[SustainableTompkins] Mainstream shifting from coal to wind

[Elan Shapiro]

The Energy Challenge
Resistance on the Range By SUSAN MORAN
NY Times Saturday October 20, 2007

inspiring excerpts ( full article: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/business/20coal.html?th&emc=th )

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Richard D. Liebert turned his back against a 
hard wind the other day, adjusted his black cap and gazed across 
golden fields of hay. Explaining why he is against construction of a 
big coal-burning power plant east of town, Liebert sounded like one 
more voice from the green movement.

"The more I learn about global warming and watch the drought affect 
ranchers and farmers, I see that it's wind energy, not coal plants, 
that can help with rural economic development. Besides, do we want to 
roll the dice with the one planet we've got?"

But Mr. Liebert, despite his sentiments, fits nobody's stereotype of 
an environmentalist. He is a Republican, a cattle rancher and a 
retired Army lieutenant colonel who travels to South Korea to train 
soldiers to fight in Iraq.

He is also an example of a rising phenomenon in the West. An 
increasingly vocal, potent and widespread anti-coal movement is 
developing here. Environmental groups that have long opposed new 
power plants are being joined by ranchers, farmers, retired 
homeowners, ski resort operators and even religious groups.

Activists say the increasing diversity of these coalitions is making 
them more effective........

.......C. J. Kantorowicz grows winter wheat on 6,000 acres near the 
proposed Highwood coal plant east of Great Falls. Last fall he joined 
other farmers in a zoning lawsuit against Cascade County 
commissioners to stop the plant. Until he went to an organizing 
meeting that another farmer, Robert Lassila, held at his house, Mr. 
Kantorowicz loathed environmentalists. So he winced when he was 
introduced to a pathologist who had started a local environmental 
group to fight the proposed plant. She came to talk about the public 
health and environmental risks.

"I think global warming is a hoax, and I hate to hitch my wagon to 
environmentalists," Mr. Kantorowicz said recently in his living room 
after a hard day planting winter wheat. "I went to the meeting with 
the mind that I'd shoot holes in her story, her environmentalist's 
view. But she and others convinced me they were right by being honest 
and answering our questions in detail about pollution and such."

Robert Lassila's son, Daryl, lives next door to his parents. He 
recalled some of the neighbors bristling when the meeting started.

"Many were looking at each other nervously and wondering who brought 
the environmentalists here and is there a back door to this place," 
he said. "But they stayed put and here we are, together in this 
fight."

For many farmers and ranchers, their aversion to coal is more 
pragmatic than philosophical. Their crops and livestock have been 
plagued by severe droughts and storms lately, and some wonder whether 
those are linked to global warming. Whether that proves to be the 
case, the strain on their finances has made them more interested in 
renewable-energy projects, like wind turbines, on their land.

Janyce and Leonard Harms, who grow wheat and millet in Hereford, 
Colo., near the Wyoming and Nebraska borders, last year agreed to 
allow eight towering wind turbines on their land. The turbines are 
part of the new 274-turbine Cedar Creek wind farm owned by BP, the 
huge energy company, and Babcock & Brown. The project is expected to 
churn out electricity for some 90,000 homes, mostly near Denver.

The Harmses, though a bit skeptical about coal plants, have not 
become involved in any battles. But they typify the fascination with 
wind energy that is sweeping rural America. They have received about 
$5,000 from the wind farm's owners for leasing their land, and once 
the wind farm is fully operational by year's end, they will receive 
at least $3,500 a year per turbine.

"We're not environmentalists by any means," Ms. Harms said as she 
gazed through her sliding glass door at the huge turbines spinning in 
the distance. "I see this as supplemental income. We're getting older 
and we'd like to retire. This is a great deal, and the fact that it's 
clean energy makes it even better."
-- 
Elan Shapiro
Sustainable Tompkins Program Co-Chair
Sustainable Living Associates, Principal
Frog's Way B&B
211 Rachel Carson Way
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-275-0249

"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
	          Mohandas Gandhi