Solar PPA is welcome, well planned
Methane pollution is satellite measured as four times that voluntarily reported by Pennsylvania polluters. Methane is 70-90% of natural gas. Natural gas is the devil in disguise; it is not a savior. We need solar electricity production.
Methane pollution has pushed Pennsylvania into a crisis with severe weather becoming the norm. The frequency of overwhelming rainfall alarming; rainfall is 23% above “normal.”
The Solar Power Purchase Agreement committed to by the State College School District after years of work will be a blessed relief. It is welcome, well planned, correctly financed and job producing project that will be built in Centre County; ground based in Walker Township, where schools throughout the county can show our young people that we are taking steps to protect them.
Municipalities are getting up to 100% of electricity from solar generation. SCASD expects to save $90,000 to $120,000 the first year. Think new teachers, better salaries, pensions, building maintenance. About solar panels ownership? Lower prices for electricity generation already include maintenance costs by the owner. In 15 years, the municipalities may be able to choose even more efficient generation and will be free to pursue that.
This project will receive a fixed price of 4.6 cents per kilowatt hour over 15 years. West Penn Power is 8.78 cents per kilowatt hour as of Aug. 25.
But suddenly, there are objections. These people are out there now, being very vocal but not revealing what they will get out of their opposition.
Nancy F. Parks, Aaronsburg
Focused on solutions, not slogans
Recently Therese Hollen wrote a bizarre rant about Representative Paul Takac to the Centre Daily Times. Let’s set some items straight.
Therese Hollen is new to Centre County, and moved here less than two years ago. After spending some time here, she’ll discover working people in Centre County aren’t interested in MAGA platitudes. We’re focused on solutions, not slogans and cheap attacks.
Takac has made the most of his first term and has led on the issues concerning working Pennsylvanians: issues like education funding, supporting rural communities, leading the way on essential services for our veterans, and addressing housing affordability.
In fact, just in the past few months, Takac secured over $120,000 for rural fire companies in Centre County, over $400,000 for affordable housing in Centre County, over $100,000 to enhance facilities safety and modernization in SCASD, secured over $2 million in funding for traffic safety improvements, and wrote and passed bipartisan legislation helping connect veterans to government services.
That last one is important to union members, especially those in the building trades. Veterans often find good, stable employment as union tradespeople, and they deserve easy access to the services our government promises them.
That’s just a snippet of what he’s accomplished.
Unfortunately, I can’t say much about Therese Hollen; there’s no record to scrutinize, and little substance offered. Without those, her campaign is resorting to cheap theatrics complaining about partisan “debates.”
We’ll pass on the attacks and stick with the solutions.
Connor Lewis, State College. The author is the president of Seven Mountains AFL-CIO.
Trump’s affinity for authoritarians
Today’s autocratic leaders — in places like Russia, North Korea and China — don’t share the same ideology or politics, but they do share the same thirst for power.
Increasingly, the world’s autocrats are working together! “Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks ... and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation,” notes Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Anne Applebaum, in her book, “Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.”
According to Applebaum, propagandists in one authoritarian country share resources, troll farms and media networks that promote a dictator’s propaganda with other countries. You can identify autocrats by their narcissistic tendencies. They regularly destroy the lives of ordinary people — and have a history of disregard for others, redirecting blame and perpetually lie.
“The members of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy but also to networks in other autocratic countries and sometimes in democracies too.” That fact makes Donald Trump’s alliance with Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s authoritarian leader, especially troubling. In his disastrous debate performance against Kamala Harris, Trump actually used Orbán as a character witness!
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, and architect of Project 2025, says his task is “institutionalizing Trumpism.” Many believe Heritage is actually modeling its vision of America on Hungary, which the EU no longer even considers a functioning democracy!
We saw Trump’s affinity for authoritarians in his first presidency. Don’t count on a second Trump presidency working in your favor; history shows it won’t!
Marilyn Goldfarb, Boalsburg
Local News
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