{"id":49057,"date":"2017-10-27T05:23:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T05:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=49057"},"modified":"2017-10-27T05:23:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T05:23:19","slug":"trumps-proposal-solar-border-wall-now-appears-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/trumps-proposal-solar-border-wall-now-appears-dead.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s proposal for a ‘solar’ border wall now appears dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump’s proposal for a ‘solar’ border wall now appears dead<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

President Trump insisted that a solar paneled border wall wasn\u2019t a joke. That it was his idea. That solar panels would help pay for his \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

But despite Trump\u2019s oft-repeated promotion of a solar wall, there is nary a solar panel in sight among the eight prototypes that have arisen in San Diego county this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, the 30 by 30 foot structures \u2014 scheduled to be completed this week \u2014 feature concrete, steel or a combination of both. Five are solid. Three have slats to see through to the other side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beauty, though, is in the eye of the beholder. One is painted royal blue. Another is stamped with a brick pattern, topped with sloped metal grating. All would evoke a prison feel if replicated for miles on end.<\/span><\/p>\n

So is this is where the \u201cgreat wall\u201d dreams ends?<\/span><\/p>\n

Congress has yet to agree to pay to build any piece of Trump\u2019s wall beyond the $20 million allotted for the prototypes and related infrastructure. (The prototypes themselves cost between $300,000 and $500,000 each.) Private citizens keen on controlling illegal immigration have taken up a collection, so far raising close to $15,000 \u2014 nowhere near the $21.6 billion the entire wall is projected to cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to say this, but it\u2019s a huge waste of money to do the prototypes,\u201d said Steve Vulich, co-founder and vice president of the America First Foundation, a nonprofit whose self-described purpose is to raise money for causes that lack sufficient funding \u2014 like the \u201cGreat Southern Wall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Especially, he said, if there is no solar wall after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt least 70 percent of our audience who emails us wants solar panels. It should have been one of the priorities because they are going to need power out there,\u201d Vulich said. \u201cThey are going to have to make it welcoming and environmentally friendly. I could do a computer model of a wall with solar panels with murals painted on it and it would just blow their minds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Vulich said his organization is trying to work with Congress to figure out how to transfer the donated amount to the private contractors or to the U.S. Treasury.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are not looking at it now in the prototypes, they darn sure should be looking at the ability of being able to add that on, once this wall is up,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump said over the summer that the wall would pay for itself if it were made of solar panels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA solar wall. It makes sense. Let’s see. We are working it out. Solar wall panels,\u201d he said at a rally in Iowa in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressed about it aboard Air Force One in July, Trump doubled down on the idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, there’s no better place for solar than the Mexico border \u2014 the southern border,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cAnd there is a very good chance we can do a solar wall, which would actually look good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked whether there could potentially be a solar revival down the road, if the wall is ever constructed, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection responded with a statement by Mario Villarreal, division chief for the agency\u2019s San Diego field office, to the Washington Examiner last week: \u201cWe’re certainly looking for different methods and ways to make this better. Solar panels or technology bundles on top of the fence certainly isn’t off the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The spokesman emphasized that Villarreal was speaking about the future \u2014 as no solar panels are featured in any of the prototype designs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Al Anderson, the general manager of KWR Construction, one of the firms awarded a nearly $500,000 contract to build a steel prototype, told The Washington Post this week that solar panels were an impractical feature because \u201cthe federal government does not have a means to collect money from utility companies. So if solar panels were placed on the wall, there would be no way to reap any credit for the power that they produced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Not to mention that with less than 2 percent of the U.S. population living within 40 miles of the Mexico border, most of the electricity generated by the wall would be useless \u2014 unless costly transmission lines were also built to channel the electricity to other parts of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that this is all going to be paid for by generating solar energy is preposterous,\u201d said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. \u201cIt\u2019s just another piece of snake oil to help sell this plan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said if Trump were seriously interested in advancing solar power, \u201cthere are a lot of very worthy things to do but building the wall is not one of them.\u201d Instead, he said, Trump\u2019s Department of Energy is undermining solar by pushing for a rule that would force utilities to subsidize coal and nuclear energy at the expense of renewable energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors stricter immigration control, has proposed other ways of funding the wall, including charging a $2 passenger or pedestrian fee for all legal border crossings, increasing visa fees, and taxing remittances being sent to Mexico by non-U. S. citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur only concern is that the wall is effective and that it gets built,\u201d said Dave Ray, a spokesman for the federation. \u201cIt if can generate electricity as well, then that\u2019s just sauce for the goose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2017\/10\/26\/trumps-proposal-for-a-solar-border-wall-now-appears-dead\/?utm_term=.28d9db0d7d4c<\/span><\/p>\n

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