In the energy/anthropogenic global warming debate the liberal/socialists argue that "renewable/green" energy is free. I have liberal friends with PhD's in engineering who truly believe in "something for nothing." They exhibit this belief in design of missile systems as well as in regards to the energy issue. Regarding renewable energy liberals typically ignore the capital requirement of their "free" energy schemes. Here is an article from the WSJ that discusses why there is "no free lunch." One thing that is not clear to me about the House carbon cap and trade bill renewable energy requirements for the year 2020 is what is meant by the 20% of electricity from renewable sources? Is it installed capacity or is it electricity consumption? There might be a possibility for the former, but the latter is probably not feasible. The reason is that renewable energy systems only provide about 25% of the installed capacity. In Texas 4% of installed capacity is wind turbines, but only 1% of the electricity consumed over a year comes from the wind turbines. The history of wind turbines in Europe is similar, with more than 25% utilization in some places, but less in others.