We regularly run columns by Indiana Policy Review adjunct scholar Andrea Neal, and I usually find her conservative Hoosier common sense compelling. But she wrote something in her most recent column about wind power that bothered me. She is properly skeptical of wind power's potential, citing the Heritage Foundation's concerns that it is very costly and doesn't reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. She gives the other side it's due, noting the state's goal of adding new capacity in a market where demand goes up 2 percent a year. Then the troubling conclusion:
The verdict is not in on whether wind power makes economic or environmental sense. Whether you agree with federal subsidies or not, they're being handed out like candy, so — unless you can't stand seeing those massive turbines — there's no harm in Indiana getting in on some action.
Taking such "candy" from the federal government should be viewed as alarmingly as children taking candy from strangers -- no good can come of it, no matter how enticing it seems. We should just take the money and run, even if we suspect the final verdict on wind power might not make economic or envrionmental sense, thus perpetuating massive government waste? That's the attitude conservatives should be fighting, not giving in to.
