MOUTH, MEET MONEY: Investors Are Building Their Own Green-Power Lines.

Near Rawlins, in rural Wyoming, crews are prepping land near the state line with Colorado so they can build a 3,000-megawatt wind farm, which could be the largest ever constructed in the U.S. Key to moving all that renewable power to market: Mr. Anschutz’s proposed 730-mile transmission line—a giant extension cord of sorts that will deliver the electricity to a point near Las Vegas. From there, the power can easily flow into southern California’s grid.

Mr. Anschutz isn’t the only wealthy investor pumping money into power-line projects in an effort to bring green energy to big cities. The Ziff family, whose fortune harks back to the glory days of magazine publishing, also is partly funding a green-power project between Oklahoma and Tennessee. Altogether, these and other merchant-transmission projects could cost upward of $17 billion, plus at least another $20 billion in wind, solar and hydro projects to fill these lines.

If billionaires want to spend their money so that Red States can sell power to NIMBY-infused Blue States, I’m OK with that.