Power Plant Opponents Gather Support through Internet

Some of those attending the Holiday Inn Oakwood Hills zoning meeting on the gas-fired electric generating plant in Oakwood Hills.

Some of those attending the Holiday Inn Oakwood Hills zoning meeting on the gas-fired electric generating plant in Oakwood Hills.

In one of the comments under an article about the proposed Oakwood Hills gas-fired electric generating plant a request is made to help spread the word of the opposition:

Hello Cal… Could you help us spread the word about our fight to stop the power plant being considered for Oakwood Hills?

To have such a plant built in our community would be a travisty.

You can follow us on Facebook at

https://m.facebook.com/NoPeakerPlant

We also have a fund raiser for research and defence on gofundme at

http://www.gofundme.com/bsfxso

Thank you for any help.

= = = = =
There will be another zoning meeting at 6:30 this Thursday at the Holiday Inn.


Comments

Power Plant Opponents Gather Support through Internet — 17 Comments

  1. Hope they have another large crowd. Thanks Cal for helping them get their word out.

  2. Thank you Cal for helping us spread the word. This is a 430 MW gas fired power plant, 10 stories tall with the smokestacks reaching 185 feet. This monstrosity will use 1.5-3 million gallons of water PER DAY. The request is so general that once they get approval they have the power to make whatever changes necessary to complete the plant. Once built who will monitor noise, pollution, water use? No one will. The energy produced will be sold to the highest bidder, not reserved for use here. This won’t lower the cost of electricity but it will lower home values. When the homes in Oakwood Hills are devalued, the amounts levied will not be reduced. The burden shifts to the rest of us. All of McHenry County should send a message loud and clear NOT HERE NOT NOW NOT EVER

  3. Put together a real fundraiser and I have a band for you. Cal knows how to find me through email.

  4. This issue affects water security for all county citizens.

    It also affects all property taxpayers in this area.

    The power plant is advertised as a $450 million facility, and what has been reported in the paper as being ‘given to the community’ is simply property taxes this business will pay. That has been projected as $500,000-$750,000

    However, that is a very low percentage rate on a $450,000,000 facility.
    ($750,000/$450,000,000=.0016.)

    As everybody knows, we all pay property taxes above .03, or about twenty times the rate suggested for this privately owned power plant’s property taxes.

    If businesses which complied with light industrial zoning, which is the current classification of this property, were sited there the property taxes could be higher than those which this power plant will pay.

    There would certainly be many more permanent jobs created by any light industrial business than by this largely automated facility.

    100 new homes worth $250,000 each would pay more than the $750,000 property tax projection of the private partnership’s facility; the plant may draw 4.1 million (4,100,000) gallons of Water per day, as opposed to only 30,000 gallons of water per day statistically used by 100 households, 2.8 persons per household).

    The big problems for all county taxpayers:

    1. Property values decline around an electrical generation facility. (Two studies have been presented to Oakwood Hills officials.)

    As values decline, property tax rates rise on all citizens. As property tax rates rise even higher, no rational person wants to purchase a home in this area– comparing to property tax rates all over the country, one would not choose to locate where property tax rates are 2-3 times higher. This exacerbates downward pressure on home values. The cycle continues as home values spiral downward.

    2. McHenry County taxpayers will be blackmailed, with groundwater as hostage: either the taxpayers must fund infrastructure to bring ‘reclaimed ‘ water from wastewater treatment facilities right to the doorstep of this private for-profit facility, or they will continue to draw up to 4.1 million gallons per day of deep aquifer drinking water.

  5. I remember all the same arguments against the peaker plant at 176 and Dean Street.

    The “Calamity” didn’t happen.

    Not one bit.

    While issues such as noise and water pollution are valid concerns, the hyperventilation over property values dropping are ridiculous.

    Thanks to taxes and corruption and out of control government, 50% of Illinoisans already want to leave Illinois if they could.

    The housing collapse in McHenry County has cut property values by 2/3.

    The greedy school boards (and their school union co-conspirators) have raised property taxes to be 3 times higher than anywhere else on homes that are half the value of most other places.

    Fact. Obama’s EPA has just doubled down on shutting down coal fired electric plants.

    Fact. Supply goes down, prices go up.

    Are you willing to pay triple for your electric bill?

    The enviros don’t want coal generation.

    They oppose nuclear.

    They oppose gas plants.

    Apparently they want us all to party like it’s 1899.

    But without the whale oil to light our homes because whaling is also illegal.

    Nobody will want to buy your homes if the taxes AND the electric bill are confiscatory. Is that what you want?

    If building the plant coal fired air pollution, and if it keeps energy prices down, then why is it not a win-win?

  6. Take a look at the blog from last year, it clearly states who’s land it is and who will make money from the sale.

    The greedy power company found a prime location but can’t do a thing if someone isn’t willing to sell it to them?

    It is all about the money and a few individuals with some connections making lots of it and selling out a community.

    Firm Planning Peaker Plant in Oakwood Hills

    Posted on 09/23/2013 by Cal Skinner

  7. Do a little research on this and see who stands to make some real money other than the Power company who owes Mchenry county nothing.

    There is a developer who owns this land.

    Does he have any loyalty to Oakwood hills and the surrounding areas? It’s all public record.

    Firm Planning Peaker Plant in Oakwood Hills

    Posted on 09/23/2013 by Cal Skinner

  8. When and if the national power supply is underserved, which is not the case today, there may be action at national level to compensate local communities for damages and risk of hosting fossil fuel electric generation facilities.

    As it is today, local communities are empowered to accept or reject proposals by private for-profit companies seeking very lucrative opportunities to build power generation facilities. Local communities are NOT obligated to enforce massive value transfers from citizens to profiteers, such as water rights, enterprise risk, and access to pollutable land water and air volume. Forcing Local citizens to subsidiize a profitable private business is not a philosophy many Americans would agree with.
    There is no clear political mechanism to force such businesses to absorb the cost of water which they use, or compensate local homeowners for damages suffered due to power plant siting. Therefore the only self defense a community has is to say no to the company.
    By the way, The power plant at 176 and Rte. 47 was never built.

  9. While the issue of who is paying for the waste water piping is a valid question (the energy companies or the taxpayers) the projected water usage is 1.5 million gallons per day not 4.1mgd.

    Also interesting is the tax rate, no wonder they were throwing around more money at the first Zoning Board Meeting to “bribe” all who attended.

  10. Stewart, the owner of the property, Chuck Walneck, developed the Fawn Ridge subdivision.

    He got the I-1 industrial zoning for the property and spoke of a strip mall on the property.

    I think all the homeowners in Fawn Ridge should bang on his door and ask him to buy their homes back if this thing passes.

    As of now the developer is asking for a continuance until October so they can reorganize the data again to try and make us believe their baloney.

    Don’t be fooled, they want to build it here because it is the fastest and cheapest site available.

    They will profit at our expense.

  11. The projected water use does not agree with possible water use by a 430 megawatt combined cycle plant.

    You must ask those asserting 1.5 million gallons per day water use the amount of water used per operational hour, how many operational hours per day were assumed.

    And ask whether they have control over the operating hours of the plant, or that is in control of independent systems operator.

    Question all projections of water use and emissions. Drill down into details.

  12. “(CNSNews.com) – For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in June, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Before this June, the highest the average price for a KWH had ever gone was 13.7 cents, the level it hit in June, July, August and September of last year.

    The 14.3-cents average price for a KWH recorded this June is about 4.4 percent higher than that previous record.”

    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/average-price-electricity-climbs-all-time-record

    Electricity rates are going to go up as coal fired plants are shut down.

    There are 3 possible outcomes.

    1. You pay through the nose for electricity.

    2. You freeze in the dark due to rolling black outs or because you can’t afford to run the furnace motor or keep the lights on.

    3. You build more generation plants.

    It’s your call.

    But remember, it’s mot just your back yard.

    It’s McHenry and Lake Counties and the people who live there, too.

    Choose well.

  13. Cost of electricity is more related to electricity trading, and before presenting any opinions on that, one should research the topic.

    Start by googling’Enron blackouts’.

    The costs of PEAK power is now provisionally capped at $1000 per megawatt hour because the Byzantine mechanisms of electricity trading created arguably avoidable ‘ shortages’. A megawatt is 1000 kilowatts.

    The average prices would include highs and lows. When peak demand occurs, it is at times of stress on water as well, and EPA has also lifted emissions limits.

    By the way how does historical energy cost measure against inflation?

    If American citizens are to be forced to site plants, perhaps those who enjoy the ‘benefits’ will urge compensation for those who must suffer losses.

    If a citizen’s vague fears of ‘higher costs’ are compelling, he may write to a Congressman urging action.

    Will the letter be urging that individual rights be suspended and government should be empowered to force communities to subsidize the siting of private for-profit power generators using any amount of water resources for no remuneration?

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