This is from ZNet's sustainer service. I have found much interesting information on the ZNet web page and would encourage people to check it out. Regards, Aaron Hoffer. >Local Energy, Local Democracy >By David Cromwell > >In their 1996 book "Who Owns the Sun?", solar energy >campaigners Daniel Berman and John O'Connor rightly declared >that "democracy is a false promise if it does not include >the power to steer the energy economy". It's a crucial point >that not even Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth appear to >have grasped; should we really be leaving it to the oil >companies to create the solar revolution? > >Climate change is arguably the greatest threat facing >humanity. Society's addiction to fossil fuels - hard-wired >by corporate greed and government handouts to the fossil >fuel industry in the form of tax benefits and subsidies - is >driving us relentlessly down a highway of self-destruction. >Diverting from such a suicidal course will require a twin >revolution: switching to renewable energy generation and, at >the same time, boosting the power of local democracy. This >may seem an odd combination at first sight, but the >reasoning behind it encapsulates precisely why opposing >economic globalization and replacing it with an ecological >alternative is so important for the well-being of people and >the planet. > >Here in the UK, the Royal Commission on Environmental >Pollution has just told the British government in a new >report that carbon dioxide emissions must fall by 60 per >cent in the next 50 years if there is to be any realistic >possibility of even "a tolerable effect on the climate". But >how likely are such "huge cuts" while transnational >corporations dictate how society produces and consumes >energy? According to the San Francisco-based Transnational >Resource and Action Center (TRAC), "Big Oil's long-term >strategy is still dictated by the urge to explore". New >exploration as well as oil or gas pipelines threaten the >survival of peoples in the Amazon basin, Southeast Asia, and >North America. BP Amoco, the world's largest solar company, >is committed to spending $5 billion in the next 5 years on >oil exploration and production in the sensitive environment >of Alaska alone. This dwarfs the trifling sum of $45 million >recently spent on its solar business division. Meanwhile, >Shell proudly proclaims that it is "focusing [its] energies >on developing [renewable energy] solutions" even as its >annual reports project fossil fuel growth and depict maps >highlighting the global reach of its oil and gas >enterprises. Shell's investment in renewables is only 10 per >cent of the oil giant's spending on hydrocarbon exploration >($1 billion annually), 0.8 per cent of its global investment >($12 billion) and only 0.06 per cent of its global sales >($171 billion): a drop in the barrel, in other words. Other >companies such as the combined Exxon-Mobil, the world's >largest oil corporation, are doing even less to develop >renewables. > >In the global economy, the unsustainable expansion of >corporate activities into ever-larger markets means that >there is an almost irresistible force driving the formation >of mega-companies of all types. Growth demands further >growth, and if companies do not expand in today's >"internationally competitive" markets they stagnate and die. >Smaller enterprises are swallowed up whole or trampled >underfoot in the stampede to maintain or increase returns on >short-term investment, or even simply to repay loan capital. >The business of generating energy is no different in this >respect to other industrial operations; there is an inherent >trend away from small-scale, community-based enterprises >towards large-scale, centralised operations. It should >therefore come as no surprise that oil companies are engaged >in a frenzy of mergers in a similar manner to news >corporations, investment firms and biotech industries. >Describing the ongoing BP Amoco merger, The Independent >newspaper in London coolly reported that "the existing cost >reduction plan involves 10,000 redundancies, of which 6,000 >have already been achieved". At Exxon and Mobil, job losses >will exceed 9,000. As TRAC notes, Exxon had already been >cutting jobs at the rate of 4 per cent every year for over a >decade. > >Rather than pursuing such a destructive energy policy - in >which corporations continue to overload the atmosphere with >global-warming gases, destroy jobs and damage sensitive >ecosystems - society could be using local renewable energy >sources. These come in many forms: wind, wave, solar, >geothermal, small-scale hydro, biomass fuels. Some of these >are available at every location around the globe. >Consequently, small-scale decentralised economies would be >able to make use of a range of local energy sources for >local needs. On the other hand, large industrialised >economies with urbanised centres are locked into centralised >power sources that convert fossil fuel or nuclear power into >electricity, which is then transmitted over hundreds or even >thousands of miles. This is extremely wasteful: two-thirds >of the energy in fossil fuels is lost in the production and >transmission process. Electricity is an indefensible luxury >for 90 per cent of our energy uses. Lighting and heating >homes, for example, can be made much more energy-efficient >by adopting "passive" solar building designs, low-energy >lights and tight insulation. > >Energy efficiency is vastly underexploited. US journalist >Ross Gelbspan points out that "as a bridge to a new energy >era", the economics panel of the UN Intergovernmental Panel >on Climate Change has identified a number of steps, called >"no regrets" policies. At virtually no cost, these could >reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 20 per cent. They >include such simple steps as implementing known efficiency >and conservation techniques, planting more trees (to absorb >carbon dioxide), and instituting international standards for >energy-efficient appliances. Such measures should be >encouraged at the same time as a switch to green energy. >Removing fossil fuel and nuclear tax credits and subsidies >which currently promote the destruction of the global >environment and diverting them to windmill farms, home-based >fuel cells, photovoltaic panels and hydrogen fuel plants >would provide the necessary boost to propel renewable energy >into the big league of global industry. Renewable energy >analyst Scott Sklar estimates that for every million dollars >spent on oil and gas exploration, only 1.5 jobs are created; >for every million on coal mining, 4.4 jobs. But for every >million spent on making solar water heaters, 14 jobs are >created. For manufacturing solar electricity panels, 17 >jobs. For electricity from biomass and waste, 23 jobs. > >In modern "civilisation", the population tends to cluster in >large cities in which a high-consumption lifestyle is >encouraged. Profligate energy use, international trade and >the concentration of millions of people in urban centres are >therefore intimately linked. This is why a decentralised, >solar-based economy must go hand in hand with a revitalised >locally-based democracy; one cannot succeed without the >other. What would such a society look like? Based on >suggestions presented by Berman and O'Connor in "Who Owns >the Sun?", a blueprint for a solar society would >incorporate: > >* Public ownership of energy - just as is the case with >water or schools in some countries and American states. > >* Massive investment in renewable energy technologies and >building design, by diverting tax breaks and subsidies from >fossil fuel and nuclear energy. > >* Access to loans, tax credits and rebates for >photovoltaics, solar water heating, wind and small-scale >hydro generators, and other forms of renewable >energy-generating and energy-saving technologies. > >* Net metering (i.e. monitoring electricity flows) and >rate-based incentives, so that independent home- and >business-based electricity producers are paid the same price >for electricity they supply to the grid as they would be >required to pay for the grid power if they used it. > >* Partnerships between industry, government and local >communities to oversee the new green industries, in order to >ensure that the public knows what is being produced in a >factory, by what means, and how any wastes and by-products >will be managed. > >* New government legislation to ensure that all this is >carried out. > >None of the above will happen if we simply leave it to the >giant oil corporations to tinker with solar renewables - as >Shell and BP Amoco are doing - while they bulldoze ahead >with exploration and production of new oil and gas >reservoirs. Citizen control over a decentralised solar >economy is in direct competition with the profit imperative >of such large companies. The present policy of governments >and mainstream environmental organisations is to leave it up >to fossil-fuel corporations and big utility companies to >bring about a solar revolution. As Berman and O'Connor warn: >this will "guarantee that the coming Solar Age will arrive a >century behind its time, and that it will be every bit as >autocratic as today's fossil-fuel economy". Decentralised >renewable energy directed by local communities will only be >won at the expense of the private energy monopolies who are >currently engaged in cut-throat competition to protect and >expand their share of the energy market. Warlike metaphors >abound in company rhetoric. Earlier this year, Shell group >chairman Mark Moody-Stuart glowingly described his company >as "a great fleet of destroyers and torpedo boats". It's >time to scuttle this fossil-fuel armada and launch a new >fleet of solar-driven vessels fit for the twenty-first >century. > >David Cromwell is an oceanographer and writer in >Southampton, UK. His first book "Private Planet" will be >published later this year by Jon Carpenter (Charlbury, UK). > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
