Month: December 2024

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Let Wind Blow & Sun Shine?

The headline in the article in the Kokomo Tribune on December 14th said, “Facing looming energy shortage, Indiana utilities slowly adopt battery storage”. In October 2024, the Kokomo Planning Board turned down a application from Spearmint Energy to build a battery storage system station on approximately 25 acres of now farm land near the intersection of Lincoln and Goyer Roads. Spearmint Energy said they would reapply in six months.

Citizens objected. The “No” vote was 9-0. The Tribune article said citizen concerns centered around the possibility of one or more of the batteries catching fire posing a safety risk to buildings and residents nearby. This has happened elsewhere. The article pointed out lithium ion battery fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish as the salts in the batteries are self-oxidizing, which means they cannot be “starved out” by traditional fire fighting methods. That and lithium battery fires release toxic gases including hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. These gases can cause severe respiratory distress, skin burns, eye irritation, and even death.

But what is all the push for electric battery storage for in the first place? The reason shouts! The demand for more and more electricity supply is on the increase. And electricity is not something one can store up at home or in an office space or a data center or factory. The demand is instantaneous and the supply must be there then, not later.

On the other hand, electric utilities have been closing down traditional power generating plants, many of which were coal fired. They have been depending more and more upon unpredictable generating like wind mills and solar panels; neither of which can be depended upon continuously. Locally, look at the wind mills in Tipton County and the to-be solar fields in Howard County and Cass County. The answer to lack of instant electricity seems to be build large battery electric storage facilities that can feed electricity back to the power grid when demand is high and instant generating capacity cannot meet the demand. This looks a lot like a huge band aid solution.

We need an updated electric power grid to deliver electricity. We need full time dependable, instantaneous electricity generating capacity to meet demand; not battery storage band aids. We need utility companies to build new or refurbish old generation plants powered by dependable full time energy sources. Does this mean coal and natural gas….or, perhaps, nuclear plants? YES. Those until a better solution emerges. Wind and solar sources will not do.

We need to get off of the fascination with wind and solar farms. Neither are efficient or cost effective. Neither are dependable full time. Both start deterioration from the day they become operational. Time to rethink.

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The Rest of the Story

There was a radio newsman long ago, Paul Harvey, that ended his daily broadcast with a saying: “And now you know the Rest of the Story.” The problem in Kokomo is we don’t know the rest of the story.

One has to wonder who thought it a good idea to bring a huge EV battery plant or two to Kokomo. Was it the Indiana General Assembly or the Indiana Economic Development Corporation or Stellantis and Samsung…. Or who? Who was it that brought a large diameter gas pipeline down Highway 35 from the Logansport area and north to Kokomo to serve two EV battery plants? Who was it?

And who was it that bought up large numbers of private properties at highly elevated prices, many of which were personal residences and most of which were highly fertile agriculture lands? And who was it that benefited financially from these purchases? And where did all the money come from and go?

And who was it that promised as many as 1,400 jobs per battery plant or 2,800 for two plants only to have it turn out that 700 of 1400 or 1400 of 2800 of those jobs would be for imported Koreans who would work for a time, then be recycled back to Korea? The result is the cost per job for US citizens is through the roof.

And who is it that did the planning for the operation of the EV battery plants? What materials would be inputs? Are any toxic and dangerous? What electricity is needed and where is that to come from? And maybe most importantly, what water is needed. It has been reported that over 2.5 million gallons of water per plant will be required. Where is that to come from? The excess availability of both surface and ground water to serve one plant let along two plants appears not to be available. The Indiana American Water Company is already casting about for one or more additional well drilling sites. What effect is to be expected on the water table below us? Has this been analyzed? There are already plumes of contaminated water underground from past industry such as Continental Steel Corp and General Motors operations. EPA remediation is ongoing.

Where is the water for proposed commercial and residential development to come from? We see expansion of all sorts of residential areas, hotels, meeting centers, and stores proposed everywhere around Kokomo.

What products are to be produced from the battery plants? Where are they to be shipped or stored? What waste products will result as well? Are any toxic or poisonous? What is to be come of the 2.5 million gallons of water per day required? Word has it that it is to be processed by our local Waste Water Treatment plant which is primarily designed for treating human waste, not industrial waste water. And how is that water to get from the battery plants to the treatment plant? Word has it that existing sewer lines are not adequate to handle such load on a daily basis. And what toxins or chemicals, if any are in the waste water? How would any be handled?

Why is there proposed a waste recycling plant near the battery plant as a separate company and operation? What waste and what toxic chemicals are to be handled and/or required? What is the final destination of waste? The Kokomo Plan Commission just recommended to the City Council the rezoning of a parcel to high intensity industrial zoning to add to land already zoned that for a waste recycling facility without concern about whether such land was suitable for such use. Word has it that there is exposure to potential ground water contamination from such use of this particular land.

And we know that there recently was turned down a proposed electric battery storage operation to be located east of the Lincoln Road and Goyer Road area due to concerns about safety of such a facility. Word has it the company will be back in six months with a new request.

Finally, a mention of the Engie Emerald Green solar panel farm is called for. The Drainage Board continued a vote for the water drainage plan that was submitted late. More incompetent planning, it seems, for a project that will begin to deteriorate the day it is put into operation. And it turns out Engie revised the proposed grading of 350 acres of fertile top soil to 17 acres after objection from Greg Lake, the county surveyor and stormwater administrator for the Howard County Stormwater District.

Both the approved solar fields and the approved EV battery plants appear to be hysterical moves and totally incompetently planned projects focused around the Biden mandates for so-called passive electricity and electric vehicles. What accompanies both is financial greed and power on the part of the State of Indiana, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, local officials and others. It is likely President Trump will pick a different direction.

The bottom line is we do not know the “Rest of the Story”. That will unfold in days to come. My prediction is that more and more incompetency will be revealed and more and more greed and seeking of power will come to light. Considering all, there is a deep concern our county may become unlivable. That would be the “Rest of the Story”.

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The Fourth Estate

In the early 1800’s, the term, “The Fourth Estate”, was coined in reference to a free and unfettered press. The first three “Estates” are the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government. The Fourth Estate was seen as the last of the four cornerstones that uphold a free and democratic society. The recognition of the vital need to have and guarantee a free press was written into the Constitution by our country’s Founders.

Axiomatic to the exercise of a free press must be the reciprocal element of responsibility to the people. The public’s right to know is to be carried out by that free press. This principle has stood the test of time from the beginning of our Republic until the present day; but not without periods of failure.

In New York City over 100 years ago, the term “Yellow Journalism” came into being as a result of the battle between the New York Journal and the New York World for increased circulation. Critics attacked both newspapers for building circulation based upon sex, violence and crime sprinkled with emotionalism, inaccuracies, and exaggerations.

We seem to be in a period of resurgence of yellow journalism. Today’s yellow journalism finds fertile ground in would-be or pseudo journalists whose motives have little to do with social conscience, disclosure of injustice, uncovering wrong doing or giving voice to the voiceless. Rather these journalists-in-name only are self-seekers whose motives involve pride, profit, power and a practice of abusing the standards of journalism. Today’s journalists, particularly those of the electronic media, are becoming entertainers, celebrities and spokespersons for the rich and powerful. In short, they have failed the people.
The firewall that used to exist between news and editorials has either faded or completely broken down. Whatever the medium, what distinguishes the best from the rest is the quality of objectivity and completeness in covering news combined with a clear, sharp line between news and opinion. In television, the distinction has disappeared completely. Advocacy reporting has become the norm. Ratings have become supreme.

The print media, newspapers and magazines, have not faired much better. The consolidation of ownership from many thousands of independently owned publications to fewer and fewer media groups or giants has made the profit motive supreme; not the telling of thoughtful, deep, complete, and accurate stories upon which the public depends.

Too many contemporary journalists, in a rush to be first in print or on air that has to do more with personal prestige than with informing the public, have overlooked two basic journalistic rules: 1) find a second, confirming source, and 2) check, check, and then recheck…. Then give the whole story as objectively as humanly possible to the public. The media owes the public an abiding sense of fairness and responsibility. A free press is only as good, and as durable, as its performance.

We are now in the early years of a new era: that of the Internet dissemination of news. Traditional media have an increasing presence there, but the real ground swell is from thousands who have chosen to communicate with their fellows what their own eyes have seen and ears have heard. They have as well chosen to express their own opinions about what they have seen and heard. We have another chance now to try to get it right. A free society feeds on an informed citizenry, not on talking or blogging heads broadcasting an undifferentiated mix of news and opinion.

Real, professional journalism is the effort to help the reader know the difference between fact and fiction. This requires a pledge to follow established practices of good journalism. This requires a pledge to state as clearly as possible what is believed to be verified fact verses a writer’s opinion or information that cannot be independently confirmed

We know the notion that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; and surely that will continue to be true where information freedom is concerned. The formal press and now the one person who transmits information to others must stand responsible — which is to say professional, conscientious, discreet, fair, and accurate. The health of our nation depends upon an accurately informed public. The right of the people to know must be a sacred pledge.

(The above largely from USFEVA.ORG; an organization no longer existing.)