Nevada “Smart Grid” Project is Dumb Economics

Via Doug Ross @ Journal yesterday, an audit of federal stimulus spending found that $111 million in Stimulus spending “saved or created” 55 jobs at the bargain basement cost of a mere $2,018,000 each.

Yesterday, I treated you to a project-by-project look at money spent vs. jobs created, and one of the biggest boondoggles was the so-called Nevada “Smart Grid” project.  Please try not to gag as you read how the regime touts its “accomplishment:”

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84. Enabling Customers to Manage their Energy Use – Las Vegas, Nevada – $137.9 million

The Department of Energy awarded a Smart Grid Investment Grant to NV Energy for a comprehensive smart grid project that will integrate multiple smart grid technologies, including 1.3 million smart meters, dynamic pricing, customer communications and in‐home networks, grid monitoring, distribution automation, distributed renewables, and electric vehicles. This will help NV Energy manage its electric system more efficiently and enable customers to more actively manage their energy use.

Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, NV Energy serves 2.4 million Nevadans ‐‐ as well as a state tourist population of approximately 40 million annually. Additionally, the company serves more than 46,000 electric customers in the Lake Tahoe‐area of California. 15  Nevadans have been employed by this grant and NV Energy estimates that the project will  create 400‐500 temporary and 45 permanent jobs.

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• Did the project create 400 to 500 temporary jobs?  If it did, it cost between $278,000 and $347,500 each, and those jobs are now gone.
• Did the project create 15 new hires?  Do we really want to do the math on that one?  Of course we do: $$9,266,666.67 each.
• Did the project result in 45 long-term, permanent positions?  If so, it cost $3.09 million each.

I don’t care how you want to slice this one: It’s dumb economics.  The people who tout these kinds of boondoggles are either really bad at math, or they think you are really bad at math.

Democrats have to be called to account for this kind of wasteful spending.  It was money we didn’t have and money that will cost my children and grandchildren interest for decades to come.

Biden’s Friday Doc Dump: Defending the Indefensible Stimulus Package

Vice President Joe Biden released a glossy looking report (PDF) on Friday, September 17, 2010, purporting to defend the regime’s $814 billion stimulus package. Entitled “100 Recovery Act Projects that are Changing America,” it’s got to be the much anticipated Friday Doc Dump.  Because, well, it’s nothing more than a defense of the indefensible. 

I read the whole report, and my analysis shows that of the 100 projects—costing a total $8.3 billion of borrowed taxpayer money—92 of them reported jobs 16,693 jobs “saved or created.”  The projects showing job impacts cost approximately $7.5 billion, for an average cost per job created (or saved) of $447,019.41.

That’s FOUR HUNDRED, FORTY-SEVEN THOUSAND, NINETEEN DOLLARS AND FORTY ONE CENTS PER JOB “SAVED OR CREATED?!?”

THIS is the 100 best?  This is supposed to demonstrate the wonderful things we are saddling our children with billions in debt for?

As a frame of reference, the median household income in the US is about $50,000, meaning that for these projects that are “changing America,” the government spent nine times the amount of a typical job’s income.  It’s changing us, alright.

A few examples of the galling waste:

• The Nevada “Smart Grid” project, worth an estimated $137.9 million, “created or saved” 60 jobs for a per-job average of $2.3 million.
• A123, a battery manufacturer in Livonia, Michigan used $249 million to build factories that “created or saved” 90 jobs. Average: $2.8 million.
• The Kansas Broadband upgrade project cost $49.5 million and saved a grand total of nine jobs for a $5.0 million per job average.
• New dormitories at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi:  $621,000 per job.
• A new roof for the Bean Federal Center in Indianapolis: $592,000 per job.

Some of the projects in the report didn’t even bother to estimate the number of jobs “created or saved,” and for good reason.  They didn’t create or save any.  The Dallas County Hospital District borrowed $680 million to finance a hospital construction project that would have been built anyway.  The impact:  Transferring both the credit risk and the financing costs to the taxpayer for zero net job creation.   But that’s not all!  Call in the next 20 minutes and you’ll get our special $15 million deal to build electric car charging stations, $50 million to build solar panels that were going to be built anyway AND this exclusive $39 million New York Broadband upgrade!

This is not “absolutely headed in the right direction.”  This is headed right over a raging waterfall, and the only corner we’ve turned is the last river bend before the shoals.  If this money were put in the hands of taxpayers and small businesses, this recovery summer wouldn’t be such a train wreck.

The list of the 92 projects, with their estimate price tags and estimated numbers of jobs created or saved appear in the table below.  The data comes straight from the report.

Millions	Name	Jobs
1.30	Ann Arbor Autism	1
2.00	Rutgers	4
0.61	Bridgeport Youthbuild	5
8.70	Abide	9
45.00	UQM Tech	9
0.03	A Harold	10
2.50	Goshen Medical	12
49.50	KS Broadband	17
8.20	Palmetto Health	19
3.20	Equinox Chemicals	20
2.00	Dublin VA	20
3.00	Loveland Crossroads	22
4.70	Kansas Highway Patrol	22
3.40	Atlanta Cops	23
1.90	Tiara Yachts	23
3.20	Ocala roads	24
14.90	Keesler Dorms	24
6.60	Jacobsville	25
0.50	Gorman Roofing	25
0.70	Meridianville Fire	25
8.30	Toledo Police	31
3.00	Malden	35
39.50	Denver Fed bldg	40
1.60	Navassa Fire	40
10.00	Batesville WW	40
18.50	Waukegan Waste	40
22.00	Merrill Tech	40
0.06	Masley	44
10.00	Denver Housing	50
28.00	Camden HTRW	50
15.00	BWI Safety	50
22.00	Preferred Sands	50
5.00	Old Wharf	50
40.00	Pike Place Market	50
24.70	Turbine Testing	60
35.50	Bean Center	60
137.90	NV Smart Grid	60
43.00	Stephentown	60
14.60	Cherokee HTRW	60
30.00	Cornell Electronics	68
3.00	KC Housing	68
32.00	Smith Electric	70
11.00	Naperville Meters	70
29.00	Ellis Island	70
111.00	TN Smart Meter	80
30.00	New Bedford Harbor	80
118.00	EnerDel	80
20.00	Gustine Lake	89
249.00	Livonia Batteries	90
94.00	Wisc I-94	100
299.00	Johnson Ctrls	100
13.70	Grand Canyon	100
18.30	Chicago Housing	105
32.00	Amtrak Cars	108
77.00	Atlantic Ave Viaduct	110
28.00	Denver Union Sta	110
175.00	NY Bridges	120
24.90	Raleigh Nat'l Guard	122
114.00	ECOtality	125
24.80	GE Plant	135
153.50	Cancer Genome	150
105.00	Tampa Port	150
5.20	CA Smart Meters	200
21.90	Baltimore Bridge	200
25.00	SEPTA Subway	200
117.00	Kahuku Wind	200
78.00	Reveal Imaging	200
4.40	Euclid Corridor	200
51.00	Ft. Bliss	230
49.00	Battery Plant	250
198.00	Caldecott Tunnel	250
17.00	McCook Hospital	250
18.00	Middle Basin	270
9.00	Amonix	270
138.00	Nelsonville Bypass	300
107.00	Lost Creek	300
200.00	Centerpoint	300
150.00	American Battery	300
170.00	Cayuga Ridge	300
35.00	Amtrak Downeaster	324
39.00	Cree Lighting	375
19.00	Silver Creek	400
17.00	V&M Star	400
12.80	Muncie Turbines	450
71.00	Cape May	500
61.00	Dallas Rail	600
161.00	Dow Kokam	800
25.00	St. Louis Bridge	875
2,800.00	BATA	1000
30.00	Mercer Mess	1200
400.00	Abound Solar	2000