"Ah Carol, you must have given your old uncle fits"

You're probably right about that.

"With your experience, I think you're gonna peel me like an onion."

I doubt that.

I taped the Frontline show. I'm going to have to watch it a few more times before I can comment effectively on its contents. It's incredibly informative, and also very complicated.

I agree very strongly with Bartholomew's statement about the difference between price and cost. If we try to measure the real costs of continuing to pollute our environment... costs that show up in people's health and related medical costs, lost productivity, and numerous other hidden costs that proponents of dirty energy are not talking about, I think maybe we would see non polluting energy having a much lower total cost to society.

For those who feel that the government shouldn't have anything to do with regulating the energy industry, I would like to point out that the government does have a role to play in matters that concern the common good. That's why we have a military. We don't have a private military. We have a government run military because it is percieved to be for the common good. The government regulates how we are allowed to use our motor vehicles while we are driving them (traffic laws). Again, because this is percieved to be for the common good.

It is no less legitimate for the government to regulate some aspects of how we produce and distribute energy if it is for the common good. The resources that are used to produce energy belong to the public anyway. So there's another reason that it is legitimate for the government to regulate how these resources are used, in order to maximize the benefits to society as a whole, rather than to benefit specific business entities at the expense of the common good.