The Banana Republic of Minnesota: Solar Power, Part 1

With great fanfare, our local airport announced that it will build—with your money—the state’s largest solar power project.  Yes, the same airport whose grasp of tarmac security is well, less than airtight, is diversifying its portfolio into electricity production.

As project developer Mark Andrew himself reported on his Minneapolis Star Tribune-sponsored blog,

The solar project that is the subject of today’s post was initiated by my company, GreenMark, and presented to the Metropolitan Airports Commission.  GreenMark was subsequently hired by the MAC to help develop all aspects of the enterprise, which began construction Oct. 2nd.

Yes, that Mark Andrew.  The Democrat Mark Andrew, former county commissioner, former state DFL-party chair, and first-runner-up in last year's election for Mayor of Minneapolis, is heading up the project.

The aforementioned Metropolitan Airports Commission—a state government agency, whose leadership was appointed by Democrat Governor Mark Dayton—hired Andrew’s environmental sports marketing firm to develop the state’s largest solar power project on top of two parking structures at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

What an environmental sports marketing agency would know about utility-scale solar power is beyond my ability to comprehend.  However, Andrew does list Xcel Energy as one of his clients.  Xcel is contributing $2 million of its customers’ money to help fund the airport solar project.

The $25.4 million, 3 MW project was announced last week by Gov. Dayton himself, with Arctic explorer—and Mark Andrew client and state government grantee—Will Steger by his side.  Mark Andrew reportedly kicked off the news conference portion of the launch event.

Of course, the good Democrat he is, Mark Andrew has donated $1,250 to Mark Dayton's re-election effort so far in 2013 and 2014.

As the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported,

It’s a signature project that highlights Dayton’s clean energy initiatives, including a new solar energy standard enacted by the Legislature last year requiring investor-owned utilities to produce 1.5 percent of their electricity from solar by 2020.

To recap:  a Democrat politician uses your tax money to hire a Democrat politician and campaign donor to make the first politician look good.

Once again, in our Banana Republic, it always comes down to not what you know but who you know.

In Part 2 of this series, I dig deeper into the origins of this shady solar project.