In Portland, Ore., a federal building is getting a massive makeover to enhance its energy efficiency and make it “greener” — literally.
Vegetation will be planted 200 feet high along the west face of the 18-story building. The idea is to create shade to cut cooling costs. Other planned renovations include solar panels, as well as plumbing that uses less water.
Officials estimate they will save $280,000 annually in energy costs.
But there’s a problem: The cost of the renovation is $133 million.
Even an elementary school math student can see that those numbers don’t add up. Dividing the $133 million cost by the annual energy savings of $280,000 shows it will take 475 years for the project to pay for itself — assuming the building is around long enough to recoup the expense. And of course, that’s $133 million that will not be used on other, more productive ventures, so the true cost is even greater.
It is important to note that the work is being paid for involuntarily by taxpayers, not by a private company. Few private businesses would squander such a huge sum of money for such a paltry return just so they could brag about being “green.”
The Portland building renovation is being paid for with federal tax or borrowed “stimulus” dollars — another sign of how ridiculously wasteful the stimulus is. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., point out that a completely new and far larger federal building was built in pricey San Francisco for only slightly more than it will cost just to renovate the Portland building.
It seems that once again, our federal government has not done a cost-benefit analysis before embarking on the latest expensive boondoggle.