Industrial solar doesn't belong in Linn County

Advocates of renewable energy have tried to sell the problem of intermittency as a virtue of flexibility while wanting us to ignore the costs associated with providing reliable, on-demand spinning reserves to back up the intermittent power of renewables. The public doesn’t seem to be buying that. Just recently I saw advocates of renewable energy proudly claim that it is equitable. What world are they living in?

The nuclear plant in Palo had its operating license renewed till 2034 and was producing reliable, economical, safe, zero emissions energy. It was shut down, and its grid capacity will surely be allocated to renewable solar projects that reduce the stability of the grid and raise electricity rates on the rich and poor alike while wealthy investors harvest tax credits.

It reminds me of a quote from the French economist Frederic Bastiat from a couple centuries ago: “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

Fred Hubler

Cedar Rapids