This is a boondoggle in the Pacific Northwest. Makes interesting reading.
October 17, 2011
America's Worst Wind Energy Project
The more people know about the wind energy business, the less they like it. And
when it comes to lousy wind deals, General Electric's (GE) Shepherds Flat
project in northern Oregon is a real stinker, says Robert Bryce, a senior fellow
at the Manhattan Institute.
The arguments being put forward by wind energy proponents are similar to those
that the Obama administration is using to justify its support of Solyndra, the
now-bankrupt solar company that got a $529 million loan guarantee from the
federal government. In some ways, the government support for the Shepherds Flat
deal is worse than what happened with Solyndra.
* The majority of the funding for the $1.9 billion, 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat
wind project is coming courtesy of federal taxpayers.
* That largesse will provide a windfall for General Electric and its partners.
The Obama administration's loan guarantee for the now-bankrupt Solyndra has
garnered lots of attention, but the Shepherds Flat deal is an even better
example of corporate welfare. Several questions are immediately obvious:
* Why is the federal government providing loan guarantees and subsidies for an
energy project that could easily be financed by GE, which has a market
capitalization of about $170 billion?
* Why is the Obama administration providing subsidies to GE, which paid little
or no federal income taxes last year even though it generated some $5.1 billion
in profits from its U.S. operations?
* How is it that GE's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, can be the head of the President's
Council on Jobs and Competitiveness while his company is paying little or no
federal income taxes?
Green jobs are costly. If we ignore the value of the federal loan guarantee and
only focus on the $490 million cash grant that will be given to GE and its
partners when Shepherds Flat gets finished, the cost of the projected 35
permanent "green energy" jobs will be about $16.3 million each.
Source: Robert Bryce, "America's Worst Wind Energy Project," National Review
Online, October 12, 2011.
For text:
America
For more on Environment Issues:
Environment Issues - Page 1 | National Center for Policy Analysis
Now, that said, this is the Dominican component. The Vicini's Ege-Haina Group recently inaugurated a wind farm in the Deep South. Numbers varied but apparently they will produce 25 megawatts of power for the region.
What to me is interesting is that they said that the cost of those 25 megawatts was US$100 million or US$4 million a megawatt. In this project in the Pacific Northwest, the cost per megawatt was almost half that or US$2.24 million a megawatt. The question is, where did that extra US$1.76 million per megawatt go????
This will be tough even for Pichardo to explain away....
But he will try, wait and see.
HB
October 17, 2011
America's Worst Wind Energy Project
The more people know about the wind energy business, the less they like it. And
when it comes to lousy wind deals, General Electric's (GE) Shepherds Flat
project in northern Oregon is a real stinker, says Robert Bryce, a senior fellow
at the Manhattan Institute.
The arguments being put forward by wind energy proponents are similar to those
that the Obama administration is using to justify its support of Solyndra, the
now-bankrupt solar company that got a $529 million loan guarantee from the
federal government. In some ways, the government support for the Shepherds Flat
deal is worse than what happened with Solyndra.
* The majority of the funding for the $1.9 billion, 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat
wind project is coming courtesy of federal taxpayers.
* That largesse will provide a windfall for General Electric and its partners.
The Obama administration's loan guarantee for the now-bankrupt Solyndra has
garnered lots of attention, but the Shepherds Flat deal is an even better
example of corporate welfare. Several questions are immediately obvious:
* Why is the federal government providing loan guarantees and subsidies for an
energy project that could easily be financed by GE, which has a market
capitalization of about $170 billion?
* Why is the Obama administration providing subsidies to GE, which paid little
or no federal income taxes last year even though it generated some $5.1 billion
in profits from its U.S. operations?
* How is it that GE's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, can be the head of the President's
Council on Jobs and Competitiveness while his company is paying little or no
federal income taxes?
Green jobs are costly. If we ignore the value of the federal loan guarantee and
only focus on the $490 million cash grant that will be given to GE and its
partners when Shepherds Flat gets finished, the cost of the projected 35
permanent "green energy" jobs will be about $16.3 million each.
Source: Robert Bryce, "America's Worst Wind Energy Project," National Review
Online, October 12, 2011.
For text:
America
For more on Environment Issues:
Environment Issues - Page 1 | National Center for Policy Analysis
Now, that said, this is the Dominican component. The Vicini's Ege-Haina Group recently inaugurated a wind farm in the Deep South. Numbers varied but apparently they will produce 25 megawatts of power for the region.
What to me is interesting is that they said that the cost of those 25 megawatts was US$100 million or US$4 million a megawatt. In this project in the Pacific Northwest, the cost per megawatt was almost half that or US$2.24 million a megawatt. The question is, where did that extra US$1.76 million per megawatt go????
This will be tough even for Pichardo to explain away....
But he will try, wait and see.
HB