Buck Up, America

This week's newspaper column: (Read it in the Hattiesburg American.)

“If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, either way, you’re right.”

Attributed to Henry Ford, this is one of my favorite quotes, and it’s especially applicable to the current debate over fossil fuels and renewable energies.

Voices arguing against moving away from traditional dirty energies – most notably oil, gas, and coal – in the direction of clean energies proclaim that running America on renewable energy is a pipe dream, a fantasy – “pie in the sky!"

But I ask you: Whatever happened to that good old American “can do” spirit?

True, Henry Ford took a lot of ribbing for his idea of bringing horseless carriages to the mass market. (The buggy whip manufacturers were especially skeptical.) “What a silly idea,” they said. “Who would want to ride around in one of those things? They’re too expensive. They’re ugly. There are not enough roads to handle automobiles. They can’t possibly work for everybody. Pie in the sky!”

But we got over it, and by the mid-twentieth century, the automobile had transitioned from pipe dream to the American dream. And the buggy whip manufacturers somehow managed to make the transition too.

And now look at us arguing against our own ingenuity once again. This time, it’s not horseless carriages taking the brunt of the mocking criticism, it’s solar panels and wind turbines and alternative energy technologies we’ve only begun to explore. I don’t believe for a moment that we, as a society, are incapable of transitioning to clean energies; it’s simply a matter of will.

The vision of a clean-running America may very well be out of reach for those who close their minds off to the infinite creative possibilities lying ahead of us. But American innovation can only be throttled for so long. Eventually, either we advance as a nation, or we’ll be leapfrogged by the rest of the world. China, with its substantial investment in renewable energies, sustainable cities, and high-speed rail is on the verge of doing just that.

But everybody isn’t quite as down on renewable energies as are the current crop of nay-saying politicians and oil men. Right now, all across the US, in garages and labs, innovators and entrepreneurs are positioning themselves to be the next Henry Ford – this time, in the area of renewable clean energy.

That’s why I’m optimistic about the future of renewable energy. That’s why, regardless of all the negative talk, regardless of all the “here’s why we can’t” diatribes, this country is about to go through a fundamental revolution in the way we produce and use energy, and we’ll all be better off.

Years from now, our children will look back and wonder why we put it off for so long.

Mea Culpa

OK. As much as I loved reporting that Mississippi Power Company had experienced a "road to Damascus" moment, it's not true. So apologies to those who took the bait. (Usually, I completely forget about April Fools Day and take a bite or two from tall-tale-tellers myself, so I know the routine.)

But wouldn't it be nice if the Southern Company - one of the United States' largest energy producers - did move aggressively into alternative energies. It makes so much sense - environmentally AND economically. The environmental advantages of 1) not raping the earth for the extraction of finite resources and 2) ending the inherent carbon dumping associated with fossil-fuel energy production, are self-evident. But now that advancements in solar and wind energy technology along with economies of scale are bringing down the cost of alternative energies (while fossil-fuel-based energy production is increasing in cost), isn't it about time we moved as a society to a clean energy system?

Given the overwhelmingly positive - bordering on ecstatic - response to the post, it would be hard to believe that major US energy producers would suffer any downsides from aggressively converting to green energies, at least not with the general public. Sure, entrenched interests would "have a cow" if this announcement was true, but after the transition, I believe that even the hardcore drill-baby-drill crowd would come on board. In fact, it's my experience that those who resist positive change most viscerally wind up co-opting and championing the very thing they resisted(and almost always claim it as their own idea) once it becomes commonplace and proves itself beneficial. Witness Medicare, for example. The forces that fought so hard to keep it from being enacted several decades ago just made the "saving of Medicare" a reason not to pass health care reform. Ironic, but true.

Old paradigms are dying faster than new dirty energy plants can be constructed. Let your local power company and elected officials know that you are in favor of moving to a clean energy economy, and someday soon, I may be able to re-post this report on a date other than April 1.

Mississippi Power Abandons Proposed Coal Plant

Image courtesy of Mississippi Power Company


In a stunning but welcome announcement this morning, Mississippi Power Company - a subsidiary of the Southern Company - abandoned their proposed plans to build a 582 megawatt lignite coal plant in rural Kemper County, Mississippi.

"The more we looked at it, it just didn't make economic sense," said Andy Blackledge, Director of Corporate Communications. "With the price of solar and wind energy coming down and uncertainties about the cost and feasibility of yet-unproven carbon sequestration technologies, it was just a no-brainer."

Apparently, Mississippi Power has been quietly working with the Department of Energy for the past few months on an alternative plan to build seven new wind energy farms 25 miles off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico - a move made possible by a line item regulation change buried deep in yesterday's Executive Order by the Obama Administration to open up US coastlines for off-shore drilling - along with a state-of-the-art CSP (concentrated solar power) plant on the Kemper County site. Combined, the wind and solar plants are expected to generate 600 megawatts of electricity with none of the air quality issues associated with fossil-fuel energy generation.

"The important thing for everybody to know," added Blackledge, "is that we are withdrawing our request to the Public Service Commission for a consumer rate hike. Stimulus funds already awarded for the construction of the lignite plant along with profits from our current rate structure will be used to construct the wind and solar plants. We expect to hold rates at the current level for at least the next ten years."

Three cheers for Mississippi Power Company!!!

Wind Meets Farm

Wind farms are sprouting up like high corn rows in the the nation's breadbasket. I recently spotted this wide windload on Interstate 39 in northern Illinois en route to its final destination: it looked "ready for planting."

New smart grid technology will transport wind energy from the Midwest and solar energy from the Southwest to major metropolitan areas across the US making renewable energy an even more attractive option.