Tuesday, January 23, 2024

California Finds a Use for New Mexico

The SunZia Wind Farm: How To Do Greentech Well || Peter Zeihan

Time was I would ask, "Do you want windmills along every ridgeline in your area with high power lines running through your backyard that will ship the energy to some far-off metropolis?"  Answer: "No, but if it's somebody else's neighborhood and the power comes to my city, I'm all for it."

That's the kind of conversation I had about green tech back when I bothered talking about green tech.  After Biden won in 2021, a friend asked me about the move to Electric Vehicles. I commented that we should not underestimate DC's ability to bankrupt an entire industry and then botch the creation of the touted replacement. The old "Lemon Laws" were aimed at preventing the sale of cars that are lemons to unsuspecting consumers. The new Lemon Laws are about making every car you can buy a lemon, which you will suspect and will later be proven right -- but hey, you might get a tax credit.

So we now learn New Mexico is being gifted a vast array of windmills and accompanying power lines that will keep the lights on in Los Angeles. Yay for L.A! Eleven Billion dollars magically appeared to finance this one small step on the long journey to save the planet. Given the history of these sorts of projects, one must ask: will they be coming back for more money or a lot more money? Will it cost the traditional three times the estimate or the new traditional six times the estimate? I know, I know, my skepticism is misplaced.

Elon Musk might actually make this stuff work in a practical and self-sustaining manner.  And who do they hate? Elon Musk. You see, if you give a person fish that you have taken from another person at gunpoint, he's going to need you to keep giving him fish and work to keep you in power. If the person can get his own fish, well, it's time to take fish from him at gunpoint and give it to someone who will help you stay in power. Simple.

It's called redistribution. Now they are redistributing New Mexico's wind to L.A. because they don't want no 1,000 ft. tall windmill off Santa Monica -- let alone a whole bunch of them.

New Mexico needs a windfall wind-tax.

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