Georgetown's Green Energy on Tucker Carlson

Georgetown and it's green energy debacle continues to make national news - not of the good kind.

Fox News

Georgetown Continues to Reap National Notoriety for Electric Debacle

The following is an excerpt from Fox News on August 28, 2019. Click the link and read the entire article.

"Trouble started when politicians’ promise of cheaper renewable energy was mugged by reality.

Georgetown’s electric bills went up as more wind and solar power displaced cheaper natural gas in the power portfolio of the Georgetown’s municipal utility. Politicians scrambled for cover. And the bloom came off Georgetown’s renewable rose."

No Warming in the U.S. in Last 14 Years

"When American climate alarmists claim to have witnessed the effects of global warming, they must be referring to a time beyond 14 years ago. That is because there has been no warming in the United States since at least 2005, according to updated data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In January 2005, NOAA began recording temperatures at its newly built U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN). USCRN includes 114 pristinely maintained temperature stations spaced relatively uniformly across the lower 48 states. NOAA selected locations that were far away from urban and land-development impacts that might artificially taint temperature readings." Real Clear Energy

Temperature readings from 2005 (far left) to the present (far right) show absolutely no warming.

NOAA USCRN; Watts

Looky Here!!!

More insanity in City contracting. This item was on the agenda of the City Council last night.

City of Georgetown, Texas City Council Regular Meeting August 27, 2019

SUBJECT: Consideration and possible action to execute an agreement between the City of Georgetown and Blanchard Refining Company for the temporary sale of 10,000 acre-ft of Brazos River Authority (BRA) System Water -- Glenn Dishong, Utility Director

ITEM SUMMARY: The current utilization and the predicted use of BRA system water with current growth trends indicate that up to 10,000 acre-ft of raw water that is currently under contract until August 31, 2040 will not be needed for at least the next 10 years. The contract payment terms require the City to pay for the contracted water, whether or not it is used. Just like the electric contracts, the City has apparently contracted for a fixed amount of water from the Brazos River Authority through August 31, 2040. How long is that contract? The kicker is that the City has to pay for the water whether or not the City uses it!!!!! Does that sound like the electric contracts for which the ratepayers are dearly paying? What is wrong with the City entering into these long term contracts that require payment even if the commodity is not delivered or used? It looks like it is time for some completely new innovative thinking at the City in how it contracts for utilities!

Bloomberg Reports on Renewable Energy's Unintended Consequences

This is the same Bloomberg that tried to entice Georgetown into an open-ended experiment with roof mounted solar panels and batteries with a $1M grant. Yahoo Finance

"(Bloomberg) -- The road to a world powered by renewable energy is littered with unintended consequences. Like a 40,000% surge in electricity prices.

Texas power prices jumped from less than $15 to as much as $9,000 a megawatt-hour this month as coal plant retirements and weak winds left the region on the brink of blackouts during a heat wave. It’s a phenomenon playing out worldwide. Germany averted three blackouts of its own in June and has seen prices both spike and plunge below zero within days as it swaps out coal and nuclear energy for wind and solar. In the U.K., more than a million homes lost power on Aug. 9, in part because a wind farm tripped offline.

Meanwhile, in Texas, the grid is becoming increasingly exposed to the swings of wind generation. The run-up in electricity prices earlier this month was in part because generation from farms sank to the lowest level in months.

Unlike Texas, some regions use capacity markets to ensure there’s enough power to keep the lights on. In these, plants get paid to guarantee power during a certain time period, even if it turns out the market doesn’t need their electricity."

Austin Discovers the Wind Doesn't Blow All the Time

"Austin Energy customers could see an 8.5% rate hike to a portion of their bills after outages to the utility’s power plants and a lack of production from its wind farms forced officials to buy electricity amid soaring costs during peak energy demand earlier this month."

"As Texans cranked up their air conditioners, statewide electricity production from wind farms nearly disappeared, triggering a decrease in power supply."

http://epaper.statesman.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&pubid=0bd3b62f-2574-4676-88da-58d1361460ab

Are Fossil Fuels "Subsidized" in the U.S.?

Not according to the International Energy Agency

Here is their data on energy subsidies.

Click graph to enlarge

Notice the absence of the United States!

Williamson County Plans to Increase Your Property Taxes

Williamson County currently taxes at a tax rate of 45.9 cents per $100 valuation. Commissioners are planning to keep that rate the same as last year’s rate despite the effective tax rate dropping about a penny and a half to 44.4 cents.

And that penny-and-a-half difference means the county will rake in an estimated $10.5 million more from existing taxpayers than last year, a fact admitted in the proposed budget.

“This budget will raise more property tax revenue than last year’s budget by $21,364,867, a 7.2 percent increase and, of that amount, $10,894,084 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year,” reads the county budget documents.

The Williamson County Commissioners Court are also asking voters to approve $412 million in additional debt for road improvements and $35 million for additional parks and recreation projects.

Currently, Williamson County collects a 16.75 cent tax per $100 valuation in order to pay for debt service. If the bond were to pass, that rate would remain the same; but if it were to be rejected by voters, taxes would eventually go down.

“This budget will raise more property tax revenue than last year’s budget by $21,364,867, a 7.2 percent increase and, of that amount, $10,894,084 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year,” reads the county budget documents.

With county population growth less than 5% annually over the last 5 years, why are the commissioners raising your property taxes 7.2%?

Here is the population growth for Williamson, County.

Click on Graph to Enlarge

Ask your commissioners why they are increasing your property taxes at a 75% faster growth rate than the population!

The Wilco Commissioners have passed two opportunities to reduce your property taxes; 1. reduce the tax rate to the effective tax rate; 2.  do not ask the voters to authorize more bonds, thus reducing the existing bond payments as they are paid off and therefore reducing the taxes required for bond payments. 

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Is City Council Planning to Give Taxpayer $ to Costco?

It is being reported in the Sunday edition of the Wilco Sun that Costco is negotiating to build a store at the intersection of I35 and Lakeway, next to Holt Caterpillar.

Click photo to enlarge

It is also being reported that the City may give sales tax rebates for up to 15 years.

Why would a small city like Georgetown give a corporation with annual revenue of $141.58 Billion and $3.13 Billion in annual profit, sales tax rebates? Should the taxpayers of Georgetown be subsidizing this multi-billion dollar corporation for a few hundred warehouse jobs?

One can only imagine the increased traffic this store will bring from 25 or more miles around. I am sure the surrounding neighborhoods will just love paying sales tax rebates, more for infrastructure and increased traffic congestion!

Look at Georgetown's Budget Grow!

City officials like to tell the citizens how prudent and conservative they are when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars. The data shows a different story!

Click chart to enlarge - CAGR = compound annual growth rate

These budget numbers were taken from the annual budgets published on the City's website. These are total budget numbers that consist of the ongoing operational elements plus the capital expenditures. The population numbers come from the City's Planning Department.

City officials always justify the budget growth on the basis that the population is growing. Everyone can look around town and see that the city is growing as evidenced by all the new houses and businesses. What officials never tell you is that the budget has been growing consistently at more than triple the rate of the population.

The data shows over the past 5 years that the population growth rate has been 4.27% annually, while the total budget has grown at 13.62% annually.

It is time to ask our elected representatives why they keep approving budgets that grow 3 times faster than the population!

How the Government Gets Involved in Housing

Here is a short sucinct analysis by an anonymous person about what is happening in Austin with the homeless issue.

One Persons Solution to Texas Electrical Grid and Production Problems

Houston Chronicle

In ERCOT’s case, these low electricity prices mean that it is uneconomic to build most new generation capacity, even as legacy generating plants cannot cover their costs even when they are generating electricity.

The advent of less expensive sources of electricity via natural gas and wind-generated electricity — Texas is by far the largest producer of wind energy in the U.S. — further squeezes those legacy generators.

Continued industrial and population growth in Texas are arguments for more electricity generation capacity. Oddly, ERCOT and the Texas Public Utility Commission prefer to instead rely upon very costly transmission lines even when less expensive new generation capacity is available. An example is the decision to approve the fully regulated Houston Import Project transmission line that has absolutely cost consumers more than the less-expensive generation facilities proposed by Calpine and NRG at the time.

Texas should leave its Soviet-style ERCOT market in the dustbin of history. ERCOT must allow all of the generators who are necessary to supply the grid at peak times to earn profits. There are two ways to do this. Both will cost consumers more at the meter but less than buying a generator to power their own homes and businesses when the grid fails, and certainly less than the cost of a power blackout.

The first approach is to install a valid capacity market. Under this approach, generators will be paid to stay idle on the sidelines for most of the year.

The second approach would be to return to a fully regulated market that guarantees a rate of return to all market participants, including generators.

Wind and Solar Intermittency Causes Reliability Problems

More sophisticated and complex models are revealing the issues with renewable energy sources. AXIOS

A power grid run completely on renewable energy would greatly increase the risk of blackouts, according to internal modeling completed by Wood Mackenzie. Renewable energy would also need significant government support to remain financially afloat at this point, the modeling shows.

• The work, described to Axios in an interview, was part of an analysis the firm did for a report released earlier this summer, finding that such a transition would cost $4.5 trillion within a couple decades.

What they’re saying: “Not only are [renewables] causing intermittency issues, they can no longer recover costs in the power market,” said Robert Whaley, principal analyst of power and renewables at Wood Mackenzie. "At the point of 100% saturation, they’re completely dependent upon government policy or subsidy.”

What Happens When the Wind Doesn't Blow?

When the wind doesn't blow as expected, we get appeals from ERCOT to reduce our electricity usage. The reserve generating capacity that ERCOT needs is 7.5%, but, several times this week the reserves have fallen below 3%. This happens when when fossil fuel or nuclear generating plants are not constructed as the population continues to grow.

Why are no new fossil fuel or nuclear plants being built? Because it is uneconomical to do so when the subsidized wind and solar plants can sell electricity to ERCOT below cost and still not lose money!

Thus, when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, Texas will be short of electricity generating capacity!

Unexpected power outages and reduced wind levels sent wholesale electricity prices in Houston soaring for the second day this week to $9,000 per megawatt hour Thursday afternoon -- the highest price allowed in Texas -- as the state's grid manager called for conservation as the state moves dangerously close to rolling blackouts.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued an appeal to the public to reduce consumption for the second day this week as electricity reserves fell Thursday afternoon below 2,300 megawatts. The problem is more dire than it was earlier in the week when prices also reached $9,000 a megawatt hour and stayed there for more than an hour. 

Texas isn't getting as much wind as ERCOT predicted, said Trent Crow, founder of the website Real Simple Energy that helps consumers choose low-priced electricity plans. The lower-than-expected levels of wind, consequently, is having an out-sized effect on prices, he said. Houston Chronicle

Texas Education Agency Report Card for GISD

Even though GISD improved overall from a score of 80 to a score of 83, the district still has 4 failing schools, 2 elementary and 2 middle schools.

Click to enlarge

It is time to hold the school board and superintendent accountable for this dismal performance - even Austin schools are better overall!

GUS Continues to Burn Rate Payer $$

Georgetown continues to lose money on its renewable energy contracts as GUS exceeded its budget by $5.6 million as of June 2019, and it had to sell surplus renewable energy at prices below the purchase price. The amount brings the total over-budget figure to $33 million since 2016, the first year Georgetown began using renewable power. 

The City staff likes to spin the tale that they really haven't lost $33 million, they just took funds from other parts of the budget to cover the shortfall. That's like a citizen saying they did not lose money when they over spent their checking account because they covered the deficit by shifting money from their savings account!

The individual and the City are both worse off financially as a result of over spending their budget!

On top of that the rating agency, Standard and Poor’s, lowered Georgetown’s electric and water utility bond rating from AA to AA- May 28 as a result of the city’s problems with its renewable energy contracts. But the City says not to worry, any increased borrowing costs due to the down grade will be inconsequential!

In the meantime, the City is moving at a snail's pace to rectify the problem. Maybe a year or two down the road the problem will be solved. Hey, its only your money!

Georgetown Property Tax Revenues Growing at 8.52% Annually

The City Manager and City Council like to focus on the property tax rate remaining constant over the last several years. This is a diversionary tactic as the appraised property values are increasing dramatically.

The number that is important to property tax payers is of course their annual tax bill. The equivalent to an individuals tax bill is the property tax revenue that the city receives.

It is most enlightening to look at the trend of tax revenue received by the city - say over the last 5 years.

Click to enlarge  - All the numbers are from City documents

This graph shows that the property tax revenue received by the city has grown at a 8.52% rate compounded annually over the last 5 years.

Notice that the population has only grown at a 4.27% annual rate, which is 1/2 the property tax revenue growth rate over the same period.

So don't believe city officials when they cry and moan that they are not receiving increased revenue and they are such good stewards of taxpayer money that they are holding the tax rate constant. They should be reducing the tax rate so that tax revenue is more in line with population growth.

Unreliable Renewable Energy Becoming an Issue for Texas

ERCOT is about to run out of electricity as the heat wave continues. Because the subsidies allow solar and wind energy companies to sell electricity below cost, there have been no new gas, coal or nuclear power plants constructed in recent years as the states population has grown. Yet, as we see below, renewable energy is not meeting the needs of the Texas consumer.
Zero Hedge

Monday's price spike also shows how renewable energy, which makes up about 25% of Texas' energy generation, had difficulty generating enough power to handle the demand surge.

Grid data from Bloomberg showed wind power generation in the region slid by 50% Monday, with most of the energy generation coming from fossil fuel power stations.

Can GISD Think Outside the Box?

Here is what creativity is all about in our schools. Everyone knows that teachers are always short of classroom supplies and they often spend their own money so that the kids have what they need.  Here is what an innovative District did. Fox4News

Teachers and staff headed back to school got a big surprise in Granbury ISD - $100 each from the district to use during a school supply shopping spree.

Like most districts, Granbury ISD had a big pep rally on Tuesday to get the teachers fired up for the new school year. It was during the convocation that officials announced the big news.

Is Al Gore on Drugs?

"Al Gore claims his climate-change predictions about 2016 have now come true." Foxnews

This is the same Al Gore that our Mayor is hanging around with and appearing in climate change movies!

Former Vice President Al Gore said his predictions from 2006 about climate change over the next ten years have come true and claimed part of the damage has been irreversible.

"You said back in 2006 that the world would reach the point of no return if drastic measures weren't taken to reduce greenhouse gases by 2016. Is it already too late?" ABC News' Jonathan Karl asked during "This Week with George Stephanopolous" on Sunday.

"Well, some changes, unfortunately, have already been locked in place," Gore replied. "Sea level increases are going to continue no matter what we do now. But, we can prevent much larger sea level increases -- much more rapid increases in temperatures. The heat wave was in Europe. Now, it’s in the Arctic, and we’re seeing huge melting of the ice there."

Its time for the Mayor to find some new friends! 

Renewables Failing to Meet Expectations

Here is an outstanding article describing the state of renewable energy and all the issues it raises. Forbes  Read the entire article.

Renewables always fail for same reasons: - they externalize onto society the high cost of adding unreliable electricity to the grid; - their low energy density means they degrade nature & kill wildlife; - they’re only profitable when heavily subsidized;

"Over the last decade, journalists have held up Germany’s renewables energy transition, the Energiewende, as an environmental model for the world. 

“Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset,” thanks to the Energiewende, wrote a New York Times reporter in 2014.

With Germany as inspiration, the United Nations and World Bank poured billions into renewables like wind, solar, and hydro in developing nations like Kenya.

But then, last year, Germany was forced to acknowledge that it had to delay its phase-out of coal, and would not meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction commitments. It announced plans to bulldoze an ancient church and forest in order to get at the coal underneath it."

"The new wind farm in Kenya, inspired and financed by Germany and other well-meaning Western nations, is located on a major flight path of migratory birds. Scientists say it will kill hundreds of endangered eagles.

“It’s one of the three worst sites for a wind farm that I’ve seen in Africa in terms of its potential to kill threatened birds,” a biologist explained.

In response, the wind farm’s developers have done what Europeans have long done in Africa, which is to hire the organizations, which ostensibly represent the doomed eagles and communities, to collaborate rather than fight the project.

Kenya won't be able to “leapfrog” fossil fuels with its wind farm. On the contrary, all of that unreliable wind energy is likely to increase the price of electricity and make Kenya’s slow climb out of poverty even slower."

Look to Germany to See the Future of Renewable Energy in U.S.

The expansion of wind power in Germany has come to a screeching halt.The Global Warming Policy Forum

"The expansion of wind power in the first half of this year collapsed to its lowest level since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in 2000. All in all, just 35 wind turbines were build with an output of 231 megawatts. “This corresponds to a decline of 82 percent compared to the already weak period of the previous year”, according to the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) in Berlin.

“This makes one nearly speechless,” said Matthias Zelinger at the presentation of the data. The managing director of the Power Systems division of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) spoke of a “blow to the guts of the energy turnaround”. This actual development doesn’t match “at all to the current climate protection debate”."

"The federal government wants to increase the share of renewable energy in the electricity supply from around 40 today to at least 65 percent in 2030. But when in 2021 thousands of wind turbines come to the end of the 20-year subsidy period of the Renewable Energy Act,  more wind turbines will be demolished on balance than new ones will be added, the wind industry fears. The government’s green energy and probably also its climate targets would fail."

Government Overreach

This is the story of John Yearwood who owns the property at the corner of Old Hwy 195 and Ronald Reagan Blvd.

Army veteran fighting government for regulating part of his farm to protect spiders

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (WZTV) – An Army veteran who served his country in the Vietnam War is suing the federal government for regulating part of his family farm over spiders.

John Yearwood runs a small business and lives on the family farm which has been in the family since 1871, nearly 150 years. Spanning 865 acres in Williamson County, Texas, Yearwood is faced with being unable to use part of his land because of a tiny spider he's never seen.

In a lawsuit filed by the non-profit American Stewards of Liberty on behalf of Yearwood, the suit claims the U.S. Department of the Interior is using the Interstate Commerce Clause to keep him from using part of the land due to an obscure cave spider species.

According to the lawsuit, the government is using the clause to protect the Bone Cave Harvestman, a tiny spider which only exists in underground caves in two central Texas counties. It is believed this species of spider lives on Yearwood's family land. The spider is considered endangered, thus protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Due to the endangered designation, Yearwood would be committing a federal crime if he did anything to harm or disturb the habitat of the Bone Cave Havestman spiders. The situation has put Yearwood's family in a tight position according to the American Stewards of Liberty. The organization states Yearwood has used the land for community benefit, allowing church groups, youth groups, and 4-H clubs to use the property for camping. However, the best part of their land for camping is also home to where the spiders are believed to live underground.

The suit states if Yearwood wanted to clear brush, camp, or build something within 345 feet of where the spiders live, he would have to pay for a permit requiring $10,000 per acre. Development within 35 feet of a cave would require him to pay $400,000.

American Stewards for Liberty says the issue has put Yearwood's private property rights in limbo and say it is unconstitutional, which is why they filed the original suit in 2017, litigation continuing to this day. "That's why we are suing the federal government to get them to leave him alone and to leave his private property rights alone," says General Counsel Robert Henneke.

See the full lawsuit below or CLICK HERE:

[112] Amended Complaint of Intervenor John Yearwood and Williamson Co TX by Anonymous GF8PPILW5 on Scribd

Bloomberg Withdraws Solar Grant

It appears the City has found a way to temporarily get out of the solar grant, courtesy of Bloomberg. The following is reported in the August 11, 2019 edition of the Wilco Sun.

By CHARLOTTE KOVALCHUK

"At their last meeting in July, the City Council decided to take a future vote on withdrawing from a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies for a solar power project.

Bloomberg saved them the trouble. It ended its agreement with the city August 2.

“In response to local considerations communicated to us by the City that now is not the proper time to move forward with the project, we are terminating the related grant agreement,” James Anderson said in a letter to City Manager David Morgan. Mr. Anderson is head of government innovation at Bloomberg.

Bloomberg awarded the city the grant in October for a program designed to generate enough energy to supplement power purchased from outside sources by installing solar panels on leased rooftop space on residential and commercial properties.

The cancellation happened after city staff notified Bloomberg that the council would take a withdrawal vote, which would likely pass, Councilman Steve Fought said. Bloomberg expressed understanding of the city’s situation, he added, and offered to withdraw the grant on the condition that Georgetown would return the $100,000 that had already been transferred but not used yet.

Bloomberg left the door open for the city, saying in its letter that it is open to working with Georgetown in the future.

Mr. Fought said Bloomberg indicated it would place the grant on hold in case the city’s situation changes and it would like to reconsider the grant in the future.

“I like that option,” he said. “It doesn’t commit us to the grant, nor does it take the grant off the table for a time when the GUS-Electric financial position is returned to normal.”

Mr. Fought plans to make a motion Tuesday to accept Bloomberg’s offer and to postpone any further consideration of the grant indefinitely.

When the electric utility difficulties are behind the city, a future council can make a decision to take a fresh look at the Bloomberg grant, he added.

Mayor Dale Ross agreed that now may not be the right time for the grant. “The city and Bloomberg agree that the timing might not be right, but it could be right in the future,” he said.

Right now, he added, the city is going through its budget cycle, as well as “focusing on doing everything we can to get the electric fund back to where it needs to be.”

Councilman Kevin Pitts, who has opposed the grant, was happy to hear the news of the grant cancellation.

“I’m glad we’re out of it. I was hopeful that we would get ourselves out of it, but they got us out of it,” he said.

To him, the grant’s timing has been bad considering the city’s problems with its electric contracts.

Now, he said, the council can focus on its electric fund and other core functions.

“Spending time on this grant meant not spending time on other issues in the electric utility,” he said. “We should be building infrastructure, providing parks and public safety and general services, not doing experiments.”

Councilman Mike Triggs agreed that the grant termination was the right thing to do until the city fixes its electric utility.

“[The city] has enough problems without adding more expenses,” he said."

The City Council needs to drive a stake through the heart of this misguided attempt to influence Georgetown's energy policies. Notice in the highlighted area above that this monster can come back when the Council changes to a Democratic majority.

Kill it now!

Councilwoman Eby Resigns

Councilwoman Eby, representing District 1, resigned last Friday because she is moving out of the City and the City charter requires council people to reside in the district they represent. A special election is required to fill her position. The following chart shows the timeline for the election.

Renewable Energy Does Not Meet Expectations

Michael Moore Backed Documentary

"What if alternative energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? That’s the provocative question explored in the documentary “Planet of the Humans,” which is backed and promoted by filmmaker Michael Moore and directed by one of his longtime collaborators. It premiered last week at his Traverse City Film Festival.

The film, which does not yet have distribution, is a low-budget but piercing examination of what the filmmakers say are the false promises of the environmental movement and why we’re still “addicted” to fossil fuels. Director Jeff Gibbs takes on electric cars, solar panels, windmills, biomass, biofuel, leading environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club, and even figures from Al Gore and Van Jones, who served as Barack Obama’s special adviser for green jobs, to 350.org leader Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist and advocate for grassroots climate change movements.

Gibbs, who produced Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11,” didn’t set out to take on the environmental movement. He said he wanted to know why things weren’t getting better. But when he started pulling on the thread, he and Moore said they were shocked to find how inextricably entangled alternative energy is with coal and natural gas, since they say everything from wind turbines to electric car charging stations are tethered to the grid, and even how the Koch brothers are tied to solar panel production through their glass production business.

“It turned out the wakeup call was about our own side,” Gibbs said in a phone interview. “It was kind of crushing to discover that the things I believed in weren’t real, first of all, and then to discover not only are the solar panels and wind turbines not going to save us … but (also) that there is this whole dark side of the corporate money … It dawned on me that these technologies were just another profit center.”

Both know the film is going to be a “tough pill to swallow.” It was a difficult eye-opener for them as well."

Problems With Renewables

Long term contracts are not the only issues with renewable energy. Gail Tverberg

"Powering the world’s economy with wind, water and solar, and perhaps a little wood sounds like a good idea until a person looks at the details. The economy can use small amounts of wind, water and solar, but adding these types of energy in large quantities is not necessarily beneficial to the system. 

While a change to renewables may, in theory, help save world ecosystems, it will also tend to make the electric grid increasingly unstable. To prevent grid failure, electrical systems will need to pay substantial subsidies to fossil fuel and nuclear electricity providers that can offer backup generation when intermittent generation is not available. Modelers have tended to overlook these difficulties. As a result, the models they provide offer an unrealistically favorable view of the benefit (energy payback) of wind and solar.

If the approach of mandating wind, water, and solar were carried far enough, it might have the unfortunate effect of saving the world’s ecosystem by wiping out most of the people living within the ecosystem. It is almost certain that this was not the intended impact when legislators initially passed the mandates."

Georgetown's Virtue Signaling Energy Poicy

The City of Georgetown became distracted from providing basic services over the last several years and adopted a virtue signaling energy policy cloaked in the guise of responsible fiscal policy.

A good analysis of the predicament that Georgetown electric ratepayers find themselves in can be found in the following Forbes article.

As of today, residents of Georgetown who aren’t pleased with paying more for their electricity for the privilege of making the dubious claim to 100% renewable power have three options: vote in a new set of elected officials who promise to focus on the basics of local governance, convince the legislature to end the electric monopoly extended to municipal government, or move out of town.

Mayor Ross Sounds Like a Progressive Democrat

The Mayor was on MSNBC yesterday morning touting renewable energy.MSNBC

He makes the following claims:

1. He is a Republican
2. Renewables are for the long term - that is why the contracts are for 25 years, not 25 months
3. "Small" price increases so far
4. Short window for US to take dramatic action - is he channeling AOC?
5. Claims majority of Republicans believe in man-caused climate change
6. Federal and State subsidies for fossil fuels and renewables need the same consideration.

The Mayor is clearly out of touch with many in Georgetown.

It is time for the Mayor to align himself with the majority of Republicans and citizens of Georgetown, if not, then it is time for him to move on!