Today's Journal carries a column in which Roger Meiners, an economist, disparages an installation of solar panels at a federal fish hatchery near Bozeman, Montana. He runs a standard economic analysis and finds that the panels cannot last long enough to pay for themselves at current energy prices.
I don't argue with what he includes in his analysis, but with what he omits. He does not include in his analysis the national security value to the United States of reducing reliance on foreign oil and of reducing the transfer of wealth to hostile nations. He also omits the value to the world of producing power that does not dump unneeded carbon into the atmosphere.
I cannot calculate these three latter values, but I know they exist. His column doesn't recognize their existence.
