11/19/2010

Sorting out the Energy Issue in Maine

When I was in college, way back in the ’70s we had an energy crisis. The Saudis were mad at us and embargoed oil shipments to the United States. President Carter appeared in a sweater and told us to turn down our thermostats and lowered the speed limit to 55 mph. This was a fun time for alternative energy; we took classes about rammed-earth houses, built solar heaters and considered plans for very early hybrid-electric car retrofits from Mother Earth News. We all burned wood. Then Ronald Reagan came along on his horse and it was morning in America again, which somehow meant we could all go back to using lots of oil.

Now it’s a topsy-turvy replay of the 70′s energy crisis. We have no lines at the gas pump, but super-deep offshore wells mean environmental cataclysm is an ever-present threat. CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has reached 388 parts per million while in 1976 it was 335. Glaciers are melting everywhere and here on the shore of Maine we are bracing for noticeable sea level change, weird weather, strong storms and acidified sea water. Our gas money is coming back at us in shoe bombs.

I like to think that human beings are capable of making intelligent and abrupt changes in their behavior. After all, we made it this far. Here in Maine there is a big controversy about “industrial wind power” which is a strange new phrase combining something positive (wind power) with something sinister (industrial).

Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Opponents like to use another bad word, “corporate” to indicate that wind power in Maine has now morphed into what we came to Maine to escape. The leader of this belief system, Jonathan Carter, has even tried to prove that the energy contributions from wind turbines actually result in MORE greenhouse gasses, since their contribution is not constant. This is nonsense.

Most of what I hear about this so-called controversy leaves me speechless. What is the alternative? Coal? Nuclear? As the Beatles said, “We’d all like to see the plan.” We need to get those parts per million down now. We can’t dither around by arguing about whether climate change is real, it is. Wind is part of the solution. Maine needs wind power, tidal power, photovoltaics and smart use. We need to drive electric cars powered by green power. Stop whining.