Thursday, October 11, 2018

Tech Illiterate Scott Walker thinks "Flat Screen TV's" all the rage, ignores Job Creating Alternative Energy

It's been frustrating watching our tech-illiterate governor Scott Walker run from tech-heavy bioscience at the UW, tech-heavy high-speed rail, tech-heavy health care systems, groundbreaking tech-heavy new medical treatments, and tech-heavy climate science.

That's why the Foxconn fiasco was so insane. Suddenly, a tech epiphany hit our clueless governor. That resulted in an overreaction and lots of taxpayer money to bring "tech" for the "first time" into Wisconsin. Who knew?

What, Plan for Modernized Power Grid, Alternative Energy? Imagine Scott Walker and top GOP Republicans working with the Public Service Commission (PSC) to modernize energy and our power grid in Wisconsin...I know, I'd laugh too if it wasn't so sad:
Columbus Business First: After more than a year of planning, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has unveiled its PowerForward report, a roadmap to the modernization of Ohio's power grid. Utilities must undertake modernizations that take into account new technologies, renewable energy, electric vehicles, home interfaces like smart thermostats as well as big-picture security issues like emergent cybersecurity threats.

Not binding, PUCO said the 44-page report will serve as a framework ... heard from experts and stakeholders ... focused on emerging technologies that promise to transform Ohio's energy industry and the regulations needed to manage it.
This is not even on the Walker administrations radar:
The energy industry in Ohio will mean more interaction between consumers and their utilities. "This grid is decades old, and in some cases, centuries old," Chairman Asim Haque said. "We want these investments to be made and deployed cost-effectively."
State Utilities Charge Past Walker: While Walker wants to support coal because it's supposedly "less expensive," our state utility companies are so over coal:

ShepherdExpress: We Energies wants to reduce carbon emissions, preserve fuel diversity and reduce costs to customers. “We’re really focusing on retiring our older, less efficient, coal-fueled units, building advanced technology natural gas units and investing in cost-effective, zero-carbon, renewable generation, like utility-scale solar. Utility-scale solar in the past few years has increased in efficiency, and prices have dropped by 70%, making it a really cost-effective option for our customers. We are very focused right now on utility-scale solar.”
Yet Walker still isn't connecting tech to the wind and sun, you know, unlimited free fuel with no shipping costs via our roads or rail: 

Wisconsin lags other states in solar energy production. According to Peter Murphy of MREA, “Policy truly is the only thing—not technology and not financials—that stands in the way of solar deployment in Wisconsin,” he says. “Two easy policies that Wisconsin could enact, following the states of Minnesota and Illinois, are community solar and third-party financing.”

Milwaukee and surrounding areas would experience a solar boom that would likely include options to help low-to-moderate income families reduce their electric bills. And renters, not just property owners, would be able to access the benefits of solar. There is no good reason why we don’t have these solar-friendly policies here,” Murphy says.
1. Community solar (sometimes referred to as “community solar gardens”) involves a large solar array—a small power plant, in effect—which serves multiple households, businesses and institutions. 
2. Third-party financing is an arrangement in which someone other than the property owner owns the solar array and charges the consumer less than what the utility charges.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - Republican Rural Voters Rake in "Green" Dollars while voting for Anti-Wind/Solar Politicians: 
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ #1 and #2 fastest growing jobs in the U.S. are solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians. These jobs are good, solid middle class jobs with annual salaries pushing close to six-figures. Beyond construction, the plants (particularly wind farms, with their many moving parts) offer good jobs in the long term.

Not only do wind and solar power bring jobs, they increase the local tax base for revenue-starved public schools and other districts. For example, Nolan County in Texas has seen its tax base increase almost eight fold to nearly $3 billion dollars since the West Texas wind rush began.

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