Here’s an idea: Instead of an endless, inert wall along the U.S.–Mexico border, line the boundary with 2,000 miles of natural gas, solar and wind power plants. Use some of the energy to desalinate water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean and ship it through pipelines to thirsty towns, businesses, and new farms along the entire border zone. Hire hundreds of thousands of people from both countries to build and run it all. Companies would make money and provide security to safeguard their assets. A contentious, costly no-man’s-land would be transformed into a corridor of opportunity. Crazy? Maybe—or maybe not. History is full of ideas that initially sounded wacky yet ended up changing society. The idea is more than a pipe dream as a consortium of 27 engineers and scientists from a dozen U.S. universities have already developed the plan and delivered it to three U.S. representatives and one senator. And if you take a deeper look into the plan. With an energy-water corridor along the US-Mexico border, we could create an economic opportunity rather than more antagonism.
Why don’t we replace the border wall with an energy-water corridor?
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