good for him.”
      Gates wasn’t just a businessman, he was an outstanding businessman. But as cold hearted SOB as there is in business! That is how he got so rich.

      As for Gates lecturing the government? He will probably tone it down. Uncle Sugar already took him to the wood shed once and after a lengthy and very expensive battle he got off with a slap on the wrist. But I think he knows better than to push too hard because if he does he may get the European treatment.

      • Chris Barron says:

        And Uncle Sugar (presumably you mean Alan Sugar) states that one of his worst ever business decisions was turning down Bill Gate’s special offer on MS-DOS, instead choosing to use his own brand of DOS, and paying heavily for doing so.

        He went against the advice of everyone in his design team and of the tech experts he paid to receive good advice from, and went and launched these bad boys, which almost bankrupt him

        http://www.amstrad.com/assets/img/e3_product.jpg

        Sugar’s success was short lived, unlike Gates…but Gates success has been marred by the fact that Windows has never been a brilliant GUI…maybe Windows 8 has got better and doesn’t need bugfix releases every couple of weeks.

        Perhaps the problem we have is that most of us will believe such products are good products only because of the power of the advertising and marketing telling us to think that….just like global warming scare stories and high profile supporters makes most people think it is all to real and a serious threat to the planet

        This is the free market economy, dog eat dog and all that jazz….but i can’t look at Amstrad and Microsoft Windows without thinking ‘uh-oh…it won’t be long before something goes wrong’. And at the top of the producing organisations are the smug faces of Gates and Sugar, almost winking at me as if to say ‘ha, I got your cash !’

        • rah says:

          “Uncle Sugar” is an American English language idiom used to describe the US or United States. Used by me in this case to point out the difference in the lethargic welfare state we have become in contrast to when we were a true Representative Republic.

        • rah says:

          BTW the Woodshed I was talking about was court. Thus the reference to “the European treatment” because they slammed Microsoft pretty hard in their law suits.

        • Chris Barron says:

          Well there we are. Some people refer to Alan Sugar as uncle Sugar…he is actually a Lord now…..national treasure…..

          2 nations separated by a common language and all that.

          Uncle Sugar, phonetically, from CB, Ham radio, or a forces background ?

      • markstoval says:

        “… This is the free market economy …”

        No, my friend, it is most certainly not a free market economy or your definition of “free” is very different from mine. The US economy is a corporatist economy. (corporatist was Mussolini’s favored term for what we call fascism)

        The union of large industry and business with government is most certainly not Laissez-faire free market. Hell, I bet just the number of rules and regulations by federal departments must be in the millions.

        • gator69 says:

          Everyone needs to know about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as this panel of tyrants writes regulations with absolutely no oversight and no regulation. It was brought into being by the Dodd-Frank Act, and hands down from on high new regulations on financial industries incessantly. It does so with absolute and unquestioned authority, and will continue to do so until Dodd-Frank is abolished. These regulations are killing our economy, and this Star Chamberesque panel of communists is at present unstoppable.

          For those who believe banks run our governments, this is proof positive you are wrong, unless you think banks are suicidal.

        • spren says:

          Gator, banks are convenient dupes to use as scapegoats when needed. Banks are going to assess their current environment based on the current regulatory climate and adapt their policies accordingly. They were forced under duress to increase their sub-prime lending by the government to avoid claims of discriminatory red-lining. AIG was also set up as a dupe to use the credit default swaps as derivatives to serve as quasi insurance for the whole house of cards scheme. Banks are not saints, but they are entities that need to remain profitable to remain in existence, and they certainly are not the culprits that led us into the financial meltdown back in 2008. Thank our great government for that, and they are right back doing the exact same things with lending again that go us into this mess!

        • gator69 says:

          Spren I was working for a bank during the sub-prime mortgage nonsense, and you are 99% correct. Banks had a gun held to their heads by the government, and were told to cooperate or go out of business. Banks had no choice but to find a way to make a profit out of a hold up.

          More proof positive that banks do not run the government, or the world.

        • Chris Barron says:

          So if it isn’t the banks running the world, is it the governments ?
          The governments owe the banks so much and pay interest on those loans…the banks can play around to force governments to do what they want.

          Or at least isn’t that how the federal reserve act was sneaked in one holiday ?

        • gator69 says:

          (Hint) FEDERAL reserve ACT.

        • Chris Barron says:

          Yes yes Gator i think we all know WHO passed the ACT, because for goodness sake it is an ACT……nobody is so dumb to think a bank could pass an act…. the Federal Reserve Act, was passed to allow the PRIVATE Fed to charge interest on the money it loaned to government.

          If that was the government’s idea then they shot themselves in the foot didn’t they.

          “The Federal Reserve Act was enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson who later bitterly regretted what he had done to America .

          I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.

          Woodrow Wilson , US President”

          No offence, but I believe him

        • gator69 says:

          …a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.

          Yes, and those dominant men (and women) are the Supreme Court.

          Words are nice, but actions speak much louder, and the Sub-Prime scandal and Dodd-Frank Act illustrate conclusively that banks are not in control.

          The only people getting shot are the middle class, because the government will just change the rules to stay the winner.

        • gator69 says:

          And in addition, Woodrow Wilson was the most evil man to ever hold the office of POTUS. Wilson was an extreme Progressive.

          Woodrow Wilson declared: “If private profits are to be legitimized, private fortunes made honorable, these great forces which play upon the modern field must, both individually and collectively, be accommodated to a common purpose.”

          And just who will decide what this common purpose is and how it is to be achieved? “Politics,” according to Wilson, “has to deal with and harmonize” these various forces.

          So of course Wilson wanted people to believe businesses were to blame, and that they should be punished.

        • Chris Barron says:

          “Words are nice, but actions speak much louder, and the Sub-Prime scandal and Dodd-Frank Act illustrate conclusively that banks are not in control.”

          The capital changes under the Dodd-Frank Act bring the United States close to convergence with the international capital standards outlined in Basel III
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_III

          In order to continue to do trade internationally, in fact in order to function well abroad, the US banks needed to be brought into line with other banks, particularly those in Europe

          Obviously this could become a sticking point for many Americans who might view this America being told what to do by other countries, but the fact is that because the US banks were not working to the same standards then they weren’t getting as much action.

          But consider that the same few capital investors are behind most of the world banks. To those people they are able to make more money when they have to spend less on covering the costs caused by banking practice differences, and particularly the associated risks thereof.

          Just as in the same way that many see the Great Depression as being completely and deliberately caused by the banks in order to win more control in government, again many are saying that the sub-prime calamity was an engineered event. I’m staying open minded, but anyone who fears globalisation should wonder why it is that we are creating a worldwide banking system which slowly makes it more difficult for the wage earning lower level people (you and I) to make money from the international differences in financial economies which currently exist.

          Certainly, the international currency realignment which had to happen after Dodd Frank was brought in, in 2011, made plenty of winners in banking and industry, in Europe and the East, but for the first time in a long time the US FX could look up.

        • gator69 says:

          Chris, you have no clue what you are talking about, and your blathering has nothing to do with the fact that Dodd-Frank proves the banks are not in charge.

        • Chris Barron says:

          Gator “Everyone needs to know about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as this panel of tyrants writes regulations with absolutely no oversight and no regulation. It was brought into being by the Dodd-Frank Act, and hands down from on high new regulations on financial industries incessantly. It does so with absolute and unquestioned authority, and will continue to do so until Dodd-Frank is abolished. These regulations are killing our economy, and this Star Chamberesque panel of communists is at present unstoppable.

          For those who believe banks run our governments, this is proof positive you are wrong, unless you think banks are suicidal.”

          Why would banks NOT want to see the end of Dodd-Frank ? There is nothing suicidal from a banks point of view is there ? – Write endless regulations until the act is abolished ? That’s a banking win, because the act is abolished. The goernment gets the credit fo social responsible acts (bringing in the law) and the banks get to take it apart for business as usual.

          Here’s a little true story concerning the UK financial Services Authority and me.
          My wife had an accident in her car, where someone drove into her while she was stationary. The third party gave his details and all seemed well when we reported it to the insurance. A month passed and we didn’t hear anything so I phoned them. They said the third party had asked for a claim form but had not completed and returned it so there was nothing they could do. The police couldn’t act because the third party had reported the incident as he was obliged to do.

          This dragged on over 13 months…….and then the insurance company assigned us a new young claims handler who suggested I settle on a ‘knock for knock 50/50 basis’. i refused and insisted he told me who the thhid party’s insurer was. he made the mistake of telling me (he is not obliged to) and it is the same insurance company as us.

          Desperate to not pay out or develop a loss, they were telling us to drop the claim !

          I then wrote a ten page letter to the head of the company (the Sir Fred Godwin of RBS fame), and to the FSA.

          24 hours later I received a letter from head office asking for a further 24 hours, and 24 hours later I received a phonecall with a cash offer of £300 for damage to wife’s car. I refused and hung up. The FSA phoned 5 minutes later to ask if I had heard anything. They agreed with me that the insurance company had not operated correctly and were in the wrong and said that they would investigate formally and send me some paperwork to complete. 2 hours later the insurance had doubled their initial offer to £600. i accepted.

          5 minutes later the FSA called again and asked if I had heard anything more (so, clearly they were working together considering the speed at which they were calling me) i explained that I had received a better offer and had accepted it.

          The FSA then said that if I was happy they were happy and that was all that mattered. I asked about their investigation which they assured me they would undertake, whereupon they informed me that because I was happy that the company had settled my complaint they had nothing to investigate. The 13 months of poor treatment and the covering up and protection of their possible loss was no longer an issue.

          The FSA was later disbanded due to it being ineffective.

          The FSA was set up to protect consumers, write regulations and ‘control’ the banks via government.

          Dodd-Frank, I think, is just your version of our FSA….it will not last long, or rather it will be seen to do nothing……I will be looking out for the first prosecution to be made as a result of Dodd-Frank, but I won’t hold my breath

        • gator69 says:

          Chris you are a blithering blathering idiot.

          The CFPB is anti-banking. Your post is nonsense. You once again have no clue what you are talking about.

        • Chris Barron says:

          “Chris, you have no clue what you are talking about, and your blathering has nothing to do with the fact that Dodd-Frank proves the banks are not in charge.”

          Gator, i think that you do actually believe that because a government CAN write acts which direct banking practices, (when in fact if they didn’t the public would go berserk) then it is proof positive that the government has the banks under control.

          Good on you for being so true to those altruistic values that the government is in charge and nobody has supremacy above government.

          Hey, it’s not as if the government could ever be influenced by rich men and cartels, is it…no sir, the govt are the best and are above all others.

          My belly hurts from laughing

        • gator69 says:

          Yes Chris, keep believing that the bankers told the government to hobble the banking industry, it really makes you look smart. Like this…

          The village idiot just keeps burnishing his credentials! 😆

          stoning to death by christianity, as spelled out in the bible

          That is what intelligent people call ‘The Old Testament’, and existed before Christ, you moron.

          When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
          -John 8:7

          Come on Chris! Show us your vast knowledge! 😆

          Do I need to repeat that you were wrong, again? Yep!

          Chris the village idiot spews:

          “Islamic Law”…Nobody fears it. It doesn’t actually exist

          Why do you feel it necessary to keep proving that you are an idiot? We know already! 😆

          To Arabic-speaking people, sharia (/????ri???/;[1] also shari’a, shar??ah; Arabic: ?????? šar??ah, IPA: [?a?ri??a], “legislation”) means the moral code and religious law of a prophetic religion.[2][3][4] The term “sharia” has been largely identified with Islam in English usage.[5]

          Sharia (Islamic law) deals with several topics including: crime, politics, and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, everyday etiquette and fasting..

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia

          Find somebody else who does not yet know you are a fool, and enlighten them for a change. 😆

        • Chris Barron says:

          “So of course Wilson wanted people to believe businesses were to blame, and that they should be punished.”

          What a pile of half baked…….

          He wanted people to believe that businesses were to blame for what ? We cannot discuss something when you don’t give details…..or do you mean that they were to blame for making a profit ? If so that’s just the soundtrack to the introduction of further taxation.

          I didn’t see anything evil in what you quoted by the way……what is the ideology you’re clinging to which says that Wilson’s comments were evil….and given that he was voted in by the people were they evil too ?

        • gator69 says:

          In other words, the government — politicians, bureaucrats and judges — are to intervene, second-guess and pick winners and losers, in a complex economic process of which they are often uninformed, if not misinformed, and a process in which they pay no price for being wrong, regardless of how high a price will be paid by the economy.

          If this headstrong, busybody approach seems familiar because it is similar to what is happening today, that is because it is based on fundamentally the same vision, the same presumptions of superior wisdom, and the same kind of lofty rhetoric we hear today about “fairness.” Wilson even used the phrase “social justice.”

          Wilson also pushed for eugenics, and signed into law a forced sterilization act that was alter overturned. Wilson was also a racist.

          Wilson saw the indigenous peoples brought under American control as beneficiaries of progress. He said, “they are children and we are men in these deep matters of government and justice.”

          If that sounds racist, it is perfectly consistent with President Wilson’s policies at home. The Wilson administration introduced racial segregation in Washington government agencies where it did not exist when Wilson took office.

          Woodrow Wilson also invited various dignitaries to the White House to watch a showing of the film The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan — and which Wilson praised.

          Keep quoting Wilson moron, it makes you look so smart. 😆

      • rah says:

        Not US military. Here is the US military phonetic alphabet:

        Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Gulf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, PaPa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee, Zulu.

        That’s from memory 23 years after having ended my time in service. Some things never are forgotten and when I don’t know that alphabet anymore it will a prime sign I’m suffering from dementia.

        • Chris Barron says:

          Uncle Sugar
          Uncle Sugar is a combination of Uncle Sam & Sugar Daddy, combined to refer to the generosity of the United States federal government in bestowing money and benefits on citizens. The usage of the term was reported widely when Mike Huckabee said it during a prominent meeting in January 2014, and his comments received widespread condemnation.
          “And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it, let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be.” – Mike Huckabee, speaking at the Republican National Committee winter meeting, January 23, 2014.

  11. Irene says:

    I think this is Gates usual tech approach he is not really questioning human induced global warming
    But I confess to being tired

  12. MrX says:

    What Gates didn’t say is that raising energy prices is exactly the objective of the greenies. Unfortunately for everyday liberals, they don’t realize they’re being played.

  13. Ted says:

    Someone should ask him about the even bigger “clean” energy fraud: Corn based ethanol.

  14. Marsh says:

    It is amazing to anyone informed, to see such Green stupidity in “believing” that Solar or Wind Energy systems could even come close to meeting “base load energy” demands for a major City. With current technology, power factor is too unstable to be corrected ; storage & inverting is far too impractical and expensive to implement on a large scale.

    The Europeans, especially Germany failed in recent years to maintain Green Energy as it was unreliable & costly – despite huge investments and technical expertise… they have reopened & built New Coal Powered Stations !! Germany was overdrawing on the Euro Grid because Solar & Wind Energy “Predictions” were like those of Global Warming,,, all based on bad Science.

    Energy storage is the astronomical cost :: there are many options but all too expensive…

  15. gymnosperm says:

    Totally, but we need to conserve the oil compadres. Just in case we can’t pull the rabbit out of the hat. Just in case the bacteria aren’t turning methane into crude fast enough to sate the third world…

  16. Dave N says:

    It’s like saying “let’s use one lake to supply the worlds water needs”: cost is going to be irrelevant.

  17. Hifast says:

    Reblogged this on Climate Collections and commented:
    Sound perspective from Bill Gates. It also looks like he takes a swing (intentional or unintentional?) at Elon Musk, the battery salesman.

  18. pinroot says:

    Never been a big fan of Big Bill or Micro$oft, but even a broken clock is right now and then.

  19. OrganicFool says:

    Thorium molten salt reactors.

    • Chris Barron says:

      It’s over 60 years since research began. And every one which has been built has since been turned off….many because they used too much uranium….there has to be a better way to use nuclear material than boiling pots of water to create steam which turns enclosed windmills

      • OrganicFool says:

        Following copied from here: http://thoriummsr.com/intro/facts-about-thorium-molten-salt-reactors/

        Many of the problems associated with Nuclear Reactors are solved with Thorium Molten Salt Reactors. They were built and developed by a team led by Alvin Weinberg over a twenty year period starting in the 1950s.

        TMSRs also known as LFTRs (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors) or DMSRs (Denatured Molten Salt Reactors) are important because they:

        (1) are safer and more stable and cannot meltdown because they are already in a liquid state and therefore do not require expensive containment that normally deals with highly pressurized hot water.

        (2) can consume waste nuclear fuel. TMSRs in the modern view are actually two nuclear plants in one. They can provide energy and burn up nuclear waste and like all nuclear reactors have no polluting emissions or CO2.

        (3) are less expensive than traditional reactors because the byproducts are far less toxic and do not require expensive containment. They can be built in all sizes.

        (4) the left over products contain valuable ingredients that can be resold that are good for industrial as well as medical purposes

        (5) are much more difficult to to use to produce fuel for nuclear weapons

        (6) will produce far more energy than wind or solar power ever could. It does seem somewhat inevitable that Thorium will be an important part of our future the question is when?

        (7) can potentially help in the desalination process, assist in Hydrogen Production and heat buildings. The heat generated can also provide a means for heat process needed by other industries.

        (8) provide a means for third world countries to improve their economies by providing reliable cheap electricity (cheaper than coal plants) and will replace high carbon emission methods with far cleaner technology and almost no nuclear waste and the neglible amount of waste can be processed further for valuable isotopes and other rare elements.

        (9) eliminate the need for fuels that produce carbon emissions therefore removing one of the root causes of war. It’s true we fight to defend what we need. And for too long we have needed energy in the form of fossil fuels. And that needs to change. Our military leaders know that and more than anything they want to change that basic story. That is why our message of thorium-based power enabling US energy independence resonates so strongly with them. It will also resonate well as a deterrent to allowing countries such as Russia from bullying other countries in need of their fossil fuels.

        (10) Thorium is abundant and stockpiles are already stored so very little if any mining is required in North America for decades. After that mining Thorium is plentiful enough to keep the whole planet supplied for thousands of years.

        (11) Robert Hargraves makes a convincing argument that it will lower the worlds population.
        energy=industry=jobs=education=birth control=population control

  20. Chris says:

    Graphene technology and the invention of super capacitors will change the world! I can’t wait for the time when it takes a minute to charge a car or 5 seconds to charge a phone. The rush is on to patent and find uses for this new creation.

    • rah says:

      I recently bought Black & Decker string type weed whacker that uses a 20 V Lithium battery. The initial charge when new took over 4 hours. But once you get the first charge in the battery works very well and takes a much shorter time to recharge. Got two batteries with the thing and I can trim around everything on my acre with one and still have power left. And when I put that used battery on the charger it’s ready to go again in an hour. Actually am pretty impressed with the power it has. Not as strong as a gas powered trimmer for sure, but it does the job.

      I went with a battery powered job because I wanted something light and simple enough for my wife to use. And because I got so tired of mixing gas and cleaning the filter for my old Ryobi gas trimmer.

  21. Marsh says:

    Super Capacitors can take in a super fast charge OK but their storage duration is very limited
    compared with conventional Batteries in use today. Capacitors discharge rapidly and that may be fine for Drag Racing but somewhat useless for a two hour drive… That technology maybe a decade or two away, before it’s commercially viable in vehicles.

    • Chris Barron says:

      It’s the energy density of supercaps which are their biggest problem, currently less than a tenth of that of lithium ion batteries.
      I have a 60V 46F Maxwell supercap here and it discharges rapidly, can create balls of lightning almost, but, it’s so heavy for what little amount of actual energy you can get, IE huge discharge rates but low storage capcity per kg of weight

      Something better needs to come along

  22. Climatism says:

    Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
    Even the godfather of global warming alarmism, Jim Hansen believes renewable energy is a “nice idea” though useless.
    https://climatism.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/godfather-of-global-warming-alarmism-james-hansen-admits-renewable-energy-is-a-nice-idea-though-useless/

  23. alakhtal says:

    Reblogged this on Liberalism is Trust Fucked with Prudence. Conservatism is Distrust Tainted with Fear and commented:
    Solar Impulse-2 ain’t 325 days deranged Pterosaurs its 25-days circumnavigation glider. I love how Masdar’s Irish Apes waste Abu Dhabi’s Petrodollar Surplus on Junkscience scam to save the Fuckocrasy status quo… Will someone dishonest enough down there fuck this madness and make it more interesting than the usual boring you you you as it is? Here it is… For instance ‘Solar Impulse-2 landed in scorching lava in one of those deadly Hawaiian volcanoes; Loihi, Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, Haleakala’. Bill Gates Dismissed Solar and Wind Energy, “Can’t do the job” …Cost “Beyond Astronomical”! Another prominent thumbs down against wind current renewable energy craze, this one from Bill Gates. Don’t you get it? Your God condomed it.

  24. alakhtal says:

    Solar Impulse-2 ain’t 325 days deranged Pterosaurs its 25-days circumnavigation glider. I love how Masdar’s Irish Apes waste Abu Dhabi’s Petrodollar Surplus on Junkscience scam to save the Fuckocrasy status quo… Will someone dishonest enough down there fuck this madness and make it more interesting than the usual boring you you you as it is? Here it is… For instance ‘Solar Impulse-2 landed in scorching lava in one of those deadly Hawaiian volcanoes; Loihi, Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, Haleakala’. Bill Gates Dismissed Solar and Wind Energy, “Can’t do the job” …Cost “Beyond Astronomical”! Another prominent thumbs down against wind current renewable energy craze, this one from Bill Gates. Don’t you get it? Your God condomed it.

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