Peter Walks for Democracy

On Monday night, I joined State College Borough Council to give an update on the Centre County Solar Working Group’s power purchase agreement. I gave a spicier update to the State College Area School District later that night. For most people, the Borough presentation was a boring affair about final document signatures, a PJM queue number and its status, a land development plan, construction timeline relative to the commercial operation date, and a few questions. The update closed with thanks, acknowledgements for hard work, and muted but sincere celebration for the working group’s leadership and innovation. The District update was more animated, laced with sarcasm pointed at our local merchants of doubt, gossip talk radio hosts, and hypocritical local officials more interested in empty attention than accomplishing anything of value for the public. Geoff Rushton provides a good roundup at StateCollege.com.

As I’ve written multiple times, 10 municipalities, authorities, a county government, a school district, and a council of governments aggregated their electricity to pursue a power purchase from a solar source. Earlier this year, contracts and other required documents were finalized. The PPA secures a 15-year fixed electricity rate with an escalator, beginning at $.0459/kWh and ending at $.0565. With retail, transmission, consultant, and other standard fees, the price will begin at $.07/kWh. Previous projections have shown all entities achieving savings on electricity costs in the first or second year that lead to a payback. $150,000 of avoided cost for the school district defends taxpayers and teachers alike.

For those who really want to get into the weeds, the project is named “CL-Route 58,” will be a 13.51 MW (AC) facility in Sligo, PA, Clarion County, and labeled in the PJM queue as AF1-167. It does not produce an entry in the public queue search. Appropriate parties can see it as “Suspended,” a status which preserves the interconnection.  Signed documents should cause the developer to move it out of suspension. Finally, this project received Preliminary Approval at the Clarion County Planning Commission November 16, 2022 meeting. A final land development plan will be submitted ‘as-built’ after project completion. A construction schedule should be forthcoming.

As I said at both the Borough and District meetings, this leadership of committed staff, professionals, and volunteers got us here. Building something is hard. Climate leadership is hard. Innovation is hard. Coordinating 10 local governments with transparency is hard. But I listen to track coach and author Steve Magness who told us, “Do hard things.”

We figured out the training program so others can run this course more easily. State College Borough Council member John Hayes called us a “first-in-class project.” He continued, “I really hope that we can be a model for other municipalities in the commonwealth, because frankly, as we talked about previously, the ROI on this project is a no-brainer.” There’s a reason we were nominated for the Pennsylvania Lodestar Award (we will accept next year) and have been recognized by the World Resources Institute, one of the world’s foremost renewable energy and climate leadership NGO’s, for a second time. We are a lodestar. We are leaders. 

That’s true in spite of head winds and a poisonous radio show. For the last year-plus, this project has been the object of a disinformation campaign on the Tor Michaels Show. The host and his guests have weaved conspiracies of non-disclosure, corruption, self-dealing, novel terms like “at risk spending” that sound nefarious but mean nothing, and faked expertise. They have attacked staff who are just doing their jobs. I’ve been subjected to harassment, to lawsuit threats, become the topic of weird gossip about my professional, personal, and civic life, been accused of numerous forms of deviancy, and been placed at the center of an invented political campaign. They published my text messages and emails online. 

Let’s be really clear: If your life sucks so much that you have to spend over 100 days talking about my life, my work, and this project, dig around in my emails to make yourself feel like you matter, attack people who work for you, berate them for not coming on your show where you routinely lie about them, then you need a hobby. 

It’s gross. It’s weird. Get a life, bro.

What’s ironic is that the things Tor and his guests accuse the group and me of doing, they’ve done. They have done all of the following and we have the receipts to prove it:

1. Retroactive approval for work that is typically contracted through a request for proposals.
2. Use of private emails to conduct public business.
3. Behind-closed-doors collusion with an industry partner that led to employment.
4. Non-disclosure of relationships.
5. Fake documents and reports.

If any reporter wants this material, just ask me. I’m moving on.

This project has taught me so much. Most of all, I am left with a profound sense of gratitude. It tested my abilities in ways I never knew it would even though I knew it would be hard. It taught me new skills and refined old ones. Showed me when patience and trust are necessary and that sometimes you need to let things go. 

Most of all, I was part of a team that wanted to do this excellently. Some are paid staff like Pam, Randy, Keith, John, and Larry. Some are appointed or elected, like Jason, Gretchen, Jesse, and Betsy. Some were contracted, like Gregg. Others were in our community, always ready to show up to advocate: Ellen, Joan, Doug, Scott, and even some students. You guys are all awesome. 

We did it. We finished our part. 

Let’s take a minute, smile in gratitude, and relax before doing something else. You earned it.