2 Billion for a solar plant...really?

Due to some recent events I have not had much time to write but I ran across something that I had to comment on which applies to all three of my blogs. I haven't had much time to research all of the information so forgive me if some of it may not be 100% accurate.

I read today that Obama has awarded nearly $2 billion in conditional grants to a pair of solar energy companies that have pledged to build plants in the United States. You can read the entire story on your favorite news site so I will leave most of it out.

Why are we giving 2 billion dollars to a foreign company to build a solar plant that will take up countless acres of land when the same principle can be applied to each home. You can add a grid-tied PV solar array to your house for around $10,000 that can at least decrease your dependancy on grid provided power. Or in some cases provide enough power that you feed power back into the grid causing your meter to run backwards and generating "credits" that can be sold back to your power company.

Take that same two billion dollars and apply it to homeowners so that they can add these systems to their houses. According to the press release the plant which will create 1,600 temporary jobs and be able to power 70,000 homes, which on the surface sounds great. What happens when those 1,600 jobs are over, and of those how many of them are actually going to pull people out of the unemployment lines. And this brings me to my biggest problem with this plan. This plant is going to provide power for 70,000 homes that means it will cost $28,571 per home and still require the home owners to pay a monthly power bill. If that same money was applied at the homeowner's level then nearly three houses could be powered for the same price as one, no land would be used up, we would see a reduction in our power bills (which is a true economic stimulus) and we would be feeding renewable energy back into the power grid for others to use.

Other blogs

In addition to this blog I am writing for two other blogs as well. One is for my plans for building an Earth sheltered home in the next few years. The other which is closely tied to our house plans is a community for green living. Check them out.

To all the BP haters

Well this is officially my first Blog, as I sat and pondered what it is I would write about I ran across a group on Facebook entitled No Bailout for BP. There seems to be a lot of hate directed towards BP lately, rightfully so I mean they did cause one of the largest environmental disasters in recorded history. One poster, like so many others, left a message saying they hoped BP went bankrupt and if they did they deserve it. While I am not about to defend BP over the spill I do feel that comments like these need some discussion.

So what happens if BP goes bankrupt and everyone, the government included, sits by and watches? According to several sources online BP employs somewhere around 100,000 people and that is not including the countless thousands outside of BP that rely on them for their livelihood. What many of us don't realize is that when you see the face of BP on the television you see people like Tony Hayward the CEO which we all know is not lacking in his bank account and people like that are easy to hate, but what about the droves of people that are just like you and I that work for BP? Aside from the thousands of families that would suddenly be without an income, what about the impact on state governments when these thousands show up in the unemployment line and expect the government to take care of them. This effect snowballs, once John Doe looses his income going from $60k down to $15k he no longer takes his family on vacation and he doesn't eat at his favorite restaurant any longer thus effecting everyone around him.

In our weakened economy the government can not afford to allow companies as large as BP to go under simply because people have to make money and people need to spend said money. That's what fuels our economy.

So maybe "No Bailout for BP" isn't the best slogan, something more along the lines of "No FREE Bailout for BP" would be better.

So why did I choose this for my first blog, well it seems that so many of us open our mouths with no thought as to what we are saying. I don't claim to have all the answers, nor any answers for that matter but what I do know is this. If your going to follow something, or jump on someone's bandwagon make sure you know what your getting yourself into. And oh yeah, if you say something stupid you can bet I'll be there to point it out.