There are two types of cowboys, those who have been bucked-off and those who are going to be. I’ll never forget the dumping I witnessed on the Big Horn Mountains when my friend Jay was helping me with a pack string. In real life, Jay is a peace officer, but his heart is all cowboy, so it is easy to coax his help if the job involves a mule string. We were 12 miles up the Little Horn Canyon with Jay riding his new, big, gray gelding named Gray (horse names are simple in the real west). Suddenly, Gray exploded.
This wasn’t just the little crow-hop thing, he was squealing, striking and spoofing (see page 145 of my book Ramblings of a Conservative Cow Doctor, for the definition of “spoofing”.) In spite of his best resistance, Jay was soon cart wheeling through the air.

There was one single gopher mound of luxurious, black, soft dirt in the high mountain meadow and Jay pasted it face first. I trotted up as he struggled to his knees and turned to look at me. His face was completely black except for the whites of his eyes and teeth as he spit out mouthfuls of gopher dirt. Between spits, Jay handed me the camera from his shirt pocket so I could record the scene for posterity.

I told you that story to put a face on the law of gravity. (A dirty and not so pretty face, but a face none the less.) Any cowboy launched into the air will accelerate to the earth at the exact gravitational rate of 32 feet per second squared…every time. It matters not if it is snowy, rainy, or windy; it is nature’s most reliable energy source, and this brings me to my point.

Gravity, demonstrated by water flowing over hydroelectric turbines, has been generating electricity for over a century. In early May, Grasslands Renewable Energy of Bozeman announced successful preliminary permitting to build a hydroelectric dam, but with a “green” twist. Electricity generated on windy days will be used to pump water uphill to a storage reservoir. When the wind stops, the water is released from the reservoir to generate “green” electricity for the huge renewable market. Thus they have taken kinetic wind energy and stored it as the potential energy of water held behind a dam. With a $2 billion price tag, there are a couple things consumers should know.

It costs 6.64 cents/KWH to generate electricity from wind, and 3.79 cents/KWH for hydroelectric, so combined it will cost 10.43 cents/KWH for Grassland’s electricity on windless days. This is 2.75 times more expensive than electricity generated from coal, yet Grassland’s primary customer is California, who is currently $52 billion in the hole. (The only thing more unreliable than “green” energy is the credit history of customers demanding “green” energy.)

Grassland’s electricity is only deemed “green” because it originates from taxpayer subsidized wind turbine blades before being pumped and stored behind a dam. You see, hydroelectric power itself is not “green” per the environmental left. The 2007 Montana legislative session attempted labeling hydro as renewable with HB709. It died in committee. We tried again in 2009 with SB257 and passed it clear to the governor’s desk before it was vetoed. Do you understand why? If hydroelectric power was ever designated renewable, the entire wind power industry would collapse, thereby eliminating the tool progressives use to drive up the cost of power creating dependency.

Imagine surviving last winter on a fixed income if you heated your house with “green” electricity. Your monthly bill becomes $687 instead of the typical $250. On whom would you depend when you run out of money before the end of the month? Answer: The government; that is their goal. Redistribute money from one group through government programs, to voting blocks of people created to be in greater need. The progressive technique of wealth redistribution reliably works behind the scenes, just like the force of gravity.