Externalities - part the third

Another case study in not paying for the harm you do. Sort of. This report in the NYT deals with a free electric school bus for a teeny shitkicker town in Nebraska (on the southeast border with Kansas). The point was to replace a decrepit smoky diesel 1999 item.

It's free, thanks to a grant from one Sleepy Joe initiative. But, being in the cradle of MAGA world, the gift horse's mouth was rigorously inspected. And largely found wanting.

First, of course, is that this is an electric bus. Only faggots and Europeans use electric transport. Oh, wait

The railroads made Wymore. There were hotels and restaurants and residents who traveled about by electric tram.

And, as many know, the first 'automobiles' ran on batteries. The lead acid kind, of course, so mostly in urban areas. Wymore once embraced electric transport. But today's sub-GED hidebound Wymore residents make paeans to horse transport. I kid you not.

So, what was that about externalities? Turns out that the author grew up in Wymore, but escaped. Most did not. One such just wanted to have a junkyard. And he got one. Now, he sees the electric revolution as an assault.

Mr. Zimmerman was thinking about our classmate, Mr. Watts, the salvage-yard owner, who buys old vehicles and strips them for parts. Bus shells make great storage sheds, and engines are of particular value, Mr. Watts said. "I can completely dismantle it and recycle everything."

But he doesn't have the means or expertise to do that with electric vehicles. Besides, the electric-bus grant required the destruction of the old bus engine, so Mr. Watts couldn't even make money on that.

So, does Watts have a legitimate beef? And should he be compensated for the loss of inventory; that engine in particular? Only The Shadow knows. But, among other things, the county administration passed a law outlawing, to all intensive porpoises, wind farming. In a place ripe for wind harvesting. Note though, that Wymore/Gage Cnty isn't labelled as high potential in the map. But, Nebraska has more wee wind electrons per capita than Texas, wind capitol of the USofA.

Another externality: now that the Gang of Six has eliminated Sleepy Joe's "Good Neighbor Plan" program, Nebraska can keep asphyxiating all those Left Wing commies in east coast cities. By far most of Nebraska's wee little wired electrons come from coal fired power plants. Fuck 'em downwind.