Friends of the A** End of Nowhere

President Obama has expressed admirable plans for green energy. Typically, they involve the generation of energy in remote areas (by solar or wind) and transmission into urban areas.

Unfortunately, it is in the production and transmission that these plans run into a phenomenon I like to call the "Friends of the A** End of Nowhere". Want to put a solar farm in the desert? FAN sez the desert environment is incredibly fragile and you'll harm it irreparably. Want to transmit that power to the city? FAN sez the route is right through a conservation area and wants you to go another less direct, more inefficient way. Want to research and generate wave energy on the coast of Oregon? No dice -- property owners, fishermen and environmentalists will call you rapacious foreign capitalists who want to industrialize the ocean.

Infrastructure progress in the United States proceeds at a glacial pace for a number of reasons, one of which is the ability of environmental and citizens' groups to use the courts to gum up the works for justice and due process. It is my sincere hope that President Obama will have a Nixon-to-China moment and be able to effect change positively for power generation during his terms in office.