NOT IN MY BACK YARD

Don't Spoil Our Desert With Solar Panels: “California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.”

"It would destroy the entire Mojave Desert ecosystem," said David Myers, executive director of The Wildlands Conservancy.

It would supply power to much of southern California, but tortises and aesthetics are much more important. In other words, put thesolar panels in someone else’s yard.

RECESSION? OR DEPRESSION?

More thoughts from Victor Davis Hanson:

Why are so many Americans so depressed about things these days? It is perhaps not just the economy.

I think the answer is clear: all the accustomed referents, the sources of security, of knowledge and reassurance appear to be vanishing.

Hanson never misses. Read it all.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS, II

I’m starting a new feature, SEND IN THE CLOWNS, because the caption is too good to waste with every new clown entering the Obama administration.

Welcome the latest clown: Jon Wellinghoff, a Nevada lawyer appointed as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Climate change will remain "a big priority for [Wellinghoff]. From everything I've read, we're in big trouble and we need to do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint."

Enter “cap and trade.” A Heritage Foundation analysis of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill (less aggressive than Obama’s proposal) projects permit revenues of $1.6 trillion to $1.9 trillion from 2012 to 2019. Those “revenues” come from anyone who purchases energy (electricity, gasoline, natural gas, etc.). Think "taxes."

Wellinghoff envisions a more sophisticated electricity system with more big transmission lines and a "smart grid" with greater ability to coordinate fluctuations in wind and solar power with the demand from households, buildings and factories.

OK, let’s consider two items here. First, transmission lines, especially large, high-voltage lines, aren’t cheap. Who pays? Think "taxes."

Second, a “smart grid” implies control, not coordination. Think "regulation" - and "bureacracy."

He is also seeking greater authority over the siting of transmission lines that could carry renewable resources from sparsely populated places where they are plentiful to the cities and suburbs where those resources are most needed.

In other words, not in my back yard. Don’t put wind turbines in the ocean off Massachusetts where they can be seen ... put them in Kansas, or Nevada, or the Mojave desert. You know, one of those “sparsely populated places.” Think "your back yard, not mine" - and "arrogance."

A recent court ruling, which asserted states' rights to block transmission lines, could complicate that task. But Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) favors an increase in FERC's authority ...

Eminent domain, anyone? After all, who cares about Kansas farmland, or a cattle ranch in Texas. We’ll just give ‘em a few bucks and move them off properties that have been in families for generations. Think "your back yard, not mine."

[Wellinghoff] is a proponent of using electric cars to send electricity back to the electrical grid as well as draw from it. Electric-car owners could sign up with a company that would amalgamate hundreds or thousands of car owners and, based on their average behavior, promise to either draw down or send back electricity to the grid.

Oh, please. “Promise?” But skip the control aspect (and the implied bureaucracy) and consider the single word: efficiency. I haven’t tried to look up the numbers, but conversion efficiencies are typically in the low 90% range. Thus a double conversion to battery storage and back to AC for transmission may be as high as 80-85%. In a distributed plant – automobiles scattered all over the grid – I’m guessing maybe 70-75% at best. Think "stupid."

If the Obama administration was serious about energy, there is an obvious answer. Put nuclear power plants where the power is consumed – in Manhattan, for example. Also Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit,.... The transmission infrastructure is already in place, transmission losses are minimized, no “big transmission lines” are needed, and – Kansas gets its farmland back.

WHERE ARE THE CLOWNS?

Cal Thomas on the congressional frenzy to “recover” the $165 million in retention bonuses paid out by AIG:

When politicians get on their high horses about something, it is almost certain that a considerable amount of horse manure will get spread around. ... For politicians to complain about misspent tax dollars is like one of those tabloid honeys lamenting the decline in family values. ... This is all populism, of course, since the amount of money Congress wastes every minute makes whatever earned or unearned money paid to AIG employees pale by comparison.

Well, we know where the clowns are – elected to Congress.

THE END OF AMERICA?

THE END OF AMERICA? [R]iddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship.

Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.

Is this the end of America?

Probably not, if only because there are good reasons for optimism. The U.S. economy has pulled out of self-destructive political spirals in the past, spurred on by its business class and corporate leaders, the profit-making and market-creating people who rose above the political turmoil to once again lift the world out of financial crisis.

I hope Terence Corcoran is correct in his assessment. Before the Obama administration, I probably would have agreed that the economy is strong enough to pull through; this time I’m no longer sure.