[SustainableTompkins] Dumb as We Wanna Be

Fri May 2 01:59:54 PDT 2008

Distributed power via wood, solar and small wind is part of the picture
The larger parts will fall out when all the emotions and politics are
overtaken by proven technology:
*         Electricity will be supplied by nuclear (there are no safety
or long range waste disposal problems, just irrational protests fed by
dishonest politicians) and large wind farms (with high voltage, low loss
transmission to where its needed)
*         Above electricity converting water to hydrogen for use in
transportation in existing technology power plants (like the buses in
many cities have already proven).  Willow bush and switch grass are pipe
dreams for large scale as ethanol has already proven to be a disaster.

-----Original Message-----
From: sustainabletompkins-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org
[mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of
Anthony Nekut
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 7:18 AM
To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv
Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Dumb as We Wanna Be

Gay and All -

I can't make it to the meeting Tuesday but wanted to comment on this
issue.  As you know, I am working on local energy resources, focusing on
the biomass potential of our forests.  Sustainably managed, local
forests can supply a majority of local residential space heating needs.
This process is win-win because it improves forest health by removing
dead, diseased, and otherwise low value trees to make room for high
value timber and promote natural regeneration.  Aside from limited
firewood and pulpwood production, there is currently a limited market
for this material.  In fact, chipped wood can be purchased for under
$50/ton delivered.  One ton of wood has equivalent heating value to $500
worth of fuel oil at current prices.  Currently, when forest owners
harvest low value wood for timber stand improvement, they receive
essentially no value for this material; it is barely enough to cover
their costs for a forester to mark trees for removal and for a logger to
cut the trees an deliver them to a pulp or pelleting plant.  Obviously,
there is little motivation for forest owners to make the effort and as a
result, the general health of our forests is in decline.

As fossil heating fuel prices continue to increase, more people will
want to heat with wood.  This increased demand should increase the price
of wood fuel to the point where it will be possible for forest owners to
realize some income from their low value harvests.  Private forests
owners, whose acreage accounts for over 80% of forested land, will
benefit most directly if they organize into fuel producing coops.  I am
working with Cayuga Nature Center on a project that will demonstrate
wood heating and sustainable forestry.  We have secured a NYSERDA grant
to install a modern wood chip fired boiler to heat the Nature Center
building.  It will be operational and open to the public later this
year.  We are working with Cornell Cooperative Extension to develop a
sustainable management plan for the Nature Center forests.  I hope that
this project will help raise public awareness about this renewable
energy resource.

There is plenty of good technology available to make us much more
locally energy self sufficient.  Biomass, whether from forests or
sustainably produced short rotation crops (willow, poplar, switchgrass)
can supply ditributed local heat and power installations.  Add wind and
solar to power an electrically driven transportation system.  I drive an
electric car which has only 30 horsepower and a range of under 50
miles/charge.  While the performance is poor compared to most cars on
the road and the range is limited, it serves my commuting needs very
well.  Farmers may want to start growing some oil crops to supply their
own biodiesel needs for farm equipment.  The point is, there is plenty
of existing technology that is good enough to use now.  Another point is
that renewable energy resources are diffuse. so distributed, local
energy technology makes the most sense.  We need to forget about oil
wells in Saudi Arabia and refineries in Texas and focus on what we can
accomplish right here in Ithaca.

Tony Nekut

-----Original Message-----
From: sustainabletompkins-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org
[mailto:sustainabletompkins-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of
GayNicholson at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:20 AM
To: sustainabletompkins at lists.mutualaid.org; hub at greenresourcehub.org;
TREEA at lists.ithaca.edu
Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Dumb as We Wanna Be

Given the massive failure of leadership at the federal level, what can
we  do at the local and state level to make good energy and jobs policy?

Come join us on May 6 from 6:00-8:00 at the Unitarian Church Annex to
explore ways that we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, add renewable
energy infrastructure, and create local jobs for our community.

Gay

April 30, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

Dumb as We Wanna  Be

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN  
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists
/thoma
slfriedman/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

It  is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy 
policy.  Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy 
of the people  aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. 
Hillary Clinton has  decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to 
suspend the federal excise  tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for 
this summer's travel season. This  is not an energy policy. This is
money 
laundering: we borrow money from  China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and 
take a little cut for ourselves as it  goes through our gas tanks. What
a 
way to build our country.

When the  summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, 
increased our  transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our 
contribution to global  warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we'll just get the money by  taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. 
Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a  terrible way to spend 
precious tax dollars - burning it up on the way to the  beach rather
than 
on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday  proposal is a perfect example of what 
energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global  Business Network describes as
the 
true American energy policy today:  "Maximize demand, minimize supply
and 
buy the rest from the people who hate  us the most."

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful  pandering.

But here's what's scary: our problem is so much worse than you  think.
We 
have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to  shape 
energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to  
discourage - gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars - and you want  
to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage - new, renewable  
energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting  down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been  
bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to  
stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to  
encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous

that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed

to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas

kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to  
expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should

be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling  
over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if  oil prices slip 
back down again - which often happens - investments in wind  and solar 
would still be profitable. That's how you launch a new energy
technology 
and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without  subsidies.

The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for  by
taking 
away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he  would 
veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush - showing not  one

iota of leadership - refused to get all the adults together in a room  
and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year  
solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two  years.

"It's a disaster," says Michael Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one  of
the 
biggest wind-power developers in America. "Wind is a very  
capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to

take 'Congressional risk.' They say if you don't get the [production tax

credit] we will not lend you the money to buy more turbines and build  
projects."

It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of  the Solar
Energy 
Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point  "where the 
priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics"  that it 
would turn its back on the next great global industry - clean power  - 
"but that's exactly what is happening." If the wind and solar credits  
expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000  
jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion  
worth of investments that won't be made.

While all the presidential  candidates were railing about lost 
manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one  noticed that America's premier solar

company, First Solar, from Toledo,  Ohio, was opening its newest factory

in the former East Germany - 540  high-paying engineering jobs - because

Germany has created a booming solar  market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader  in solar energy technology,

with 40 percent of global solar production.  "Last year, we were less 
than 8 percent, and even most of that was  manufacturing for overseas 
markets."

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a  reminder to me that the biggest energy

crisis we have in our country today  is the energy to be serious - the 
energy to do big things in a sustained,  focused and intelligent way. We

are in the midst of a national political  brownout.

Copyright 2008  
<http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html> The New  
York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>
----------------------------------------------------
Gay  Nicholson, Ph.D. 

607-533-7312 (home office)
607-279-6618  (cell)

1 Maple Avenue
Lansing, NY  14882
gaynicholson at aol.com

Sustainable Tompkins 
Program  Coordinator 
w_ww.sustainabletompkins.org_ (http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/) 

Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities
Regional  Coordinator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
615 Willow  Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850
agn1 at cornell.edu

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For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area,
please visit:  http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ 

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