Thinking is good, overthinking isn't

I’ve argued that you cannot consider in isolation the benefits — in employment and development — of the GlobalFoundries chip plant. You have to consider whether state and local taxpayers received a better return on the more than $1.2 billion in cash and tax breaks awarded to GlobalFoundries than they could have if that money was used for regional economic development that took a different approach.

What if that money had been channeled into strengthening infrastructure and helping small, existing businesses throughout the region instead of poured into a single, massive, elaborate project?

With $1.2 billion, the state could have made $100,000 available to 12,000 local entrepreneurs and small local businesses from Albany to the Canadian border. That cash could have been used to start new businesses and expand existing ones across northeastern New York.

You can use different strategies for economic development, and it’s worth debating whether pouring all your treasure into one enormous effort is the smartest and most sustainable course.

But it makes no sense to argue, as Queensbury resident Travis Whitehead did recently, that the cost of federal tax breaks for one green energy project outweigh the savings on energy bills Warren County will realize.

Whitehead said a solar project Warren County is looking at will lead to about $185,000 in savings over 20 years.

The county administrator, Paul Dusek, says the county could save as much as $75,000 a year. Even if it’s $50,000 a year, that’s $1 million in savings over 20 years, so Whitehead’s estimate could be on the very low side.

But he really goes wrong in weighing those savings against federal green energy tax breaks, which he says could range from $340,000 to $520,000 for this project.

That money has been budgeted for green energy projects. If it doesn’t go to this one, it will go to a different one, somewhere else.

If you don’t play by the rules that exist, and instead allow competitors — in this case, other regions — to seize opportunities that yours could have seized, you’re a fool.

Any savings we realize from a green energy project are just that — savings. And there is something else to think about with projects like this that make them especially worthwhile.

Every investment in green energy adds to the hope for a future in which the activities of our lives are not destroying our natural environment. That “hope benefit” is one of the strongest arguments for going ahead with solar projects like this one and other investments in green energy.

Thinking is good, overthinking isn"t