A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Friday’s terrorist attacks in France probably strengthened the hands of the people who want David Lenio put on trial, and put back in jail while his trial is conducted. The images of the carnage in Paris will make it easier for people, including potential jurors, to envision what could happen were their worst fears about Lenio realized.
I do not know whether Lenio is guilty of the crime of which he is accused. That’s for our criminal justice system to decide. But I’m increasingly convinced that some people on the national level want to use Lenio as the poster boy for a campaign against firearms. For that, they need him found guilty of a felony. And I suspect they want a jury to find him guilty at the end of a show trial during which tons of evidence of his alleged evil ways — evidence that can and will be described on the poster — are entered into the record.
I wonder whether Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan is becoming exasperated with this campaign to pressure his office into hanging Lenio high. And if he is exasperated, to what extent he’s exasperated.
Update. Jon Hutson is still trying the case in the press. See his screed at Montana Cowgirl today.
There are strong Democratic candidates for Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, and the Office of Public Instruction, but not for AG. That’s because the trial lawyers and the party’s leaders think Republican AG Tim Fox is unbeatable. No one’s unbeatable, but Fox will be hard for a Democrat to beat — if Fox is on the ballot for the general election.
That’s not a given. Fox angered many Republicans with his support of the CSKT water compact. He’ll face a serious primary challenge. One potential challenger is Bozeman’s Rep. Matt Monforton, who is not running for re-election to the legislature.
If Fox loses the primary, and Democrats do not have a serious, well funded candidate for AG, they could blow an opportunity to pick up an important statewide office.
This time, as reported by the Missoulian’s Kim Briggeman, the gardener is the Missoula Electric Cooperative, which is building a 176-panel photovoltaic array with a DC nameplate capacity of 50 kilowatts. The AC output is not specified, but probably will be 15–20 percent lower. MEC says the array’s installer estimates the mean annual output of each 285-watt (DC) panel will be 339 kilowatt hours.
MEC members will purchase the 25-year output of a panel, but not the panel itself, for $700. The net cost of a 285-watt panel at Flathead Electric’s Stillwater solar garden is $630 after panel purchasers collect the 30 percent federal tax credit on the $900 panels. FEC estimates its panels will have a mean annual production of 359 kilowatt hours.
FEC’s panels are in a south facing array tilted 30 degrees from the horizontal. That’s an optimization for spring, summer, and fall. I could not find a tilt value for MEC’s array, but the photograph of it in the Missoulian suggests a tilt equal to the site’s latitude (46–47° N). That’s the standard for annual optimization, but not a good choice for sites with cloudy winters.
MEC’s FAQ (PDF) on its solar garden makes this odd statement:
Energy production will vary from month to month and year to year based on weather.
That’s correct, but it’s not the full story. Production is also a function of the amount of sunlight hitting the panels, and that varies considerably on a seasonal basis. I find myself wondering whether MEC’s solar gardeners understand this.
Simply saying the installer estimates an annual output of N kilowatt hours is not enough. At a minimum, the RECs should disclose the numbers for the parameters identified in Section 3.10 of the Solar Business Code of the Solar Energy Industries Association. I’d also like to see column charts with error bars for mean monthly production, and for mean hour-by-hour production for the 15th of each month. Supplying these data is not an onerous task.