Colossal waste of money. Legislators will do anything to avoid solving a problem. They could use this money to get some nuclear reactors, and lower electricity costs, but they prefer the sure-to-fail alternatives of wind and bio-fuel.
Too bad engineers can’t get elected to office instead of lawyers and politically correct do-gooders who simply don’t know how to do basic BTU calculations.

Yeah, right, where are the feds on finding a suitable spot to store all that nuclear waste? If I recall the feds keep blowing their own deadlines on this.

Come on, it’s flawed. Simplistic, consequence free BTU calculations on costs alone is not going to cut it. Let’s start the ball rolling on investment and innovation in CLEAN sources of energy.

I do understand your point on cost, that is why the Federal Government needs an energy policy that is ahead of the states. The entire southwest is a prime location for sustainable solar. It’ll still be an sizable investment to set up compressed air storage facilities and a suitable DC transmission grid to allow for solar, but it will get us off oil and be clean.

Pa can’t do it alone, no matter want DePasquale thinks. So you are right, let’s start electing some engineers!

I’m not sure I’m all that crazy over this state going nearly a billion dollars deeper into debt, but the potential rewards of “clean” energy clearly outweigh any potential risk. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the projections for job creation and private investment given by the bill’s sponsors pan out, as Pennsylvania literally cannot afford any more pricey, idealistically-driven proposals that do nothing to solve the problems they were designed to address. However, Rep. Eachus’s energy bill appears to be one of the more rational proposals offered by the Dems in this session, and as a southwestern Pennsylvanian, I can appreciate his vision for this region, once a titan of heavy industry, becoming a national leader in an industry that appears to be emerging as a solid alternative to traditional fossil fuels. Southwestern Pennsylvania needs to find a new economic niche, and clean energy (along with bio-tech) just might be this region’s ticket back to national prominence. The only caveat to all of this, of course, is whether or not the state will end up in the black on this project (or, will taxpayers again see nothing but red?). Rep. Maher’s criticisms of the bill, from a good-government standpoint, are valid. Gov. Rendell should not start doling out grants to favored companies (as has been his method of operation in the past). A competitive, open bidding process would be a great start to keeping costs under control. If successful, this bill could help jumpstart the economy in the southwest (and perhaps nationally) while ultimately saving the taxpayers a few bucks and, just for kicks, help keep our environment a little cleaner (just kidding…). Oh, and we’d be that much closer to telling OPEC where to stick their oil pumps. Not a bad deal at all.

In my post, I attributed the clean-energy proposal to Rep. Eachus. The bill’s sponsor is Rep. DePasquale. As I’m sure all of my posts are read avidly by Democrats in Harrisburg and across the state, I apologize.

Forgive me Gent and Blackrobe.

JM