David Nebenzahl wrote
Rod Speed wrote
dpb wrote
Rod Speed wrote

The vast bulk of our electricity doesnt come from oil, it comes
from coal, and even if we stop doing that because of the CO2
produced by that approach, we'll be using nukes instead, not
'various green sources'

Nuclear _is_ a "green" source...

Nope.

Yep (meaning "I agree with you"). But I don't understand why you seem so sre that we'll be using this decidedly
non-green source when so many other truly green sources have such better chances of not only providing practical power
but also doing it economically.

The reason is that they dont.

(Specifically: solar photovoltaic, wind, tide [being proposed for the San Francisco Bay Area],

None of those provide base load power.

geothermal,

That isnt available to enough countrys to be able
to provide the bulk of their base load power.

cogeneration, recovered landfill methane, small-head hydro, etc.)

Cant provide anything like what any modern first world country needs.

Not only that, but doing it in a truly distributed fashion, allowing better matches between sources and loads.

The entire power system of a modern first world country is never
about that anymore. Its actually about using the entire system to help
with the deficiencys of all of those allegedly green power sources.