[maybelsyrup]

A billion? Only?

I think some context can be helpful here. As a nation, we're happy -- hell, our elites (yes, we on HN) practically begged -- to spend $6.4 trillion dollars over 20 years to have fun foreign adventures in the sand, playing guardian of freedom and feeling real nice about it [1].

$1bn for 7% of the water needs for a major (and growing) US metro area sounds like a bargain to me. For a measly $14bn we'd cover the whole city. Defund the Pentagon, turn it into a WeWork, and let's do fun, neat stuff with our civilization. If we're gonna throw piles of money at things with low ROI, why not throw it at fusion and desalination instead of drone striking children at Pakistani weddings? 100% sincere here, not being cheeky.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/us-spent-6point4-trillion-on...

[foobiekr]

the 40MW is a bigger issue

[maybelsyrup]

Sure, maybe -- I'm no scientician -- but $6.4tn can buy mega megawatts. For that much money we can put everybody in Southern California on treadmills hooked up light bulbs.