Hello world!
Greeting Friends!
This being my first ‘official’ blog effort, any problems stem from my lack of experience with this website and second, my sincere gratitude to the good folks at sustainablewnc.org and MAIN for the opportunity.
Basic premise #1: Energy, environment and economics are all part of one larger picture. Hardly breaking news these days in some circles, however we still face the dis-association of the elements in many areas of every day life and in our public policies which in turn impacts these very issues.
Basic premise #2: We are all sharing one planet -being borrowed from future generations of all life. If you don’t really care what happens, this blog will not interest you, and possibly even irritate you!
So, from here, my hope would be a running dialogue of positive options for moving into a sustainable framework for the future, not only WNC but the Earth. Pointing out problems is fine in the context of offering a solution based on the problems as you see them, but let’s not use this forum to just complain about issues. And feel free to smile and have fun, if we don’t laugh about all this, we’ll go insane 
March 20th at Jubilee! hosts a forum on Clean Energy Options, 7:00 pm, following County Commissioners meeting where folks will be attending to again protest the Progress/Woodfin power plant proposal, among other issues. Facts show that we (WNC ) can save more money, make more money, far better protect our environment and reduce health impacts if we reject an oil powered plant and instead adopt currently available renewable energy & energy efficiency technologies and programs.
Any comments? Peace, Ned
****
It’s now March 30th, and I’m gearing up for the Woodfin Town meeting Monday the second, regarding a conditional use permit for the Progress oil fired power plant. PEC is moving to strong arm the town of Woodfin with threats of a lawsuit if they are denied their ‘right’ to build the plant, while the citizens and residents will have the opportunity to speak to the issue.
Incredibly, at the same time, this week Gov. Easely, at the prompting of Duke & Progress, has suggested cutting funding for the State Energy Office!!! Before the ‘anti-government, anti-tax’ folks jump on me, keep in mind that for all practical purposes, NC taxpayers have paid virtually ZERO to fund the SEO over the years, funding came (until this year) from a Petroleum Escrow Account (long story). SO, NC has reaped MILLIONS of dollars in direct and indirect savings as a result, at no cost, begun alternative fuels programs, refilling stations, wind programs, green building efforts, and more, more more… All effort that directly impact the revenue stream to Duke & Progress.
On the bright side, there are TWO bills in the General Assembly, H839 & S939, both of which would provide full funding for the SEO. PLEASE PLEASE contact your legislators and tell them you support these bills!!! There has never been, nor may never be, a better investment for the State of NC than the State Energy Office. Sound ‘over the top’? Do the math, chekc the figures, the SEO has saved millions of dollars for citizens and businesses, created jobs, protected the environment and increased education opportunities.
March 26th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Greetings from Colt Stamp Ridge (10 miles north of Hot Springs):
Our energy is from 20 year old photovoltaics, a solar hot water heater
and propane for a small refrigerator and stove.
I didn’t attend the Clean Energy meeting at Jubilee March 20. Did you
take notes?
Any hope for solar power in Woodfin?
Anne,
There’s always hope for solar power everywhere, not just Woodfin!
But directly, in this case, the issue is about a perceived need for peak power in the multi-megawatt range, something that includes ‘instant on’ - relatively- power generation that is available with diesel turbine system. In fact, distributed generation of direct solar from photovoltaic systems can indeed displace the needed power (so the Woodfin plant isn’t needed), but not in one location and not right away, like is possible with load managment, DSM solar thermal, TOU rate reform and many other EE programs we can implement easily by 2010. However, every household that does go solar adds to the postive gains for us all, reduces the baseload demands and impacts the peak load as well (tho not as immediately as EE can).
Hope this makes some sense, but another way to put it is that yes, if we went solar on enough roofs in the region, it would eliminate the peak plant as proposed, however there’s not enough room at the landfill site to generate the 130 megawatts. But EE programs can shave the peak without building anything yet.
I didn’t take any notes myself, but several video crews were there thruout, and I do have the text of my presentation if anyone cares to read that. Any bloggers out there that know who took & where the videos are?
Finally, good for you with the solar systems. Every person and every effort counts for the future, please be sure to share your solar success with others, let them know it’s not only possible, but practical and affordable. I’ve not had a utility bill in over ten years :).
March 26th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Ned
Thanks so much for getting us started. I wonder what motivates you to give so much of yourself to this work. I do it from love, and the vision that humans have so much more capacity to live in awe and wonder of the beauty of the created world instead of violence toward it. It amazes me that my brothers and sometimes sisters can’t look into the eyes of any creature or smell the fragrance of a spring morning and not know that God’s presence is with them. Or if one is an atheist or spiritual but not religious, not feel blessed with what we have inherited and not feel the responsiblity to protect it for our children. Your thoughts.
Richard and all,
Perhaps the best way to sum up my answer to this wonderful question is with the saying attributed to Chief Seattle, “We have not inherited this earth from our ancestors, we are borrowing it from our children”. Yes, there is a spiritual aspect to my motivation, but it runs more into the logical and observable truths about us, such as the wild, breathtaking beauty and diversity of life on this planet. Why it developed may be beyond our capacity, but understanding how it developed is not, and not actively destroying any life forms seems like a very spiritual motivation to me. We all have choices, whether to protect and nurture the great gifts of nature (that still remain ) or - as many do today - indulge in a personal greed for immediate physical ‘pleasures’ (excessive housing, transportation, wasted foods, and so on), motivated in my view not by ‘evil’, but by ignorance. They simply do not understand that all things are connected, that their choices are impacting our whole world.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Ned
I found you to be incredibly energizing at the meeting the other night. Any hope we could hook you up to the grid to reduce our dependence on Progress Energy?
Question: I saw a Letter to the Editor in the MountainX that indicated an underlying goal of Progress is to run the new Woodfin plant full out in order to sell the extra 90% of the power generated above the 10% peak requirements. Is this allowed? Is it probable?
Again, thanks for being our regional energizer on this so future-determining issue.
A good chuckle, Thanks! I offered to ‘hook up’ with Progress, but they demanded that I be able to ingest 135 gallons of USL fuel per minute.:):) so they could keep making their profit margin….
Directly to your question, which is a very big issue that Progress is desperately hoping to keep ‘under the table’. In fact, as of today, the direct answer is that No, they are not allowed to sell excess generate power on the ‘open market’ (such as it is, that’s another story). They have applied for the 10% runtime NOT because that’s all is needed for power, but becasue this lowers the bar to avoid installation of top of the line emissions scrubbers and technology. Best example, at 10% of the time, this plant will emit 247 TONS of NOx2 each year…. the limit to trigger additonal emissions controls is 250 tons… a 3 ton/year difference.
HOWEVER, this leads back to your question. It makes zero financial sense to build and run a plant like this only 10% of the time. Period. Progress knows it’s cheaper to cut 10% form peak demand (like they do in Florida, that’s another story). What does make financial sense (not environmental, social, jobs or energy sense) is to sell the power. In order to do this, Progress simply needs to 1.) Resubmit as an “Existing Electrical Generation Facility” which grandfathers them in against the extra cost of pollution controls and let’s them pump TEN TIMES as much into the air (sadly, this is legal, another story) and 2.) Refile with the Utility Commision to be re-permitted to sell on open markets.
So, it’s 100% tru that they cannot legally sell the power on the market TODAY, but if the plant is built, a few thousand dollars to the lawyers, and it’s on it’s way! Progress will reap millions in profits, Buncombe County will get $1/ year for the lease, Woodfin will get a steamy, foul power plant along the river (with 2 MILLION gallons of fuel oil sotred byt the French Broad), and all of Southeastern USA will get tons of additional, uneeded, pollution. Not to mention the money that will be funneled back to the Middle East (that’s another story).
Finally, for now on this, the REAL power is with the PEOPLE, not Progress. I may be an ‘energizer’ or whatever, but it’s up to all of us, for ourselves, the nation and the future of our children to take part in building a better world, not just accpet that Progress, Duke, et all are ‘in charge’. We are in charge, if we just take charge. Peace.
April 1st, 2007 at 9:18 am
It is worse than I thought and less than what was explained/discussed in the MountainX Letter to the Editor. Thanks for the information. I am compelled to do something about it!
April 1st, 2007 at 10:04 am
******
The first thing you could do directly is to show at Woodfin Town Hall Monday about 5:30 to show support for the local Woodfin residents who are objecting to having the power plant in their back yard. Just imagine the next summer thermal inversion in the river valley… and 135 gallons/minute of oil being burned and pumped into out air.
After that, look into the dozens of ways you can reduce energy consumption, increase energy efficiency and save some money to boot. No reasonable person can say we don’t need ANY energy, the arguement comes with HOW much and from WHERE. Efficient energy use + renewable sources + the existing Lake Julian plant is plenty for a long, long time around here.