One thing that has always bothered me about crony capitalism is when government gets in cahoots with big business and backs or funds big deals, then when those deals are about to go south, the government steps in and breaks all the rules to protect their investment. From a taxpayer standpoint, you might applaud such efforts to fast-track projects, or streamline regulations so that these commercial operations don't fail sticking the taxpayer with the bill. However, I have a different way of looking at it and I'd like to talk to you about this for a few minutes if I might.
Since this happens so often, what if government just kept its "cotton picking hands" out of free-market capitalism in the first place? You see, there was a very interesting and also troubling op Ed in the Wall Street Journal published on August 14, 2012 titled; "The Solar Painted Desert," where it explains that "The Department of Interior is giving and environmental pass to its business friends." I wasn't sure what to make of the article so I did a little research turns out they were absolutely correct.
In fact, I live in a desert resort community not too far away from several very well-funded, and government-backed solar farm plants being erected as we speak, well not all of them, one has filed bankruptcy, the project may never be done for all I know. There is another one in Nevada near Laughlin that is going to be sold to the Chinese. Now then, I can tell you this, BLM protects its land and property with the threat of prison terms for anyone that takes an off-road vehicle there.
If you think you can get away with something on that property you are mistaken, and the permits and environmental impact reports take years to get processed, but somehow these solar energy projects are able to get fast tracked. The reality is if we would fast-track other energy projects such as additional nuclear reactors at existing nuclear power plants we'd already have had all the energy we need in the Western states for instance. Some of those plans are well over 20 years old.
At the Palos Verdes nuclear power plant which was built by Bechtel, there are three nuclear reactors, they wanted to put in six more on the same property of the same type with upgraded safety features, they haven't been able to do so. Had they done that 10 or 20 years ago we wouldn't have an energy issue or rolling blackouts in California, but of course, solar power gets to skate by without even a second glance, and I ask why? Why is this?
The footprint in the desert for a solar farm plant is quite huge compared to that of adding six nuclear actors on the same property of an existing nuclear power plant. If we are talking about environmental impacts on the grounds of the actual power plant, should we treat all energy sources equally? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Since this happens so often, what if government just kept its "cotton picking hands" out of free-market capitalism in the first place? You see, there was a very interesting and also troubling op Ed in the Wall Street Journal published on August 14, 2012 titled; "The Solar Painted Desert," where it explains that "The Department of Interior is giving and environmental pass to its business friends." I wasn't sure what to make of the article so I did a little research turns out they were absolutely correct.
In fact, I live in a desert resort community not too far away from several very well-funded, and government-backed solar farm plants being erected as we speak, well not all of them, one has filed bankruptcy, the project may never be done for all I know. There is another one in Nevada near Laughlin that is going to be sold to the Chinese. Now then, I can tell you this, BLM protects its land and property with the threat of prison terms for anyone that takes an off-road vehicle there.
If you think you can get away with something on that property you are mistaken, and the permits and environmental impact reports take years to get processed, but somehow these solar energy projects are able to get fast tracked. The reality is if we would fast-track other energy projects such as additional nuclear reactors at existing nuclear power plants we'd already have had all the energy we need in the Western states for instance. Some of those plans are well over 20 years old.
At the Palos Verdes nuclear power plant which was built by Bechtel, there are three nuclear reactors, they wanted to put in six more on the same property of the same type with upgraded safety features, they haven't been able to do so. Had they done that 10 or 20 years ago we wouldn't have an energy issue or rolling blackouts in California, but of course, solar power gets to skate by without even a second glance, and I ask why? Why is this?
The footprint in the desert for a solar farm plant is quite huge compared to that of adding six nuclear actors on the same property of an existing nuclear power plant. If we are talking about environmental impacts on the grounds of the actual power plant, should we treat all energy sources equally? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.
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