ALL WIND, NO THOUGHT – AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  Speaking of technology, we're going to be hearing a great deal about "new forms of energy" in the next few months, as the oil-spill story gets full traction and some in Congress try to pass an an energy bill.  Unsolicited advice:  Listen with two ears, and watch with two eyes.  There's a lot of hype passing for "science and engineering" out there.

Consider a new project in Massachusetts, home, of course, of the country's smartest people, by their own declaration.  From the Boston Herald:

The controversial Cape Wind project will cost taxpayers and ratepayers more than $2 billion to build - three times its original estimate.

That colossal cost is the driving force behind the sky-high electric rates it plans to charge Massachusetts customers in coming years.

Cape Wind, which wants to build 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod, and National Grid announced yesterday that they’ve reached an agreement to start charging customers 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour in 2013 - more than double the current rate of electricity from conventional power plants and land-based wind farms.

But so what, darlings.  The better people can afford it, and do something for the Earth at the same time.  As for the peasants – and we do respect them – we can have subsidies from the government. 

“I’m glad it’s your electric bills and not mine,” said Robert McCullough, president of McCullough Research, an Oregon energy consulting firm, referring to Cape Wind’s prices.

He said Massachusetts would have been better off going with less costly land-based wind farms.

“Why are you spending billions (on offshore wind) when you can pay half that with traditional wind?” he asked.

Must we answer those silly questions?  We're Massachusetts, home of Harvard, MIT and Martha Coakley.  It's so unseemly to be talking about money, when there's a planet to save.  Oh, must run.  Going to my Boston-will-soon-be-underwater meeting.  Noam Chomsky promised to come.

Yuch.

May 8, 2010