“Bridge to nowhere” is being used in reference to the 500-mile-long direct-current transmission line the private company Rock Island Clean Line proposes across Iowa and Illinois prime farmland.

The phrase refers to the fear RICL will get this power line erected at the rate of $4 million a mile only to find it has no western “clean energy” to transmit, or no market to sell expensive electricity to on the eastern end.

Some say, No big deal. It just means venture capitalists, a Texas billionaire and three billionaire brothers from Park Avenue, New York City, made a poor investment choice and have to suffer the economic consequences.