By: Diane Benjamin
Below are screen shots from Connect Transit reports for what they paid Corn Belt for electricity. https://www.connect-transit.com/about/trustees/packet.asp
Note: Connect Transit does not posts report as “searchable”. If the Illinois Policy Institute was still giving transparency grades, they would flunk.
Obviously they are paying between $3,900 and $4,300 a month. At $4,300 a month x 12 months, that amounts to $51,600 a year.
Connect Transit is currently asking for bids to install solar panels. https://www.connect-transit.com/business/procurement/bids_and_proposals/bidrequest.asp?bidID=118
I have a document I am not going to post saying “staff estimate value: $1,700,000”. I’m not posting it so they have no idea where I got it. It appears it was sent to bidders.
Question:
Who puts out a bid and tells people what they expect the bid to be?
It gets better. See below. Bidders are required to use one of the three local labor and materials vendors.
If limiting options isn’t bad enough, the contact person at Connect Transit is:
I doubt she is the owner, but a guy with the same name works at Weber Electric – it’s probably just a coincidence Weber is one of the three required electricians:
Now go back to how much Connect Transit pays for electricity per year – $51,600 a year.
After paying $1,700,000 to install solar panels, even if they provide 100% of the electricity Connect Transit needs to run their office and the new electric buses, it will take almost 33 years to break even.
Of course the sun doesn’t shine at night. Not much power is going to be generated when it’s cloudy. 100% of the power will never be generated.
Yes, taxpayers will be paying for them to feel good about themselves and pretend they are saving the planet.
(I’m just the messenger, no need to scream in my ear!)
If you think wind and solar will save the planet, better watch this. This guy used to think so too. Hint: People in France pay half as much for electricity than Germany. France generates with nuclear, Germany renewables.
So, how much in addition will they have to pay for electricity? They simply can not run without a reliable source of power? Must be using Obama math. As he always said “do the math”, but the real world math never seemed to be his math. It is no wonder that taxes are being increased as needed infrastructure is deteriorates as senseless “ideas” permeate the Mayor and City Council of Bloomington, and probably Normal next. At least in Normal we have two new council members.
Sounds like a script for a new movie about stupid and stupider.
Ask the Brady bunch why they are getting state money!
If this goes forward without Major changes, Bloomington, Normal, and anybody else should cease all funding of Connect Transit due to gross fiscal malfeasance.
That won’t happen. Both mayors buy into the global warming scam.
I do believe that Renners’ offspring may one day realize that their father as a tax and spend liberal lemming will go down in history as one of, if not the worst ever mayor of Bloomington, IL.
Of course the taxpayer will pay. You will also see more routes cut and ride fees go up to pay for it.
They are getting a state grant, says volumes about the state too.
Insanity and just another example of the cronyism at work here in Blono. When you are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, why not install $1,700,000 in solar panels to save a couple thousand a month on electricity costs? Makes perfect sense if your real mission is to spread tax payer money to anyone who you can legally justify giving it to! This is not about public transportation. This is about taking care of your buddies and the companies and the employees who depend on paychecks that come from Transit Disconnect’s check book. This is not about transporting the poor and disadvantaged (there are better and more efficient ways to do this). This is about keeping the money continuing to flow to people and the system that supports the insanity that is Transit Disconnect.
“If you think wind and solar will save the planter, better watch this. ”
Save the planter?
Your two statements that solar panels don’t work on cloudy day and at night is wrong. All modern solar panels work on cloudy days and can store energy at night with solar batteries.
“On a cloudy day, typical solar panels can produce 10-25% of their rated capacity. The exact amount will vary depending on the density of the clouds, and may also vary by the type of solar panel; some kinds of panels are better at receiving diffuse light. SunPower solar cells, for example, have been designed to capture a broader range of the solar spectrum. By capturing more red and blue wavelengths, their solar panels can generate more electricity even when it’s overcast.”
Solar batteries storing power:
https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2015/08/what-is-the-best-type-of-battery-for-solar-storage/
The point here is that a government funded money losing (by the dump truck loads) entity wants to spend money it doesn’t have to save a few thousand dollars a month on electricity while it flushes thousands a week down a rat hole transporting a very few people around the town. Should we continue to develop alternative energy sources? Yes – 4th Generation Nuclear power is by far the most promising and the best for reducing green house gas emissions not solar or wind power.
While we are at it (not mentioned so far), we have a 20th Century public transportation system that is clearly obsolete and will not survive much longer into the 21st Century. For this obsolete public transportation system, we are allowing them to contemplate adding solar panels which will take decades to pay off? At some point this system will be shut down. It will have to be shut down. It will be sooner than later. The taxpayers will not forever allow this massive inefficient drain on public money to continue hauling a few people around our cities forever.
Solar panels for Transit Disconnect is nothing more than cronies providing money to other cronies.
Listen up Damon. The 33 years to break even didn’t take into consideration improvement to technology. Spending this money is absolutely stupid. There is no justification except for in the lunatic and troll world, your world. That’s all.
33 years to break even? Yeah, sure, no.. The blogger is stuck in the 1970’s with her talking points. You are also stuck in the past around 1979.
The video posted is a talk by a lobbyist for the nuclear industry. The state of Illinois has 6 nuclear generation plants. Nuclear energy accounts for over 50 percent of the state of Illinois electrical generation needs. Lack of nuclear energy is not a problem for the state of Illinois.
The other fact is that Solar-energy jobs are growing 12 times as fast as the US economy. Estimates that solar and wind jobs are growing at a rate 12 times as fast as the rest of the US economy and suggests that 46% of large firms have hired additional workers to address issues of sustainability over the past two years. The cost of solar panels are coming down dramatically and more and more people are installing solar panels on their roofs. They also install batteries that can store energy to use during the night and excess energy is being sold back to energy companies. Many farmers in Illinois installed solar panels to offset plummeting soy prices.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-next-money-crop-for-farmers-solar-panels/2019/02/22/2cf99e8c-3601-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.afadbccaa926
When you learn how to read come back.
Right – And you link a article from the Washington Compost? Really? Jeff Bezos’ deep state fake news rag? How do I read this without a subscription? You subscribe to the Washington Compost? OMG! I am sorry to hear this…
FYI – Damon – you know nothing about 4th Generation Nuclear power so how about you do some research and who was talking about Illinois power issues? It is still stupid for a money losing public transportation system to install anything that takes more than a year and a half to pay off. Transit Disconnect will be shut down in less than five years. Why does no one want to talk about this 20th Century albatross that consumes millions of tax payer dollars to haul a few poor and disabled people around?
As another poster points out, the left is all about ‘deceive to achieve’. This is often done by misusing words. For example, let’s see if you can pick out the REAL governmental ‘sustainability’:
– Using cost-effective products and services so that tax rates can be kept to a minimum and people are more free to expand the economy and pursue the quality of life of their choosing
– Buying products and services that make politicians feel and look good and funnel money into the pockets of their supporters, resulting in higher taxes and higher government debt, which in turn fuels an exodus of productive citizens, which in turn culminates in a tailspin of fewer jobs and lower wages.
Numbers don’t lie…but, Connect Transit and its allies clearly do (habitually). This has absolutely nothing to do with helping the environment and (clearly) nothing to do with saving money. It’s all about feeding at the taxpayer trough, rewarding friends of government. State grant or not, how much time and money will Connect Transit spend out of pocket on top of the grant to onboard, work with, and make its resources available to the contractor(s) working on this project? Money will be coming out of pocket at Connect Transit for this project. Wonder what Sarah Grammar would think of this project/distraction. I’m sure the hard-hitting “journalists” at WGLT and the Slantagraph are on the case. RC has some extra time on his hands these days..haha!
Hey, RC Goebbels will have his crack staff get busy writing a fluff support piece for this insanity. The narrative must go forward and there is tax payer money that needs to be distributed to their cronies.