Fro State Senator Don Dewitte:
Legislation restoring some local control over green energy projects passes during veto session
During the recent Fall Veto Session, lawmakers were able to restore some protections for farmers and landowners which were recently stripped away in a controversial law backed by the Governor that took control of wind and solar farms away from local governments.
Senate Bill 1699, supported by the members of the Senate Republican Caucus, protects farmers and landowners by requiring wind and solar developers
- to plan for and repair or pay for agricultural crop losses,
- to repair or pay for damage to subsurface drainage systems, as well as requiring them
- to repair or pay for the restoration of surface drainage caused by construction and deconstruction of wind and solar facilities.
The legislation will also require a study on the potential impact of proposals on the stability and reliability of the state’s electrical grid.
The legislation also makes a technical change allowing the Adjustable Block Program to include at least 15% renewable generation on public school land, which could help schools that want to invest in solar or wind projects to save money on utilities.
This bill was desperately needed to undo some of the damage that has been done as a result of the Governor’s green energy push. While this legislation is a positive step in the right direction, I will continue to advocate for restoring full local control over wind and solar projects.
announcement re STEM and NIKKI HALEY
In furtherance of U.S. national defense Space Force objectives and our competitiveness in the space domain…
…and in leading-edge STEM space exploration, colonization & settlement,…
…and in furtherance of the education, employment prospects and intellectual & cultural development of our children, youth and adults,…
…and to support and stimulate U.S. engineering, science, energy, propulsion, manufacturing, mining, agriculture, spaceport and telecommunication sectors,…
…and in general to stimulate & support the growth of the new space economy…
…I have submitted the following proffer of endorsement of, and my vote for, the candidacy of Ambassador Nikki Haley for U.S. President in the 2024 Illinois Republican primary:
https://twitter.com/Magnetodawn/status/1726193906239594752
I will be in communication with her campaign staff, in furtherance of the objectives of this publicly-announced proffer of support from Northern Illinois.
Too late to stop some already approved in McHenry County.
These obnoxious farms are being built in Harvard, Marengo.
My carefully crafted and curated response…..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rZP7kWOMPzI
Dawn are you a faun?
Haley is a neocon warmonger who wants a war with Iran, Russia, Palestine, Hungary, Syria, Brazil, Pakistan, China, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Barbados, Belarus, Turkey and Iraq (again).
Supposedly she is a practicing Hindu, yet she wolfs down chicken, ribs and hot dogs faster than Pritzker.
Maybe she, and Dear Dawn worship the Hindu goddess Kali, the Destroyer.
I do not understand the local pockets of hostility in McHenry County towards power generation by wind, solar, geothermal, hydrological, etc., technologies.
It’s as if folks here somehow imagine we are blessed to be living amongst a sea of Oklahoma & Texas oil rigs, out here.
Or that coal is presently found abundantly in our quarries and gravel pits.
Some folks complain about “scientists sucking at the government’s teat”, but ten bucks sez right now you are reading this using an electronics device powered by a diversified pool of nuclear, solar, wind, coal & natural gas power generation plants, with perhaps even a splash of hydropower & geothermal power, in various proportions, all developed by inventive and diligent engineers & scientists.
Even the shrillist NIMBY eventually has to realize that the energy sources and the power one uses in order to stay alive, has to come from somewhere.
It is just a fact of life that the entire universe is not powered by gasoline and diesel combustion engines.
I lived in Iowa for a period of time, where wind power plants are welcome and well-regarded farming community assets, especially in the areas around Buena Vista, Pottawattomie, Carroll and Franklin counties.
America’s frontier pioneer explorers and ranching, dairy & farming families — including mine — were very interested in developing diversified heat, light & power generation.
I am old enough to remember when my mother hung our clothes out on the clothesline, to utilize solar power and wind power to dry them.
Some household projects required burning wood, gathered out of the woodlot on the farm.
I am old enough to remember the 1920’s wind-machine wind-powered water pump, when we lived on Frank Beck’s old farm out on Beck Rd. in Coral Township.
It worked rather nicely, I thought, and it was interesting and picturesque to behold, in my humble opinion.
Some of the Republicans around here either just seem to feel the need to be crusty stick-in-the-muds, either out of habit, or perhaps are somehow under the influence of ComEd lobbyists, and so try to drive off any new and potentially compregion energy upstarts in our region.
Or maybe they are standing in solidarity with their perceived Bush-era Texan or Alaskan Republican bretheren.
Whatever the reason, I think local control is great!
I love the idea of personal power generation, and off-the-grid living.
Batavia, Geneva & St. Charles operate municipal utilities, and are not ComEd customers.
Certainly, I very much encourage local conversations about local energy needs and power generation options.
We physicists & engineers live for this sort of thing.
In Iowa, the gentleman most responsible for the establishment and development of the Iowa wind energy industry, is a really nice Iowa Republican electrical engineer by the name of Tom Wind, who became interested in reviving windpower in Iowa in the 1970s, as a continuation of Iowa’s historic utilization of wind & solar energy sources (all a blessing from our thermonuclear-powered Sun, ultimately).
Tom Wind ia a great guy. I’m glad I got to know him. Very knowledgeable about many topics, including Iowa regional & local geography, topology & wind potential, in addition to fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, soils & bedrock deformation & weathering, and electrical power generation & transmission.
What we need, is to educate & train our own people to have these skills, too, so as to broaden our horizons, instead of ossifying in our TV room recliner chairs and our front porch rocking chairs.
And, we need to teach the young whippersnappers, the couch potatoes, the armchair touchscreen & keypad political warriors, the crusty middle-aged windbags and the rest of our grumbling and vitriolic cursing Yosemite Sams, how it was that our native American and frontier pioneer settler forebears used wind, solar & water power and the basics of materials science, and essential principles of physics & engineering & primitive technologies, in the first place, to migrate & establish ourselves here.
The functional steel-rimmed, wooden wagon wheel & axle is an amazing work of artisan craftsmanship and technological wonderment.
A lunar rover built in a cleanroom at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shares its ancient roots with the lovely, cherished, handcrafted Amish horse-‘n-buggy.
A farmer is an applied scientist and agricultural engineer.
Always remember that, and take pride in it.
It appears that Batavia’s electricity comes from coal.
https://www.bataviail.gov/572/Prairie-State-Energy-Campus
Then, there is the class action suit, the following of which comes from a 2014 Chicago Tribune article (https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-batavia-energy-rates-lawsuit-tl-0821-20140819-story.html)
A class-action suit filed in Kane County Tuesday alleges misinformation was provided about a downstate coal plant that ultimately has cost Batavia consumers higher electric rates.
“Supposedly she is a practicing Hindu, yet she wolfs down chicken, ribs and hot dogs faster than Pritzker.”
She’s Sikh. They eat meat.
“Haley is a neocon warmonger who wants a war with Iran, Russia, Palestine, Hungary, Syria, Brazil, Pakistan, China, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Barbados, Belarus, Turkey and Iraq (again).”
Wrong. She wants to be sure that Iran, Russia, Palestine, Hungary, Syria, Brazil, Pakistan, China, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Barbados, Belarus, Turkey and Iraq do not foment and succeed at mongering.
Haley is the adult, rational choice. She’s the best candidate, and would probably win.
Manchineel could be interesting.
Even if tRumpty wins, it’ll play out similarly to Nixon’s second term.
^Manchin
Dawn the marble headed faun:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Monk you are definitely a jew.
We’re sick of all the jew instigated wars.
Go parasitize somewhere else. Try Haiti.
The Irony of Jewish Moral Outrage and the Axis of Jewish Neurosis:
https://www.unz.com/jfreud/the-irony-of-jewish-moral-outrage-and-the-axis-of-jewish-neurosis/
“I’m old enough to remember the 1920’s”….
My God Science Lady, how old are you?
Mr. Skinner, yes, it is my understanding that the Batavia municipality electric utility presently contracts the Prairie State Energy Campus coal-fired plant, via the Illinois Municipal Energy Agency.
I am just recently housed here, and did not come here with local electric utility matters in mind. I am just beginning to familiarize myself with the arrangements.
Right now, it is down the list in priorities to be addressed. I will examine the situation, if and as I am able and have time.
My greater concern would be the operating costs at Fermilab, over the Batavia municipality, as these rise toward the top of the [lengthy] priority queue.
However, my own budget and resources and power consumption require my attention right now, among other priorities (like trying to stay alive). So first things, first.
Unlike some folks, I do not go into anaphylactic shock and then have an immediate conniption-fit upon hearing the word “coal”.
I am a maverick. Nobody owns me.
So I have the luxury of examining things carefully, and speaking my mind, informed, using quality neurons, when so inclined.
(Not just spouting off partisan political talking points because that is all my brain has been programmed with, either via TV, social media or talk radio.)
I think it is healthy to have diverse energy source & power plant options.
This can prevent a monopoly, or cartel monopoly.
Which may be the impetus behind the lawsuit.
I do not know that; I am just speculating off the top of my head, as I have not yet had an opportunity to look into it.
I do know there is a recently apparent political campaign (probably masking an economic and industrial campaign) to push St. Charles, Geneva & Batavia into giving up the municipal utility contracts and switch to “green” power (including nuclear).
It is being driven by a coalition of groups, including League of Women Voters, etc.
Bill Foster has been around, within the same timeframe, similar to his stop in Huntley.
Also, there is another push, possibly related, to remove the Fox River dams for allegedly environmental natural river restoration purposes, claiming that the local industries no longer need hydropower in the energy mix due to the availability of nuclear, solar & wind power.
Being a newcomer to this community, it would behoove me to be respectful of the established community & culture, and mind my p’s & q’s, and study the situation, and develop some local expertise for a few years (if I were to remain here), before I were to open my mouth and make comments, suggestions or recommendations.
FWIW:
https://www.bataviail.gov/572/Prairie-State-Energy-Campus
https://prairiestateenergycampus.com/about/ownership/
https://www.imea.org/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_State_Energy_Campus
https://www.bechtel.com/projects/prairie-state-energy-campus/
P.S. The Beck Farm wind-powered water pump was first installed over the water well in the 1920s, to my knowledge, according to the year-of-installation plate nailed to the site. I am not that old, of course. I watched my dad help Frank Beck do some intense maintenance on it, one summer in the early 1970s. Mr. Beck was deep down in the well, drilling. It was very interesting, I thought. He was a very knowledgeable and handy man, who loved antique cars, motorcycles & farm implements. He could fix anything, it seemed.
When my father was President of the Easton, Maryland, Town Council, in about 1950 the town had its own electric plant.
Hilarious “or that coal is found abundantly”…
If the Science Lady wasn’t so laser focused on some free money for her next lab experiment, she’d might know Illinois has one of the largest reserves of Bituminous Coal in the world.
I know that from a group of Coal Mining ‘ruffians’ I knew in the 70’s, that lost their jobs at the old S.Illinois Zeigler Coal Operation, during that Climate Cooling Crisis we somehow all survived.
Fun Fact: Ziegler was the son of that guy Leiter, who co-founded some store called Marshall Field and Company.
As everyone here knows, I’m just bitter that my 70’s school for giving Wooly Mammoth hunting tips went bust, when we didn’t get that Climate Crisis Ice Age they promised.
Winnetka has its own electric plant. It’s right on the lake, and it was a very popular place to fish when I was growing up, because the warm water discharge attracted fish, especially in the cold months. I caught a lot of salmon there.
Winnetka still distributes electricity to the residents, but I think the power plant is mostly idle now. The last I heard, it was still being maintained for emergencies and peak power generation.