Letter: Good job keeping public informed

I would like to commend your newspaper for keeping the public
informed about the proposed Panoche Valley solar plant.
  It’s important to have non-biased information reported to the
public. 
Dear Editor,

I would like to commend your newspaper for keeping the public informed about the proposed Panoche Valley solar plant.  It’s important to have non-biased information reported to the public. 

I have been following this project for over a year when I first found out that my land was listed as part of the project site in the conditional use permit that Solargen Energy, Inc. had submitted to the county planning department. I had never been contacted by this company and was surprised that they would submit an application to the county that included property they did not own. Over time I have come to realize that Solargen is very creative with their many revisions of this project and the potential jobs and income it could provide to our county. The numbers Solargen has been presenting are inflated and based on best case scenarios. If it were not for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding that is available for renewable energy projects, this company would have never embarked on this venture. 

We do not need to sell our agricultural lands to developers to produce renewable energy or to create jobs. Jobs can be created in Hollister, San Juan Bautista and Tres Pinos through the CaliforniaFirst program which allows property owners to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects on homes and businesses. This program will not only help create jobs, it will also help reduce utility costs directly to the residents of San Benito.  The creation of large industrial solar plants will only increase our electric bills due to the higher cost of building such a large project with the developers selling the electricity to utility companies who in turn sell it back to the public at a higher cost. These companies are after all trying to run a business and make a profit.

I hope the public continues to look further than the forward looking statements made by Solargen and speak out whether they support or oppose this project. I for one am in opposition and believe in our need as a nation to preserve and protect our agricultural lands from development.

Maxine Davis, Paicines