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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:20 AM To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 $20 billion worth of investments that won't be made. While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America's premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany - 540 high-paying engineering jobs - because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not. In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. "Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets." The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious - the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout. Copyright 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html> The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/> ---------------------------------------------------- Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-279-6618 (cell) 1 Maple Avenue Lansing, NY 14882 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sustainable Tompkins Program Coordinator w_ww.sustainabletompkins.org_ (http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/) Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities Regional Coordinator Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850 [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851) _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
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