From the 28 April 2008 Greater Niagara Newspapers

NEW YORK’S CAP ON GREEN ENERGY

By Bob Confer, www.BobConfer.net

 Upset with New York’s high electrical costs and looking to participate in the green movement, I’ve put some serious thought into using solar energy to power our distribution facility in Wheatfield. Later this year or in early 2009 I’d like to erect a series of solar panels there. Doing so should make perfect sense, both economically and philosophically.

By weaning my dependency off of the grid, I figured I could save a great deal of money. The electrical rate we’re paying on that commercial property is the highest in the nation (despite the proximity of the Niagara River) and it is destined to become even more expensive due to the dangerous situation of increased demand and stable, if not decreasing, supply that exists in this state.

At the same time I’d be saving money, I’d be doing my fair share to save the environment as well. Rather than relying on a grid that’s founded on coal and nuclear generation I’d be relying on Mother Nature and her clean, renewable bounty.

As wonderful as all that sounds, these dreams of self-reliance and environmental sustainability cannot be realized to their fullest extent under current state law. On the books since 1997, New York’s Net Metering Law sets major roadblocks in the way of any business looking to go green. New York is one of only two states which does not allow businesses who produce their own power with windmills or solar panels to be rewarded for what many people call “turning the meter backwards”, that is, the act of contributing energy to the grid. Ensuring that this won’t happen, the State caps what a business connected to the grid  - which you must be due to the limitations of solar and wind energy - can produce at 25 kilowatts for wind power and 10 kilowatts for solar energy.

These caps are unrealistic. My warehouse uses a relatively minimal amount of power, only what is needed for lighting, heat, and computers. Even so, I can’t become even remotely self-reliant: the law allows me to produce what only amounts to about three months of my average usage in a given year. Because of these limitations, most businesses will not invest in sustainable energy. The payback is just not there. The return on investment on solar panels could take five years, maybe more. 

Residential power generators fair no better under the current Net Metering Law. Unlike businesses, homeowners can contribute excess power to their utility company. But, that comes with very restrictive caps, too. Net Metering is done on a first-come, first-served basis, and the aggregate of all consumer input cannot exceed 0.1 % of the utility company’s historical demand (1996 levels). 

It becomes obvious that these 1997 standards were created to serve special interests. Understand that 0.1% consumer input is a negligible amount and add the fact that businesses cannot participate and you begin to develop a conspiracy theory that the laws were devised as a means to protect the interests of the utility companies who generate most of our power. By giving them a safety net, it does appear that the State was looking out for the likes of National Grid (then Niagara Mohawk) and, most definitely, itself: The New York Power Authority has 17 generating facilities across the New York. By limiting what the average person can do and what businesses can’t do, the government acted in a self-serving way to maintain its own revenue stream. 

Times have changed since 1997 and it’s time that this law did, too. Since then, the electricity market has become deregulated in NY, meaning that the existing pseudo-monopolies were destroyed and now the company selling you power doesn’t necessarily have to be the same one delivering it. It’s only fitting that green-conscious homeowners and businesses should be able to join this “free for all” to the best of their abilities and sell as much power as they can.

From the 21 April 2008 Greater Niagara Newspapers

YOUNG BLOOD NEEDED IN COMMUNITY

By Bob Confer

Last week’s column was probably the most popular one I’ve written. My inbox was flooded with e-mails from all across the United States, everyone to a person agreeing with my analysis of how our state’s political climate makes it darn near impossible to live and work in the Empire State, in the end forcing our dear family and friends to greener pastures far away.

Most of the respondents highlighted the fact that the majority of those who leave NY aren’t snowbirds or seniors. Instead, those jumping ship are young people, throngs of individuals who traditionally would have represented New York’s Tomorrow. Adding insult to this heartbreaking injury, it’s almost as if we’re investing in other States’ Tomorrows: Day by day, the ranks of our 25-to-40-year-olds head out, even after we as a taxpaying society have invested everything that we can in their primary, secondary and college educations.

For as many of them that leave, countless numbers of their peers hold to their roots and suffer the slings and arrows of our brutal economy. They’ve chosen to remain here, forsaking higher wages and a higher quality of life (economically-speaking) to eke out a living in New York, being true to their hearts and their families. To them, New York State is home and there’s no place like home. 

There are certain expectations that come with a home, though. One would like to think most people prefer to keep their home in order. So, it’s really up to those of us who remain to tidy it up. Just as with those who have gone, society has invested in these young people and, quite frankly, it’s about time the investment paid off. These folks  – my peers – must adopt some semblance of good citizenship and accept responsibility for the world in which they live. They obviously have a vested interest in the region (they stayed, didn’t they?). They need to apply that very same heart to civics, economics, and community service. By doing so they can make their lives – and the lives of everyone around them - better. They can keep their friends and family here. In the long term, they can prevent their children from one day becoming just like our modern-day gypsies.  

Locally, it’s difficult to find young people who take such stands and are engaged in the well-being of our community. Sadly, you can count such individuals on two hands. Why should WLVL’s Scott Leffler and I be the only thirty-somethings to openly take the status quo to task? Why should North Tonawanda’s uncommonly philanthropic Rob Albert be an anomaly amongst young businessmen? Why should Niagara County legislators Andrea McNulty and Jason Cafarella be two of the very, very few twenty-somethings in the local political scene? 

These conundrums aren’t pondered across the United States. In many areas, youth rules. Some of the most high-profile leaders in successful cities and towns are those well under forty years of age. Look south to Pittsburgh….Luke Ravenstahl became its mayor in 2006 at 26 years of age, taking over for its deceased mayor. In 2007, he was elected to the role outright and is the youngest mayor of a major city in American history.   

Across America such youthful devotion to the community is the norm, not the exception to the rule as it is here. Its seems that far too many (most?) young people in WNY are pathetically apathetic to a true sense of community. Yes, they may love their hometown, but actually applying that love and making the “relationship” work is completely foreign to them. They don’t understand, like our elders and baby boomers have, that getting involved is a way of life.

One can’t help but wonder, though, if the aforementioned oldsters have caused, if not forced, the disinterest. Local boards and councils are full of greybeards and their good ol’ boy networks which don’t take kindly to change or new blood. They seem to thrive on their power and relish the status quo. Some locals even partake in age discrimination and look at youth as a sign of ignorance. My God, many a man has said 29-year-old Jon Powers is not worthy of running for Congress because he’s “inexperienced”. Last I knew the “kid” has experienced more in his years at war than any of us will ever know in our entire lifetimes.    

This has got to stop. New York is on a continued decline and it will take a concerted group effort, one involving the young and the old, to make things happen and return prosperity to our land. It’s high time that my peers took on this challenge and the elders accepted us into the fray with open arms.

From the 07 April 2008 Greater Niagara Newspapers

VALUES DO MATTER IN PUBLIC SERVICE
By Bob Confer, www.BobConfer.net

Public officials and sex. They seem to go hand in hand. It’s probably because absolute power not only corrupts absolutely, it perverts absolutely, too. Throughout history those in power have been have abused it to satisfy their most carnal urges, either gaining praise for their actions (JFK and Marilyn) or having their reigns rocked by controversy (Bill Clinton and Monica). 

Such impropriety can be seen at all levels of government. I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times, but it seems to be getting worse; just look at how many sex scandals have reared their ugly heads in the past half dozen months: Politically-connected “massage” parlors that used Asian slaves were busted in Niagara County, the clientele of which included many public servants. A former Lockport police chief and a retired state Supreme Court judge were busted for taking a young woman across state borders to provide her body to conventioneers. A handful of local teachers have been in the courts for dabbling in sexual behavior with their underage students. Our governor resigned because of his tryst with a prostitute and was he replaced by someone who admitted to cheating on his wife on numerous occasions.

Those individuals in question are only those who’ve been in the news lately. Many more morally-corrupt people are employed as their peers, controlling how we live while they participate in some of the darkest behaviors imaginable.

Such offensive indiscretions have become so commonplace that people are becoming numb to them, so much so that a recurring philosophical question of late has been: “do the personal values of public servants really matter?”

Unfortunately – maybe yet another sign of the times – many folks have answered a resounding “no” to that question. They seem content in someone, anyone, being in power, regardless of that person’s moral fiber.

Those apologists are ignorant to the management of good government, failing to understand that honest-to-goodness family values and high morality will always have an important role in government service. When we the people entrust and pay others to oversee all facets of our society and economy, we would hope that they approach their job with the utmost attention to detail while fully comprehending the rights, wrongs, and consequences of the decisions. The impact of these decisions is inescapable: they provide our protection, they offer health and family services, they educate the masses, they regulate the businesses that employ us, and they tax our hard-earned incomes.

The chances are very good that if the officials can’t keep their personal lives in order their professional lives will be in disorder as well. The inability to distinguish between good and bad is not a fleeting thing, it is a way of being that permeates every decision an individual makes throughout his life. All of your actions - whether at home or work- are a result of who you are inside.

I expect that my public servants should live their lives with character, because that character will make itself know in how they serve the people, and how legitimate that service may be. The scandalous creeps cannot serve us well. Do you really want the police officer clientele of those massage parlors looking out for your well being when they couldn’t even protect the young slave girls whose bodies and minds they violated? Do you want judges determining your guilt or innocence when they cannot comprehend what is legally or philosophically appropriate? Do you want to entrust your child to a teacher who looks at her like a piece of meat? Do you want a governor managing a $124 billion budget made up of your money when he can’t even manage his own personal life in good taste?

Some would say we can’t regulate or demand morality. But, we can and we do. The armed forces of the United States – by far our most important and valuable public servants – demand that all soldiers follow a strict code of conduct, one based in well-founded personal convictions. The Army alone has a set of seven values for our men and women in uniform: loyalty, duty, respect, service, honor, integrity and courage. These are timeless values that all public servants (and a matter of fact, ALL Americans) should follow, realizing that our military succeeds where all others fail because of this simple yet powerful set of rules to live by. Values really do matter.