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Category Archive for 'Transportation and Infrastructure'

From the various places I go to learn about how wind energy works, it seems to be accepted that the maximum amount of wind power that can be generated at any moment on a square kilometer of land is 1 Megawatt. For reference, that is about enough power to power up somewhere between 750 and […]

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On p. 359 of Cadillac Desert: Another drawback was that the reservoir would drown an Indian Reservation and the town of Covelo — population two thousand — but that sort of thing had been done many times before. (The Corps had included the flooding of the reservation in its benefit-cost analysis, but had it down as […]

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From another passage in Cadillac Desert (p 351, I updated the dollar figures to today), on a dud-project known as the Peripheral Canal: “the correct figure, for capital costs only and accepting official estimates, is certainly in excess of $3 billion.” Three billion dollars in 1959 is over $24 billion today. What state would vote for a […]

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From p.349 of Cadillac Desert: “I loved building things,” he blurted in an unguarded moment of candor. “I wanted to build that goddamned water project. I was absolutely determined I was going to pass this California Water Project. I wanted this to be a monument to me.“ That was former California Governor Pat Brown, father of Jerry.

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In accepting subsidies for economic development, we read: We are deeply grateful to the Governor and our state delegation for their support and recognition. We also understand our efforts have only just begun and look forward to continuing to work with the state to build a new economic future for our region. Really? Thanks to […]

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Once again, let’s line up along our ideological preferences and use those to masquerade as real economics. Those who are in favor of net neutrality may seem to be doing so because the term “neutrality” seems to indicate “fairness” or even “correct.” Of course, the entire point of any economic system is to treat different users […]

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It’s good to find evidence that you are wrong about something. As I was driving into work today, I had the experience of getting nastily cut off by a guy in a car with a Connecticut license plate. I know I was right … I was in the right lane on the I-490 just before […]

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The emperor indeed has no clothes and it’s apparently a feature of the argument, not a bug: Barry Ritholtz: U.S. on Highway to Flunking Out, by Barry Ritholtz: Roads are crumbling, bridges are collapsing, and what was once considered one of the greatest achievements of any government anywhere has fallen into embarrassing disrepair. I am of course discussing our […]

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When the objective historians go write down the legacy of this President, they are not going to talk about health reform (even if the ACA failed, it does capture the fact, and I think it is a fact, that reform is needed – I happen to think it lies in the deregulatory side coupled with […]

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