Sunday, March 15, 2015

Good Budget Move

Now do this a few hundred times and Illinois might actually have a balanced budget:
  • Hundreds of conservation-minded home owners who are waiting on thousands of dollars from the state of Illinois may end up empty-handed.

    As CBS 2 [...] reports, they are the latest victims of the state’s budget crisis.

    Estimated heating bills for Linda Foster were nearly $900 a month before she and her husband did major upgrades to their furnace, insulation, windows and — the biggest saver – they installed solar panels. Now, their home is cheaper to maintain.

    The big savings came with a significant upfront cost — $20,000. But it also included a 20 percent discount from U.S. Solar, the company that installed the panels; a 30 percent tax write-off; and a 30 percent rebate from the state that was expected to be $6,000.

    But Foster’s husband, Edmondo Lupieri, says an email from the state of Illinois delivered some bad news. Officials said they had a record number of applicants and not everyone would be reimbursed. Only 359 owners – randomly selected – would be reimbursed, with another 240 people not being reimbursed for installing solar panels.
We'll bet the politically connected got their rebates. But in reality, if the technology can't pay for itself, then it should succeed or fail on its own merits or shortcomings. The state in general and this state specifically, shouldn't be in the business of subsidizing technology that is wasting money to make the green lobby feel good about itself. There are studies that show all those windmills will never recoup the money spent to build them. Ever. That's billions, maybe trillions of money pissed away that could have been better spent repairing infrastructure, building nuclear plants, improving air-cleaning technology at existing power plants.....funding pensions.

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18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

South on I-65 around Purdue,tons of those fucking things for as far as you can see.

3/15/2015 01:02:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

$900/mth for heat? What the Hell are they heating, a warehouse?

3/15/2015 01:54:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Glad to hear someone is not giving away all our money to buy themselves votes.

3/15/2015 02:31:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever SEEN what the maint.+repair costs for wind farms run??? in cold weather the lube in the generator transmission solidifys + the geartrain strips the teeth off of the gears. If you drive in through Indiana how many are EVER operating at once??? As for NUCLEAR well... Multiple X-Class flares from the sun=power grid down for years=NO power for cooling spent but still HOT fuel (hey 9.5 how about those backup coal-fired power stations closed for political points OHNO!). NO credit cards=no gas or food+supplies,cell phones,internet,et al(satellite system fried). Playtime (INCOMPENTENT) p.o.t.u.s.+ current politicians.Shitbirds flyin' free+easy=total urban chaos. We'll need MORE POLICE + less politics(remember no t.v.anymore!).After all that happens-then people will see how essential 'BLUEMAN GROUP'(POLICE) are.Regretably 'then' will be much too late.Solution:jettison the deadweight from the top down-UNIFY-YESTERDAY!

3/15/2015 02:34:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You also can never drill your way out of an oil shortage. America will never see gasoline prices below $3 a gallon.

Anybody that says different is an idiot!

Atleast that is what the "experts" said in 2008.

3/15/2015 03:09:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If your heating bill for a single family home is $900, you're not living in a house, you're living in a tent.

3/15/2015 05:38:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Damn how big is that house if the gas bill is 900$?

Sounds like that family is really suffering???

3/15/2015 07:50:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

More liberal waste, like the fake global warming that has made Al gore a millionaire perhaps a billionaire many times over! The skulls full of mush follow this idiotic theory, look at what happened when rahm and his crew closed the coal power station on Pulaski, they invested hundreds of millions to burn clean coal and rahm under pressure from illegal no taxes being paid land the liberals he caved and put many out of work and we lost a great backup to out electric grid, look at how much your electric rates have skyrocketed because of what rahm allowed and was involved in! Another thanks rahm and the city bond rating 5X guess he could not buy off the ratings agencies so they had to tell the truth!
Willie Wilson endorsed chuy guess he could not be bought because he's a millionaire he may not be well educated but Wilson is not dumb he endorsed a winner! People are getting tired of rahms pathetic commercials Also poorly made pathetic attacks on Garcia could be anti working guy commensalism from the rahm crew!

3/15/2015 08:27:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why would someone buy so big of a house that they cannot afford the utilities? Priorities people...

3/15/2015 08:50:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a familiar ploy by the state. Promise a rebate when you get solar energy installed and payed for and then just apply for your rebate of $6000. Then the state says not enough money in the budget to pay you. Oh well, your shit out of luck. It was only meant for the connected ones. Not you, the tax payer. Pyramid building for the connected. Pensions for the connected only. Everyone else is shit out of luck. Oh well. Bernie Madoff model still operating.

Rahm is spending an obscene amount of money from his contributors. How will he pay them back? You can bet that someone will be shit out of luck. Just maybe Rahm can be shit out of luck for a change.

The Tribune endorses Rahm and comes out with a Comstat like poll that shows him running away with the election. The Tribune has skewed the numbers and given the mayor the magical 51 percent that he wished for before reality and Chuy set in. The voters spoke once and did not give the obnoxious, abrasive,arrogant sweater wearing one percenter his 51 percent. Repeat the message.

3/15/2015 09:11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How is it that Germany can go solar and we cant ??

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/07/07/breaking-germany-sets-solar-power-record-again-23-9-gw/



Being a true "conservative" means being energy conscious too. Roof top solar is also being independent of the grid and never having to experience power outages. Homes and businesses should all be going this route.

Just like the Interstate highway System, GOVERNMENT needs to fund projects first to get the ball going.

3/15/2015 09:15:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gee they wait till 2015 to upgrade their obvious shack when over the past 5 years the Fed' has given energy tax credits. A lot of farmers are lining their pockets with payments on windmills owned by the oil companies, no wonder the study boo-hoo's it.

3/15/2015 11:07:00 AM  
Blogger SpankDaddy said...

Keep up the good work Bruce. You have to start somewhere.

3/15/2015 11:34:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Damn how big is that house if the gas bill is 900$?

Sounds like that family is really suffering???

3/15/2015 07:50:00 AM

Last year, when the Siberian vortex, or whatever they christened it, happened, my gas bill was $900 two months in a row. That was twice as much as the highest bill I'd ever had.

That was when I realized my furnace was capable of keeping the house 'warm' only to five below. Once it was colder than five below, the furnace was struggling to keep up. Why? Because my eighty year old windows weren't doing an adequate job. Over the summer, I did what I could and replaced about 25% of the windows. I'll do it again this year and next year, til they're all replaced.
But, do I have the ten grand it would take to buy solar panels? No.
And it would take over ten years for the panels to break even in electric bill savings, so no panels in my future. I'm all for not having to rely on the grid, but unless somebody gives me a grant, a tax credit, or some free solar panels, they're out of reach.

3/15/2015 12:08:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
How is it that Germany can go solar and we cant ??

=====

Short Answer: They can't.

Germany is trying solar and wind power both. It is not working. The bulk of their power and all the reliable power is provided by Lignite Coal Fired Power Plants. And the price of power is going up, because they have to pay for coal fired plants, shutdown nuclear plants, and all the solar and wind power that they are building. Industry is threatening to move to other countries.

And their grid is getting unstable as sudden changes in wind or clouds cause power to surge or worse, drop suddenly without warning.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/germanys-expensive-gamble-on-renewable-energy-1409106602

http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/germanys-electricity-market-balance-must-pay-flexible-back-power/

Wind and solar sound great but are not reliable.

3/15/2015 07:34:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Damn how big is that house if the gas bill is 900$?

I can believe that. Been in houses with subsidized heat. -15F outside, 105F inside.

What do they care? Ain't costing them nothing.

And if gets too hot, open a window.

If your cold in your house, put on a sweater.

3/15/2015 11:21:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How is it that Germany can go solar and we cant ??


They're waiting to see what effect the upcoming partial solar eclipse has on their grid. The sudden drop then surge.

3/15/2015 11:24:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems that in most instances, democrats / leftists want to emulate Europe in the way things get done. Why not in the area of energy as well? Because Europe, Japan and all of those other "civilized" countries depend on NUCLEAR energy for power. So, the much touted country of France welcomes nuke plants to power its handful of manufacturing plants, while the USA is cajoled into depending on a frigging bunch of windmills. And as for the "visual appeal" of a wind farm vs. a coal-fired power plant (one of Harry Reid's complaints is that coal burning plants are ugly), I would argue that I'd rather have one efficient coal-fired plant covering a small amount of acreage than have to see hundreds of acres destroyed with a wind farm. And if a homeowner has a 900 per month heating / cooling bill, they MAY want to look at other aspects of their home's design, such as the windows, insulation and whether or not their house is zoned. And if you own a 6000 square foot home, then of COURSE your monthly maintenance expenses will go up. But that shouldn't be MY problem (or that of any other taxpayer.)

3/18/2015 11:42:00 AM  

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