We Can make a difference

I recently attended the public meeting at the Troy High School where the company AES gave their proposal to place a major wind turbine farm on Armenia Mountain. I found this to be an exciting project for our area where Bradford and Tioga Counties can help lead the way for our national energy independence. When one local gentleman spoke of his support it appeared that 85% of the applause supported him. 

Wind turbines cannot solve our energy problems alone but it is the beginning of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together that will help us wean ourselves off of fossil fuels. The current technology of wind turbines has developed by leaps and bounds over the last 20 to 30 years, such as the personal computer has. The newest turbines that they are proposing are quiet, larger and generate so much more power than the old versions.

 

Several weeks ago I was present at the Earth Works Convention in Denver where all types of solar, wind companies were presenting their products for both the home and commercial uses. Also there were builders of energy efficient homes, electric cars and appliances. The reason I was there was to promote and give workshops on my business, which is managing investment portfolios which focus on those companies that are producing products that are helping to make a more sustainable world.

 

While I was there, a women came up to me who asked some questions and told me that she was an engineer and geologist who worked for British Petroleum for eighteen years. She said she had worked on deep ocean oil rigs and has been up into the ANWAR (Artic National Wildlife Refuge). Part of my display was a graph showing the Theory of Peak Oil, and since she was an expert in oil, I asked for her personal thoughts on this issue. She said she always has to reeducate people who talk about this theory and let them know it is not a theory it is fact!

 

The Peak Oil graph shows that we have been on the downside of reserves of oil since we reached the peak in 1970. In 1970 we discovered and produced one barrel of oil for the one barrel we used. Today we are using 4-6 barrels for the one barrel that we discover and refine. The US uses 25% of the world’s energy, but with the growing demands for oil by China and India, the oil reserves which are getting fewer, deeper and harder to get to clearly show that life as we know it can’t continue. Gas will be going to $10 per gallon in the future and will we ever factor in the current cost of our military that is used to protect our oil interests in the Middle East.

 

There are actually cities around the US and Canada such as Portland, Oregon and Hamilton Ontario that have been planning for the end of cheap energy. As one keynote speaker said, twenty years from now it will be too expensive to ship lettuce from Arizona to the northeast. He says that we as communities and individuals have to start looking at what we can do so that we can all have a positive instead a negative outcome. One of the suggestions he had was that we start or continue to buy our agriculture products from local farmers and to plant victory gardens in our own yards similar to what we as a nation did in World War II.  Other little things each of us can do is as simple as replacing a standard bulb with an energy efficient florescent bulb. 

  

I wrote before that we haven’t had a true national energy policy for over 30 years. But let us not wait for the federal government to dictate to us what a sustainable energy policy should be, but let us take this opportunity these wind turbines will bring to our area to show that we are doing our part. A nice side effect will be that this company will help improve roads for those townships where they will be sited and will put around $250,000 of tax revenue back to us.