New York Takes A Stab At A Green New Deal Demonstration Project: The Case Of Ithaca

Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 20 Mar, 2025 | Francis Menton

[pierrem15]

Cornell University has a small hydropower plant that supplies about 1,200 kWh capacity. It runs off dams created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Getting permits for new, similar dams would be virtually impossible now due to environmental regulations, lawsuits, etc.

Cornell also has an air conditioning system assisted by pumping 39 degree water from the depths of Cayuga Lake and returning warm water to the surface. The fact that this was allowed at all, let alone acquired permits in record time, shows just how much political clout the university has.

Like the sudden shift in policy when the tech giants suddenly decided they need access to nuclear power, it's easy to see how the upper class favors institutions close to it culturally and financially, while strangling the rest of the economy for virtue signaling its luxury beliefs like "net zero".

[pierrem15]

I would call degrees like that degrees in "applied Marxism," because the focus is on totalitarian government control and destruction of a free market economy.

Given the tremendous influence of Cornell, the whole Ithaca area is like a feces magnet for people with such degrees and their hangers on.

[Ditto]

HOW is that supposed to help solve their problem?

You can’t expect her to answer a hard question like that. She’s not a rocket scientist ya know. 😋