The Planning Commission Discusses Solar Energy for City Facilities Tonight

Please don't get me wrong here, I am all in favor of solar energy. I have 51 panels on my roof, which is a lot. We love to use electricity here. Everything we own runs on sunshine, including our two cars which are Chevy Volts. When we do buy gasoline for them (they have gas fueled generators that produce electricity when the batteries are spent), we usually spend no more than 5 bucks. I am averaging about 125 miles per gallon in my Volt. We're quite big on disruptive technologies here and I can't understand why everyone hasn't seen the light. So to speak.

I don't pay Edison much of anything, and the gasoline industry is just going have to get along without me. I'm sure they will. They practically own the current administration.

There are those who complain that solar, along with my choice of cars, only exist because of government subsidies. My answer to that comes in two parts. Please name a corporation in America (or anywhere else in the industrialized world) that doesn't receive government financial benefits. Either in straight cash handouts, tax breaks, or other considerations. You can't. Don't even bother trying.

Also, I have paid a lot in taxes over the years, as have you I'm sure. If an opportunity comes along to get some of that money back, why should I be among the few that doesn't get to take advantage? Seems unfair. Can you believe that there are some people who actually drive Fords to protest the GM bailout? Talk about adding insult to injury.

I have very little respect for the politics of selective outrage. And yes, I have digressed.

Tonight the Planning Commission will have the joy and privilege of parsing some of the more granular aspects of taking the City of Sierra Madre's government buildings and facilities solar. It is about time. CityHall is way behind the curve on solar, and you can only guess why. Eight years of misrule by a SoCal Edison employee might have had something to do with it. You know, the one who proclaimed himself the greenest to ever live, yet never found it in himself to put solar panels on anything the city owns?

Here is how James Carlson introduces this worthy effort (link).

Here are my questions. This lengthy agenda report offers nothing to us about how much all of this is going to cost. If the City of Sierra Madre is going to take on even more debt than it has now, shouldn't there have been at least one small paragraph detailing how much new debt that is going to be? Perhaps this is more of a City Council consideration than a Planning Commission one, but the courtesy of sharing those numbers tonight would have been appreciated.

My other question is was there a bidding process? I know that Connor Energy specializes in putting up solar for municipal governments and businesses, as does their partner ConEdison. And I'm sure that working with them was convenient. But did you know that there are over 7,000 solar companies in the United States? Seriously. Many of whom would drive over their loving mothers to get the business of a place like Sierra Madre.

Most of these solar outfits are practically giving the stuff away. The competition is fierce. Has City Hall taken any advantage of that? Can it be that the lack of financial transparency in this agenda report is because they have only been talking to one party?

It wouldn't be the first time that has happened. Hopefully some of this will come up tonight. If anyone can do that, it would be the fine people of the Planning Commission.

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