Post by homebase on Dec 4, 2009 11:22:39 GMT -5
By Max Schultz | Monday, November 30, 2009 | www.bostonherald.com | Op-Ed
“Solar power is a key component of our clean energy future,” said Gov. Deval Patrick this summer, announcing a plan to install large-scale solar photovoltaic power installations throughout the commonwealth.
Just a few weeks later, the governor helped cut the ribbon at the opening of Evergreen Solar’s new plant in Devens, built with $58 million in state funds.
“We love the jobs, and we love that the jobs include manufacturing jobs,” Patrick said. “I look to this facility as a symbol of the kind of industry we want to build, as a symbol of the future.”
But half a year later the forecast for solar’s future - not to mention the governor’s other green initiatives - is looking cloudy with an increasing chance of failure.
Earlier this month, Evergreen Solar shocked everyone by announcing it is cutting up to half of the 800 jobs at the brand-new, taxpayer-bought Devens plant and shipping them to China. Solar panel materials will still be manufactured in Massachusetts (at least for now), but they will be assembled in a locale with much cheaper costs.
This shock came on the heels of Boston Power Inc. canceling plans to build a 600-job factory in Auburn. It had failed to win a $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop advanced battery technology. No government cash, no manufacturing plant and no jobs.
These body blows come amid Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 109,000 more Bay Staters are out of work than at the same point a year ago. The state’s unemployment rate is 8.9 percent.
Instead of touting a green energy future, Beacon Hill’s mandarins should recognize that their emphasis on renewable energy technology and production will only hurt the Massachusetts economy further.
Solar power is hardly economical in the sun-drenched Mojave desert. So what makes the governor think it makes sense in the Northeast?
The idea that Massachusetts might become a manufacturing center to serve the nation’s green appetite took a big hit with Evergreen’s Devens announcement. Yes, proximity to the brains at MIT and Harvard has its advantages, but Massachusetts’ high manufacturing costs are job killers. Evergreen’s sales tripled over last year but its losses tripled as well due in part to sky-high Massachusetts energy costs. There’s nothing sustainable about a green company in the red.
link to rest of article
Quoting a comment on the Boston Herald op-ed:
Al Gore Cancels $1,200.00 Per Handshake Event in Copenhagen
He's on the run...
Let's see... fraud, extortion, treason, to name a few. Our Governor needs to be taken to task along with his minions and all the culpable mainstream Green Media for shoving this junk down our throats and deceiving a gullible/trusting public as well as brainwashing our kids in government run public schools!
“Solar power is a key component of our clean energy future,” said Gov. Deval Patrick this summer, announcing a plan to install large-scale solar photovoltaic power installations throughout the commonwealth.
Just a few weeks later, the governor helped cut the ribbon at the opening of Evergreen Solar’s new plant in Devens, built with $58 million in state funds.
“We love the jobs, and we love that the jobs include manufacturing jobs,” Patrick said. “I look to this facility as a symbol of the kind of industry we want to build, as a symbol of the future.”
But half a year later the forecast for solar’s future - not to mention the governor’s other green initiatives - is looking cloudy with an increasing chance of failure.
Earlier this month, Evergreen Solar shocked everyone by announcing it is cutting up to half of the 800 jobs at the brand-new, taxpayer-bought Devens plant and shipping them to China. Solar panel materials will still be manufactured in Massachusetts (at least for now), but they will be assembled in a locale with much cheaper costs.
This shock came on the heels of Boston Power Inc. canceling plans to build a 600-job factory in Auburn. It had failed to win a $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop advanced battery technology. No government cash, no manufacturing plant and no jobs.
These body blows come amid Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 109,000 more Bay Staters are out of work than at the same point a year ago. The state’s unemployment rate is 8.9 percent.
Instead of touting a green energy future, Beacon Hill’s mandarins should recognize that their emphasis on renewable energy technology and production will only hurt the Massachusetts economy further.
Solar power is hardly economical in the sun-drenched Mojave desert. So what makes the governor think it makes sense in the Northeast?
The idea that Massachusetts might become a manufacturing center to serve the nation’s green appetite took a big hit with Evergreen’s Devens announcement. Yes, proximity to the brains at MIT and Harvard has its advantages, but Massachusetts’ high manufacturing costs are job killers. Evergreen’s sales tripled over last year but its losses tripled as well due in part to sky-high Massachusetts energy costs. There’s nothing sustainable about a green company in the red.
link to rest of article
Quoting a comment on the Boston Herald op-ed:
Hello Climategate the Truth is Out There . The X -Files have been found .
In the Radical Neo-Marxist state of Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing renewable energy programs that fail time after time .Massachusetts is enduring a Climategate of its own with the Evergreen Solar Company and a 1.7 billion dollar renewable energy bond pushed through the legislature last year .
We have wasted eight years in Massachusetts on the permitting process for 130 commercial wind turbines .Eight years of wishful thinking; bogus projections; no accounting restraints, or transparency; no meaningful future costs savings ; and regulatory agencies changing rules allowing a few to make a great deal of money at everyone else's expense while providing no meaningful service.
It will take twenty-five hundred 450-foot wind turbines, spread over five hundred miles, to mathematically offset a large coal plant like the Brayton Point coal plant in Fall River . This wind business is absurd. In order reach these objectives the executive branch of government wants the legislature to give the Energy Facilities Siting Board through the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act the right to place thousands of wind turbines anywhere in your town regardless of by-laws or zoning . Masachusetts will only be known for buying trophies while no coal plants will be shuttered and little, if any, carbon emissions will be reduced as a result of this project—or thousands of them.
The liberal press has kept quiet the Hadley Hackers and the conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth .
In the Radical Neo-Marxist state of Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing renewable energy programs that fail time after time .Massachusetts is enduring a Climategate of its own with the Evergreen Solar Company and a 1.7 billion dollar renewable energy bond pushed through the legislature last year .
We have wasted eight years in Massachusetts on the permitting process for 130 commercial wind turbines .Eight years of wishful thinking; bogus projections; no accounting restraints, or transparency; no meaningful future costs savings ; and regulatory agencies changing rules allowing a few to make a great deal of money at everyone else's expense while providing no meaningful service.
It will take twenty-five hundred 450-foot wind turbines, spread over five hundred miles, to mathematically offset a large coal plant like the Brayton Point coal plant in Fall River . This wind business is absurd. In order reach these objectives the executive branch of government wants the legislature to give the Energy Facilities Siting Board through the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act the right to place thousands of wind turbines anywhere in your town regardless of by-laws or zoning . Masachusetts will only be known for buying trophies while no coal plants will be shuttered and little, if any, carbon emissions will be reduced as a result of this project—or thousands of them.
The liberal press has kept quiet the Hadley Hackers and the conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth .
Al Gore Cancels $1,200.00 Per Handshake Event in Copenhagen
He's on the run...
Let's see... fraud, extortion, treason, to name a few. Our Governor needs to be taken to task along with his minions and all the culpable mainstream Green Media for shoving this junk down our throats and deceiving a gullible/trusting public as well as brainwashing our kids in government run public schools!