What is it about college towns? It seems the politicians and citizens drink some sort of Kool-aid. I recently reported on the wonderful citizens of Gainesville voting in a "gender identity" ordinance:

The Gainesville "gender identity" ordinance, which makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person's perceived "gender identity," has no exemptions for public restrooms, schools or day care centers.   This means that a man who perceives that his "gender identity" is female is legally protected to enter any public women's restroom in the City of Gainesville.  The Gender Identity Ordinance also provides legal protection for transgenders to teach school children one day as a man and another day as a woman. 

Well today I am reporting on the tree hugging tendencies of the Gainesville City Commission. The City Commission is implementing a "feed in tariff". So what is a feed in tariff? According to SmarterBuilding.com:

Beginning March 1 [2009], those in Gainesville with new solar photovoltaic systems will be eligible to receive 32 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by the system over the next 20 years.

After a “historic day” filled with accolades and anticipation, city commissioners on Thursday approved the nation’s first solar feed-in tariff ordinance, which will replace Gainesville Regional Utilities’ current rebate program.

The many proponents of the renewable energy incentive - from local residents hoping to install systems to international photovoltaic manufacturers - are projecting the policy will stimulate millions of dollars in private investment in solar energy.

What could attract that level of investment, according to Don Davis, Gainesville president of Capital City Bank, is a 5 percent return on investment after taxes in a 20-year fixed contract.

Ed Regan, assistant general manager of strategic planning for GRU, said people are “lining up” to be the first recipients of the 20-year contract.

The ordinance sets a maximum of 4 megawatts of solar panel installation a year that would take part in the feed-in tariff. However, Regan said 4 megawatts would be a huge boon considering the state of Florida only has two megawatts currently installed.

So what does this mean? It means the Gainesville City Commission is subsidizing renewable energy at the expense of those residents who decide not to install solar panels on their homes. If you install a new solar panel on your home you may sell the electricity produced to the local utility company at a fixed rate (which is higher than the going rate). Then the utility company passes on their higher costs for this energy to the rest of their customers. So tree huggers get their revenge and use OPM (other people's money) to pay for their solar systems.

Isn't this so beautifully crafted. Politicians don't pass a tax to directly subsidize solar power, they just mandate a program that ends up costing the majority of citizens more with nobody knowing the difference. You folks in Gainesville will see an extra penny or so per kilowatt hour on your bill extra and won't even pay attention. Stealth welfare for tree huggers.

Extortion by government fiat.

Government subsidizing one form of energy over another without any backlash. Devious, isn't it?

Well, now one of the proponents of this stealth program, Gainesville City Commissioner Lauren Poe was in Sarasota pushing this program. You see we have lots of Carbon Neutral Tree Huggers in Sarasota County. A group called SCOPE recently held a summit on the environment where one proposal was to mandate 100% of new construction and 50% of existing buildings install solar water heaters. Fellow RedCounty.com contributor George Fuller attending the meeting and was shocked by the political activists at the information briefing on "feed in tariffs". I am sure they were salivating as they drove home after the meeting in their Prius cars.

My thought is for Gainesville to keep whatever disease that has affected them in Gainesville, you know like the ad "What happens is Vegas stays in Vegas". We don't need your back door taxes here, thank you very much.