The Article....
After re-reading my post, I may have lead everyone astray. The. article was written by a politician and I jumped from posing the question to making a brief discussion of dams. The original question was, should hydro power generation be classified as renewable?? it's a basic question. All we're talking about is whether to change the classification of hydro generation to renewable from whatever it was/is. To me, the answer is yes. The natural resources involved in power generation are air, sun and water. Each is used to generate power through a device designed to capture the natural resource it was designed to work with. Each is enduring in nature. Each has it's positives/negatives.
In the case of wind, it's a windmill generator capturing wind energy to turn propellers. In the case of solar, it's a matter of capturing the energy of the rays of the sun to convert to power through solar-voltaic panels. In the case of hydro-power, it's either a dam or tunnels leading to a power generating station (falling water).
In answering this question, IMO, there's no need to consider whether one method is more cost effective than the other. Nor is there a need to consider our consumptive habits or rates as those will only increase in volume and are issues for another discussion.
"America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won't cross the street to vote."
Author unknown
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