I Love Cynics!

I don’t often talk about my job. That’s because bad things can happen to those that do.

However, I’ve just had an enjoyable week meeting representatives of electric cooperatives around the country and wish to share my thoughts on the recent Region 9 meeting of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) which I participated in. I won’t say who I work for, though it’s easily guessed. I will say that some of my political ideas don’t mesh with my employer, but diversity is what makes this business so much fun.

I was pleased that during the various conferences and meetings, one topic kept returning to the discussion: renewable energy. There was a time, when I first started working in the industry, that I thought most people who worked in the electric generation were stodgy old guys hell bent on profit.

Then I began to understand the cooperative model. Non-profits owned by the people they serve are more answerable to those people. If they demand something, their Boards, CEOs and employees are going to listen.

In recent times that demand has begun to lean towards greater reliance on renewable energy and environmental conservation. If this week of meetings is any indicator, than those voices have been heard.

But there is a razor sharp point of balance. Several important issues have to be stacked and weighed in such a way that one issues doesn’t make the entire plan fall. I’m certainly no expert on cost/benefit analysis, but what I’ve already known, and what I’ve learned at this meeting can be summed up in the following.

• Cost – The costs to the consumer must be maintained in a way to keep it affordable. Renewable resources are, unfortunately, more expensive to research and develop. Over time, it can be assumed, these costs will go down, but currently they are more expensive per kilowatt-hour.
• Environment – New technologies should be less damaging to the environment. Some trade-offs should be expected. There is not a single “zero impact” technology in existence. Wind farms kill birds, hydroelectric kills fish and geothermal requires drilling and land loss. I’ll talk more about hydroelectric in a moment.
• NIMBY – Not in my back yard is a common refrain when the thought of large wind farms, solar collectors and the ever dreaded nuclear plant is discussed. We will never advance if we don’t sacrifice.

I consider myself a pretty rabid environmentalist. But I, and many others, understand that you can’t just shift from dirty to clean at the snap of a finger. There will never be a 100 percent energized grid solely from wind power, for example. Wind is not a constant resource. Neither is solar. While both are wonderfully renewable and emission free (well, unless we consider their construction…) they both rely upon resources that are not 100 percent constant. In fact, most utilities would shy away from more than 20 percent of their supply coming from these resources.

Wind power has another issue. It kills birds. Even a well researched site has this potential. Any time you put a structure that has height and moving parts some place, you can kill birds. An agreement needs to be made on what an acceptable level of kills is.

The topic of hydropower was a big one at the conference. Many environmentalists, myself included, don’t consider it a “green” resources. On most accounts, it certainly is renewable. Barring drought, geological realignment or over use of water resources, the water will continue to flow. However, a dam creates a lake where once there wasn’t one. This can seriously effect fish populations that rely on streams and rivers to reach spawning grounds, landscape, and in some cases archeological and current living space.

I could relinquish my distaste of dams, but it would take a lot of work. First, I would have to be shown that a significant percentage of spawning fish return. This would require improvements in fish ladders, as currently too few fish return, threatening species survivability.

Second, archeological surveys would have to be done prior to construction of a dam. Time should be plentiful for that work to be done. The loss historical and cultural artifacts should be avoided at all costs. Our past is what shapes our futures.

I’d like to state again how enjoyable this meeting was. I learned a lot. Due to the diversity of people in attendance, it avoided the one-sidedness that could easily be created in such an industry meeting. I place that diversity squarely on the cooperative model. By being directly answerable to the members, the bill-paying owners of the businesses, cooperatives are progressive and can quickly meet customer ideals.