Watch Karen Gleason probe Wind Turbine economics. Again.

By John McDaid | Thursday, 13 March 2008

In case you didn't believe me about Monday night, where Portsmouth Town Councilor Karen Gleason repeatedly asked, not about the economics of the Wind Turbine in general, but about the state requirement that National Grid buy excess production. Watch.

See for example, RIGL § 39-26 which you should read in conjunction with the Public Utilities Commission Rules and Regulations. (You can download the pdf directly here.)

This would be a whole lot more understandable if we hadn't gone through a detailed explanation of the economics back in October, 2007 when the bond was discussed. Look, Gleason was there — I even have video.

I hope the 60% of the Town who voted for the Wind Turbine remembers this in November.

Tags: 
Localblogging, 02871, WTG

Comments

Karen

Thu, 03/13/2008 - 9:03pm

I'll just ignore the other speaker in the video and focus on what a fantastic job Gary Gump and the PEDC have done of putting together the plan and financials for the wind turbine. We've all been hearing and seeing the results of their work since before the referendum, but I am still impressed every time with their thoroughness and diligence. Kudos to them for finding this opportunity for Portsmouth and so completely researching its consequences. We are fortunate to have them in our town.

Portsmouth Citizen

Fri, 03/14/2008 - 11:30am

At 3 minutes 45 seconds into the video comes the repeated repeated repeated statement from Mr. Gump that National Grid has to buy the excess energy by law. At 4 minutes 5 seconds Gleason asks the same question yet again, clearly demonstrating she just doesn't get it.

That's when there is laughter. You can hear the laughter quite clearly coming from both the members of the audience and members of the council. President Canario's laugh is particularly audible. Do you think Karen Gleason knows that folks were laughing at her and not with her? And -- maybe having someone so unable to understand the issues serving on the council isn't so funny, is it?

BTW: for the hard data, see the economic analysis by Applied Technology and Management at http://www.portsmouthrienergy.com/E1.pdf . Scroll down to Table 13 on page E-13 for the data on the proposed High School 1.5 mega watt generator. Notice how it is in the black starting year one. Woot!