BY Emerson Drake
7/26/11
Grab your wallets because the Modesto Irrigation District is setting the ground work to raise our rates yet again. Today the MID Board voted to accept the North McHenry Solar Project EIR (Environmental Impact Report) which is one of the main hurdles SunPower, the company hand chosen by the MID to run the project had to overcome.
Those in attendance (one of the largest crowds in months) were treated to a litany of politically chosen project supporters and a few concerned citizens. The residents of Del Rio flexed their respective muscles and were by far the most represented group in MID's service area. Imagine a couple your neighbors having enough money to hire a consulting firm (Horizon) to represent them at this meeting,
But local attorneys hired to ensure the projects success including the land use attorney George Petrulakis who provided everyone from rented candidates Balvino Izzary to a series of Del Rio businessmen he calls upon when he needs spontaneous support. Modesto mayoral candidate, Bill Zoslocki made a campaign appearance but didn't speak to the Board.
Of course most of these people seldom if ever have been to a MID meeting before but a few regular attendees were.
Among these was Larry Byrd who spoke out against the best farm land in the world being used for this solar farm while poor quality ag land was available for use but ignored by both SunPower and the MID Board. He pointed out that while the Irrigation District had created an agricultural paradise they were now being party to its desecration.
Larry Byrd a candidate for the MID Board also reminded everyone the extremely high cost .17 per kw that MID had negotiated for. He recommended to the Board if they were determined to make this highly questionable decision they should at least re-negotiate with SunPower for a lower more market reflective rate. The current going rate for solar is around .11 per kw or less.
Candidate John Duarte seemed happy with this vote saying "it's as good as we can expect." He also noted the price could have been cheaper but this higher rate was ok with him.
Another Modesto resident spoke up to say, "Why not try for as good as we can possibly get instead of settling for as good as we can expect from this board." He went on to say this was not the time to reminding everyone of the litany of expensive bad decisions this board has made which are still effecting us by being a partial cause of our high rates.
Unfortunately Cecil Hensley and Tom Van Groningen actually tried to make the claim these rates might be a bargain in the future. But the audience was reflecting on what they had heard earlier as to how the rates had dropped precipitously for the past three years and were expected to continue to drop. That was one of the reasons the Board used to cut the payment rebates to homeowners.
So they cut the home rebates because the price of solar is going down, and 45 minutes later Board members were saying what a bargain the SunPower rates might be if the price rose.
I know that statement by Cecil and Tom doesn't make much sense, but neither does this decision by the MID Board.
