Monday, January 30, 2012
Thank You to the "50 Fray" Discussion Group
Thank you to the "50 Fray" Discussion Group for a great meeting tonight in Arden Hills, Minnesota. This State Senate District 50 organization was kind enough to invite me as part of their program this evening. I had a great time discussion state energy policy!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Time for Sackcloth and Ashes
The world's elite are once again gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum. David Ignatius of the Washington Post reports that this year they are wondering how it all went wrong.
"The anger begins to boil. Rage against the elites is a global phenomenon these days--as powerful in America as it is in Egypt. People resent a system that offers increasing returns to power and privilege, and they take to the streets in protest."
Just wondering though, it is not as if they are going to change anything. Don't look for sackcloth and ashes as the new fashion statement at the next global confab. Last time I checked, hairshirts were not on offer next to the fluffy bathrobes in the Four Seasons' gift shop.
There is concept called a Bonfire of the Vanities. It has nothing to do with the (good) book or (terrible) movie of the same name. It is a ritual burning of objects that are symbolic of the temptations to sin.
Perhaps the Davos crowd could burn their membership cards to the elite airport lounges and their copies of The World is Flat.
In his weekly syndicated column, Mark Steyn suggested an alternative to the State of the Union address address for this year,
"The State of our Union is broke, heading for bankrupt, and total collapse shortly thereafter. Thank you and goodnight! You've been a terrific crowd!"
If only the final communique from Davos was as forthright. We don't get brutal honesty from our elites these days (or any days). Just more green jobs silliness, more Eurozone bailouts, and more tax hikes.
If our elites expect to continue to enjoy the high pay, prestige and limitless perks they have come to expect, then they had better start performing miracles.
"The anger begins to boil. Rage against the elites is a global phenomenon these days--as powerful in America as it is in Egypt. People resent a system that offers increasing returns to power and privilege, and they take to the streets in protest."
Just wondering though, it is not as if they are going to change anything. Don't look for sackcloth and ashes as the new fashion statement at the next global confab. Last time I checked, hairshirts were not on offer next to the fluffy bathrobes in the Four Seasons' gift shop.
There is concept called a Bonfire of the Vanities. It has nothing to do with the (good) book or (terrible) movie of the same name. It is a ritual burning of objects that are symbolic of the temptations to sin.
Perhaps the Davos crowd could burn their membership cards to the elite airport lounges and their copies of The World is Flat.
In his weekly syndicated column, Mark Steyn suggested an alternative to the State of the Union address address for this year,
"The State of our Union is broke, heading for bankrupt, and total collapse shortly thereafter. Thank you and goodnight! You've been a terrific crowd!"
If only the final communique from Davos was as forthright. We don't get brutal honesty from our elites these days (or any days). Just more green jobs silliness, more Eurozone bailouts, and more tax hikes.
If our elites expect to continue to enjoy the high pay, prestige and limitless perks they have come to expect, then they had better start performing miracles.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
The European Crisis
Perhaps an unlikely candidate for the "undernews" category, the ongoing European financial crisis has not gotten, in my opinion, nearly as much attention in the media as the gravity of the situation would warrant. Today, Walter Russell Mead writes about how the Germans may finally decide to stop subsidizing the rest of Europe through these serial bailouts. Today's UK Guardian reports on how the crisis is producing another "lost generation" in Europe, as young adults are unable to begin careers.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings cut the credit ratings of five European countries, including Spain and Italy. My advice is to follow this story carefully.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings cut the credit ratings of five European countries, including Spain and Italy. My advice is to follow this story carefully.
Friday, January 27, 2012
No Need to Panic
Sixteen scientists take to the Wall Street Journal's Opinion page today to reassure everyone "No Need to Panic About Global Warming."
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Trading Land for Energy
Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune carries a story today in the business section on a new 2 megawatt solar farm to be built near the wind-rich zone in the far southwestern corner of Minnesota.
The Star Tribune's pitch seems to be that the intermittent nature of solar power will compliment the intermittnent nature of wind power. So on cloudy and windy days and nights we will get the wind power, and on sunny and calm days, we will have the solar power. Left unsaid is what happens on cloudy and calm days and nights, when we have doubled down on power sources that produce no energy or on sunny and windy days when the double output would overwhelm the local transmission infrastructure.
My concern is more with the land use. Unreported in the article is what the 13 acres needed for the solar project are doing today. Are the 13 acres currently productive farmland or ranchland? Or just marginal scrubland?
Two megawatts sounds like a lot, but it only equals about one standard-sized large wind turbine. The wind turbine would have a ground footprint of just a half acre, 1/26th the amount of land used by the solar farm.
Large-scale solar energy is usually placed on a flat roof of a commercial or industrial building, using largely non-productive space. A few projects have been developed in parking lots, where sun and rain covers for the automobiles double as platforms for the solar power.
In an earlier life, I helped develop a 50 megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant, that (coincidentally) covered 13 acres of land, reclaimed from a former sugar processing plant.
In addition to being a land hog, the project requires $2 million of direct subsidies from Xcel electric ratepayers and more money in indirect subsidies from ratepayers for the still above-market-price electricity.
The problems with solar, then, are two-fold: too costly and too land-intensive. Energy author Robert Bryce has been pointing out these drawback for years, yet we need to relearn these lessons day-by-day and project-by-project.
The Star Tribune's pitch seems to be that the intermittent nature of solar power will compliment the intermittnent nature of wind power. So on cloudy and windy days and nights we will get the wind power, and on sunny and calm days, we will have the solar power. Left unsaid is what happens on cloudy and calm days and nights, when we have doubled down on power sources that produce no energy or on sunny and windy days when the double output would overwhelm the local transmission infrastructure.
My concern is more with the land use. Unreported in the article is what the 13 acres needed for the solar project are doing today. Are the 13 acres currently productive farmland or ranchland? Or just marginal scrubland?
Two megawatts sounds like a lot, but it only equals about one standard-sized large wind turbine. The wind turbine would have a ground footprint of just a half acre, 1/26th the amount of land used by the solar farm.
Large-scale solar energy is usually placed on a flat roof of a commercial or industrial building, using largely non-productive space. A few projects have been developed in parking lots, where sun and rain covers for the automobiles double as platforms for the solar power.
In an earlier life, I helped develop a 50 megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant, that (coincidentally) covered 13 acres of land, reclaimed from a former sugar processing plant.
In addition to being a land hog, the project requires $2 million of direct subsidies from Xcel electric ratepayers and more money in indirect subsidies from ratepayers for the still above-market-price electricity.
The problems with solar, then, are two-fold: too costly and too land-intensive. Energy author Robert Bryce has been pointing out these drawback for years, yet we need to relearn these lessons day-by-day and project-by-project.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Future of Liberalism and our National Discourse
At his magazine, the American Interest, Walter Russell Mead discusses the future of liberalism. Mead makes a point that I have been contemplating for a long while,
"The gaps between the social system we inhabit and the one we now need are becoming so wide that we can no longer paper over them. But even as the failures of the old system become more inescapable and more damaging, our national discourse remains stuck in a bygone age. The end is here, but we can’t quite take it in."
Read the whole thing.
"The gaps between the social system we inhabit and the one we now need are becoming so wide that we can no longer paper over them. But even as the failures of the old system become more inescapable and more damaging, our national discourse remains stuck in a bygone age. The end is here, but we can’t quite take it in."
Read the whole thing.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Redesigning Government: More Local Flexibility
Minnesota Public Radio reports that groups representing local governments and schools are asking the State of Minnesota for more flexibility. MPR says,
"The three main organizations that represent local governments in the state released a report today that health and human services, education, transportation, public safety and government operations and boundaries all can improve if state leaders take a number of steps to let local leaders do more to collaborate and come up with innovations."
"The three main organizations that represent local governments in the state released a report today that health and human services, education, transportation, public safety and government operations and boundaries all can improve if state leaders take a number of steps to let local leaders do more to collaborate and come up with innovations."
Monday, January 23, 2012
Race to the Bottom
The editors of the Chicago Tribune (!) explain why Illinois has the nation's lowest credit rating. They name names, too.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Great Minnesota Pension Scam
Over on his blog, Walter Russell Mead discusses our home-grown pension scandal.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The New American Divide
The American Enterprise Institute's Charles Murray has a large and important piece in this weekend's Wall Street Journal on the new class divide in America. It is well worth your reading time.
Murray is rebuilding from the bottom up, "One family at a time."
Murray is rebuilding from the bottom up, "One family at a time."
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