Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Couldn't you make lots of green selling carbon credits? Garbage In, Garbage Out

How grennie as my valley? And who caused the major problem? The EPA, who else?

Garbage In, Garbage Out | FrontPage Magazine
By Arnold Ahlert On October 18, 2011
In what might be best described as a cautionary tale about over-borrowing for green energy “solutions” to municipal problems, Harrisburg, PA filedfor bankruptcy last week....

Harrisburg has a total of $458 million in outstanding claims, but the largest chunk of that debt by far comes courtesy of the project derisively referred to as the “incinerator from hell,” the waste-to-energy facility that has amassed $310 million of it. The total debt is five times what the city has in its general fund, according to Stateline newspaper.

How did it happen? The history of the trash-to-energy incinerator is a saga of lofty intentions undone by incompetence. Former Mayor Stephen Reed, turned out of office in 2010 after 28 years, was largely responsible for the debacle, which began in 2003. The Harrisburg Authority, the public entity charged with providing solid waste management services for the city, approved a plan to retrofit Harrisburg’s incinerator for $120 million. It was a response to the reality that the original facility, built in 1972, frequently broke down. Furthermore, tests revealed that the facility’s lone smokestack, whose dark colored output occasionally floated over the city, contained highly toxic mercury and dioxin contaminants.

When Reed became mayor, the facility built to turn garbage into energy — and a municipal expense into a profit — was losing money. Reed stopped the bleeding and turned the incinerator into a profitable enterprise by hiring a professional management staff, and, in the early 1990s, selling it to the Harrisburg Authority, whose board was appointed by the mayor. The move brought money into the city coffers and insulated city politicians from any blame for rising trash disposal rates. Rates which are now some of the highest in the nation.

The amendment of the Clean Air Act imposed more stringent emission standards on the incinerator, and when one of its two boilers failed to meet EPA dioxin standards, environmental officials shut the facility down in December of 2003. At that point the city still owed $104 million on it. They decided the lesser of two evils was to issue $120 million in new debt and upgrade the facility, rather than close it and take the loss, hoping the improvements would garner enough of a profit to cover both the old and new debt. Barlow Projects Inc., based in Fort Collins, CO got the contract, primarily for being the cheapest bidder by far–and despite the fact they had never built anything that large. Their low-ball bid, $40 million less than the others, concerned many city officials, but reality intruded: there was no way the city could afford anything more expensive.

-read on into this mess-

No comments:

Post a Comment