“In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.” (Jeff Immelt, GE 2008 Annual Report, quoted here)

“What else can be said about how a destructive management philosophy–long warned against by classical liberals–drove a once iconic American company into the bog? Contra-capitalism destroys wealth, not only capitalism.” (below)

A May 27, 2020, piece at EnergyWire (E&E News) reported the latest of how errant leadership, political correctness, and cronyism diminished a once proud, iconic company.

“General Electric Co. cut one of the last remaining links to founder Thomas Edison, as the beleaguered manufacturer wrapped up a three-year process to sell its iconic lightbulb business,” reported Rick Clough. The buyer was the automated ‘smart home’ firm Savant Systems Inc.…

… on Oahu, generating 1 MW of power using wind and solar requires 154 acres of land. That’s more than 800 times as much land as the Kahe petroleum-fired power plant requires to generate the same amount of power. Using wind/solar projects to produce the same amount of electricity Oahu utilities produced in January 2020 would require … almost one-third of Oahu … be covered with solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage systems.

On Oahu’s west side, a Hawaiian green sea turtle snuggles up to a reef for an afternoon nap. But this is no ordinary reef. It’s the warm water outflow structure for Oahu’s biggest electric power producer, the Kahe Power Plant.

Built in the early 1960’s, the 651 megawatt (MW) workhorse often provides over 40% of Oahu’s power.…

“Lake Erie is the Saudi Arabia of wind … represent[ing] 20 percent of the United States’ total offshore wind energy capacity.” (Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, May 18, 2016)

As we fear for the countless flying animals facing massive slaughter, we are equally fearful that this “demonstration project” is the beginning of the end of the Great Lakes for any other purpose than an industrial power facility spanning multiple states and two countries. (Suzanne Albright, letter of May 31, 2020, below)

One of the most carefully crafted [OPSB] stipulations [requires] the developer to curtail, or “feather” turbines at “night” for eight months of the year. The developer calls this a financial “poison pill.” (below)

On May 21, 2020, the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) unanimously granted a certificate of approval to LEEDCo/Icebreaker, a 6-turbine, 20.7 MW (3.45 MW per turbine) “demonstration” project eight miles offshore Cleveland.…

“Industrial wind power, a government created and enabled industry, is not only about the uneconomic. It is about controversy and division between neighbors whose country living in the wind-swept plains has never been about gargantuan machinery generating noise, flicker, and unsightliness.”

In rural communities, proposals to erect office-building-high wind turbines pit neighbor against neighbor. Some receive checks for hosting turbines on their land; the rest dread the intrusion to their senses. And all because of a slew of tax breaks and mandates to remove a free-market situation.

“Nebraska wind farm projects cause controversy and heartache,” one article in The Fence Post was titled. “With the enticement of expected high-dollar dividends and federal production tax credits,” the article explained, “some residents in Cherry County and nearby communities are struggling with daily life challenges, which they attribute to numerous turbines emerging across the landscape.”…