Backlash Builds Against $3 Trillion Clean-Energy Push
The Wall Street Journal notes the Ballooning Size of Wind and Solar Projects Draws Local Ire
County-by-county battles are raging as wind and solar projects balloon in size, edge closer to cities and encounter mounting pushback in communities from Niagara Falls to the Great Plains and beyond. Projects have slowed. Even in states with a long history of building renewables, developers don’t know if they can get local permits or how long it might take.
In Kansas, wind power grew rapidly for two decades and supplies around 45% of the electricity generated in-state, ranking it third in the nation. But at least five counties in more-populous eastern Kansas have recently placed moratoriums or bans on new wind or solar projects, joining 18 others that already restricted wind development to preserve the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
The U.S., though, is a patchwork of state and local governments with different rules on development, and opposition to projects has mounted for myriad reasons. Increasingly, many communities are concerned that the rapidly expanding size of wind and solar farms will irreparably alter the complexion of where they live.
In Michigan, a typical solar project once covered 60 acres but now would take up 1,200, said Sarah Mills, a senior project manager at the University of Michigan’s Graham Sustainability Institute. Ms. Mills said they may need to get smaller—and more expensive—to be more socially acceptable. A refrain emerging at community meetings she attends is, “What you’re asking our rural community to host is way more than our fair share.”
Not Over My Dead Body
There’s much more in the article about increasing opposition. That’s a free link for interested parties.
One woman was offered $10,000 to have electric lines cross her property. She turned it down. Another said “not over my dead body”.
The Line it is Drawn, the Curse it is Cast
“The line it is drawn. The curse it is cast. The slow one now will later be fast as the present now will later be past. The new order is rapidly fadin’. And the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin’.”
More wind farms and solar are inevitable. But without battery storage, neither is reliable.
Natural gas, coal, and nuclear plants are not meant to be turned on and off at the whim of clouds, wind, cold fronts, and heat waves.
But here we are pushing technologies without any infrastructure remotely in place.
The Inflation Reduction Act Price Jumps From $385 Billion to Over $1 Trillion
Penn Wharton revised its estimate of the cost of the inflation reduction act significantly higher based on Biden’s actual implementation of the deal.
And when these allegedly clean energy solutions fail in the mandated time frame, a demand to do something to fix the problems is guaranteed.
This will inevitably mean the ridiculously named “Inflation Reduction Act” will lead to an even bigger boondoggle “Son of the Inflation Reduction Act.”
For discussion, please see The Inflation Reduction Act Price Jumps From $385 Billion to Over $1 Trillion
This post originated at MishTalk.Com.
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