Ken SchreinerDemise by Design: Utah’s Political “Leaders” Fail Environmentally and Economically
As the lung-piercing Shroud of Doom settles again into our happy valley, thank your friends in Congress and the Utah legislature for doing virtually nothing. Their ignorance and inaction is not only killing us literally. It’s killing us economically. Clean energy research firm Clean Edge’s annual Energy Trends report predicts a 39% revenue increase for the renewable energy resources industry this year. That includes solar, wind power, biofuels and fuel cells. Growth over the next ten years, according to Clean Edge, will be around 262% from 2005. “The steady and rapid growth of clean energy has become an old story” they conclude. But our political leaders have not seen the story yet or, worse, ignored it. Our federal and statewide representatives are blind, stupid, don’t care or- my conclusion- don’t want to know about climate change or the clean energy revolution. By remaining comfortably numb, buried in the deep pockets of Big Energy, supporting antiquated, dirty sources like coal and oil, they are missing the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st Century as well as dooming us and our children. Venture capitalists are leading the charge into alternative energy, pouring an estimated $2.3 billion into clean energy this year. This includes experimental and potentially revolutionary new energy sources like algae, cow manure and wood chips, to name a few. There are some clean energy projects going on it Utah. The E.P.A.’s LMOP program turns methane emissions from the Salt Lake Valley Landfill to deliver electricity to 2,500 homes. Another private venture near Skyline by converts swine manure into biodiesel fuel. Utah Clean Energy’s web site says 17,000 individuals and more than 400 businesses in Utah currently use renewable energy. Moab was chosen the first E.P.A. Green Power Community in the country in 2004. The conditions are perfect. Despite their abundance here, solar, geothermal, bio and wind resources in Utah develop at a snail’s pace, handcuffed by politics, regulations and lack of funding. This microscopic progress is accomplished with little help from our congressional delegation or legislators. Utah Clean Energy struggles to tout the miniscule achievements of the past state session. But their list is notable for the failure of the most important measures, including significant action on our air pollution crisis. The Tribune finally took the legislature to task for their failure to deal with our air problem in the past session, a week after I did. But their editorial today fails to shine even a 40-watt fluorescent bulb on Utah’s real power outage. Just last week, Governor Huntsman opted out of the new Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, instead advocating development of old, dirty and destructive sources like coal, oil and natural gas. To his credit, Jon-Boy is at least investigating alternative energy though mostly paying lip service to it while other western states zoom past us. He’s culpable for Utah’s failure by not pushing hard enough. But at least he’s not embarassingly oblivious to the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy and realizes Utah’s tremendous wealth of solar, geothermal and other alternative resources. Utah’s Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop were not only humiliatingly stupid but combative during last week’s “Evolving West” hearings in Washington focusing on energy. With alternative energy promising immediate and long-term economic and environmental benefits, Utah looks brainwashed and enslaved by Big Energy thanks to these myopic meatheads. While eager venture capitalists take their money elsewhere and tenacious entrepreneurs carry Utah’s energy future, the best Utahns can do is buy their products, vote out our bad, regressive, and irresponsible representatives and replace them with the good and the green.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:34 am
I tried calculating my household carbon footprint. Even though I drive 12,000 miles a year (equal to the national average) and haven’t flown anywhere in the last year, by virtue of living in Utah I scored higher than the national average. Not sure why, but maybe they factored in our inefficient electric and gas utilities? Luckily, CO2 isn’t a major contributor to global warming.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Everyone in Utah could be a good eco-citizen. But it still doesn’t get Utah’s leaders off the hook for not jumping into the alternative energy sweepstakes. For a state with a supposedly great work ethic, we look like we’re pushing a stone wheel up a hill while California and the rest are driving electric cars. It’s laziness, ignorance or, at worst, denial.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
A friend of mine pointed out that Arnold S. Gov of Calif. is pushing to have hydrogen filling stations every twenty miles all up and down the coast. He must know something our reps are refusing to see.
March 8th, 2007 at 7:05 am
The driving force behind California’s push into alternative energy is not only business opportunity and environmental concerns. The Enron rip-off hurt them more than any other state, costing consumers billions and Gray Davis the governor’s office. Another reason why Utah’s dirty coal plants will find fewer customers in the years to come and why the time is now to change.
March 8th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Ken; This is why Waxman is one of the people to watch, he has the goods on cheney, and the rest. He can provide lot’s of evidence to convict him.
Couple of days ago, I watched a video on compressed air vehicles. France will be introducing one on the market next year, that has a city range of 120 miles. A small van. It utilizes an ICE concept engine, without combustion. The air tanks are carbon fiber, which will hold 150 atmospheres, and are safe, as when they fail they leak and will not “explode”. The cost to fill the tank is 2 dollars, in electrical “fuel”. Takes 3 minutes to fill at a the station, and has an onboard compressor that will charge the tank in 4 hours from power plugged in at home.
Later plans include a small fuel cell, for outside the city driving, to enable range, or to fill the air tank in case of emergency, should you run it out in a remote area.
Either way, it would appear that our Country is about to be left in the dust.
There is also a man in Australia, that has perfected a compressed ait engine based of the rotary Wankel. It weighs 12 pounds and powers a vehicle that weighs 1000 lbs. Needless to say these vehicles are 0 emissions.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Thanks for the info on Wax and the French. Always fascinating to hear what’s being invented. And there are many such vehicles and processes being developed in the U.S., like M.I.T.’s City Car and the urine battery (no kidding). The question is: does Utah want to be on the leading edge- which our resources prove we could be (our leaders produce more verbal methane than our cattle)- or be followers like American car companies, the TV industry, etc. Bigger than that: are we going to ignore our air pollution problem until it becomes a costly public liability? In other words- our public officials knew there was a problem, people got sick, then they sued state government, car and power companies for not doing anything about it a la the tobacco industry. Think it’s crazy? Ask Philip Morris.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Ken; the World if FLAT, don’tcha know?!!!
And Utah is sailing upon the edge of it.
The great thing about compressed air vehicles, in cities, is the ZERO emissions.
In fact the exhaust can be cleaner than the air put in, as it is all filtered.
March 8th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
It’s remarkable how fast America’s private sector is adapting to a green future. It’s equally remarkable how slow the U.S. and Utah governments are moving. If it wasn’t for the Democrats in Congress, we’d be driving ATVs on The Mall right now. But with no adequate counter-balance here in Paradise, we’ll be breathing carbon bi-products for many years to come. Yum.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Pelosi said today something to the effect that if we allow George bush to veto our best judgements on issues, it would simply be too limiting. Essentially we need to go forth despite admin goals and / or footdragging. This mindset applies equally to energy futures. I believe her exact words regarding bush’s take on stuff were, “So what”. My sentiments exactly.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Citizen Eco Drive Watch…
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….