Peter Walks for Democracy

Having read Jacob Michael’s article in the Sept. 29 issue of The Centre Daily Times on the Solar Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA), former State College Borough Council member Jesse Barlow and I wanted to add some clarifying details. We felt this was important given that we have both been involved with the project since its inception. So we wrote an opinion piece, “SPPA will meet its goals to provide affordable, carbon-free, solar electricity” available here.

The SPPA meets a number of local governmental goals. As Jesse and I write, “(1) reducing the greenhouse gas footprint of our local governments; (2) lowering our energy costs and providing fiscal stability.” It also limits societal damages from greenhouse gas emissions downstream. It is leadership on climate change.

Of course there are critics, most notably COG Chair Ron Servello and Scott Conklin’s Office Staff Member/State College Borough Council member Josh Portney. Servello has been obsessively taking to the airwaves of Tor McCartney’s “Tor Michaels Show” to whine about legal fees and process. Josh Portney has also called into McCartney’s show where he erroneously called the project a “financial scandal.” He later backed off from that assessment only to follow up with more labyrinthine “explanations,” cherry-picking, and assaults on Mayor Ezra Nanes. For the record, Mayor Nanes’s public explanations about the project comport with reality and the processes of the working group while Mr. Portney’s do not.

As Barlow and I write, “None of the critics of the SPPA has made a case that [climate and fiscal] objectives will not be met. Their arguments cherry pick legal fees in an effort to sabotage climate action. Their criticisms have created heat with no light.”

“It is not lost on us that some critics disingenuously repeatedly say, “I support action on climate change, but …” We know what everything after the word “but” means.”