Monday, September 20, 2010
An old friend of mine is in the news today; it's both good news and bad news.
Tom Carnahan's been given 100 million dollars in stimulus money for his wind energy company. I haven't seen Tom since law school, where we studied crim pro together and went dancing a few times. I was excited to learn about a year ago of his wind energy company,and he was on my list of people to write to about some kind of job interview, but that's out the window now; you can't write for a job to a guy who just got 100 million.
The money comes at a bad time; his sister Robin is down 6 points in the polls against LeRoy Blunt in the Missouri senate race. His brother Russ is running to keep his house seat in St. Louis (St. Louis County?) I haven't checked his poll numbers.
Around the same time Tom and I were studying together, I was suing LeRoy after he illegally kept my friends Laura and Tony off the ballot. Laura was running for sheriff and had turned in her 60,000 signatures and everything was in order.
By the time we won the case, the election had already passed. Tony later ran for Lt. Governor of Texas. The experience of winning that case, Missouri ex rel Coker-Garcia v Blunt, was what started me on this long dead end of trying to be an election lawyer, at which I have not been very successful.
I am no fan of the "stimulus"; I support markets rather than government projects.
And I'm running as Republican this year (in a safe D seat, so I expect to lose.)
But what Tom's company is doing is important for the nation's economy, balance of trade, and defense. Wind power isn't quite there yet economically, although it's getting there. The kind of turbines Tom puts up are like rolls royces where what we need is a model A; a cheap mass-produced (in India or China) wind turbine that could generate electricity at about 60% of the costs of the current models.
But the positive externalities of offsetting coal and mideast oil make this project at least as feasible as any of the other "stimulus" programs. I do not know if politics were a factor in the grant. If so, the timing is bad. But there are non-political reasons why the grant was a good idea, from the perspective of the people who made it. Tom, I guess, saw his opportunities and he took 'em, as George Washington Plunkett used to say. Wind power, which I've been fascinated about for years, is at least somewhat viable now,and Tom moved to get in at the right time, and has installed capacity, not just plans on paper. Given enough capital, he could make it big, bigger than my grandfather did in Texas oil.
I'm off to go look up Russ Carnahan's numbers. One poll shows him up 16 points, another says he's about tied. Looks safe, so if Russ wins anyway and Robin loses anyway, the 100 million won't change that. Let's see how Russ polls next week.
Tom Carnahan's been given 100 million dollars in stimulus money for his wind energy company. I haven't seen Tom since law school, where we studied crim pro together and went dancing a few times. I was excited to learn about a year ago of his wind energy company,and he was on my list of people to write to about some kind of job interview, but that's out the window now; you can't write for a job to a guy who just got 100 million.
The money comes at a bad time; his sister Robin is down 6 points in the polls against LeRoy Blunt in the Missouri senate race. His brother Russ is running to keep his house seat in St. Louis (St. Louis County?) I haven't checked his poll numbers.
Around the same time Tom and I were studying together, I was suing LeRoy after he illegally kept my friends Laura and Tony off the ballot. Laura was running for sheriff and had turned in her 60,000 signatures and everything was in order.
By the time we won the case, the election had already passed. Tony later ran for Lt. Governor of Texas. The experience of winning that case, Missouri ex rel Coker-Garcia v Blunt, was what started me on this long dead end of trying to be an election lawyer, at which I have not been very successful.
I am no fan of the "stimulus"; I support markets rather than government projects.
And I'm running as Republican this year (in a safe D seat, so I expect to lose.)
But what Tom's company is doing is important for the nation's economy, balance of trade, and defense. Wind power isn't quite there yet economically, although it's getting there. The kind of turbines Tom puts up are like rolls royces where what we need is a model A; a cheap mass-produced (in India or China) wind turbine that could generate electricity at about 60% of the costs of the current models.
But the positive externalities of offsetting coal and mideast oil make this project at least as feasible as any of the other "stimulus" programs. I do not know if politics were a factor in the grant. If so, the timing is bad. But there are non-political reasons why the grant was a good idea, from the perspective of the people who made it. Tom, I guess, saw his opportunities and he took 'em, as George Washington Plunkett used to say. Wind power, which I've been fascinated about for years, is at least somewhat viable now,and Tom moved to get in at the right time, and has installed capacity, not just plans on paper. Given enough capital, he could make it big, bigger than my grandfather did in Texas oil.
I'm off to go look up Russ Carnahan's numbers. One poll shows him up 16 points, another says he's about tied. Looks safe, so if Russ wins anyway and Robin loses anyway, the 100 million won't change that. Let's see how Russ polls next week.
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