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Jewish World Review March 26, 2001 / 2 Nissan, 5761
James Lileks
And it's back! Secretary of Energy said that we're in a crunch again,
and "The failure to meet this challenge will threaten our nation's economic
prosperity, compromise our national security and literally alter the way we
live our lives."
You'll hear the usual suspects clamor for the usual solutions. Aside
from shutting down the economy and returning to tribal agrarian society,
they're simple:
1. Wind power. Yes, it's free. Aside from the cost of erecting vast
farms of whirling blades and hooking them to the grid, it's free. Aside from
the cost of buying the entire state of North Dakota to build the windmills,
it's free. Aside from the cost of the lawsuits filed by Friends of the
Geese, PETA, and the North American Man-Duck Love Association, all of whom
will be appalled when migrating flocks are turned into a shower of finely
diced flesh by the rotating blades, it's free.
It's just not enough. And it's not dependable. If it was capable of
generating enough power to be economically useful, power companies would do
it. This goes against the old hippie mindset, the belief that power
companies are opposed to wind because it's free, maaaan. They can't make a
profit off the wind, maaaan. But they could; they could sell the wind-juice
at the same price as the stuff that comes from coal or gas. Socially
conscious folk would gladly pay a premium for the stuff, once they put the
shredded eagles out of their mind.
2. Solar. Poke around the thicket of local building and zoning
regulations, and you'll be surprised to find that solar energy is firmly
entrenched in the nation's building codes. Nearly every state has laws
protecting solar access - regardless of whether anyone's actually using a
solar collector. Hawaii forbids you to forbid solar energy collectors in a
covenant. New Mexico actually has a Solar Rights Act, which allows people
to create "solar easements" to protect their access to the sun. (Number of
easements granted annually: in a good year, five.) Wyoming's Solar Rights
Act -- enacted, like New Mexico, during the clammy panic of the Carter years
-- declares solar access to be a basic property right.
And this doesn't even begin to touch the tax incentives to install solar
panels. So the legal infrastructure is in place; why aren't we all basking
in pure free photons? Because any useful array is about the size of a
drive-in movie theater, that's why. You can cover your roof in solar cells ---
and what fun you'll have after six inches of snow, eh?
Everyone who'd buy a solar collector the size of a satellite TV dish,
raise your hands. Right. When it's cheap and small, we'll all have it. Not
until.
So what to do? Build more conventional plants as soon as possible, so
California's economy -- the 6th largest in the world -- has a fighting chance
to survive into the middle of the century. And let's build nuclear plants.
Lots of them. Enough to shut down every dirty power plant in the
nation. It's odd how we're always lectured about the wisdom of Europe --- they
have socialized medicine, nice subsidized trains, and high gas taxes. Yet
Europhiles never mention the two salient characteristics of the Old World:
they smoke enough cigarettes to equal American coal pollution, and France
alone has more nuclear plants than varities of cheese.
It's either this or head right back to the Seventies. This week it's a
million people without power this week in California; next week it's a
Foghat reunion tour, and a fashion show in which men wear scarves around
their necks and smoked aviator glasses.
You've been
03/16/01: The GOP's inexplicable desire to fold
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