Healing Our World Commentary: Energy Crisis or Greed Crisis?

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Energy Crisis or Greed Crisis?

On the same spot I sit today
Others came, in ages past, to sit.
One thousand years, still others will come.
Who is the singer, and who is the listener?
-- Nguyen Cong Tru (Vietnamese Poet 1778-1858)

Whatever the cause of the current energy crisis, a major goal of the new conservative administration in Washington has been achieved. Air quality controls have been suspended and the stage has been set for massive industrial expansion.

There are millions of miles of power lines that crisscross America. (Photo (c) J.A. Giuliano)

California began reducing its own air quality regulations in December 2000 allowing the restart of several power plants in southern California that had reached air pollution limits and had been shut down.

These actions will have a dramatic and immediate effect on our air quality. Many fossil fuel burning power plants around the nation have been cited for violating clean air standards over the years. They have antiquated equipment that the utility companies have refused to upgrade because such fixes could diminish profits.

In heavily polluted Southern California, the natural gas fired Scattergood Power Generating Plant in El Segundo is monitored 24 hours a day for air quality compliance. When the pollution levels get too high, the plant, has been reducing its output. Now, it can keep on polluting.

At 12 computers stations in the main control room of the California Independent System Operator in Folsom, California power supplies are routed to users throughout the state. (Photo courtesy California ISO)

It can discharge back into the bay up to 495 million gallons per day of that water which includes metal cleaning wastes and a host of other pollutants, including stormwater runoff. The water is also returned heated, affecting the nearshore ecosystem. Alternative energy sources do not impact the environment in this way.

The suspension of air quality regulations sets a dangerous precedent. Many environmental groups, political analysts and citizens think that the Bush administration has used the California energy shortages as an excuse to pave the way for the unregulated expansion of industries throughout the land.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham supports developing America's fossil fuel resources. (Photo courtesy Office of the former Senator)

The seeds for this crisis were sown in 1992 when Congress lifted regulations on the wholesale power market. Twenty-three states followed with their own deregulation legislation. California's crisis is no surprise to those who have followed the events since the state deregulated energy production in 1996 when then California Governor Pete Wilson signed Assembly bill AB1890 into law. The Sierra Club and many other environmental and labor groups alike condemned this legislation.

States are also allowing utility companies across the nation to include surcharges on utility bills and transfer fees if a customer switches to an alternative energy company. These fees are designed to help the utility companies pay off bad investments in failed nuclear power plants.

Power plant smokestacks in Ohio (Photo courtesy Ohio Environmental Council)

The nuclear industry, once thought to be the answer to our energy prayers, has been a complete failure. Billions of dollars in cost overruns, skyrocketing costs to deal with design failures and the deadly nuclear waste that results, and the costs of handling the waste from reactors that have to be decommissioned have taxed consumers to the limit and continue to do so.

But the Bush administration and many states will attempt to revive this deadly and failed industry. The President has already begun studying how to streamline the process so that more nuclear reactors can be built.

The dangers of nuclear power generation technology have not decreased. Each nuclear power plant creates mountains of spent fuel rods, the radioactive sources that generate the heat necessary to create the steam that powers electricity generating turbines.

Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant at San Luis Obispo, California is operated by Pacific Gas and Electric. It has been operating since March 1986. (Photo courtesy U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

In the midst of all these concerns, few leaders are speaking of alternative energy sources such as wind power, solar, geothermal and biomass power generation.

Whatever the reasons or motivations behind the energy shortages, our leaders are responding by increasing electricity costs, increasing air and water pollution, and blaming consumers for using too much power.

As consumers, we can act immediately, but not by buying into the rhetoric of the administration or the fossil fuel powered electric companies. Conservation, investments in alternative energy producers, and resistance to the construction of additional fossil fuel or nuclear plants, can lessen the crisis.

There is and has always been an abundance of energy on this Earth. The wind, the Sun, and the natural heat from inside our planet alone could supply us with free energy for lifetimes to come.

Renewable energy marketing companies buy power generated at The Geysers in California, the world's largest geothermal field. (Photo courtesy National Renewable Energy Lab)

Sadly, market forces have created significant obstacles to their efforts.

It is possible that underfunding of alternative technologies will stunt their growth while billions are spent extracting and selling the Earth's last remaining fossil fuels. Consumers need to demand that commitments be made to conservation and alternative energy sources immediately.

Electricity is not used just to light and heat homes and offices. Washington, Oregon, and California devote about 17 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to livestock production. That's enough energy to light every house in the entire country for a month and a half.

Manufacturing one pound of beef uses about one gallon of oil and 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of water. Meat and dairy farming uses many megawatts to pump that water, to run farms and slaughterhouses, power refrigeration and to power sewage plants to clean up some of the pollution produced.

It is important to remember that our diet and lifestyle choices affect power generation as well as our health and the lives of millions of animals each year.

What should our real energy needs and priorities be? The energy used by a casino, luxury hotel, or office skyscraper with its lights on all night helps line the pockets of a few affluent individuals, but it does little to warm a cold child in an inner city neighborhood.

There are many things you can do to conserve energy regardless of its cost and availability:

• Don't accept the rhetoric that the energy demand is outpacing the supply. Demand has not changed significantly. What has changed is the way power is bought and sold.

• Don't accept that supply should match the demand. Conservation, equipment upgrades, and lifestyle changes should be first on the list of remedies. Close doors and turn down the heat in your home in rooms that are not being used. Improve the insulation in your home and either replace old windows or get window coverings that will keep in heat.

• Turning off lights in rooms saves an amazing amount of energy. When you do use lights, use energy saving light bulbs.

• When you buy appliances, even small ones, read the labels and buy only energy efficient ones. Get up a little earlier in the morning and towel dry your hair instead of using a 2,000 watt hair dryer that uses as much power as it takes to light your whole house. Small appliances and electronics account for 14 percent of the average household's total energy consumption.

• Ask your employer to issue policies instructing employees to turn off the company's office lights at night. Often janitors turn on all building lights and leave them on all night. This accounts for a huge amount of energy.

As ever, the choice is ours.

RESOURCES 1. Read daily news about renewable energy and energy efficiency on the Green Mountain Energy Company website at: http://www.greenmountain.com/default.asp. This news is provided by the Environment News Service.

2. Find out how to make homes more energy efficient and what the greenest vehicles are for this model year from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy at: http://www.aceee.org/

3. Learn about wind power in the United States from the American Wind Energy Association at: http://www.awea.org/

4. Learn more about fuel cells at the Fuel Cells 2000 website at: http://216.51.18.233/index_e.html

5. Explore solar energy with the American Solar Energy Society at: http://www.ases.org/

6. There is a great deal of information about all forms of renewable energy on the website of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal government agency. Visit: http://www.nrel.gov

7. Email President George W. Bush at president@whitehouse.gov and tell him conservation must be a priority before new power plants are built. Urge him to not ignore well researched and important environmental standards for the sake of industry expansion.

8. Read an article in "The Nation" magazine about the history behind this situation. Read another Nation article with more history.

9. See some excellent tips for increasing energy efficiency in your home and business at: http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/rockesave.htm

10. Learn about alternative energy sources from the Alternative Energy Institute at: http://www.altenergy.org/

11. See a list of alternative energy resources at: http://www.serve.com/commonpurpose/contacts.html

12. The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection agency jointly conduct the Energy Star program that labels energy efficient products and buildings so buyers can identify energy savings before they purchase. Check out a store locator or just look for the Energy Star label on products like clothes washers, TVs and VCRs, heating and cooling equipment that will save money on energy bills and help the environment. Learn about it at: http://www.energystar.gov

13. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Demand that they reduce the energy use of business and industry and build new power plants that use alternative energy sources. Tell them to start with their own offices. You can find your representatives at: http://congress.nw.dc.us/innovate/index.html

[Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found sitting in a darkened room at home while the Seattle skyline of office towers burns brightly at night. Send your thoughts and ideas to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at http://www.healingourworld.com]