So called "renewable energy" project leaves, um, Harrisburg PA near backruptcy.

[NNadir]

You may be surprised to learn - given the rhetoric of people like BP funded Amory Lovins - and his denizens, but people still live in Harrisburg, PA, site of the 1979 Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident that, um, lead the entire State of Pennsylvania an uninhabited waste land almost 1/4 as large as the Gulf of Mexico.

Just kidding. Harrisburg is still populated. I've been through the area many times myself.

But Harrisburg is damn near broke.

The financial state of Pennsylvania's capital is so fragile that city controller Dan Miller has been urging bankruptcy. That is a measure so rare and complex that only 245 municipalities out of over 80,000 have filed for Chapter 9 since 1937. Plus, to qualify, cities have to meet several strict requirements, including gaining an endorsement from the state proving insolvency to the court.

Still, the scenario is beginning to look more and more appealing as the city is insolvent and on the line for a nearly $300 million incinerator.

The city issued bonds for the trash plant on behalf of the Harrisburg Authority, a municipal agency. But last month the authority, which is carrying an estimated $282 million in outstanding debt, announced it would not make a $425,000 payment to bondholders in early May.

The city didn't have the money, either, so another guarantor had to swoop in for the rescue.

"We're not an open checkbook. We have high taxes to begin with, our residents are poor, and there's not much growth in our city," said Miller, who is a former city councilman. "If we go into Chapter 9, we can focus on reducing our debt. Even if we could cut it from $300 million to $100 million, we could find a way to afford that."

But Linda Thompson, who has been mayor for just five months, thinks the city can pull itself out of the debt ditch without the nuclear option of bankruptcy, which is considered political suicide and a red flag for potential new businesses.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-7-junkiest-cities">The Garbage Incinerator City.

If you look carefully, you will see that the second largest "renewable" energy source after stopping the free flow of rivers is, um, burning stuff, often garbage.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/trends/table1.html

Have a nice backrupt PM10 in the lungs kind of evening.

[LynneSin]

1. Harrisburg is broke because Stephen Reed decided to open a Western Museum

and used the coffers of taxpayer money to buy old Western Artifacts in hopes to build a museum. I know this because I'm originally from the area and still have family there. This issue was a very big stink that pretty much helped bankrupt the city (as you can read from the Wiki statement below). Trust me, this alternative energy isn't doing it - Harrisburg was already broke beforehand.

That's why he lost his Mayor primary race this year (he is a democrat).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Reed#As_Mayor

Mayor Reed continues to bear strong criticism for purchases of historical Civil War and "American Old West" artifacts with public funds.<4> The artifact purchases were intended for use in a planned Old West Museum, part of a larger plan by Mayor Reed to develop a "critical mass" of national and historically focused museums in Harrisburg, centered around the National Civil War Museum. Plans for the Old West Museum met strong public opposition and Mayor Reed placed the plans on hold, commissioning a public study (funded by an auction of some of the artifacts) to review the feasibility of the museum. Mayor Reed faced similar criticism when acquiring artifacts for the National Civil War Museum. Opponents and critics are most outspoken about the methods Mayor Reed used to fund the purchases without public oversight: "Every time the independent Harrisburg Authority floats bonds for the Harrisburg school district and other government agencies, it collects a fee and deposits it into an account. The mayor can draw on that account for any capital expense as long as he has the signatures of two members of the authority (all appointed by the mayor).<4>"
Mayor Reed won reelection in 2005, unopposed, after winning the Democratic Primary against Jason Smith, a Harrisburg entrepreneur and outspoken critic of the Old West Museum and artifact purchases.
As late as January 2009, he was called “Mayor-for-life.”<5> In the May 2009 Democratic Primary, Mayor Reed lost his re-election bid to Harrisburg City Council president Linda Thompson.<6>

[OnlinePoker]

5. The cost of those artifacts was $7 million

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20070826&id=vvIvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J3IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6670,1526965

...the bonds were purchased to pay for the incinerator with the amount owing $282 million

http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=186726&type=newswires

[Go2Peace]

2. Lovely, more anti-environmental talking points

The vast majority of alternative energy projects are sound and good for the future.

These are the kind of posts I would expect on Free Republic. Ugh.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[struggle4progress]

6. Yer gettin t'be kinda predicktable, Sunshine: a reliable source of

of sour broadbrush smears, with an obligatory swipe at your favorite whipping boy

[Go2Peace]

8. Alert on it. These posts are way over TOS and always inflamatory.

It's amazing they are tolerated. They reduce the quality of discussion on the board.

[Systematic Chaos]

9. Because they don't say what YOU want them to?

[Go2Peace]

10. I have no problem with policy points and rational discussion

[neverforget]

3. Hmmmmm, lots of cities and states seem to be in budgetary distress lately.

I wonder if the recession has anything to do with it?

[struggle4progress]

7. Why blame the recession, if we could blame environmentalists instead?

[amandabeech]

11. The area also lost a lot of manufacturing and white collar jobs.

AMP was swallowed up and the steel industry is near death, impacting the entire metro area.

Also, the City of Harrisburg is small and largely poor.

This incinerator should have been a regional or at least county project.

NNadir, what would you do with all the trash? Better to burn, bury or thermally depolimerize (just kidding)? An incinerator is really a dual purpose mechanism.

Trash reduction, of course, is the best thing to do, but where there are humans, there is trash.