Letter to the Editor: I'm not voting for Jay Inslee

I'm not voting for Jay Inslee.

Why? Here is where some of the “stimulus” money went:

A few years ago, Rep. Inslee wrote about his "Apollo Project" in the Times. He described this government program, creating "green" (government) jobs and "new" sources of "alternative energy"

One of the projects he promoted is called "Windy Point 1". This was touted as providing 136.6 Megawatts of Electric Power. It is the construction, now completed, of 62 wind turbines on the Columbia Plateau, near Goldendale. The project overseer recently sold Phase 1 for $385 million to a California utility.

Without describing the engineering/ analysis in detail, the following data results:

• The combined turbine/wind system efficiency is about 20%. 20% of 136 megawatts is 27.2 megawatts. That is enough power to provide electricity for 22,370 homes annually.

• The return on investment, is 56 years. The estimated life of this project is 30 years.

• The cost of installing each wind machine was $6.21 million dollars, including access roads and associated buildings.

• About 800 raptors will be killed by these turbines annually.

• The fixed costs, including land lease fees and operating maintenance fees is estimated at $11.25 million annually.

• 40 to 50 government jobs have been created.

There are 22 similar projects in planning or construction.

In order to provide adequate power line service and control the large power fluctuations from these wind turbines, the BPA will spend an additional $2 billion dollars upgrading dam controls and installing new cross river power grids and transmission lines.

For what we spend on these projects, a new, $6 billion, 10 reactor nuclear power plant could have been built on the Columbia with electrical power output three times that of Boulder Dam, which powers the entire city of Los Angeles.

It would have paid for itself in 4 years.

Jack Leicester

Shoreline