CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – For Earth Day last week Governor Tony Evers paid a visit to Wausau’s new water treatment plant.
For the political left, it checks a lot of environmental boxes. It will use a reverse osmosis filtration system to remove forever chemicals, or PFAS, from the city’s drinking water. It will also be powered, in part, by a solar array. Never mind that when planned rate increases kick in, Wausau will have the most expensive drinking water in the state.
The solar panels tell us all we need to know about bowing down at the altar of all-things green. Solar power is deemed a good thing regardless of cost. Water ratepayers surely won’t notice that their bills are even a little higher because we aren’t using conventional electricity.
And yet, solar power is not environmentally friendly. Solar power that’s generated must be stored in batteries, and the material for those batteries requires mining. When solar panels end their useful life, the Environmental Protection Agency classifies them as Type D solid waste; safely disposing of them is expensive and potentially dangerous to soil and groundwater.
What we will learn eventually is that green power is really just a series of trade offs. With solar, we’ll burn less fossil fuel to power things, but we’ll create new mining and environmental disposal hazards. Wind turbines mean we’ll burn less natural gas, but they’re not environmentally friendly to birds. Electric cars could doom the internal combustion engine, but we may not be able to run our air conditioners on hot nights when everyone’s charging up their vehicles. Who’s to say that one is more green than another?
One thing we know for sure, everything deemed “green” is more expensive for you and me.
Chris Conley
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