Science and Energy News: 9/26/08

Following state Rep. Christine Scanlan’s (D-Summit County) discussions with federal officials regarding the need for lodgepole pine beetle action, Gov. Ritter has asked the federal government to fund three 10-year forest-restoration projects in Colorado.  To date, short-term contracts have been the norm.  Ritter and the Forest Health Advisory Council are arguing that vendors are somewhat unwilling to commit to long-term projects without more certainty that the funds will be there.  Just like renewable enery projects.  Forest health and watersheds demand a long-term approach.  Hopefully the request to Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer will be approved.

More pine beetle news: NCAR scientists are working to figure out how the death of millions of acres of trees will affect local weather and climates.  Models are showing the beetle outbreak is already large enough to raise temperature by 2-4F over the short term.  Researchers have put ground measuring stations in regions expected to be affected by beetle kill in the next year or two.  Volatile organic compounds are among the variables they want to measure.  Of long-term concern: the 300 megatons of CO2 that is expected to be released to the atmosphere by trees in British Columbia alone by 2020.

The Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) and the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) will announce up to $10 million in community new energy grants as part of the second annual “Colorado New Energy Economy” conference on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Colorado Convention Center.  The “New Energy Communities Initiative” will reward local governments working collaboratively to position their communities at the forefront of the state’s New Energy Economy. This year’s Colorado New Energy Economy conference will focus on local issues and will give communities a chance to share local sustainable initiatives that are taking place across Colorado.

Monday brought news that the University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines were to be recipients of $16.5 million in six-year National Science Foundation research grants through NSF’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center program. The School of Mines will receive $9.3 million to establish a new Center, which will focus on investigating emerging renewable energy materials and technologies. It will be the first NSF-funded Center dedicated solely to renewable energy. CU-Boulder will receive $7.2 million to continue and expand work at its existing Liquid Crystals Research Center. This will be the third round of NSF funding for the Center. Founded in 1995, the Center has spun off six different companies, and its research is contributing to a number of different fields, including better liquid crystals for solar panels and the origins of DNA.

Gov. Bill Ritter wrote to President Bush yesterday asking that Bush work with states like Colorado and not against them as the Bush administration moves toward oil shale development.  I hope Gov. Ritter isn’t holding his breath.  Bush only works with states when they agree with his policies.  It’s not that much longer until Jan. 20th…

Emissions of CO2 worldwide are larger than the worst-case scenario used by the IPCC last year.  While deniers and delayers continue to assail even business-as-usual scenarios, the real world case is quickly worsening.  Unfortunately, this underestimation has also been seen in most every other cause and effect of climate change, from warmer temperatures at higher latitudes to melt rates around the world to the severity of droughts and other extreme weather events.  One important note: emissions didn’t decrease as a result of an economic downturn.  China, the U.S. and India are currently the three largest emitters.  Not all the news was bad: Denmark’s emissions dropped 8 percent. The United Kingdom and Germany reduced carbon dioxide pollution by 3 percent, while France and Australia cut it by 2 percent.  I haven’t heard about their economies coming to a screeching halt, as CONservatives have erroneously claimed would happen.

Random Pieces 6/25/08

Help Jared Polis get to 100 donors by this Friday. As of Wednesday afternoon, he has 40 donors. Donate whatever you want. A progressive voice that understands the importance of the netroots can go to Congress if we all chip in a little! Also, visit his campaign website.

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I thought Iraq was supposed to be the central front of the ultimate war between the civilized Western world and the extremist terrorist jihadists. If so, then why in the world would our media devote 181 weekday minutes to coverage of Iraq in just under six months? That’s way down from 1,157 minutes in all of 2007 by the major networks. Throw out the liberal media junk before you try to excuse this away. The networks are wholly owned by right-leaning mega-corporations. And there is the answer: if the network news had covered the actual events within Iraq during the past year, Republicans would have been bodily carried out from office by now. As long as the media pretends nothing bad happens in Iraq, people in the States can concentrate on other things.

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Gov. Ritter’s Energy Office announced four utility companies that will begin offering rebates for Small Wind Turbine installations. They are:

• Highline Electric Association
  Contact: Jason Depperschmidt, 970-854-2236, jason@hea.coop
• Sangre De Cristo Electric Association, Inc
  Contact: Bill Bennett, 719-395-4590, bennett@myelectric.coop
• Southeast Colorado Power Association
  Contact: Jack Wolfe, 719-384-2551, jackw@secpa.com
• Town of Estes Park
  Contact: Michael Mangelsen, 970-577-3583, mmangelsen@estes.org

Homeowners and businesses can arrange with these utilities to install a small wind turbine. The partners listed above will issue the rebates, not the state government.

If you want a similar program in your area, contact your local elected officials and ask them to get in touch with your Regional Representative about the Small Wind Incentive Program. The more interest we can demonstrate, the larger programs like this can become. Even small scale systems reduce our dependence on polluting energy sources like coal and natural gas.

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President Bush is whining that Democrats keep blocking his energy plans. He keeps trying to stick Democrats with part of the blame for the current price of oil and gas because they oppose opening up millions of new acres to leases to energy corporations. First: Bush need look no further than his own secret energy policy developed by energy lobbyists as to why oil and gas cost so much (not that he really even cares what most Americans have to pay anyway). Second: Quit your whining, Bush. There’s a reason you keep reaching record lows in polls. Your record on energy is a small part of the reason why only 71% of Americans don’t support you. Perhaps if Bush had concentrated on running the country instead of his legacy, Americans might still back him.

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2010 will be primary season, as Markos details.  There are a large number of Democrats who have voted too many times against Democratic principles.  Some folks are balking at that number, but I think it gives progressive activists choices.  We don’t need to target every single one of them, just some of them.  I would like to see a better Democrat than John Salazar in CO-03.  Yes, he’s better than a Republican some of the time.  I want someone who is better than a Republican more often.

Energy in Colorado

According to a report (Connecting Colorado’s Renewable Resources to the Markets (PDF)) released by the Governor’s Energy Office, Colorado has the potential to generate a considerable amount of its energy via renewable energy sources. This couldn’t come at a more desperate time, and make no mistake about it, times are desperate.

Our consumerist society is addicted to fossil fuel use. It’s a circular system: the fossil fuels allowed us to go a little further with what we had, do a little more. The more we could do, the more we did. And our use of fossil fuels increased. Which allowed us to do even more. And so on. In the near future, we’re going to face a world where the use of fossil fuels will no longer be a viable solution. Actually, we’re probably already there.

So what does the report do for us? It provides the first in-depth census of potential renewable energy sources on a state-wide, even regional level. And there’s plenty of renewable energy available to us. If just wind and solar are considered, over 100 Giga-Watts (GW) of generating capacity are present. Currently, Colorado’s peak energy load during the summer is approximately 11GW. The math is pretty simple: there is almost 10 times as much renewable energy available as the state’s residents use at peak. A number of estimates were made to get to those numbers: only 2% of Generation Development Areas that could provide space for solar infrastructure would be developed; estimates about technologies and efficiencies were made.

This news is incredible. Colorado could become a net exporter of renewable energy to the power hungry south and southwest regions of the U.S. It also means that the need for a fossil fuel-based society could become a 20th century phenomenon. Many things have to happen before that, but the promise of an energy portfolio that doesn’t pose health risks to us or damage the environment or force us to spend billions of dollars to protect infrastructure will make more people take notice of the potential.

As we head into 2008, our economy teeters on recession, if it’s not already in one. Colorado never really recovered from the 2001 recession – job growth has been weak, wages stagnant, the cost of living skyrocketing. The development of a new energy economy could lessen the impacts of the upcoming downturn. It will necessitate innovation and an educated workforce. See, opportunities abound. Coloradans need to decide which path they want to go down: the one we’ve been on or a new path that holds promise of a better way of life. If we choose a new energy portfolio, Coloradans need to make sure politicians understand that and act accordingly.

As I make my way through the report, I’ll discuss it in more detail.