Response to Guest Editorial

On October 8, 2008, the democrat candidate for Washington County Commissioner wrote a guest editorial in the St. George Spectrum. See: http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/OPINION/810080342/1014/OPINION. The opinions that he extolled were so far from reality that I had to write a response and submit it to the newspaper. It was very difficult, but I managed to pare my response down to under the 200 word limit. Unfortunately, the newspaper, which always favors the democrats running for office, chose not to run my rebuttal. Following is what I wrote:

[The democrat candidate] revealed several errors in judgment in his recent campaign proposals. First, the proposed 750MW solar farm in the “southwest corner of our county:” materials alone cost $6/watt or $4.5 billion, less the $500 million unsecured investment from the solar companies, plus $4.5 billion in labor, equals $8.5 billion. Without factoring in any costs for land (this project would require 4,500 acres of land,) or the multiple transmission lines required to move the 750MW to the grid, or the backup generation for nighttime hours, or operations and maintenance, or any profit for the project company, the energy price easily tops $0.40/kWh – four to eight times the going rate in Washington County. Second, T. Boone Pickens and his laughable TV commercials: surely no one is naïve enough to believe that he has anyone’s interests in mind except his own. Third, the proposed suspension of impact fees as an economic stimulus: we shouldn’t increase our local taxes to pay for the additional roads, sewer, water and power lines required to serve more empty houses sitting vacant, waiting for more bad loans to be bailed out by our income taxes. I’m voting for Alan Gardner.

By the way, the photo inserted above, is of some petroglyphs and was taken during our hike to Employee Canyon.