Paging Sisyphus! Call for Mr Sisyphus!

An interesting interview with Robert Bryce, author of Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence":

reason: How about domestic renewables as a solution to dependence on foreign oil?

Bryce: I'm not opposed to renewables. I have 3,000 watts of solar panels on the roof of my home. I understand the economics of renewables. But an incurable problem for both solar and wind is intermittency. The sun doesn't shine at night. I like to have lights and TV at night. Unless we come up with some incredibly efficient method of storing large amounts of electricity, it's not a viable source because we can't store it.

It's the same problem with wind. I consider wind the electric-sector equivalent of the ethanol hype. At a conference recently I asked a wind guy, "Without subsidies, how many projects now under way [regarding wind] would make economic sense?" He said maybe 30 percent.

reason: You sound skeptical about ethanol as well.

Bryce: The ethanol scam is the longest running robbery of taxpayers in American history. Some recent news reports, which I don't discuss in the book, include a report showing [that] corn-based ethanol releases [more] greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. That's just one indictment of the inefficiency of the whole process. It's also fiscal insanity — providing 51 cent per gallon subsides for making fuel from what's already the most subsidized crop.

In 2005 federal corn subsidies approached $9.4 billion, which is around the entire budget of the Department of Commerce, with 39,000 employees. It also takes orders of magnitude more water to make corn ethanol than [is used for] gasoline production. Given the problems in the West and Southwest with water, it's insane to think we're going to be able to produce sufficient ethanol to make a dent in gasoline use when the amount of water needed is so high.

Explanation for the kinda-obscure title of this post here.