News Report - Can Greenville go "Green"?

Can Greenville go “Green?”

By Bob Robinson

Do you see “green” in Greenville’s future? Greenville High School senior Paul Reitz does. He has a plan to power nearly all of the city with windmills and says it can be implemented by the time he graduates from high school next year.

Reitz was a House Page in Washington, D.C. this past spring, and will be talking to a number of groups about his experience. While performing his duties for the House of Representatives, he had to take classes to maintain his high school credits for the semester. One of those classes was on energy and public policy.

“We had to draft our own energy bill,” he said. “I chose wind power as my project.”

Reitz said that he designed a public works program to rebuild the power grid across the country to provide windmill power from the Midwest.

“They don’t build many windmills here because the major populations aren’t here. The people are on the coasts, but that isn’t where the wind is. Most wind energy comes up through the Gulf. The Midwest. It can power the country.”

While working on that project, Reitz had an idea to carry it a step further. How can he help Greenville become “green” and save consumers money at the same time?

He said that, particularly in the Midwest, windmills and solar can easily power small communities. The investment is “minimal” and the resulting energy would be cheaper to the consumer.

He referred to two basic types of windmill: the one megawatt windmills like those in Union City, and “industrial” windmills which generate 3.5 megawatts of power. His approach for Greenville is two industrial windmills. Each will generate enough electricity to power 1,400 homes.

The up front cost for two is $6 million. Reitz said half of that can be covered by as many as eight different available grants. They are federal grants handled through Strickland’s office (who Reitz said is liberal in his distribution of these funds).

Regarding the source of the money and the federal spending spree, he grinned.

“Just because the system is broken, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take advantage of it,” he said.

Reitz said the money can be borrowed for the balance. The windmills will take six months to build, and once they start producing the loan can soon be paid off. When they are paid for, the savings can be passed on to the consumer.

Reitz said he has thoroughly researched the project and, while the details are more complicated, he believes a local power grid can be built that will represent considerable consumer savings. It will also offer opportunities to promote the city of Greenville as the “Green” community.

“There are four areas of opposition that I can think of,” he said.

The first is that local energy companies will like the idea but won’t want to lower their rates.

“I had a teacher who said businesses and corporations are like cattle,” he said. “They eat and eat and eat, and when the food runs out, they move somewhere else. Their sole purpose is their bottom line.”

The second, he said, is the up front cost. It will scare people… but if you break it down it can easily be handled.

Third are the doubters… the people who simply don’t think it can – or will – happen.

Finally, it’s the bureaucracy…

“Can it move fast enough to accomplish this?”

Reitz said he has the plan to get it done and wants to present the details to community leaders who can act on it.

“My goal is to do this in less than a year,” he said.

Reitz will be speaking about his experiences as House Page to Darke County’s Youth in Politics Thursday at 6 p.m., Brethren Retirement Community Private Dining Room; and again at noon August 4 at Greenville Kiwanis, BRC Community Center.

Bob Robinson is the retired editor of The Daily Advocate, Greenville, Ohio. If you wish to receive notification of his comments, opinions and reports when they are posted, send your email address to: opinionsbybob@gmail.com. Feel free to express your views