Modernizing Conservatism

Power Line's Steven Hayward writes on the topic of modernizing conservatism in The Breakthrough Journal.

Daniel Hannan on the Italian Crisis:

The U.K. Daniel Hannan (MEP) writes in the Daily Mail about the Italian debt crisis now gripping Europe.  He quotes from an appropriate Kipling poem,

"This is midnight—let no star
Delude us—dawn is very far.
This is the tempest long foretold—
Slow to make head but sure to hold."

A Conservative Guide to Good Governance

These sound like good ideas whatever your ideology.  From the Heritage Foundation's website.

Mark Glaess Writes on MN's RES

The Alexandria Echo Press reprints a commentary from Mark Glaess on Minnesota's Renewable Energy Standard, the state law that requires utilities to buy 25 percent of their energy from renewable resources.  His commentary first appeared in a local electric coop newsletter.

Rather than feel good bromides, Glaess brings hard numbers on what the well-intentioned policy is costing Minnesota electric ratepayers,

"In 2009, Minnesota utilities produced 3,441,000,000 kWh by capturing the wind.  On average, utilities paid 4.5 cents for each kWh...the market only paid an average of 2.7 cents for each kWh produced by wind... The loss of 1.8 cents per kWh spread over 3.4 billion kWh cost Minnesotans some $62 million in 2009."

Read the whole thing.

Feed-In-Tariff Fail: Is the US Bailing Out Spain's Solar Industry?

Almost a year ago, I posted about the failure of Spain's solar power "feed-in-tariff" program.  Simply speaking, a feed-in-tariff is an above-market price paid to an energy producer, subsidized by utility ratepayers or taxpayers.

Any first-year economics student can tell you that paying above market will bring producers out of the woodwork, which will quickly bankrupt any such program.  Nonetheless, solar power advocates want to bring feed-in-tariff to Minnesota and the U.S.

Two years ago, the New York Times reported on the collapse of Spain's solar power industry, "Spain's Solar Market Crash Offers a Cautionary Tale About Feed-In Tariffs," quoting the CEO of Spain's Abengoa Solar,

"What's important for the regulation of solar is stability," said Santiago Seage, the CEO of Abengoa Solar SA, one of Spain's largest solar developers. "Unfortunately, up to now, we have had too many changes. ... [And] if the context changes, you can make mistakes in business decisions."

Regardless, Seage stills recommends feed-in-tariff to us in America.  The New York Times reports,

"Americans and others would be wrong to avoid the feed-in tariff based solely on Spain's experience, Abengoa's Seage said.  'The feed-in tariff is a mechanism that, typically, Americans don't like,' Seage said. 'They believe it doesn't optimize costs for the taxpayers. ... Nevertheless, I feel it has a huge advantage. It's a simple mechanism to get the market started.' "

Now PJ Media reports the possibility that the U.S. government (and its taxpayers) may be bailing Abengoa out of its "mistakes in business decisions."  The Department of Energy's loan guarantee program (think Solyndra) rushed to complete transactions before the program ended on September 30th.  One of the last guarantees approved was for an Abengoa ethanol project.   Earlier, the DOE underwrote Abengoa solar projects in Arizona.  Writes PJ Media,

"Over the last two years, DOE Secretary Steven Chu has awarded Spain-based Abengoa—a sprawling, multi-national industrial firm operating in 70 countries—loan guarantees worth a staggering $2.78 billion for solar and ethanol plants."

PJ Media concludes,

"According to Chris Horner, a senior attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Abengoa is not an exception, but the rule for the Obama administration’s artificially stimulated “green” industry.  He tells PJ Media, 'This is not unique to Abengoa. It defines the [green] industry, which exists in any meaningful way solely due to political creation, not performance or economics.' "

Your tax dollars at work.

Tom Steward Writes on the St. Cloud Airport Fiasco

The Freedom Foundation's Tom Steward has a piece up at the Big Government.Com website on the St. Cloud Airport.  The Airport has burned through big dollars of federal grants in a futile effort to attract an airline.

Collapse of the Blue Social Model

Bard College Professor Walter Russell Mead writes frequently about the collapse of the "Blue Social Model," the collection of policies and attitudes that form the progressive state.

Most recently Mead writes about a police corruption (ticket-fixing) trial in the Bronx, New York, and how it stands in for the breakdown of big-city, liberal politics.  Mead observes that the following vignette outside the Bronx courthouse, illustrates a great city in crisis,

"Between the good government, pro-minority [New York] Times reporters, the angry crowd of police rallying to protect their privileges and perks against the background of a city facing financial cutbacks, and the crowd of poor benefit seekers waiting in the street, resentful of the privileged police, we see can see the political and social crisis of New York in a single space."

We in "good government" Minnesota think we are immune to this sort of thing.  Think again.  In the Minneapolis Star Tribune appears a report about a pensions issue, with a City pension fund being rolled up into a larger state plan.  This merger of plans means the workers assigned to managing the now-defunct City plan are in line for generous severance benefits.  Writes the Star Tribune,

"The four employees of the soon-to-be-defunct Minneapolis police and fire pension funds will leave their jobs with at least $400,000 in severance benefits, although all four have preference for jobs with a statewide pension plan that's absorbing their organizations."

$400,000 divided by four workers equals $100,000 per worker.  One case study,

"The biggest salary settlement goes to Minneapolis Firefighters' Relief Association executive secretary Wally Schirmer, a retired firefighter already drawing a city pension of more than $41,000 annually.  He was granted about $116,500, or one year's salary."

He's already getting a pension, he continued to work, drawing a six-figure salary, and now gets a six-figure severance.  That doesn't count "continued health insurance and cashouts of their unused sick and vacation time."

What ties the Bronx and Minneapolis together in the belief that there will always be enough money to satisfy the various big city liberal constituencies.  Whether its public employees, benefit seekers, or "good government" media, we have run out of cash to make everyone happy.

Complete Streets on Libertarian Viewpoint

Here are the links to my TV interview last month by Sue Jeffers on Libertarian Viewpoint.  Subject:  Complete Streets in Minnesota.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

St. Cloud and Complete Streets

Just like the European Union and local school districts, "Complete Streets" advocates insist that the voting continue until the correct result is reached.  They won't take "no" for an answer, but once "yes" is reached, the question is closed.

Case in point, the City of St. Cloud, Minnesota.  Back in September, the City Council voted down a "Complete Streets" policy, but that result was not allowed to stand.  Yesterday, the City Council finally voted the right way and passed the policy on a 4-3 vote.

Warning to St. Cloud residents:  now that "Yes" is official, good luck getting a bad project reversed.

Snatching Environmental Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Driving around this afternoon, I caught this story on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).  With great sadness, MPR reports that Minnesota currently meets national air quality standards.  But don't despair, big opportunities are coming to micromanage your lives.

Our victory against air pollution is one of the great untold stories of our time.  On August 1, 2010, the St. Paul Pioneer Press published an astonishing article ("A Not So Dirty Secret in the Air"), which revealed the following,

• Since 1970, Minnesota has slashed air pollution by more than 50 percent
• Air pollution, per capita, has dropped by more than two-thirds
• National emissions of carbon monoxide, down 62 percent
• Sulphur dioxide (acid rain), down 65 percent since 1970
• Ozone emissions, down 9 percent since 1990
• Particle emissions, down 14 percent since 2000
• In Minnesota, emissions from cars and trucks are down 51 percent since 1990

But the Pioneer Press also revealed in 2010 that the metro area was in danger of exceeding new, stricter federal standards for air quality, the development which gives MPR much joy,

"The Twin Cities metro area has so much fine particulate pollution that it could fail to meet the new standards expected from the federal government next year.  And in 2014, a more strict standard for ozone could be issued."

Please note, particulates and ozone emissions are going down not up.  The feds are ratcheting the standards to the point where we no longer can meet them, even with the massive reductions we have made and continue to make.

The culprit?  As MPR reports, "The Enemy...is us."  And by "us" they mean "you," the polluting public,

"another source of pollution goes unregulated and is a big part of the toxic pollution problem: our automobiles, boats and ATVs."

adding,

"Our tailpipes produce the single largest chunk of air pollution that the state sees, both in particulate pollution —a lot of that comes from diesel — and also ozone, which is a big emission from gasoline-powered vehicles."

Wait, the Pioneer Press told me last year that car and truck emissions were down 51 percent in 20 years and both particulates and ozone are decreasing, not increasing.  Let not the facts interfere with a good story and good money.

The MPR pieces quotes a spokesperson for the American Lung Association.  The Association began in 1904 to fight the disease tuberculosis, a fight which was largely won in this country back in the 1950's.  Rather than declare victory, dissolve the institution, and discontinue its lucrative Christmas Seals campaign, the Association reinvented itself in the early 1970's, taking on smoking and air pollution as its causes.  A non-profit, like other corporations, enjoys perpetual life, it can live on long after the founder passes from the scene. 

No matter, next stop social engineering.  MPR reports that regulators will be taking additional steps,

"Not just telling people to stay inside, but don't mow your lawn.  Don't fuel your cars until after sunset, because of the sunlight contribution to ozone...That certainly is a fairly common strategy, and I'm sure one we would be thinking about."

Don't mow my lawn?  So there is good news here.  But wait, won't I get fined by the City for not cutting my grass?  I can't win.