Monday, February 4, 2019

Georgetown's Wind Energy DEBACLE encapsulates EVERYTHING Wrong with WillCo GOP....


"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Isn't that just lovely:
The City of Georgetown made a costly blunder, and residents are now paying for it.

City officials lost millions of taxpayer dollars after a failed gamble on green energy, and now Georgetown residents will pay higher electricity bills to help make up the losses.

The story began in 2012 when Mayor Dale Ross and city officials began transitioning the city’s entire power supply to solely renewable energy: they signed long-term contracts with wind and solar companies for set amounts of energy at a fixed-rate price, betting that the costs would be lower than if they used other energy sources.

The move to 100 percent renewables sparked national praise for the mayor, even earning him a spot in Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Sequel” environmental movie. Gore called Georgetown a “trailblazer” when he visited the town in 2016.

The mayor said the decision was based on dollars and cents, one that would save the people of Georgetown money.

“This is a long-term pocketbook issue,” Ross said in August. “It’s a win for economics and a win for the environment.”

But now, just seven years later, the mayor and city officials are scrambling to renegotiate the contracts. They bought far too much energy at a far too expensive price.
Which, naturally, led to this sort of national press coverage for the allegedly "Republican" mayor:


Back in 2012, this website wasn't focused on local/regional issues.  But we remember this discussion very clearly.  And we remember opponents raising two objections:
  • Wind is an unreliable, inefficient, source of energy...thus these contracts would inevitably beget higher electric rates for consumers.
  • This sort of collusion between big business and big government would grease the skids for Williamson county turning blue.
Here we are, seven years later, and both of those predictions have come to pass.

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Bonus question: Who among Mayor Dale Ross's cronies got wind energy contracts?!?

Follow up: Among Mayor Dale Ross's cronies that got wind energy contracts, how many were Travis County Democrats?!?

Follow up II: Among Mayor Dale Ross's Travis County Democrat cronies that got wind energy contracts, to what extent did Obama-era "clean energy" subsidies grease the skids?!?

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Bottom Line: Higher costs for consumers.  Bigger government for citizens.  But at least the Mayor's cronies got paid....

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