On Carney’s Credit Taking
Liberalgeek gave props for Bluewater to Carney yesterday, now on my drive in I heard Carney giving himself props. That’s fine and to be expected. That’s what any politician would do.
However, what did Carney really get?
This is a big construction project and Bluewater Wind was going to have to set up an office and staging area somewhere – wasn’t Delaware the logical choice since the project is 11 miles off of Cape Henlopen?
Also, once built, wouldn’t it make sense to use that staging area for any projects that are going to be built in the mid-Atlantic? What would be the point of building a base in order to tear it down in 2012?
I mean c’mon.
Why not do in in New Jersey? They have a much larger coastline and are quite accessible to everywhere Delaware can get you.
Now my turn…c’mon, admit it, Carney did really good on this and Markell was reduced to an innocent bystander role.
Well, that is the nature of the game. Carney is the Lt. Governor. If the deal fell through, we would be criticizing him for not doing enough.
Markell was a very early, very vocal supporter…which… eh…so what.
Except, Careny was playing catch-up and we all caught a break that it is an election year with a Democratic primary. (Hurray primaries!)
Anyway, I’m not as impressed with Carney’s contribution as he seems to be.
And that is what Markell can say. He can say that he was a supporter of offshore wind before Carney, that we thank Carney for doing his job in this matter, but he was late to the game and he waited until the final year of his term to do anything about alternative energy.
It may not be the smartest strategical location and the timing a little off, but if you are talking about a temporary factory (a small handful of years worth), wouldn’t it be better to find some existing infrastructure that can be retooled to construct their machinery, as opposed to building from the ground? Say a certain plant that is for sale on a certain road in Newark? A certain place where auto workers will soon be out of work?
Just a thought.
Indeed.
I received two calls from Carney asking for support for the wind power deal. I don’t know who all got calls (I’m a registered democrat, maybe it was that, maybe everybody got the calls?). That had to raise public awareness and raise the pressure. I don’t remember getting calls like that before except calls to support a candidate in the closing days of election. Maybe this is a just twist on those calls. I’m still planning on voting for Markell though.
Not a bad thought, Smitty. Rail service to the port, easy access to 95…
The idea is actually for this factory to be longer term, too. Delaware would be the hub for future installations (Think NJ, MD, VA, NC).
FTR, I am also in favor of that plant being a terminus for MARC and SEPTA.
The Chrysler plant idea was floated in the early days of the discussion. IIRC, it won’t work because the turbines are too big to fit under the overpasses (or is it underpasses?)
That’s what she said.
Seriously, I thought they laid the blades down on the bed of the truck horizontally. Are they are still too big when you do that?
I remember that discussion, too, Al, but I didn’t know what happened to it, so I didn’t know about the underpasses part.
What about the twist Geek just threw in there? Those RR tracks can access many routes. The one that splits off at the old-South Chapel St is the one that runs towards RT40, past the Amtrak yards, and then can run south past Middletown, Townsend and so forth. I know that goes down, along RT13 (closest proximity I can think of) at least as far as the Harrington/Felton area. I just don’t know if it curves towards MD at that point or continues further south in DE. Maybe they can consider a duel site, Newark does the construction from the individual pieces into much larger, maybe three or four components (the blades, and tower sections) and the destination port completes the assembly.
Damn, I’m making this complicated.
No need to drive it downstate. All they need to do is get to the river and get it on a barge, maybe even at the Port of Wilmington or the C&D canal.
Smitty
That line continues south through Wyoming, Harrington, Georgetown and Seaford.
I don’t envision people from Seaford commuting on SEPTA trains though.
No, not Geek’s idea on SEPTA/MARC, but on also using the RR for shipping the turbines, or as Jensen calls them: turbans.
Wait, were you employing some snark there?
No.
I noticed that Jensen thinks that we are going to install Muslim windmills.
It is the height of arrogance for Carney to take credit for this. This was set up for him so he could look like he had some accomplishment after 8 years in office. Markell was the first statewide official to endorse the project. He was the leader.
However, it was ordinary people who deserve the credit, not the do-nothing politicians. The pressure was on for the Senate to act if DP&L didn’t cave in. They caved. It wasn’t John Carney, and the contrast was so clear between Pat Gearity, Tom Noyes, John Kowalko and Dave Burris competing to see who could give away the most credit and that cretin Carney trying to take the credit. How could anyone want that as their Governor?
Why not fly the damn things down to the shore…
They do it out west with power pylons all the time.
In all things political there are “Sayers” and “Doers”
On this issue, Markell comes in as a “Sayer” which is important, mind you, since all of us addicted to our keyboards can consider ourselves to be of the same set.
John came in as a “Doer”. Not only was he deeply tarnished by his close association with those who tried to stab the baby in its crib, but he had to turn the entire ship around, avoid the iceberg, and head the other way.
62 for, 0 against, is “as good as it gets.”
What do we need? A “Sayer”, or a “Doer”?
What if Carney “does” the wrong things?
We need Carney to use his awesome 62-0 power to “do” everything that Jack “says.”
Al..re: low overpasses. That’s great planning coupled with well thought out land use.
In Wilmington “they” (the Corpe of whores?) built the bridges and over passes so low you can not get from Wilmington to the city’s port or Newport.
Prediction….kavips.wordpress.com becomes yenrac.wordpress.com closer to the primary.
Good on Carney, the President of the Senate, for pushing this along…and the many others as well.
Will he do the same for other bills as well that will never see the light of day or expire (oopsy) come close of business June 30?
Those RR tracks can access many routes.
Harrington is the major rail yard down state form there you can access almost any major town all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel thriugh the ways that the various lines split off
Most of these at one time were old commuter Rail lines