The NYT reports that Diane Feinstein has introduced a bill to ban both solar and wind energy facilities from a million acres of the Mojave Desert, which will scuttle 13 planned projects.
So the nation is developing an energy policy that says we should rely on alternative (to fossil fuels) sources of energy, but these cannot be nuclear, and we cannot use wind or solar anywhere that the wind actually blows or the sun shines if anyone objects to ruining the view.
Oddly, oil drilling is quite unobtrusive. I once had a tour of the great East Texas oil field, courtesy of the petroleum industry, and it was mostly cows, with an occasional small rocker arm pumping away. So in a way I agree with Feinstein -- it is foolish to despoil the landscape with solar panels and windmills when we could rely on oil pumps.
But I don't see anything in the report that says she wants to open up federal lands to drilling, or promote the exploration of off-shore resources. As the wheels come off the whole climate change cart, an interesting possibility arises: an alliance between real environmentalists, who do not want to despoil the rare landscape for the sake of a corrupt international kleptocracy and rent-seeking US companies, and us cheap energy advocates. There is no real conflict between these two groups.
"Powering Down" at Chicago Boyz mourns the devastating human impacts of the energy road we seem determined to travel.
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