I have to admit strongly that I am very frustrated at not having the voice and actual power that I once had as Publisher of the Kokomo Tribune. That newspaper in the day had great influence over what happened and the directions taken in Kokomo and surrounding area. The citizens of our area trusted us as evidenced by the over 95% of the homes receiving the Tribune each day….. seven days a week!
Our editorial philosophy was one of moderate conservative Republican. It really boiled down to “common sense”. Nothing stupid. And the people knew this and supported this.
We promoted good jobs and a safe community in a healthy environment. It was through the efforts of the Tribune that the clean up of the Wildcat Creek began. It was a polluted open sewer at the time. We exposed that and forced clean up of other places as well .
We opposed the building of the Lafayette Reservoir that would have covered over 4,000 acres of prime farmland. It was ultimately decommissioned by Congress which stopped the Corps of Engineers building the reservoir.
We did our best to educate people about the importance of clean air, clean water, and clean land. We were trusted.
Now we have shit coming along like a proposal to cover 1,800 and 1,700 acres of prime farmland with solar panels in eastern Howard County. Insane. It never would happen in the old Tribune days. I can only hope it will not happen today, but there is an uphill battle to prevent same.
While I am at it, I am going to bitch about President Joe Biden. I have no idea how he has the authority to unilaterally pass out billions of dollars and massive numbers of weapons to the most corrupt country on the planet, Ukraine. Ukraine has been criminal ole Joe’s money basket for a long, long time. Where in the hell is Congress. I thought they had control of the purse strings….. the Republican controlled House of Representatives at that.
I am really getting the feeling that everyone in political power in the United States is corrupt or afraid. There have been so many crimes exposed but nothing happens but talk, talk, talk, talk. No consequences. Hillary Clinton should be behind bars along with George Bush, Dick Cheney, and now Joe Biden along with his entire criminal family and fellow travelers in the Biden administration.
We are on the edge of a global nuclear war. Russia has just pulled out of a nuclear treaty with the US. Russia is not going to lose face in Ukraine. Putin will pull the trigger on nuclear weapons first.
And by the way, the United States did blow up the Nord Stream pipeline. There is no doubt. Fuckin’ Biden as usual made the decision. As reported time and time again, in his entire political life he has been on the wrong side of every decision regarding foreign relations. Now he is playing with nuclear fire.
Biden et al must go. I don’t know how or when, but he and the cackling VP have to be gone or our country is not going to survive. The doomsday clock is ticking. It is close to midnight.
Massive Solar Projects
[This piece was sent to the Kokomo Tribune. Not known if it will be published]
Are you paying attention?
In the name of clean energy, tax revenue, and landowner income; we are on the verge of losing 1,800 acres of prime farmland in eastern Howard County. If the Board of Zoning Appeals approves the project next Tuesday, a French energy company, ENGIE, will cover those acres with sterile solar panels for electricity. The area will be designated the “Emerald Green Solar Project”.
The catch is this is not for the short term. It will be for the next 30 or more years! That land will not be able to produce soy beans or corn or anything else for that matter for decades. Those are beans and corn that did go into the food supply directly or indirectly or into ethanol fuel for our vehicles. No more.
Could you guess where the solar panels are manufactured? You would be right if you guessed Communist China. The IAE (International Energy Agency) reports Communist China is the source of 75% of all solar modules, 85% of solar cells, 97% of solar wafers, and 79% of polysilicon used. Other countries than Communist China, like Viet Nam in the case of ENGIE, may do some of the assembly; but not make or supply the primary components.
And the kicker is there is yet another solar energy project coming right behind ENGIE/Emerald. This one is for 1,700 more Howard County farm acres. It is called “Locomotive Solar” by Ranger Power. It is being alleged that company is offering to pay $1,000 to people to support this project which does not yet have Board of Zoning Appeals approval either.
What is the point? All over the country massive solar field projects are popping up. The goal is to use solar panels to capture sun energy and convert it to electric power for electric utilities. The problem is these solar companies have tunnel vision. They want to gobble up massive acreages of flat, fertile farmland and take it out of production for agriculture for decades when the world is facing food shortages and hunger.
For example, due to war, Ukraine, called the “Bread Basket of the World”, will likely not harvest anything this growing season and for years to come. Europe and Africa depended heavily upon Ukraine crops for food. The United States will be called upon more and more for food supplies; not less.
This madness cannot continue. Technology moves fast. Today’s solar panel technology will be outdated very quickly. The frenzy to cover the world with today’s panels will cease. Then what? And if today’s panels are useful, put them on brownfields or on building roof tops, or on non-tillable lands; not on some of the richest, most fertile farmland in the world.
Wise Words
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall, Biologist
Solar Insanity
To the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA):
Mike Imbler, Dick Byrum, Mike Schroeder, Greg Tipton, Russ Hopkins
RE: ENGIE Emerald 1,800 Acre Solar Field Proposal on Prime Farmland
Board Members:
Kokomo, “City of Firsts”: a phrase that has defined this community and this county for more years than any of us alive today can count. From Elwood Haynes to the production lines to our farmers, the people of Howard County have made livings using their hands, hard work, and ingenuity. Occasionally, leaders of Howard County have been called upon to make decisions that will chart the course of the lives of those who have chosen to make this their home now and for many years to come.
In recent years, the responsibility of preserving the quality and integrity of the land upon which we walk and grow crops has entered into the hearts and minds of people everywhere. That we care about these things is not at issue. What we do about them is.
ENGIE is a very ambitious French (not USA) multi-national energy company with tentacles everywhere on the planet. It reportedly operates in 27 European countries and 48 countries worldwide. The tentacles of this company have now found Howard County, Indiana. The BZA Board has been struggling with this intrusion for some time. To date they have denied the Emerald 1,800 acre solar project twice.
Why Howard County? ENGIE has a slick answer repeated verbatim in every agri-acquistion they seek. “ENGIE is looking to be the best local business and neighbor that we can in (Blank County, Blank State.)” “Beyond Clean, renewable energy, the project will create positive economic and quality of life impacts in the region with short and long term employment opportunities as well as tax benefits…”
In truth, ENGIE has locked into a tunnel vision solar strategy called, “utility-scalar solar.” This means ENGIE is converting flat, tillable US acreage into fields of solar panels. Cleverly, ENGIE targets rural communities they know are struggling in these challenging times. Howard County and its rich farmland make ENGIE developers salivate.
However, ENGIE doesn’t live up to its hype. Short term employment is typically outsourced and long term job creation commonly translates to 2 per project.
Howard County residents don’t have direct experience with these solar fields. Ohio residents do. They now live with the 30 year sentence consequences imposed by ENGIE contracts. These include loss of farmland, buzz of solar panels, and an increase in temperature by 5 degrees in the region.
ENGIE doesn’t like to be told “NO.” They are fighting right now to get Miami County judge David Grund to overturn prior denial of its project by the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals and rule in ENGIE’s favor. And despite their friendly spin, ENGIE CEO of North America, Gwenaelle Avice-Hue, boldly states how ENGIE really views us “…we want to be big in the U.S.. This is a huge playground and a core geography for us strategically”.
Howard County, like many other places in this country and around the world, is faced with two issues: sustainable energy production and food production. If you isolate those concepts and make decisions from an isolated viewpoint, they wind up as competitors. ENGIE is focused on finding places to install sustainable energy and they have selected agriculture land as a target not only here but elsewhere. What they ignore is the competing needs of the world to be fed from the land upon which food is produced.
Do these ideas have to be enemies; do they have to be at war? No. Is there a third way? Yes. Howard County has acreage (brownfields) that has been rendered useless from decisions made in the past or land not suitable for tillage. Perhaps a third way is to build on the non-tillable land and brownfields and to turn them into fields of light energy… and preserve the highly valuable, tillable agriculture land.
The proposed Emerald solar project would remove over 1,800 acres of land from agriculture use for 30 years or even more. By the grace of God, Howard County is blessed with some of the most fertile soils anywhere in the world. This fertility, with its ability to produce abundant crops, would be traded for acres of sterile electric generating solar panels. Capturing land for 30 years is a huge committment given how fast technology and conditions change. That, itself, does not seem wise.
It appears all associated ENGIE resources with justification analysis (cost/benefit analysis) for the Emerald solar project are economists – dollars folks. That is telling. Nowhere is it stated any have a science or agriculture background. The project is viewed for dollars from widgets in and widgets out similar to a manufacturing operation; period. There is no regard for the loss of the biological potential of the soil over many decades. The pitch is for more money now into the pockets of landowners and the county. There may be a time in those 30 or more years when all available tillable land will be needed for food production. There are already food shortages in many countries around the world.
The analysis by the Certified General Appraiser, Richard C. Kirkland, concerning property values is voluminous. He could have easily summarized his findings on one page in one sentence by stating his opinion is there is no negative impact of solar panel fields on the value of any adjacent or nearby property anywhere forever. That’s it. His report is an exercise in extrapolating conclusions from data from the past and places far and wide into the uncertain distant future and into Howard County. This defies common sense.
Another extremely important point is about the solar panels themselves. Communist China is involved in manufacturing more than 80% of solar components worldwide according to the IEA (International Energy Agency-Paris) and reported by Mamun Rashid, CEO of California-based Auxin Solar; one of the few US manufacturers of solar panels. Ask yourself, do we want to support economically the Communist Chinese: enemies of our nation?
Again, if solar electric generation using US manufactured solar panels without Chinese components is something our county and city wants, there are many locations for possible solar generation development as mentioned earlier. There may be more. I ask you consider other locations and continue to deny the proposed 1,800 acre ENGIE Emerald solar panel project in eastern Howard County on productive agriculture land.
Sincerely,
Kent H Blacklidge MS Ph.D.
BS Industrial Management
M S Conservation of Natural Resources and Public Policy
MS Aquatic Toxicology and Fish Biology
PhD Genetics — Purdue
Hummmm…..
I pass this home in Howard County, Indiana, pretty frequently. Seems to represent my sentiments exactly.