Big Hike in Everyone’s Gas & Electric Bills for 96 Windmills in Ocean!
By Seth Grossman, Political Columnist
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??????? Mesa Power (owned by billionaire T. Boone Pickens) is set to spend $2 billion on 667 General Electric-made 1.5 megawatt wind turbines, in the first phase of a four-stage effort to build the world?s largest wind farm in Texas.??? Forbes 5/16/2008
??????? The NJ Board of Public Utilities is seeking to get as much as 350 megawatts of power from its (offshore windmill) project. . . Garden State Offshore Energy, a joint effort by PSEG Renewable Generation and Winergy Power Holdings, would put their farm about 20 miles dead east of Avalon. . .? The 96 turbines would . . . cost $1.07 billion.?Press of Atlantic City 7/11/2008
We all want to produce more energy here in America.?? It is nuts to buy oil from third-rate dictators who want to kill us.?? But letting New Jersey’s BPU (Board of Public Utilities) jack-up our gas and electric bills to build a hundred windmills in the ocean is even nuttier.
??????? First, I do not trust the BPU.?? Then Governor Woodrow Wilson created it in 1911 to deal with gas, electric, railroad, and bus monopolies that were gouging consumers.?? But then it got corrupt and political, and forced most private bus and railroad lines out of business.?? Now we have New Jersey Transit, a money-losing government monopoly controlled by nobody.?? We also have just a handful of huge private gas and electric companies left in New Jersey, and they are very good at working the political system.?? The BPU raises rates to guarantee them “fair returns” on even stupid investments.?? So now we pay a Public Advocate to protect us from the BPU, which we also pay for!
??????? Ex-state senator Nick Asselta is a typical BPU member.?? Last November, he was voted out of his $49,000 job as senator.?? But after he lost, Republican Asselta helped Democrat Governor Jon Corzine win a close vote that added a half billion dollars to the budget.?? A month later, Asselta was appointed to the BPU at $125,000 per year, which also boosted his state pension.?? The other four BPU members are ex-politicians just like Asselta.?? None of them have any experience or expertise in regulating gas or electric utilities, or in managing a billion dollar windmill project.
??????? If you want to know the truth about wind energy, you have to find out yourself.?? Start with a Google search of General Electric Wind Turbines.?? GE supplies 60% of all windmills.?? They come in three convenient sizes, 1.5 MW (megawatt), 2.5 MW, and 3.5 MW.?? Learn about the plan of T. Boone Pickens at www.pickensplan.com.?? Then do the math.?? Pickens is paying $2 billion for 667 windmills, or about $3 million each.?? That?s 20% more than the cost of each of the five windmills put up in Atlantic City in 2005.
??????? The NJ BPU wants to pay $11.5 million for each windmill it sticks in the ocean.?? When you adjust the difference between Pickens’ 1.5 MW windmills the BPU’s 3.5 MW windmills, each megawatt of windmill at sea costs a third more than a megawatt of windmill on land.?? And of course, it costs a whole lot more to fix, paint, and oil stuff 20 miles out at sea.??
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So why build windmills at sea??? I remember from 5th grade science that there is more wind along the shore than at sea.?? (Sea breezes are created because land heats up and cools off faster than water.)?? Brigantine is one of the windiest places in the country.?? The BPU wants windmills in the ocean is because some rich people think they are too ugly to be within sight of their beach houses.
??????? But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.?? If a windmill on land can knock a third off the cost, I can deal with it.?? The French once wanted to tear down the Eifel Tower because they thought it was too ugly.?? Now Paris can’t live without it.
??????? Right now, the BPU charges you and every business you buy from, and every government agency you pay taxes to, pay about 10% extra on every gas or electric bill for?”societal benefits,” “non-utility generation” and other charges to pay for its pet projects.?? When the BPU subsidizes billion dollar wind farms in the ocean, that figure will go through the roof.?? And if the BPU borrows billions with a Corzine-style “monetization” scheme, those high charges will be locked-in forever.
For more information, visit www.libertyandprosperity.org or contact Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman at grossman@snip.net or 609-927-7333.??? Seth Grossman hosts a two way talk radio program every Saturday from 8am – 9am on WVLT Vineland, 92.1 FM.
