Blowing smoke

sage advice for voters when listening to politicians

King, Golden, and Pingree Tout $1 Million Federal Grant for Installation of EV Chargers and Rooftop Solar Panels at New Acadia National Park Maintenance Complex

In late January, three members of Maine’s Congressional delegation announced that an Acadia National Park maintenance complex has been award a $1 million grant from the federal government to install rooftop solar panels and EV charging stations.

Sen. Angus King (I), Rep. Jared Golden (D), and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D) published a press release on January 22 reporting that the McFarland Hill headquarters campus in Bar Harbor was awarded $1 million from United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) program.

According to the DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) — the agency responsible for awarding AFFECT grants — the solar panels will generate an estimated 50 percent of the energy used by the facility and result in roughly $60,000 annually.

That’s a 16-year payback schedule, all to “save” 308,384 kW/yr — the amount of electricity consumed by 28.7 average Maine houses. And the claimed energy saving completely ignores the massive energy consumed in mining and refining the minerals and metals required for manufacturing the solar panels, and the energy cost incurred shipping them from their coal-powered Chinese factories. Only the banning of plastic straws has come as close to saving the globe as will this Triumph of the Greens, so it’s no wonder this political triad is so self-congratulatory.