We can no longer ignore our energy crisis

We can no longer ignore our energy crisis

June 13, 2010

There's been no shortage of wakeup calls alerting Americans to the fact we need to change our path regarding energy consumption.

Simply put, the sources we currently rely on for energy are a losing game in the short and long terms. The rules of that game mean we consume far more than we can possibly produce, and filling the gap means dealing with nations that often have only a passing connection to our best interests.

Along the way, we're destroying our environment in ways large and small, from blasting the tops off mountains to an oil spill that is producing the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez every five days, with no end in sight, which is a death warrant for ecosystems.

But for every wakeup call, we seem to have rolled over and hit the snooze button, at least on a national level. We saw it again last week with efforts in the U.S. Senate to derail a comprehensive climate and energy bill.

At the state level, the news was a little brighter. Legislation in the General Assembly was put forth to direct the state treasurer to sell all its pension investments in Massey Energy Corp., which has been under fire for its environmental and safety records after an explosion in April killed 29 of its miners. The state also joined with nine other East Coast states to form a group to promote the development of offshore wind resources.

Duke Energy last week asked its suppliers for estimates of the costs of coal that doesn't include coal mined via mountaintop removal. North Carolina is the top consumer of mountaintop removal coal. Nationwide, a little over 6 percent of coal output comes from mountaintop removal. In the Tar Heel state, approximately half of our electricity is produced by coal-fired plants, and about half of that coal comes from mountaintop removal.

The practice essentially involves blowing the tops off of mountains to get at the coal beneath, with the waste often dumped into adjoining valleys. As much as 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been buried due to the practice, with long-term effects that are anybody's guess.

Duke's move is important. We are the second-most coal dependent state in the nation, spending $2.3 billion in 2008 to bring coal inside our borders, according to a report issued last month by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Progress Energy's Asheville plant saw a $50 million investment in coal from Kentucky alone in 2008. Duke's Belew's Creek plant saw a purchase of $321 million in West Virginia coal, much of it presumably from mountaintop removal. We sincerely hope Duke will forgo such purchases. Further, we hope the practice is banned.

The move could also help with REPS goals. In 2007, North Carolina adopted REPS, a mandatory renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolio standard. Utilities agreed to, and are required to, meet up to 12.5 percent of energy needs through renewable resources – solar, wind, tidal and biomass such as animal and wood waste and landfill methane. The goals are implemented incrementally before the 12.5 percent goal kicks in 2020.

Groups such as the Western North Carolina Alliance and North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light are gearing up local efficiency efforts that will also help toward the REPS goals. Efficiency – mundane things like insulation and caulk, financial incentives for upgrades and updated building codes – represent by far the cheapest energy saving option. And the thing about efficiency: It never spills.

Back in the nation's capitol, there was one encouraging development that could be as important as everything we've already mentioned, when a group of business leaders including Bill Gates, General Electric chief executive Jeffrey R. Immelt and venture capitalist John Doerr urged the government to triple spending on energy research and development, up to $16 billion annually. The group, which calls itself the American Energy Innovation Council, is pushing for the creation of a national energy board working toward breakthrough advances in energy technology. Considering we spend $80 billion annually for R&D for the military, the price seems reasonable. The goal seems unavoidable.

We have lived comfortably on a world and economy built on finite and fickle resources, and have long known we need to find another path. The wakeup calls continue, and the slumber button isn't going to work forever. Change is needed. We have a challenge we need to answer. It's a challenge we've answered before.

Not all that long ago, the world ran on whale oil. We found other ways.

It's time to do so again.

On the Web: The Union of Concerned Scientists' "Burning Coal, Burning Cash" fact sheet on coal in North Carolina is at http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/UCS-BCBC-factsheet-North-Carolina.pdf