Solar energy grant is a waste of money

The front page of Sunday Bee on Jan. 16 had an article that the charter school received a $360,000 grant for solar panels with a “projected energy savings of $7,000 to $8,000 per year.” Then, on page 14A of the same paper was the article “Record $14 trillion-plus debt weighs on Congress” (actually, it weighs on those of us who pay taxes, but I digress).

I can only imagine that the student’s teachable moments will be about “saving the planet”, “reducing carbon footprints” and all that baloney. You can be quite certain that the children will not be taught a lesson on fiscal responsibility.

Nobody spends $360,000 of their own money to potentially save an estimated $7,500 per year, for an unspecified, but limited, length of time. Of course it’s not the school’s own money, it’s our (taxpayers) money. I say it’s way past time that the piggies are weaned from the taxpayer trough.

I will make an offer to anyone who would like to put their own “green” money where their mouth is; you give me $360,000 and each year I will give you back the exact dollar amount of realized savings that the school receives, minus maintenance costs, for as long as that solar (photovoltaic) system functions. Trust me; my children and grandchildren will learn a very valuable lesson from your folly.

For those of you who can’t spend that much money to “go green”, I have thousands of carbon storage units growing on my property that I would be happy to rent to you.

DAVID HAUSSLER

Bayview