DENIS THE MENACE

The first remarkable thing is that this works out to almost... to almost... (so hard to type with the giggles)...to almost forty-seven thousand dollars per installed kilowatt. [With inflation, the staggering costs of delays, interest payments, and court costs to defend against the kooks, nuclear plants are now up to about $1,500 per installed kW.]

The second remarkable point is that the plant is intended for Saudi Arabia, a grievously energy-poor country. It will supply electricity for two Saudi villages about 30 miles from Riyadh, with a combined total throng of 3,500 souls. What's wrong with oil-fired electric power? Well, what with the devalued dollar, it now costs the Saudis almost a whole quarter to produce a barrel of oil; but more important, solar is just so much more chic for charging the camel prods, and maybe floodlighting the public executions, floggings and amputations.

Well, it's their money, you say; but the third remarkable point is that it isn't. Half of it comes from the same source as Denis Hayes' salary: the US taxpayer's pocket. And this is only a modest beginning, for the whole US-Saudi solar "cooperation" is pegged at $100 million, of which half will come out of your pocket, presumably to supplement the insufficient flow of wealth from the US to Saudi Arabia.

Thank God we don't get all the government we pay for, said Will Rogers. And thank God Hayes has not yet awarded a $1 billion contract to cooperate with the Eskimos on solar refrigeration.

Shshsh! Don't give him any ideas.