July 21, 2014
California, Opinions

Of wind turbines and free markets

By Steve Williams | Victorville Daily Press | Posted Jul. 20, 2014 | www.vvdailypress.com

A couple of letters and a Valley Voices piece today (see elsewhere on these pages) all seek to arouse public opposition to a proposal to string a series of wind generators across north Apple Valley.

Among reasons cited for opposing this potentially billion dollar project are that it would threaten wildlife, pollute the scenic vistas of the High Desert, be a source of wildfires, harm property values, and generally do no good to anyone but the builders and the energy grid that powers the Los Angeles Basin.

We can’t argue with any of that, and we could add a few reasons of our own. But it’s late in the game to be railing against such projects, and their concomitant infrastructure (the power lines Edison wants to build to transport the energy generated by the project to places that demand it).

Los Angeles needs the energy from wind farms and solar farms and the like because for the past couple of decades Sacramento’s power structure (need we tell you who that is?) has been at the beck and call of environmental activists. Those are the folks who’ve used their political influence – acquired through their own campaign contributions and those of unions – to elect representatives who, among other things, gave the California Air Resources Board the authority to mandate the state’s conversion to “renewable energy” from carbonbased generation. In the process they’ve forced the shutdown of oil exploration and drilling off California’s coast, have made nuclear power generation nearly impossible (San Onofre was allowed to go idle because litigation and regulation made it too costly to repair and modernize), have put every regulation they could think of in the way of fracking, and have pretty much outlawed construction of any more oil refining capacity in California.

They’ve also instituted heavy subsidization (using tax revenue) of those wind farms and solar farms. The resultant forests of wind turbine towers and their gigantic propellers bordering Palm Desert and in various and sundry other swaths of California’s once attractive and largely uninhabited (by humans) and windy mountain passes surely cannot have come as a surprise. Climate change zealots especially should welcome this invasion of the thriving industry that now feeds on their fear of global warming, since it’s their paranoia – and money and votes – that fuels the industry.

We’re opposed to the wind farm too, just as we’re opposed to the construction of the new electrical lines. But our opposition is based on the waste of tax money and the resultant harm to the economic well-being of the Victor Valley’s residents brought about by a lack of understanding the consequences of ignoring the free market.

In a real free market, there would be no wind turbines, anywhere. They’re too unreliable, too expensive, and a lousy alternative to natural gas, coal-fired plants and nuclear power. All discarding those proven systems in favor of “clean” energy gets us is wind turbines in Apple Valley and a continually depressed economy.