Oh, I see we're finally growing intellectually enough to admit our failure, Mr. Michael Skelly. It's about time you admit it.
YOU FAILED!
But I think you still have a bit of room to grow in taking responsibility for your own failure.
Quit blaming policy, Donald Trump, and state government. Clean Line has never been a good idea. If it was a good idea, a real utility would have accomplished it. Instead, the real utilities stood back and laughed at you. And not only did you fail with just one project, you failed BIG with 5 projects. I've often asked... who does that? Who takes an unproven idea and makes 5 projects out of it? One test project might have been prudent, just to see if the idea had any merit. Instead, Clean Line acted like a hyperactive monkey, throwing poop on the wall to see if any would stick. At the end of the day, Clean Line investors Ziff, Zilkha, National Grid, and Bluescape lost at bundle. As revealed in recent proceedings in Missouri, Clean Line wasted $197M on its projects over the past 10 years. One project would have cut down the budget considerably, perhaps leaving something for a better version of this grandiose idea in Round 2. I guess it must have just been about living high on the hog with investor cash for a decade. Well, the party's truly over now.
This party has actually been over for more than a year. How's that for some great, fresh news? The media has finally swooped in to pick over the desicated carcass. And we get one last poor sports analogy for our scrapbooks.
Quit blaming policy, Donald Trump, and state government. Clean Line has never been a good idea. If it was a good idea, a real utility would have accomplished it. Instead, the real utilities stood back and laughed at you. And not only did you fail with just one project, you failed BIG with 5 projects. I've often asked... who does that? Who takes an unproven idea and makes 5 projects out of it? One test project might have been prudent, just to see if the idea had any merit. Instead, Clean Line acted like a hyperactive monkey, throwing poop on the wall to see if any would stick. At the end of the day, Clean Line investors Ziff, Zilkha, National Grid, and Bluescape lost at bundle. As revealed in recent proceedings in Missouri, Clean Line wasted $197M on its projects over the past 10 years. One project would have cut down the budget considerably, perhaps leaving something for a better version of this grandiose idea in Round 2. I guess it must have just been about living high on the hog with investor cash for a decade. Well, the party's truly over now.
This party has actually been over for more than a year. How's that for some great, fresh news? The media has finally swooped in to pick over the desicated carcass. And we get one last poor sports analogy for our scrapbooks.
"We didn’t win the World Cup of transmission, which is what we were trying to do, but we put together great projects and [three of them] are [now] in the hands of people who can hopefully do them," said Skelly.
The World Cup of transmission? This guy must sit on the couch watching extreme sports channels way, way too much. That's almost as good as the decathlon that wasn't. And then there was that time Skelly won the silver medal. I wonder what dear Doctor Freud would think about this fascination with sports, winning and trophies? The inappropriate analogies have been plentiful over the years, but the one that made us laugh the hardest may have been the Venn diagram.
We've made a lot of new friends and shared a lot of laughs over the past decade. But that hardly makes up for the cash, effort, and sleepless nights expended by thousands of landowners in eight states just trying to hold on to what is theirs. We'll assume Clean Line's investors didn't put up more money than they could afford to lose, including "Clean Line Investment LLC," which was comprised of Clean Line executives who fronted the start-up capital for this horrendous idea. No harm, no foul, we're wrapping up, says Skelly. But when do the landowners he attacked get made whole? They've won the World Cup of Transmission Opposition but there is no cash prize. There's not even an apology from Skelly. He doesn't even acknowledge them, instead blaming his failure on everything but their actions.
We've made a lot of new friends and shared a lot of laughs over the past decade. But that hardly makes up for the cash, effort, and sleepless nights expended by thousands of landowners in eight states just trying to hold on to what is theirs. We'll assume Clean Line's investors didn't put up more money than they could afford to lose, including "Clean Line Investment LLC," which was comprised of Clean Line executives who fronted the start-up capital for this horrendous idea. No harm, no foul, we're wrapping up, says Skelly. But when do the landowners he attacked get made whole? They've won the World Cup of Transmission Opposition but there is no cash prize. There's not even an apology from Skelly. He doesn't even acknowledge them, instead blaming his failure on everything but their actions.
Skelly said: "Rock Island was killed by the Iowa legislature, which basically made above-ground HVDC illegal."
And why do you suppose the legislature did that, Michael Skelly? It was the work of the Preservation of Rural Iowa Alliance, the Clean Line opposition group in that state. Landowners kicked Skelly's butt all over the Midwest, and they're not backing down yet.
And somehow this article completely overlooks the biggest reason Skelly failed. No customers. Without being forced to purchase expensive renewable energy and new transmission, no utilities wanted anything to do with the Clean Line projects. No matter how much the pundits want to imagine a future for big transmission for renewables, it will never be economic. And it will never happen.
Sooooooo... since we're wrapping things up here, I've wrapped up something for Mr. Skelly to take with him as he leaves the world of transmission. It's not a world cup of anything, it's just a little sandwich, but he's certainly earned it! Enjoy!
And somehow this article completely overlooks the biggest reason Skelly failed. No customers. Without being forced to purchase expensive renewable energy and new transmission, no utilities wanted anything to do with the Clean Line projects. No matter how much the pundits want to imagine a future for big transmission for renewables, it will never be economic. And it will never happen.
Sooooooo... since we're wrapping things up here, I've wrapped up something for Mr. Skelly to take with him as he leaves the world of transmission. It's not a world cup of anything, it's just a little sandwich, but he's certainly earned it! Enjoy!
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