Dec 28th - Political Commentary - Windmills

Between the Dallas/Ft Worth area and the Big Spring area we saw billions of dollars worth of windmills. Most of them were actually turning, but many were not. I bet that the ONLY reason that they are there is because Congress forced the American taxpayer to co-sign for the loans to build them. No sane investor would be willing to invest his/her money in them unless taxpayers were put on the hook (can you say Solyandra, it cost we taxpayers over $500 million  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/solyndra-bankruptcy-obama-administration-bailout_n_1072737.html ). The windmills would still not have been built unless Congress forced utilities to buy the electricity the windmills produce, at costs far exceeding (3 to 6 times) conventionally produced electricity. In some cases I think we taxpayers directly pick up the cost difference. In other cases the utilities just "blend" their increased costs in with their other expenses and bureaucrats allow them to passed through to consumers who don't realize the true cost of the "renewable" energy.

I guess the good news is that we didn’t seen billions of dollars worth of taxpayer subsidized solar panels. Electricity produced by solar is even far more expensive than that produced by wind.

It is possible that some day one of these alternative forms of energy production might become cost effective but I don’t expect it to happen in my lifetime. It is easier for me to believe that a couple of “bicyle mechanics”, like the Wright brothers will come with a new form of energy that scientists know is not possible.