Business
Recently, ODU economist Jim Koch said that building Dominion Energy’s wind farms was a bad idea. He says Virginians who spend more on energy have less to spend elsewhere, resulting in substitution of jobs, not new jobs. He fails to see reduction of other costs, such as flooding costs associated with sea level rise, the cost of remediating mines and water sources, and other costs eliminated by substituting wind for coal. It’s like plastic grocery bags; paper or heavy-duty plastic bags require reuse at impossible levels to break even – though just keeping the bags out of the ocean may make them worthwhile. Economic systems are complex and simple trade-off analysis can lead to incomplete recognition of the full cost of a decision. To learn more, visit odu.edu/business. This has been a Strome Business Minute, presented by the Strome College of Business at Old Dominion University.