Two articles from the New York Times in the past couple of days describe the widening divergence between the approaches taken by the U.S. and China on the subject of wind energy. I apologize that these pieces are behind the Times’s paywall, but remember that I subscribe there so that you don’t have to.
On Monday (May 4) the article was about the status of wind energy development in the U.S., with the headline “More Than 150 Wind Projects Stall as Pentagon Delays Reviews.” Tuesday’s (May 5) piece covered the same subject in China, headline “China’s Big Bet on Wind Power Is Paying Off.”
These articles once again illustrate the extent to which the U.S. and its people are uniquely blessed in the world. Our biggest blessing is that we have been bequeathed by our forebears with the freest economy in the world, and with structural obstacles that make it very difficult for politicians to undo that. But almost as big a blessing is the total incompetence of our geo-political adversaries.
The May 4 piece about the U.S. reports on the latest gambit by the Trump administration to shut down wind power development. The asserted basis is national security, and particularly the alleged interference of wind turbines with military radars and flight paths. Excerpt:
The Trump administration is blocking more than 150 onshore wind farms across the United States by delaying military reviews that were once considered routine, according to a leading industry trade group. . . . [T]he administration has held up a large number of onshore wind projects under development on private land, citing national security concerns. These wind farms typically have to undergo a review by the Pentagon before being built to ensure that their turbines won’t interfere with military radar or flight paths. In the past, those reviews have been fairly straightforward, but they have ground to a halt in recent weeks, and the Pentagon has canceled some meetings with developers. “The Department of War is currently making it almost impossible to build a new wind project in the United States,” said Jason Grumet, chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, which represents renewable energy companies.
I do not know the extent to which the asserted basis for restricting wind power development is real versus pretextual. On the other hand, I would not be surprised at all to learn that wind turbines have at least some negative effects on military radars and flight paths. And evaluation of the extent of a real national security concern is something uniquely within the President’s responsiblities, with the courts having little power to second guess. Meanwhile, these 100+ wind turbine projects, if they have been undertaken in time to qualify for tax credits that have now been terminated for newer projects, have the potential to cost the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the next couple of decades, for nothing of any value. The administration has done us all a huge favor by preventing these projects from proceeding.
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