The transmission component: why California will have to continue relying on normal-people energy forms

 There's a must-read report at Real Clear Investigations this morning about California's push to rely entirely on play-like energy forms within a couple of decades. The state is building lots of solar and wind power capture infrastructure, but there is presently no way to translate that energy into usable electricity:

California's precariously out-of-date hybrid power grid can't handle the state's growing amounts of solar and wind energy coming online, with system managers already forcing repeated cutbacks in renewables and a continued reliance on conventional energy to keep the grid stable, according to state data.

The shortcomings of the transmission grid, which energy consultants in this bellwether state have warned about for years, raise the prospect that marquee products of the growing battery economy such as electric vehicles – "emission free" on the road – will be recharged mainly from traditional electricity-generating power plants: energy from fossil fuels, some of it from out of state.

Writ large, the transmission problem threatens the zero-carbon future envisioned by green advocates nationwide. “We’re headed toward duplicate systems whose only benefit is to permit the occasional use of ‘clean power,’” said Grant Ellis, an independent electrical engineering consultant in Texas.

So, to deal with it, California has just nixed - "curtailed" - production of that power:

 

So-called "curtailments" of renewable power have become much more frequent for the state’s blackout-prone power grid because the state hasn't constructed enough transmission lines, transformers, poles, and other infrastructure to keep up. The amount of renewable energy curtailed in California tripled between 2018 and 2021, according to operator statistics.

The two parties involved in seeking a way past the impasse can't agree on which of them should bear the cost of getting transmission up to speed with production. And government's solution? Getting in the middle of the discussion with free-market-distorting redistributionist measures:

Eric O’Shaughnessy, a renewable energy consultant who has worked with the federally funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, blames a stalemate between renewable energy providers and electric system operators over who will pay for any infrastructure buildout.

“The system operators say, ‘We need this huge investment, and you are going to have to pay it,’ and the solar developer believes everyone should pay,” O’Shaughnessy said. Then politics comes into play “and that project gets shelved.”

The government’s answer is more taxpayer funding for transmission, although it will take at least 10-15 years to develop a new project, according to the Transmission Agency of Northern California, a group of publicly owned utilities in the state.

There is also the inevitable bureaucratic doo-dah that the involved parties must contend with:

The messy process of connecting solar and wind plants to the grid is made more complicated by a maze of committees, panels, and lawyers that need to weigh in on the specifics of each project.

“If an energy company in California wants a transmission line, it has to go to a public utility to build it, and to the California Energy Commission and a bunch of other commissions,” said Rajat Deb of energy consultant LCG. “And the cities also have to approve in some cases, so it takes all that to get a transmission line. That’s a lot of hoopla you have to go through.”

So wind and solar plants sit idle for up to three years before getting approval to sell their products.

Going to throw this suggestion out there, with the understanding that the entire state of California may be too far gone for anyone to give it serious consideration: Eliminate the wind and solar stuff until such time as they demonstrate true viability in the marketplace. Just let providers of tried-and-true energy forms - the dense and readily available ones - power the cars, homes and general modern way of life directly. 

That would, of course, mean giving up on the fallacy that the global climate is in some kind of dire trouble.

As I say, probably too much of a leap for California, but that state can serve as an example of what not to do for the rest of the world.  

 

 

 

 

Student loan forgiveness - initial thoughts

 1.) I have to believe a court case over this will happen sooner rather than later. Biden has not offered even a  flimsy attempt at justifying a purely executive-branch move. Congress was completely sidelined.

2.) It encourages a shrugging-off-responsibility mindset throughout our society. Now that the precedent has been set, how long is it before progressive policy types start opining that car loans and home loans need forgiving? It erodes the principle at the heart of the free market: that an economic transaction occurs when two parties, a buyer and seller, agree on the value of the good or service to bee exchanged, and each understands the obligations he or she is undertaking.

3.) Why is college so expensive? Look at the rate of growth of administrative staff over the last 40 years compared to that of faculty. 

4.) Expect that trend to continue. Insitutions of higher learning, or whatever it is they're dispensing these days, have been given a green light.

Is DeSantis a viable alternative for conservatives who want to stay Republicans but can't stand Trump?

 It's a question getting kicked around a lot right now on Twitter. 

There aren't a lot of choices if one believes that the Republican Party has a future. Pence comes in third in polls about who Pubs want to see as the presidential nominee in 2024, but what, exactly, is his lane? If it comes down to a juxtaposition of him and DeSantis, he is easily framed as the straddler, oh so careful not to commit himself on hard cultural-issue questions, whereas DeSantis seems to like to face them squarely.

But, conversely, that's a big DeSantis problem. He seems willing to use the power of the state to counter forces that no conservative is pleased with. And courts are striking him down on it. Woke corporations are a disturbing feature of 2022 American life, but it's not government's purview to deal with it.

Two figures I consider indispensable voices of sound reasoning have both said that there's no reason to go running toward DeSantis at this early date:

"I think that Ron DeSantis has lined himself up almost entirely with Donald Trump, and I think that’s very dangerous,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told the New York Times. If DeSantis was nominated, she “would find it very difficult” to support him.

“A number of Republicans would be far, far better for the country and the GOP,” Never Trump commentator David French wrote in a Twitter thread on the “DeSantis discourse.” “So hopping on the DeSantis train simply to block Trump is *way* premature.”

But all of these considerations only matter of one feels certain that the GOP can get the Trumpist infection out of its veins over the next two or three election cycles. 

I don't. Consider DeSantis himself, for instance. He's been out campaigning for Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano.  Instant disqualifier. Negates any compelling aspects of his resume.

Pence likewise loses the Never-Trumper-who's-determined-to-stay-Republican with this kind of spinelessness:

Pence prostituted his reputation for Christian piety to the most vile figure in the history of American presidential politics, a man who modeled the opposite of every virtue taught in Sunday school. Pence lent his credibility as a religious man to a villain, and gave permission to millions of self-styled Christians to vote for him. Pence’s pious conscience was remarkably quiescent when Trump encouraged his followers to rough up hecklers; when he bore false witness against Muslim Americans (falsely claiming that he saw them celebrating after 9/11); when he attempted to extort the president of Ukraine to lie about Joe Biden; when he separated asylum-seeking parents from their children; when he refused to condemn the tiki-torch Nazi wannabes in Charlottesville; when he elevated a series of kooks and conspiracists to high office; and when he insisted that the election had been stolen.

Pence was fine with all of it.

. . .  Worse than simply remaining silent, he played the toady with seemingly endless reserves of self-mortification, uttering cringeworthy encomia to Trump’s “broad-shouldered leadership” (a phrase he repeated at least 17 times), and audacious lies about matters big and small.

There was no bottom to Pence’s fawning. To please Trump, he called Joe Arpaio, a convicted criminal (pardoned by Trump) and thuggish abuser of power, a “tireless champion of the rule of law” and said he was “honored” by Arpaio’s presence at his speech. He claimed, preposterously, that Trump had performed magnificently in the face of the COVID pandemic: “President Trump marshaled the full resources of our federal government from the outset. He directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America in both political parties.”

When Pence traveled to Ireland on an official visit, he didn’t stay in Dublin, but traipsed140 miles west to stay at the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, necessitating a 40 minute flight and hour-long drive each way. Must have been inconvenient, but then, if Trump had asked Pence to crawl both ways, he would doubtless have obliged.

Nikki Haley? Loved her as ambassador to the UN. But she was one of the first post-January 6  to make the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago. Instant disqualifier.

But here's the thing: It doesn't matter to the GOP what any Never-Trumper thinks anyway. Not the keep-the-party-together types or those like me who deem it hopeless. Republicans don't need us. 

The party chews up and spits out anyone who acts on principle, even those who tried as long as possible to allow for Trump's dominance of its direction, and maneuver within that framework. 

So is DeSantis a viable alternative?

Because of where I stand on the Republican Party's moral rot, I really don't find it a very interesting question.

In 2024, the GOP will put up somebody who is either a coward, a nut, or a sycophant, of some combination of the three. 

Doesn't bode any better for the country than whatever hot mess the Democrats come up with. 

Can't see that I have a horse in this race.

Kari Lake and the defiling of conservatism

 So in its recent primary for the governorship, the Arizona Republican Party (one of the most ate-up state organizations in the country) went with former Phoenix area television news anchor Kari Lake over attorney and development consultant Karrin Taylor Robson. Say what you will about Robson (during her campaign, she kept it zipped on the question of whether she would have certified the results of the 2020 presidential campaign, typical of Republican spinelessness seen nationwide these days), at least she's a lifelong Republican. Lake, on the other hand, was all about Barack Obama during that era.

But Lake is now the general-election candidate, so attention must be paid. She set about, even during the primary, burnishing her Trumpist bona fides.

And that is the crux of today's LITD observation regarding why post-America can't have nice things. 

She is not wrong that a massive re-orientation of public school curricula is the only way to retrieve it from the sewer into which it's fallen. She is also on solid ground using Hillsdale College's guidance on how to go about that. (Although I have come to have reservation about even that distinguished institution. President Larry Arnn was a signatory the National Conservatism Statement of Principles, a document the problematic nature of which I wrote about recently at Precipice. )

Here's the more immediate problem with the closeness between Trumpism and Hillsdale: Trump glommed on to the effort to resist identity politics militancy in education, not because he understood the first damn thing about Hillsdale-style classical education, but because he was told it would make him look like a winner. Hillsdale, in turn, was obviously thrilled to have the imprimatur of a sitting US president for its approach. And then the left-leaning media was able to have a field day with Lake's endorsement of it. (Hillsdale's Christian, doncha know):

The Donald Trump-endorsed nominee for Arizona governor wants the state's schoolchildren to learn from a curriculum inspired in part by Trump. 

"We want a curriculum that makes sense. We want a curriculum that sets our kids up for success," Republican Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor, said at an event last May at the state Capitol. "I believe in the Hillsdale College curriculum."

Lake favors a history and civics curriculum developed by Hillsdale College, a private Christian school in Michigan that's influential in right-wing circles.

Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn was the chairman of former President Trump's short-lived 1776 Commission, created to support what Trump called "patriotic education." 

A Hillsdale dean was the commission's executive director.

But, true to form for a Trumpist, Lake has put the lie to any seriousness with which she personally engages a subject like education reform with this recent doozy:

Referring to DeSantis, Lake said, “He is gutsy. The guy has bigger — wait, let me think about how I’m going to word this,” she told the crowd. “My staff always says, 'Whatever you do, do not say balls.' So I’m not going to say it,” she added to laughs.

First, she tried, “That guy has a backbone made of steel.”

Then, she took it to the street. “I’ll tell you what he’s got. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but he’s got ‘BDE.’ Anybody know what that means?” she asked, referring to the phrase “big d*** energy” before advising, “Ask your kids about it later.”

She reworded it a bit to cheers and more laughter. “I call it ‘Big DeSantis Energy,’” she said before adding, “He’s got the same kind of BDE that President Trump has, and frankly, he has the kind of BDE that we want all of our elected leaders to have.”

One thing that will be interesting to see is how Hillsdale attempts to do cleanup or distance itself from Lake's clown act.

And thus do the prospects for truly reviving a deep respect for the West's foundations, as well as for prioritizing decorum and dignified bearing, dwindle yet further.  

 

 

The Mar-a-Lago FBI raid - initial thoughts

 Not a lot, really, because anything anybody is currently saying is a silly hot take at best and more likely dangerously inflammatory provocation.

So not much from LITD until we have some notion of what the FBI was able to gather from this action.

I will point out that FBI chief Christopher Wray was appointed by Trump and every Republican Senator who voted on his confirmation voted in the affirmative.

But Fox News, Newsmax, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump look equal parts childish with their whataboutism (Hunter Biden's laptop! Bengazi!) and reckless in the extreme with their civil war intimations. One also sees a lot of America-is-now-a-banana-republic talk this morning as well.

Deep breath, everybody. Wait until something solid is known so you don't squander your credibility.

Peter Meijer likewise inhabits a narrow sliver of terrain

 Many of my essays over at Precipice share a common theme, common enough that I often title them "The Sliver of Terrain I Inhabit Grows Narrower Still."

What I mean by that is that I can neither think of myself as a Republican any longer, given over as that party is to an identity as a cult in thrall to the most unfit president in US history, but am horrified by progressivism's all-too-successful aim of dismantling Western civilization. 

I usually know better, after much experience getting entangled in toxic pissing matches on social media, than to chime in on the comment thread under some pronouncement by either a Trumpist or a leftist. But once in a while, against my better judgement, I take the bait. And then, after some unproductive back and forth, I have to take a shower. If it's not "you ineffectual little dweebs don't really want to fight," it's "you have a problem with equal rights for all people."

It wears me out to think about it.

When public figures inhabit this narrow sliver, the stakes are higher. 

Representative Peter Meijer from Michigan can tell you all about that:

After the impeachment vote, I was immediately censured by two county parties in my old district. In my new district, the Republican Party of the largest county repudiated me a few weeks ago. The Michigan GOP Chair joked about my assassination. There have been too many online threats to count.

The piece to which I'm linking and from which I've excerpted is about how the Democrat party is shoveling money at the campaigns of MAGA Republicans contending against sane people like Meijer in primary races. The motivation seems to be to make sure the public's impression that MAGA is the true face of modern Republicanism is firmly entrenched. 

So a guy like Meijer has even more kinds of slings and arrows directed his way. They don't just come from the drool-besotted true believers or Democrat political opponents, but Democrat strategists who see dirty pool as an advantageous maneuver. 

It's no fun - in fact, it's dispiriting as hell - to stand on this infinitesimal piece of real estate, but it's the only place to plant one's feet after having surveyed the lay of the land and checked in with one's sense of right and wrong. 

May the good representative prevail.  

Thoughts on Pelosi visiting Taiwan

 She can't really not go now, can she?

The entire Asian trip, with an itinerary that includes such key Pacific rim allies as Japan and South Korea, was supposed to happen in April but got delayed due to COVID. And the rhetoric from China has been ratcheting up ever since the trip has been rescheduled. Hu Xijin, a prominent commentator for Global Times, has tweeted that shooting down Pelosi's plane is an option if her trip includes a stop in Taipei. 

It's a done deal, as far as the Taiwanese government is concerned.  She's expected to stay overnight.

The Biden administration is not so keen on the idea, of course, but it can't stop her. The three branches of our government are coequal. 

tLots of seasoned observers of the world stage caution against it, and they have a point. It's a high-stakes gambit, for sure. It raises that age-old question of when and where, if at all, to make irreversible changes to the global balance of power.

China is not currently the only adversary rattling a saber in an alarming manner. Russia and North Korea are mentioning nuclear war as part of their rhetoric. Iran is enriching uranium to levels sufficient for nuclear breakout.

Consider, though, the viewpoint of Senator Ben Sasse, one of the last remaining persons of principle and depth in the U.S. government:

“Speaker Pelosi should go to Taiwan and President Biden should make it abundantly clear to Chairman Xi that there’s not a damn thing the Chinese Communist Party can do about it. No more feebleness and self-deterrence. This is very simple: Taiwan is an ally and the Speaker of the House of Representatives should meet with the Taiwanese men and women who stare down the threat of Communist China.”

He has a point, too. If, at some point, the U.S. does not demonstrate leadership and loyalty to that portion of the world that shares our basic values, the bad guys run the place.

Op-ed writers, buy definition, are expected to offer conclusive opinions on matters such as this. Since this is a blog, I don't feel constrained in that way.

There are downsides to either choice that the House speaker makes. And she either will or she won't stop by Taiwan on her trip. 

I just hope that American society can see now that the era of corporate joint ventures, student visas and supply chains heavily dependent on the People's Republic of China ought to be behind us. China only ever opened up to the West for its own advantage. It remains the snake in the grass it's been since 1949.