Wisconsin Governor Selling State Power Plants to the Kochs?

Wisconsin Governor Selling State Power Plants to the Kochs?

www.treehugger.com

One overlooked aspect of the ruckus in Wisconsin is that Governor Scott Walker's budget proposal allows him to sell off the state's power plants with no bids. And right as the pro-worker protests picked up steam, reporters noticed Koch Industries opening an office in downtown Madison, WI. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe not -- there's already a wave of speculation brewing that Scott Walker is looking to sell off his power plants to the GOP's most notable corporate benefactors. Whether there's truth to the rumor remains to be seen -- but some major energy corporation has already posted a wan

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A short story snippet... Now with the internet.. info travels.. It seems that where there is smoke..... there is money..! Bidless purchasing of power planets.. Now that sounds like something that the K brothers are interested in.. I was not surprised to find this, but of course you will only hear it here on ATS ... MSM does not mention this as part of the Wisc.. madness.

www.treehugger.com
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S&F
thank you for your report agent clark


sounds like a job for:

The Bureau of Sabotage

shame it doesnt exist


yet

reply to post by R_Clark
Yeah! USA! USA! USA!

The GOP budget proposal slashes EPA

GOP budget plan targets poor
The Environmental Protection Agency (Republicans are not fans of the EPA) gets a $3 billion cut — watch for the illegal dumping to begin.

Not to mention the atmospheric pollution.
and also, what happens to any kind of cost controls. GOP favors total deregulation. Woohoo! Let those electricity prices skyrocket! After all, it's only the poor and middle-class that suffers. GOP! GOP! GOP!

reply to post by R_Clark


You know what they say, "Follow the money." This is precisely why public sector employees, now more than ever, should be allowed to organize and bargain for wages and working conditions. With the "Citizen's United" supreme court decision, there is no longer any distinction whatsoever between private corporations and government, they are now one in the same.

The proof is pouring in from every angle and governor Walker is being exposed for who he really is. From the fake budget shortfall, to the taped telephone conversation where Walker thought he was speaking to David Koch and now he gets exposed for his intention to sell the state's power plants to the Kochs. What can I say, "Typical Republican."

Great Find S&F

This sounds like what happened in Argentina with the selling of state owned utilities. The people rioted in the streets because of this. It sounds like they want rioting in our streets. Shame on them.

Wisconsin's power is already in the hands of corporations.
Has been for as long as I can remember.

WEC (Wisconsin Energy Corp.) is traded on the NYSE under the symbol WEC.

Been that way since long before Gov. Walker was even born.


Wisconsin_Energy_Corporation

There's an analysis of the situation on Daily Kos:
The Koch Brothers' End Game in Wisconsin
Here's a section of proposed State of Wisconsin Budget.

SENATE BILL 11
Bottom of Page 23:

SECTION 44. 16.896 of the statutes is created to read:
16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling,
and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the

department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may

contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without

solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best

interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or

certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to

purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is

considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification

of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

Here is a list of state owned power plants as of December 2, 2010:

State-owned coal-fired power plants in Wisconsin
In Madison

Capitol Heat and Power

Hill Farms

Mendota Mental Health Institute

UW-Madison Charter Street Heating Plant

Around the state

Northern Wisconsin Center, Chippewa Falls

UW campuses: Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, Superior

Waupun Correctional Institution

Winnebago Mental Health Institute, Oshkosh

SOURCE: State Department of Administration
host.madison.com...

reply to post by pthena


I'm not sure if you're intentionally being disingenuous or not, but those "state owned power plants" you listed are little more than backup generators.

Note that each one is either a U.W. Campus, or a prison,
with the exception of Capitol Heat and Power Plant,
which has a 3 megawatt output capability, or about the same as a diesel locomotive.
Capitol_Heat_and_Power_Plant

Orders_of_magnitude_power

reply to post by pthena


-Capitol Heat and Power Plant- 3.0 MW output

-Hill Farms is a project to house the State DOT on said land.

-Mendota Mental Health is a prison, incidentally the very prison Ed Gein was housed at.

UW-Madison Charter Street Heating Plant:

The campus Charter Street Heating Plant (CSHP) delivers heating and cooling to the campus and also generates about 9 megawatts (MW) of electricity via a back pressure steam turbine generator
that reduces the amount of electricity purchased from Madison Gas & Electric.

Charter St Heating Plant

-Northern Wisconsin Center, Chippewa Falls:

Northern Wisconsin Center (NWC) is a state operated intermediate care facility for persons with intellectual disabilities (FDD) that specializes in serving adults and children with developmental disabilities combined with mental illness and aggressive/challenging behaviors. NWC is a short-term treatment facility named the EXCEL Treatment Unit.

The last few on your list are all jails, or campuses.

reply to post by Oaktree
No, I'm not trying to be disingenuous, It just seems to me that if I could buy those power plants, and they seem to be constant running, as opposed to back-up generators, for 1 cent, and I already owned the fuel, and some fuel pipe-lines, as the Kochs do, and could bill the state, with a Governor who owed me, I think I could probably make a fairly decent profit.

But then, I don't live in Wisconsin. I haven't seen a small power plant like prisons and Universities use since about 1983.

reply to post by pthena

They are more than backup generators, and I'll explain.
Under Gov. Doyle, Wisconsin received a federal grant to encourage us to generate 25% of all of Wisconsin's energy from green technology by 2025 (I think).

The power plants that are listed as state owned are running constantly, but only in an effort to offset the energy purchased from Wisconsin Energy, LLC.

These power plants consist of bio-mass boilers, small hydro electric turbines, windmills, etc.
I'm unaware of much solar, as solar in Wisconsin doesn't work on a very large scale.

The majority of the power these facilities use is still purchased from Wisconsin Energy, LLC.
It's sort of the first small step in going off the grid, you know.

I would highly doubt that any of these "power plants" feed any energy back into the grid.

reply to post by Oaktree
So are you telling me that if I bought these power plants for 1 penny, then I would become recipient of federal grant money?

I'm really starting to wish I was buddies with the Governor!

So I did a search for federal Grants, and found under National Science Foundation Grants related to biomass fuels:

Award Number: 1053712
Title: CAREER: Unlocking Organism's Potential Using Computational and Experimental Approaches
NSF Organization: CBET
Programs: Networks and Regulation, BIOTECH, BIOCHEM & BIOMASS ENG
Start Date: 06/01/2011
Principal Investigator: Reed, Jennifer
State: WI
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Award Amount to Date: $402,346.00

The Charter Street Biomass looks like the prize.

Ground Broken On Charter St. Biomass Power Plant
Falk Says Plant Presents Economic Opportunity For Farmers
Updated: 3:21 pm CDT October 25, 2010

So areyou sayin the kochs are into some underhanded SH%T?
Trying to get control of bio mass power production from the get go?
Just think of the power we could generate from all the bullsh%t that the governors office produces....!
Awesome!

reply to post by pthena

So are you telling me that if I bought these power plants for 1 penny, then I would become recipient of federal grant money?

State owned receiving federal money, I suppose that would be up to Obama and Co, while the sale for 1 penny is an assumption, and a wild one at that.

However, yes, if you, as the Koch Brothers, worth $17.5 billion each (a tad more than Soros), find that a bio mass boiler, capable of around 9 megawatts output (3 locomotive engines), to
help heat a small fraction of college dorm rooms is the final nail in the coffin of
unions, which spent upwards of a $1billion on getting Democrats elected in 2010,
then I suspect that you, as the Koch brothers, have
aimed a bit low in in you goal of word domination.

reply to post by Oaktree

the sale for 1 penny is an assumption, and a wild one at that.

There's nothing in the Senate Bill 11 to prevent it.

That would seem small change, so maybe some other buddy will be tossed a bone.

You seem to agree then that Organized Labor is the real target, and the power plant is just small beans.

Scott Walker Runs on Koch Money
What is the return desired for their investment? It looks like the first dividend Walker wants to pay, through the help of the Koch-subsidized cheerleaders from Americans for Prosperity, is a death knell for unions and the rights of workers to organize.

I seem to remember that unions helped end Communist Totalitarianism in Poland.

Poland timeline
1980 - Disturbances at the shipyard in Gdansk lead to the emergence of the Solidarity trade union under Lech Walesa.

1981 - Martial law imposed. Many of Solidarity's leaders, including Walesa, are imprisoned.

1983 - Martial law lifted.

Success for Solidarity

1989 - Round-table talks between Solidarity, the Communists and the Catholic Church. Partially free elections see widespread success for Solidarity, which helps form coalition government.

Is Totalitarianism OK as long as it's single party Republican American Totalitarianism, aka Oligarchy?

Oligarchy
The oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία, oligarkhía[1]) is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, corporate, or military control. ... relying on public servitude to exist.

Without collective bargaining, workers are serfs. Even non-union workers would not have a minimum wage, a 40 hour work week, overtime pay, child-labor restrictions, safe working conditions, and a lot more.

Originally posted by Oaktree
However, yes, if you, as the Koch Brothers, worth $17.5 billion each (a tad more than Soros), find that a bio mass boiler, capable of around 9 megawatts output (3 locomotive engines), to help heat a small fraction of college dorm rooms is the final nail in the coffin of unions, which spent upwards of a $1billion on getting Democrats elected in 2010, then I suspect that you, as the Koch brothers, have aimed a bit low in in you goal of word domination.

I'll give a star for that. I like how the title of the article and the proposed conspiracy gets completely obliterated only a few posts in to this thread.

Is this strategy part of a playbook (e.g. the Communist Manifesto)? Create an incalculable number of conspiracies and slander against the opponent until one sticks?

Originally posted by pthena
Without collective bargaining, workers are serfs. Even non-union workers would not have a minimum wage, a 40 hour work week, overtime pay, child-labor restrictions, safe working conditions, and a lot more.

edit on 24-2-2011 by pthena because: (no reason given)

I don't think the governor is against collective bargaining and unions - he has an issue with public unions in general and I do in this case as well.

The educational system is a mandated system funded by the government. The teachers paid for by taxes are then unionized at the expense of the citizenry.

The unions then use collective bargaining to side-step the democratic process and extort more taxes from the citizenry. There is a conflict of interest. If you have 100,000 public workers out of 1,000,000 residents that are paying their salaries then the public workers need to be accountable to the residents. If they fail they need to be fired, if they try to take advantage of the system they need to be fired, if the residents want better education then they need to come up with a plan because I don't think its all about the dollars (the idea that more dollars equals a better education has failed).

reply to post by ararisq

Is this strategy part of a playbook (e.g. the Communist Manifesto)? Create an incalculable number of conspiracies and slander against the opponent until one sticks?

I can't speak for the OP, but here is my agenda.

1) The title caught my notice.
2) Knee jerk reaction. see www.abovetopsecret.com...
3) Investigate the claim see www.abovetopsecret.com...
4) Consider the counterarguments offered: see www.abovetopsecret.com... and www.abovetopsecret.com... by Oaktree
5) Make final argument in favor of OP thesis. www.abovetopsecret.com...
6) Consider the perspective offered here: www.abovetopsecret.com... by Oaktree
7) Abandon original thesis in favor of a more easily backed up thesis, to wit, the destruction of organized labor.

And in Communist Manifesto Labor Unions are the number one enemy of Totalitarian Communism

Great Books synopsis
In the 1870s, with Marx's well-established prominence in the international socialist movement, the Manifesto came to be honored more as a document of symbolic historic significance than as a viable plan of action. By then, the vehement call to revolution in the Manifesto had been superseded by the move to accommodate different class interests within and through existing political structures, best exemplified by the flourishing of labor unions and reform legislation.

The GOP agenda on the other hand, seems to be the restoration of capital and labor conditions which caused some people to resort to communism.

Communist Manifesto ch02
The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence which is absolutely requisite to keep the labourer in bare existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the wage-labourer appropriates by means of his labour, merely suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence. ...an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. ...the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the labourer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it.

I don't think the governor is against collective bargaining and unions - he has an issue with public unions in general and I do in this case as well.

I may hold the opinion that the Kochs are the shadow oligarchs and the Governor is the puppet. The Kochs are absolutely against labor unions, minimum wage, and guaranteed safe working conditions. Private sector unions have already been gutted over the last 30 years, the state unions are the strongest unions now, and the last bulwark against absolute serfdom.

reply to post by pthena

You seem to agree then that Organized Labor is the real target, and the power plant is just small beans.

I agree that organized labor in public sector jobs is the target, yes.

With regards to organized labor in private sector jobs, whatever opinion I have is moot.
I am not in a union, and I do not employ anyone but myself.

However, my opinion can be voiced on organized labor in private sector jobs through my purchases.

Take Ford (or any private corporation) for example.
If Ford chooses to contract with a union, and that union chooses to contract with Ford,
myself, and every other consumer, can voice our opinions through our purchases.

If Ford, while contracting with unions, can produce a quality product at a competitive price,
then more power to them.

For what it's worth, between my wife and I, we own 3 vehicles,
a 99' Chevy Blazer, for towing my jon boat, hunting, and blizzards,
a 2001 Ford Mustang GT, my toy that I have not been forced to sell (yet), and a 2004 Chrysler Town and Country, for haulin' kids and groceries.

The state of the economy had put my wife in the position of giving me an ultimatum:
The boat, or the Mustang, so come spring, bye bye Mustang.
Truth be told, I'd probably go postal if not for the peace that that old boat and a fishing pole provide.

Anyway, back on topic.

In all those purchases, I had a choice.

On the other hand, I just paid over $6200 in property taxes, the majority of which goes to funding public schools.
I have no choice in paying that.
On a side note, last year they cut school bus service from my neck of the woods.
Unfortunately, due to the sad state of the public school system (the product) I choose to send my children to private school, which will cost just under $9000 for 2011.

Please understand, I have nothing against public school, in theory.
I attended both public and private when I was growing up.
My Dad, a lifelong union worker, did his best to keep me in private school, but some years, it just couldn't happen.

Consider, though, that this year, I will spend over $15000 to pay for my one child's education.
Other than home schooling, in my opinion, I have no choice, either.