by Diane Benjamin

Reporter Phyllis Coulter did a story about Geothermal energy systems paying off big for local schools.  Yes, it does pay off big.  But, then facts got in the way of her ideology – or maybe she just isn’t that smart.

Quote:  “The systems don’t use fossil fuels” .  That appears to be her statement and not a quote from anybody else.  It is followed by a quote from Scott Thorton, Olympia’s director of maintenance, “That’s not true with a lot of other equipment”.

Phyllis, how does the air circulate?  Something has to force it out to the vents and throughout the building.  That thing would be electricity!  How is electricity created?  Even if they had their own wind turbine, a backup electricity source would still be needed because the wind doesn’t always blow, the turbine needs maintenance, and sometimes they just break.  Fossil fuels are still needed – coal or natural gas.  You can live in your low information world where fossil fuels are no longer needed, but don’t force your uninformed opinion on the public.  Dick Durbin recently stated a law is needed to declare who the real journalists are: http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/20978789-452/sen-dick-durbin-its-time-to-say-whos-a-real-reporter.html.  Maybe he has a point.  Maybe there should be an intelligence test.

Phyllis missed a big part of the story.  Geothermal does save a lot of money.  But the schools could be saving a bunch more.

The real story is the school districts are forced by State law to only used union labor to install these systems.  In fact every job at every government facility in the state must use union labor.  It doesn’t matter if the non-union labor pays the same, has matching or better benefits, or does great work.  If you aren’t a union shop – YOU AREN’T ALLOWED to Bid on the PROJECT. (http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=097-0199)

The State claims this law is to insure high quality workmanship.  Obviously, it’s also to insure money keeps flowing to the Democrat Party.  More on PLAs here:  http://halttheassault.com/intrusive-government/project-labor-agreements/

Imagine how much taxpayers could save if we weren’t forced to fund the Democratic Party!