I sincerely hope that the wind farm being built in DeKalb County, Mo., works out. The $300 million project slated to begin next year is supposed to bring 2,500 jobs to that area and generate enough power for 50,000 homes.
From a conservationist’s viewpoint, generating electricity with minimal environmental consequences is a good thing – a very good thing. However, every alternative source of power generation has to stand on its own two feet economically. The fact that this project is seeking a $90 million aid package from the federal Stimulus bill is sufficient reason to make you wonder. Requiring nearly one-third of the project’s budget from taxpayers already groaning under mountains of debt and evaporating jobs is a very bad sign.
Many people will understandably justify the government’s involvement based on concerns about global warming. But how valid are those concerns? Climategate demonstrates that the scientists giving politicians like Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi and Russ Carnahan a thin veneer of legitimacy were in reality cooking the books, torturing data until it confessed to what they wanted to hear. With global warming skeptics vindicated, how do we justify shoveling nearly $100 million of taxpayer money into a wind farm?
According the Business Journal, Tom Carnahan’s company has secured $240 million in loans for a $300 million project. For whatever reason, these lenders and investors do not believe in the project enough to cover the entire note. Why not? What do the guys putting up their own money – or the money of investors – know about the project that says “we are only in for 80 percent” ?
That sounds suspiciously like they expect a 20-percent down payment from Tom Carnahan’s company. Is this what the $90 million in our taxes is for? By my math, $90 million from the stimulus bill Missouri Representative Russ Carnahan voted for will cost each Missouri 3rd district citizen (man woman and child) about $3. Twelve bucks for a family of four may not seem like much, but multiply that by thousands of other projects like this all over the United States. It adds up.
You probably don’t have relatives in Washington who can vote for Cap and Trade legislation to create the need for alternative energy your company hopes to fill. Few of us have a brother who can vote for stimulus bills to cover the costs of filling that need. If we have a bright idea, we have to secure our own money and put it at risk. If we succeed, we reap the benefits. If we fail, we lose our investment.
This looks like a classic example of a politically connected business hoping to reap all the benefits without taking any of the risks, instead putting taxpayers on the hook. Tom Carnahan and his fellow investors are welcome to build wind farms to their hearts content — I sincerely hope they succeed. But I am weary of private sector businesses going to Uncle Sam with their hand out, and I am sick of politicians accommodating them. If a wind farm in DeKalb County is a good investment, it’s a good investment without a fat wad of taxpayer cash.
