It’s Infrastructure, So It Must Be Worthwhile

The city of Port Angeles, Washington spent $107,516 putting up wind turbines in a new city park. The turbines will power 31 lights in the park. This will save the taxpayers of Port Angeles a whopping $41.58 per month. At that rate, it will take 216 years for it to pay off (at zero interest rate).

That’s before subtracting operating costs, though no one yet knows how much it will cost to operate them. The city is in a dispute with the manufacturer, so it will be another month or so before they turn them on.

The ridiculous benefit-cost ratio is unimportant, says one city councilor, because the purpose of the turbines wasn’t to generate electricity, it was “to educate folks about wind power.” That’s quite an education they are getting. “I wouldn’t have voted for it knowing it was that little” electricity, the councilor added. Isn’t it her job to ask questions like that?
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This is just one more example of why we can’t trust government officials to make decisions regarding infrastructure spending unless there is some constraint on what they spend, such as that they have to repay that cost out of user fees. Trump’s infrastructure “plan” doesn’t fix this; all it will do is give cities one more way to waste taxpayer money.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

9 Responses to It’s Infrastructure, So It Must Be Worthwhile

  1. JOHN1000 says:

    Based on who Trump is appointing to head the EPA, I don’t think infrastructure is going to include very many $100K windmills or similar stunts.

    That has to be a big improvement.

  2. Frank says:

    What’s a few expensive windmills compared to a $12 billion border wall?

  3. LazyReader says:

    small or large the wind turbine has had a reputation of antagonism with people that actually live near them. THese things collect subsidies in their operation. Granted most energy sources regardless collect subsidies. But the difference is Wind turbines collect subsidies whether they generate power or not. A wind farm can essentially produce almost no electricity and still receive subsidies. They did this in the 80’s and 90’s, and when budget shortfalls became apparent; the tax credits were withdrawn. The turbines were left to rust in the fields. The most impressive are in the United States, where investors slammed up wind turbines and solar panels in the aftermath of the 1970s energy crisis. Everyone expected oil to get even more expensive, and government subsidies and tax breaks for renewable energy were easy to get. But oil prices didn’t climb as anticipated, and as the subsidies went away, so too did many developers of wind and solar farms, no longer interested when the money wasn’t right. Projects were sold, or left in the sun and wind.
    http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z23/cnredd/windfarm_zpsd6adb064.jpg

  4. CapitalistRoader says:

    “What’s a few expensive windmills compared to a $12 billion border wall?”

    $12 billion in windmill subsidies every year

    I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate. For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.
    Warren Buffett, 2014

  5. Frank says:

    So it’s 1:1. Waste is waste. But at least windmills generate something usable, unlike a border wall which is easily breached.

  6. CapitalistRoader says:

    Realpolitik, Frank. It doesn’t matter if the wall is porous, what matters is that Trump campaigned on it and it will be built. Similarly, when Obama campaigned on the “rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”, the result was ridiculously expensive windmills that do little to accomplish those nebulous goals.

    Perception vs. reality.

  7. the highwayman says:

    Walls/fences still do slow people down, that’s why so many people have them around their backyards. If they want to steal lawn mower, they are going to steal your lawn mower, but they will have more difficulty in doing so. :$

  8. Frank says:

    Jumping a fence to steal a lawnmower is not equal to easily breaching a wall in the middle of nowhere to make a one-way trip. Even special education students know that.

    Don’t be a retard.

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