In new news pertaining to the proposed wind farm in Elizabeth City, the Charlotte Business Journal reports that the developer has decided not to begin construction on the boondoggle project.
Iberdrola Renewables has decided not to start construction on a proposed $600 million N.C. wind project this year. The company says it has been unable to negotiate a power-purchase agreement with a regional power company for the electricity the operation would generate.
And without an extension of an expiring federal program that would offer a grant of up to $200 million for the 300-megawatt project, it is unlikely to be built in the near term.
“The federal incentives are a critical piece of the project,” says Iberdrola spokesman Paul Copelman. “I wouldn’t want to say we definitely couldn’t find a way to build it. But if the incentives expire, it’s very challenging for the industry.”
Translation: our wind energy is so terribly inefficient and expensive that we need $200 million in taxpayer dollars, plus an agreement from a utility company to purchase and then pass along the higher costs to ratepayers in order to make it work. Our industry is such a politically-manufactured scam that it will virtually disappear without massive government bailouts.
A few days ago, I wrote about Gov. Perdue’s role in this latest “greed energy” shakedown. Perdue issued letters to the heads of major NC utility providers in an attempt to pressure one of them to purchase this horribly expensive source of energy. In essence, Perdue wanted to ensure that a multi-billion dollar Spanish company could line its pockets at the expense of taxpayers (via the $200 million federal subsidy) and energy consumers (via higher energy costs).
Thankfully, energy consumers in NE North Carolina and taxpayers across the U.S. dodged this crony capitalism bullet – for now.
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