Amazing maze: Allard Farm, Amherst/Hadley border
If you loved the view off Mill Valley Road in the summertime, a sea of green corn soaking up the sun under a radiant blue sky, you will probably not be pleased with this latest development. Yes, unlike Amherst, when Hadley announces a solar farm deal, it actually happens.
Allard Farm, yesterday
Of course it doesn't hurt that the prime instigator is the Hampshire Council of Government, a vestige of years gone by where small towns became members to use the power of co-op buying for discounts.
But now those discounts are more easily available on the Internet, without the high membership fee to HCOG.
So the HCOG has found a new service niche by morphing into a one stop discount energy provider.
This project by Nexamp will, on days when Mother Nature cooperates, generate 3 megawatts of energy. The deal with Hadley (besides the private deal hatched with Allard Farms) will provide a discount coupon worth 21 cents on the dollar payment towards their current electricity consumption.
In addition to this Nexamp project, BlueWave Capital has three solar arrays on the drawing board in Hadley. BlueWave you may remember is the company Amherst aligned with to construct a 4.75 megawatt facility on the old landfill off Belchertown Road, which would be the largest in the state.
That project came under heavy fire from nearby abutters, and has since gone dark.
But now those discounts are more easily available on the Internet, without the high membership fee to HCOG.
So the HCOG has found a new service niche by morphing into a one stop discount energy provider.
This project by Nexamp will, on days when Mother Nature cooperates, generate 3 megawatts of energy. The deal with Hadley (besides the private deal hatched with Allard Farms) will provide a discount coupon worth 21 cents on the dollar payment towards their current electricity consumption.
In addition to this Nexamp project, BlueWave Capital has three solar arrays on the drawing board in Hadley. BlueWave you may remember is the company Amherst aligned with to construct a 4.75 megawatt facility on the old landfill off Belchertown Road, which would be the largest in the state.
That project came under heavy fire from nearby abutters, and has since gone dark.
Sounds great. As good as putting one on a garbage dump. But as Amherst goes, NIMBY so good for Hadley.
ReplyDeleteI built a solar transfer box this fall and every sunny day it heats my house with constant 110 degree heat. FREE!!!! With the prices of electricity anything that can alleviate costs is great.
Gee Walter, you finally bought a house. No longer renting in Sunderland?
ReplyDeleteAnd Amherst thumbs its snobby nose at the farming community next door. Yet, that farming community is far more progressive and green than the snobs of Amherst. Keep up the good work Amherst keep talking the talk, everyone else will walk the walk.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you write your check to the IRS on April 15th, you can pat yourself on the back and feel good about how you are paying for said solar farm in Hadley.
ReplyDeleteThat's right boys 'n' girls, the only reason why any of this is economically viable is because you are paying for it!!!
You pay for it with massive corporate tax subsidies, and you pay for it and the worse part of all is that you don't even know you are paying for it.
So feel good about how you have kept your old dump pristine as you buy more expensive but no-better electricity and pay higher taxes than you otherwise would.
Thomas Sowell, a former Amherst resident says it best about why Amherst is Amherst:
ReplyDeletehttp://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010510.php3
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010610.php3
What do they care Ed. They pay ridiculous taxes to pay fat salaries to the town and get little for it so paying for others solar farms is right in line with Amherst thinking. Just as long as that mound of trash isn't ruined to make solar power. Amherst has enough hot air to heat it already and enough degrees to burn if they run out of juice.
ReplyDelete"Gee Walter, you finally bought a house. No longer renting in Sunderland?"
ReplyDeleteHi, can you recommend a good model of binoculars?
Also, where's the best place for scapegoat watching?
t.i.a.
Yours ever,
Kurt Geryk & Company's favorite sewer rat
Oh, and one other thing -- what is the more productive use of land overall -- growing food or percolating hazmats to the surface?
ReplyDeleteThis is the whole concept of "Brownfields" -- building on contaminated land instead of pristine land, as the latter serves a greater public good than a contaminated area where people ought not go. (And you really ought not be walking your dogs on the old landfill -- their feet will absorb heavy metals and other nasty stuff, with not the best of consequences to the animal's health.)
And assuming Gerald Mooning was right about the dump being able to support the solar arrays -- and the man is an engineer with a license in good standing -- wouldn't it have made better sense to put the solar array there?
So it's ugly. And windmills kill Bald Eagles (they do), and instead of being used to benefit humanity, untold volumes of natural gas are being simply lit on fire in North Dakota and elsewhere -- because the tree-huggers won't let the pipelines be built so it can be used productively.
And we must have E-10 gasoline with 10% Ethanol, which is wreaking havoc with small engines and otherwise problematic, because it improves air quality except we do considerably more damage to the air in making the alcohol -- a net loss in air quality -- for no good reason.
And we must have CFL lights -- a half dozen of which I broke last night alone, each dumping Mercury into the environment - which the now-banned incandescent bulbs didn't do. We aren't coming out ahead on this....
Not only did the Global Warming research ship get frozen into the ice but assorted rescue ships did too -- in the middle of the (south polar) summer. And it took a helicopter burning upwards of a gallon of (essentially) Kerosene per minute to rescue them.
What was it that you thought kept a helicopter from falling out of the sky like a brick? Happy thoughts or the Goddess Gaia?
No, it's called Jet A Fuel and Obama's Taxi (Air Force One) burns 607 gallons per minute of it. Something to think about when he talks about "the environment"....
Look folks, I'm all for saving the planet as much as anyone else, and I like clean air more than most. But this stuff is so counterproductive that it is truly asinine.
And as to Global Warming -- when it starts being science and stops being theology, I'll listen -- but right now, it is nothing more than a religion and one which I choose not to believe in.
They pay ridiculous taxes to pay fat salaries to the town and get little for it so paying for others solar farms is right in line with Amherst thinking.
ReplyDeleteI left out the part about how Massachusetts electric rates also subsidize this stuff -- how they also are writing an increasingly large check to WMECO each month to pay for this stuff.
Not that they'd care -- but I do -- this is the sort of thing that makes Taxachusetts even less desirable to industry, particularly both high-tech & "clean" industry -- which tends to use a significant amount of electricity doing the things they do.
So in addition to paying more to heat their building(s) than they would otherwise, in addition to the assorted logistical hassles caused by frozen granular global warming falling from the sky (the stuff we used to call "snow"), they also are going to be paying more for electricity.
Unless they are trying to go bankrupt, why would they ever want to be in Taxachusetts????
Anon 12;41
ReplyDeleteIronic that Thomas Sowell sound like so many blowhard intellectuals from Amherst. I think he drank to much of the water. Well maybe water from another source will cure him over time.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteIf you think Global Warming aka Climate Change is not a science then: (a) you have no idea what science is and (b) you've not read any of the scientific literature in all the major peer reviewed science journals for the last 20 years. Come back and comment when you have.
Ed, you really ought to have that tin foil hat checked. I think it's ripped and you are not getting your signals correctly. For instance a 747 burns just under 60 gallons a minute (heavy) not 607 gallons.
ReplyDelete747 burns just under 60 gallons a minute (heavy) not 607 gallons
ReplyDeleteThe number seemed high - and I misplaced the decimal point. Thank you for the correction.
It still is a lot of fuel...
And as to Global Warming, why is it being defended with the fiat/force approach that we haven't seen since the Catholic Church believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system and demanded that everyone accept that on faith alone?
I'm not saying it's wrong (although I'm increasingly believing that), only that it hasn't produced enough proof to be right.
Folks -- do you have any idea how much LNG leaked out of the BP well? That's Methane -- which I'm not even going to cite a figure on how many TIMES it is more a "greenhouse gas" than CO2 -- and has anyone either mentioned or accounted for this? If so, where?
It isn't about saving the planet, it;s about controlling people and you need to admit that.
Ed, Ed, you're digging a deeper hole by not answering the question and then contradicting yourself:
ReplyDeleteEd@ 1:57 PM "And as to Global Warming -- when it starts being science and stops being theology, I'll listen -- but right now, it is nothing more than a religion and one which I choose not to believe in."
Ed@ 8:38 PM "And as to Global Warming, why is it being defended with the fiat/force approach that we haven't seen since the Catholic Church believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system and demanded that everyone accept that on faith alone?
I'm not saying it's wrong (although I'm increasingly believing that), only that it hasn't produced enough proof to be right."
So, Ed, you don't think thousands of research studies constitute proof? Within the scientific community , there is broad agreement that Climate Change/Global Warning is real. Scientists will also defend gravity "with the fiat/force approach.." Is gravity wrong also?
Asserting something (i.e. it's not science) is not a response to the question. When you've read the literature, then come back and argue your points.
One jet is nice but how about the 4,600,000,000 gallons the military uses each year. That's almost $18 trillion a year at nearly $4 a gallon. Think the military pays a measly $4 a gallon?
ReplyDeleteFear not Ed the planet is doing fine with or without us. Global warming has taken on the trappings of a religion and when you have religion you have a large group of people who know little about science being led by a few who can control popular beliefs, logical or not. Sort of more like Scientology than a religion actually. But it's not new. Some scientist have been claiming global cooling and warming trends since the late 1800s. When I was studying atmospheric sciences in the early 80's they were on the global cooling bandwagon. And my professor made it very clear to us that in twenty years when their theory didn't work anymore, they would switch gears and say the earth was warming. He was right. Won't be that far off that they switch gears again. And the religion will switch with it.
Within the scientific community , there is broad agreement that Climate Change/Global Warning is real.
ReplyDeleteNot unlike a similar consensus that African Americans were an inferior race that should be exterminated? That actually was a scientific consensus a century ago -- global warming isn't even that.
Scientists will also defend gravity "with the fiat/force approach.."
Not real scientists. Real ones will demonstrate gravity -- "see this rock that I'm holding out the window of a room on the 21st Floor of JQA? Now other than we both get arrested, what do you think is going to happen when I let go of it?
Real scientists will also admit that gravity is the best theory we have right now, one which well may be completely wrong -- a man named Einstein raised some troubling issues relative to the "strong" and "weak" forces of the universe and gravity may not even be real, at least in the concept we think it is.
Real scientists admit what they don't know -- the global warming cadre instead claims to know everything. And the fact is that -- on the longest day of the summer, when the sun was at its most intense point -- their boat got stuck in the ice.
I'm sure that Larry would be happy to remind everyone that an email authored by a public employee on public time on a publicly-paid-for email system is a public document -- so why did UM's OIT have to hide those emails and deny reporters access to them?
If global warming was real and the science legitimate, the scientists would instead be begging people to read their research -- primary documents and all. Anyone even appearing to show a scintilla of interest would be buried in raw data with the meaning of every obscure thing being explained in intricate detail -- that's how I learned far more than I ever wanted to know about both the sex lives of oysters and conditions that affect genetic variance in their offspring.
Why is this a good thing? This is not a closed garbage dump. This is prime farm land that grows corn every year.
ReplyDeleteWhy is this a good thing? This is not a closed garbage dump. This is prime farm land that grows corn every year.
ReplyDeleteMy point, exactly. And we can go from there to E-10 gasoline -- people in the third world are starving to death because we are using corn to make ethanol for gasoline when we have plenty of petroleum in North Dakota.
Corn that is no longer available for them to eat. Think about that.
Somebody gave a PhD to this guy?
ReplyDeleteNobody has ever given me anything, A-Hole.
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact that they gave Ed his degree just to get rid of him. So much for plan A....
ReplyDelete" The Evil Dr. Ed said...
ReplyDeleteAnd when you write your check to the IRS on April 15th, you can pat yourself on the back and feel good about how you are paying for said solar farm in Hadley."
And the oil and nuclear energy industries aren't getting tax breaks? Get real.
I know for a fact that they gave Ed his degree just to get rid of him.
ReplyDeleteReally????
Ed didn't know this, and perhaps you would be kind enough to post your name and contact information so that my attorney can ask you some questions about what it might be that you happen to know?
I'm quite serious -- name & contact information please -- if what you claim is true, I intend to pursue it.
Personally, I am still of the opinion that I earned the damn thing -- that they actually did everything they possibly could think of to avoid awarding it to me.
My Attorney:
ReplyDeleteZippy T. Pinhead Esq.
Please have your attorney contact him as soon as possible so they can have a good laugh together.
8:20 am: Cant "Dr" Ed just ask Google who you are?
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, I heard that too.
"if what you claim is true, I intend to pursue it"
ReplyDeleteClassic Ed. He'll make them take back that Ph.D. if it's the last thing he does!
He may lose his doctorate, but he'll gain the satisfaction of knowing those bastards didn't get away with awarding him a degree he didn't really earn.
8:20 am: Cant "Dr" Ed just ask Google who you are?
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, I heard that too.
Could but won't bother because I don't believe it to be true.
If anyone honestly wanted to provide me information to the contrary, I'd be interested in hearing it. A real person and not an imaginary one, providing some real facts that I could use.
I don't think anyone would get away with ordering tenured professors to award a degree they do not believe to be deserved -- they'd be screaming "academic freedom" from the rooftops -- and the AAUP and others would back them, it'd make the front page of the Chronicle (if not Globe).
So I'm dismissing this as a gratuitous insult from anonymous cowards. Cowards whom I don't believe are even affiliated with UMass, let alone in a position to actually hear anything along these lines.
I'm one to fully agree with the global warming "theory" which I believe has much in the way of facts and science behind it. in fact, even the UN has a team of scientists that agree and have outlined dangerous CO2 levels for the planet and our future.
ReplyDeletewith that, I do find this website interesting. I have no idea who the writers are so take it for what its worth, I just find it interesting.
http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/FOS%20Essay/Climate_Change_Science.html
Come on Ed, you know they gave you that degree. We've been laughing about it down here,for years. We really thought you would fly away, but of course that didn't quite pan out. Think now, who really had it in for you??????? Maybe that will help.
ReplyDelete"come on Ed, you know they gave you that degree. "
ReplyDeleteReally.
I somehow sorta remember having to write a dissertation and having to defend it and all. Maybe that was all an illusion????
Look A-holes, I worked damn hard for that degree, and if you want to discredit it, I'll discredit every other UM degree as well, as well as the legitimacy of UM to even award degrees, let alone the wisdom of the Commonwealth in funding UM.
I'm also not above filing formal petitions with the accredittation folks. Oh, yes, this could get nasty.
Ed this is more fun than when we used laugh at you behind your back. You're so predictable after you've been drinking,just like your time spent here. Everyone always thought you were such a pompus ass. Still making idle threats I see, and trying to act like a tough guy. Dissertation so that's what you called it. Interesting choice of words, but that's not what we called it. Have fun guessing who this is. We are shaking in our boots in fear of the big all powerful DR. Ed.
ReplyDeletelooks like a lot of people still have some growing up to do
ReplyDeleteLaugh now, A-Holes. Laugh now.
ReplyDeleteAnd what some don't understand is the concept of value -- if my degrees don't mean anything, then none of the others issued to anyone else do either, nor does the institution issuing them.
Tell the world that a doctorate from Wiemar in Amherst isn't worth the paper it is printed on and the world will believe that ALL the DEGREES awarded by UMass are worthless -- not just the doctorates.
Lots of parents right now are making the hard decision about college -- and I wonder why an increasing number of them are increasingly unlikely to be sending Jr to UMass.
And when I manage to find all the stuff that I do have -- somewhere -- and convince the publisher's attorney that I can prove everything I have written, and she "signs off", there's gonna be a book that Whitmore's gonna truly love.
Did you folks know that Phillip Whitmore was a relative of mine? I'm told that he did a lot of good things for the Commonwealth -- and I'm following in the same tradition.
One other thing -- from 1993 to 1997, the Toyota Corolla and the GEO Prizim were essentially IDENTICAL vehicles.
ReplyDeleteThey were they produced on the same assembly lines -- as the Corolla and Chevy Nova had been in the '80's, and with the exception of cosmetic trim, all the parts were the same. Even where two different sub-components (e.g. water pump assembly) were used, this was true of both vehicles.
Yet the Corolla was worth several thousand dollars more than even the Prizim -- and so much more than the Nova that GM went so far as to create both GEO and the Prizim.
The perception was that Chevys were junk -- which they had been in the 1970's and early 1980's -- while Toyotas were considered well-built reliable vehicles. (This was, of course, before Toyota started having problems of its own...)
Two identical cars -- one considered "junk" and the other not -- because of how they were perceived to be.
This, boys 'n' girls, is why even if Dr. Ed *hadn't* earned his doctorate, you wouldn't want to be advertising that. If you say that UMass degrees are junk, then people won't buy them...
UMass will always (at least in the sort term) be able to fill the dorms, but the question is whom they fill them with -- and you aren't going to get the type of students you want if they think your degrees aren't worth anything.
No, you'll instead get the kids who are there to drink & raise hell. Just sayin....
"Lots of parents right now are making the hard decision about college -- and I wonder why an increasing number of them are increasingly unlikely to be sending Jr to UMass. "
ReplyDeleteisn't the student population at an all time high? and increasing every year?
I for one would be be proud to send my kids here, as they can have a better education than most schools. The party scene is basically the same at every other school, so I wouldn't lose sleep over that. Just hope my kids are safe and make good enough decisions