Curiouser And Curiouser
This project gets curiouser and curiouser (to quote Alice) the more one looks at it.
A number of people came out of the woodwork to voice their support for the project last Wednesday night by clothing themselves with references to the Sierra Club, smoke stacks in their neighborhoods, the "wider view" and other assorted remarks supporting the idea of renewable energy and at the same time implying the people who were opposing the project were simply NIMBY residents.
But let's look at the facts:
* There is not one person opposed to this project who is opposed to renewable, clean, distributed energy generation who has made themselves visible. Such an insinuation is a straw man.
* Many people were already opposed to this project before the neighbors on the river even found out about it. Me, for instance. I'm miles from the river. And it's curious that the neighbors themselves didn't find out about it until the top of the 13th inning.
* There are plenty of reasons to oppose this project beyond concerns on how it may affect the immediate neighborhood.
My view of the folks voicing support is that they fit into one of three categories: 1. Ignorant of the facts. 2. In favor of hydro power at all costs, taxpayers be damned. 3. Friends of, or paid lobbyists for, or people who owe favors to, or are getting kickbacks from this project.
For example, can anyone explain to me why the Xcel Renewable Energy Fund is in favor of this project? What kind of twisted bookkeeping is making Crown Hydro more financially lucrative to decision makers at the Fund than to generate the same amount or more electricity at Xcel's own existing plant across the river? Why buy power when you can produce yourself at a far lower cost?
That's right: Xcel's hydro power plant right across the river from Crown Hydro's proposed location currently generates far less than it is capable of producing simply because Xcel is not permitted to take more water from the river to do so! But if we were simply to give them the water we have to give Crown Hydro to make their power plant go, Xcel could generate the electricity for a lot less money. Not only would they not have to pay top dollar to buy it from Crown Hydro, but they'd still have $5.1 million in their renewable energy fund.
Discussion amongst the commissioners centered on concerns (voiced by John Erwin, Annie Young and Rochelle Berry Graves, and supported by Vivian Mason) and on when and how to take a vote (this meeting, next meeting in May, or next meeting in June).
In fact, the result is that a vote has been pushed off until the May 19 meeting.