Grateful to Crespo for wind farm bill

I want to express my appreciation for state Rep. Fred Crespo's efforts in passing the new School District Intergovernmental Cooperation Renewable Energy Act.

The bill, signed into law last week, will provide Dundee Unit District 300, Keeneyville Elementary District 20 and Prospect Heights Elementary District 23 the ability to offset their own energy costs by forming a consortium and building a 20-megawatt wind farm in Stark County, set to be operational in the fall of 2011.

Using the federal dollars issued as a part of a national green movement, the upfront cost of the project is highly subsidized by the national government; coupled with the districts saving over $2 million a year for the 30-year project.

In approximately seven years the project will yield a positive cash flow, by reducing our operating expenditures enabling us to harvest our own energy and sell it on the open market. This piece of legislation has been in the works for over two years, and if it wasn't for the tenacity and dedication of Rep. Crespo it would have never been done.

I have to admit my own frustration with the major energy companies and their reluctance to put the futures of our children above quarterly reports, staring at a $1 billion fallout of revenues if all school districts in Illinois would start producing and harvesting their own energy.

Crespo was instrumental in hammering out a compromise that would allow the school districts to become independent producers of our own green energy, which we would in turn sell to utility companies and use the profits to offset our own rising energy costs.

We can now vividly teach our students the inner workings of green energy, while exemplifying exactly what we can accomplish when we work together. Rep. Crespo found a way to provide state institutions the opportunity to independently raise revenue while not adversely affecting the Illinois taxpayer, a true win-win.

He had nothing to gain from this, he did it because it was what was best for the kids.

Gary Ofisher

Director of Operations, Keeneyville Elementary District 20