The Gold Rush is on in Washington: Alternative Energy
There's a new gold rush and it's a big one. On the money and jobs front, alternative energy rivals biotech and computing. Politically and environmentally, its potential is more profound. The way we design the infrastructure of this emerging industry will help determine our response to core political questions of our day: how well do we use our land-based resources? Can we build an energy infrastructure in this state that is more friendly to our local environment, economy, and communities than what we've got now?
Like the old-fashioned kind of gold rush, this one's sited mostly out in the open country, in farmlands and grasslands and on the mountains. But it's as urban or industrial as it is rural. Wild Horse Wind Farm, which will help light up my house in South King County, provides an iconic example of a rural and wildland presence that powers the metropolitan areas. Its meteorological towers, 127 (or so) wind turbines, underground cables and 32 miles of road, are being constructed now on Whiskey Dick Mountain in Kittitas County. It's a monument of the renewable age, that will loom 2,400 Feet above the Yakima River Valley to the west and 3,000 feet above the Columbia River Valley to the east. And it's expected to add more than $4.5 million to the local economy and to become Kittitas County's largest single taxpayer. Wild Horse is the second wind farm owned and operated by Puget Sound Energy. In addition to these mammoth projects, smaller, 10 kW, turbines are beginning to dot Washington's landscape. Our Wind Coop invests in these turbines for farms and ranches, funded partially through Green Tags that anyone can purchase.
Gold rushes tend to be rich with promise and culture-changing significance. As the stakes of climate change impacts and war in the Middle East intensify, our 'good citizen' response to the promise of renewable energy - our alertness, our action on its potential to help us face our challenges - becomes a more critical factor in determining our direction on matters of environment, war and peace and economic stability.
Many choices face us. Here's an example of one that's a "secret" hidden right out in the open, an example of an opportunity that can silently pass us by as we blink.
We've got an energy initiative, I-937 , that will make the ballot if enough people sign the petitions before the July 7 deadline. I-937 requires utilities to supply an increased percentage of their supply from renewables (or conservation). The outcome on I-937 is a key event for us. Among other things, its fate may be a deciding factor in whether we get a brand new coal plant in Kalama, Washington - or whether we turn for that new demand to other sources such as wind, solar, and conservation.
Lisa Noble Rennick, Outreach Director for Northwest Energy Coalition, wrote me in an email that coal is the resource that utilities are turning to right now to meet growing energy demand. "There's really nowhere to put up another dam that will supply a significant amount of energy, so the hydro system is more or less maxed out. Natural gas is currently priced so high compared to our current rates that it's not competitive. This leaves two main choices: coal or renewables." - or, as she then goes on to say, "We also always stress that energy efficiency can meet a large portion of our growing needs." Amazingly, as much as half our 20-year projected growth in demand, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, can be met by conservation.
Where we go on renewables is an economic, environmental, and social justice issue. Consider, for example, that alternative energy has many synergistic connections with sustainable farming - and that sustainable farming has been struggling with great success but also some vulnerability to establish new markets and to maintain its independence and vitality in the face of multiple critical challenges. If we end up with an alternative energy infrastructure that has a good mix of big projects like Wild Horse - as well as small community-based projects such as those that Institute for Washington's Future and NW Sustainable Energy for Economic Development collaborate on with local communities, the economic and cultural environment in Washington is likely to be more hospitable not only for 'children and other living things' but also for sustainable farming.
Our problems in this world express themselves in melting glaciers and disappearing jobs and family farms. They start in the mind. Imagine that labor, and peace and social justice advocates, environmentalists, farmers, agrarians, business owners, economic traditionalists, evangelicals, and what Northrup and Lipscomb refer to as: the increasingly large and prominent group of architects, elected officials, and concerned citizens advocating the New Urbanism - were politically aligned on the key land use issues of our day. We'd likely be better equipped to transition away from the excesses of an increasingly top-heavy and centralized economy that appears to be leading us ever deeper into environmental degradation and war. Wouldn't it be lovely to head in that other direction, toward a resilient peace and broad-based citizen consensus on what makes for a healthier environment, toward a more collaborative public spirit bridging the regional and ideological divides?
The Gold Rush is on in Washington: Alternative Energy | 4 comments (4 topical)
The Gold Rush is on in Washington: Alternative Energy | 4 comments (4 topical)
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By Lurleen (0 comments) Related Links+ Quilomene Wildlife Area+ Wild Horse Wind Farm + add more than $4.5 million + second wind farm owned and operated by Puget Sound Energy + Our Wind Coop + Green Tags + I-937 + coal plant in Kalama, Washington + Northwest Energy Coalition + Institute for Washington's Future + NW Sustainable Energy for Economic Development + agrarians + New Urbanism + key land use issues of our day + More on Environmental issues + Also by noemie maxwell Washblog RSS FeedsPolitical ContactsLocal MediaCoastal/Grays HarborAberdeen Daily World Chinook Observer Montesano Vidette Pacific County Press Willapa Harbor Herald KXRO 1320 AM Olympic Peninsula Peninsula Daily News Bremerton Sun Bremerton Chronicle Gig Harbor Gateway Port Orchard Independent Port Townsend Leader North Kitsap Herald Squim Gazette Central Kitsap Reporter Business Examiner KONP 1450 AM Sound and Islands Anacortes American Bainbridge Review Voice Of Bainbridge San Juan Journal The Islands' Sounder Whidbey NewsTimes South Whidbey Record Stanwood/Camano News Vashon Beachcomber Voice Of Vashon KLKI 1340 AM North Puget Sound Bellingham Herald The Northern Light Everett Herald Skagit Valley Herald Lynden Tribune The Enterprise Snohomish County Tribune Snohomish County Business Journal The Monroe Monitor The Edmonds Beacon KGMI 790 AM KELA 1470 AM KRKO 1380 AM Central Puget Sound King County Journal Issaquah Press Mukilteo Beacon Voice of the Valley Federal Way Mirror Bothell/Kenmore Reporter Kirkland courier Mercer Island Reporter Woodinville Weekly Greater Seattle Seattle PI Seattle Times KOMO TV 4 KIRO TV 7 KING 5 TV KTBW TV 22 KCTS 9 UW Daily The Stranger Seattle Weekly Capitol Hill Times Madison Park Times Seattle Journal of Commerce NW Asian Weekly West Seattle Herald North Seattle Herald-Outlook South Seattle Star Magnolia News Beacon Hill News KIRO 710 AM KOMO AM 1000 KEXP 90.3 FM KUOW 94.9 FM KVI 570 AM South Puget Sound The Columbian Longview Daily News Nisqually Valley News Lewis County News The Reflector Eatonville Dispatch Tacoma News Tribune Tacoma Weekly Puyallup Herald Enumclaw Courier-Herald The Olympian KAOS 89.3 FM KCPQ 13 KOWA FM 106.5 UPN 11 Cascade/Okanogan Ellensburg Daily Record Levenworth Echo Cle Elum Tribune Snoqualmie Valley Record Methow Valley News Lake Chelan Mirror Omak chronicle The Newport Miner Spokane/Palouse The Spokesman-Review KREM 2 TV Spokane KXLY News 4 Spokane KHQ 6 Spokane KSPS Spokane Statesman-Examiner Othello Outlook Cheney Free Press Camas PostRecord The South County sun White Salmon Enterprise Palouse Boomerang Columbia Basin Herald Grand Coulee Star Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Yakima Herald-Republic KIMA 29 Yakima KAPP TV 35 Yakima KYVE Yakima Wenatchee World Tri-City Herald TVEW TV 42 Tri-cities KTNW Richland KEPR 19 Pasco Daily Sun News Prosser Record-Bulletin KTCR 1340 AM KWSU Pullman Moscow-Pullman Daily News |