Planning For a Future Not Fraught With Failure

Over the years, I’ve been amazed at how many times something introduced at the cinema or through works of fiction meant to be entertainment, later became a reality. President Kennedy challenged our nation to travel to the moon. At the time, not all Americans viewed this as a practical accomplishment, at least not immediately.

Over the last fifty years, we have witnessed major progress in space exploration, especially as the private sector became engaged in following NASA’s work.

My remarks are not meant as criticism of the wonderful work that has been done; from putting a man in space, to landing on the moon, the successes of the Space Shuttle Program and the International Space Station. We have now entered an entirely new era from many years ago when we sat transfixed in the cinema, while Buck Rogers entertained us. It is proof positive that we are still the great innovator in technology.

I reflect on how much easier my job traveling domestically and overseas became with the development of cellular technology. I was relieved of the task of carrying rolls of dimes and quarters for payphones, and no longer had to stand in phone booths along the highways to make calls. 

Today, I look down at the watch that I wear on occasion, which allows me to take calls and receive and respond to text messages. Once again, we were introduced to that technology decades ago through the adventures of Dick Tracy in movies and comic books. We paid for the comics by picking up empty soda (pop) bottles which we traded in at the local grocery for a couple of pennies or a nickel. It allowed us to afford the luxury of reading the next chapter of our favorite detective’s adventures.

I’m sure you are wondering where I’m going with this week’s reflection on today and the past. Currently, I worry about the headlong rush by government to create a plan forcing Americans to switch to electric cars without first having a frank and honest conversation about it. I am not against technology, I think it is great and improves our quality of life by leaps and bounds, but it must come with careful planning and a thoughtful development for implementation.

Numerous cases illustrate how we have not taken enough time to thoughtfully do our due diligence regarding the impact the choices we make today will have on future generations ten, fifteen, twenty or even fifty years from now.

A great deal of ink has been used writing about the wonderful aspects of windmill farms, in the U.S. and internationally, to reduce the carbon footprint created by the replacement of fossil fuels, to power to the plants that create the electricity we consume.

According to a recent Bloomberg article, there are tens of thousands of windmill blades waiting to be disposed of. However, there is no way to dispose of them, except to bury them in landfills. However, our country’s landfills are filling up more rapidly than planned for, and available land is quickly shrinking.

The first U.S. wind farm was created in New Hampshire in 1980, after the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Shortly after that we saw another in California. They were expensive and were soon replaced by larger, taller and more efficient models.

Today, thousands of used and damaged blades sit waiting for a final home for disposal. They are a source of headaches for municipalities across the nation. Eighty-five percent of the units can be recycled, but the large and costly blades cannot. Today, they sit in large heaps across our landscape.

A similar fate has occurred for old solar panels. This is another example of poor planning for waste disposal, which will eventually become a problem for the next generation of leaders to solve.

Have we learned anything from our past mistakes about planning for unintended consequences? I only ask this question to avoid repeating our mistakes with the current administration’s plan to move the nation into electric powered automobiles. Unfortunately, I don’t believe we have learned. You see, we have no infrastructure to provide for the all-electric automobiles and users will soon face sticker shock when they find out how much the installation of a power station will cost them in their own homes. Condo Associations will also be in for a big shock when they calculate the cost to meet the needs of their owners. 

We are also faced with the decommissioning costs for the battery platforms and related safety issues. We need to think about the necessity of creating recharging stations along our major highways and the cost.

Has anyone ever considered the present-day power grid and its inability to keep up with this demand and the necessity to grow it, and at what costs?

Now, I’m not against the concept of the electric automobile, but it must be a well thought out and planned implementation. Why not implement the incentives for hybrid vehicles as a starting point, as we work towards safer and more reliable battery packs for these all-electric vehicles?

California has set in motion an unattainable goal of going all-electric for 2035. It is a recipe for failure and a roadmap for disaster. This is the posterchild for how not to run a state or a nation, regardless of the political intentions and aspirations of the governor. 

A great political cartoon would show the California governor driving an all-electric auto over an imaginary political cliff with the Biden Administration riding in the back seat with blinders on. Let’s not start down this path without a plan and an understanding of the possible ramifications to our nation and its taxpayers.