Blog Archive for January, 2011
Can you talk about energy without mentioning climate?
Ever since President Obama conspicuously omitted any mention of climate change in his State of the Union address, a debate has been raging among energy wonks about whether clean energy goals can advance absent any discussion at all of global warming.
The two camps are, roughly, those who say climate change has become such a divisive issue that it’s a complete nonstarter for the public; and those who say removing climate change from the discussion takes the urgency out of clean energy policy.
A recent news story from North Dakota provides a stark illustration that supports the latter viewpoint.
The other State of the Union
Rare site: a wind turbine on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
There was another State of the Union address last week – one that also attempted to lay out a clean energy plan that both parties should support.
On Thursday, Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, delivered the 9th annual State of Indian Nations Address. Keel’s theme was one of Indian nations working toward prosperity and becoming “full partners in the American economy,” including through energy development.
One opportunity for tribal nations is energy development. Our deep relationship to the land and our reverence for the earth’s natural resources provide a clear course for our communities.
Tribes care for approximately ten percent of America’s energy resources, including renewable energy, worth nearly a trillion dollars in revenue.
And yet, only a handful of tribes have been able to successfully utilize these resources.
Keel cited the example of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes of the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota, who overcame a string of “49 bureaucratic steps” to open up their land for oil exploration. The oil revenue has been an economic boon for the long-impoverished tribes.
But if it’s that difficult to smooth the way for oil companies, you can imagine how hard it is for tribes to develop renewable energy.
Rethinking wind rankings
There's still a lot of gol-durn wind turbines in Texas.
Linda Taylor, a colleague at Fresh Energy, makes a good point in her comment on yesterday’s post about wind capacity rankings. Ranking states on installed capacity alone doesn’t make sense, she argues, because you’re comparing big states (in terms of both area and population) like California and Texas to smaller states, like Iowa.
So I whipped up a spreadsheet that includes the leading wind producing states, using AWEA’s numbers, and then added their populations (according to April 2010 Census figures) and their total electricity generation (according to Energy Information Administration stats).
Climate change and a funny little viral map
You’ve probably seen this one making the rounds – The “United States of Shame,” a map that lists off an alarming statistic about each of the 50 states.
For instance, Michigan has the distinction of having the nation’s highest unemployment rate. Illinois, the highest robbery rate. In Wisconsin, it’s the highest rate of binge drinking (no, Wisconsin, you don’t get a trophy for that).
As a recent re-transplant back to Minnesota, I eagerly scanned down the list to find my state. What would we get dinged for? Cold? Mosquitoes? Prince’s entire catalog from 1988 onward?
Ah, here it is: Tornadoes.
Huh?
State of the Union rewind
President Obama on clean energy, from last night’s State of the Union address:
This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race. In a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology – an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.
Already, we are seeing the promise of renewable energy. Robert and Gary Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company. After September 11th, they volunteered their best roofers to help repair the Pentagon. But half of their factory went unused, and the recession hit them hard.
Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert’s words, “We reinvented ourselves.”
That’s what Americans have done for over two hundred years: reinvented ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we’ve begun to reinvent our energy policy. We’re not just handing out money. We’re issuing a challenge. We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo Projects of our time.
At the California Institute of Technology, they’re developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they’re using supercomputers to get a lot more power out of our nuclear facilities. With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.
Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling. So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all – and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.
Minnesota now #4 wind producer in U.S.
A new report (PDF) from the American Wind Energy Association confirms that 2010 was a disastrous year for the wind industry. After seeing strong growth in new capacity nearly every year for a decade, wind installations in 2010 fell by nearly half from 2009.
In Minnesota, though, three large wind farms went online in the fourth quarter of 2010, pushing the state past Washington as the fourth largest wind producer in the U.S.:
Illinois vs. Wisconsin: Who’s ‘open for business’?
Wind promoters in Illinois are hoping to turn the tables on Gov. Scott Walker’s call for businesses to “Escape to Wisconsin.”
Last week, Walker placed a sign along Interstate 90 at the Wisconsin-Illinois border declaring his state “Open for Business” – a jab aimed in part at Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent approval of double-digit tax increases for businesses and individuals.
However, following Walker’s recent proposal to impose strict setbacks on wind turbines, a move that backers say would essentially ban wind development in the state, the Illinois Wind Energy Association is trying to turn Walker’s own words against him.
“In light of Wisconsin’s War on Wind,” IWEA says in a news release, “we introduce a call for wind developers to ‘Escape to Illinois.’”
Spotlight on Keystone XL
Last summer's oil spill in Michigan has raised concerns about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The Post briefly mentions the unconventional political alliances that have emerged over opposition to the project, something a Los Angeles Times story from the weekend explores in detail.
Early on, Keystone XL fit a fairly standard political narrative. The pipeline was supported by those who saw it as a way to reduce reliance on oil imports from the Middle East, environmentalists opposed it because it would dramatically increase greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s oil sands, among other reasons.
You be the judge
Minnesota’s Clean Energy Resource Teams want your vote for their Clean + Green Video Shorts Contest.
The contest is part of the upcoming Clean Energy Convergence, Feb 2-3 in St. Cloud, Minnesota (disclosure – we’re doing an ad swap with CERTs to promote their upcoming conference, but this post isn’t part of the deal). Finalists will be screened at the conference, and the winner will get $500.
At the risk of swaying the outcome, I’ll avoid sharing my thoughts on the individual videos. Some are really quite good, some are endearingly amateurish, and some manage to link energy conservation and flatulence in a way that’s probably never occurred to you before.
If you’re unable to attend the conference, we’ll post the winning video here on Feb. 4.
High-speed rail: A tale of two governors
A report from the PBS program Need to Know looks at the fight over expanding passenger rail, with a focus on Wisconsin and Illinois.
While Wisconsin’s and Ohio’s rejection of federal money for high-speed rail projects is old news, the discussion is far from over.
Reporter Rick Karr talks to Kevin Conroy, a Madison businessman who regularly has to make trips to Milwaukee. The rail service, he says, would not only spare him having to traverse occasionally dangerous highways in winter, it would allow him to get work done rather “kill a whole day” behind the wheel of a car.
The story contrasts Wisconsin with Illinois, where the promise of improved rail service is already bringing economic development to towns like Normal, about 100 miles from Chicago.
“We’ll show them,” says Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. “It’s important to be fast – we’ve got to run, not walk, to the future. And part of the future is high-speed rail.”
Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.
