Kennebec Journal sent New Englanders a
harsh reminder today. The article details several small initiatives happening in New England to promote renewable energy, a list to which I add below. Behind the scenes, we are resting dangerously on our liberal laurels:
New England has historically been America's energy orphan, literally at the end of the energy pipelines. Only Hawaii is more vulnerable to interruption of imports or distribution-system breakdown. Electricity costs are 36 percent above the national average.
...
Yet ironically, part of New Energy Capital's funding comes from the California State Teachers' Retirement System. Right now, California has a massive lead on the renewable-energy front.
...continuing that last paragraph:
The headlines have gone to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "million roofs" solar proposal. But what's already in motion, demanding New England's attention, is State Treasurer Phil Angelides' "Green Wave" initiative. The goal: to mobilize the immense investment powers of the state-run, multibillion-dollar pension funds to develop clean technologies in California that can then be sold across the globe. If there's any parallel effort by New England state treasurers, it's a well-kept secret.
I'm going to talk Massachusetts because it's what I know.
Say what you will about biotech and nanotech, the new golden-boys of Chambers of Commerce and business incentive initiatives, energy is destined to become an even bigger critical technology sector -- especially given one key difference. It's an industry that spawns blue-collar jobs -- the others, not nearly so much. Any New Englander ignoring the urgent need for such jobs needs to take a step back and ask themselves whether that might not be a tad bit elitist. Not to mention delusional, given the disturbing trends in the housing market (which has been absorbing layed off blue collar industrial workers to date.)
We have many more successes than listed in the article, of course -- for example, Hull Wind which will be adding a second turbine this winter. And we do host energy technology companies like Beacon Power and EverGreen Solar.
It is not moving fast enough, however. The renewable energy industry is not judged by how many University grad students make technical advances. Those advances do not count until they are applied to mass production. I said mass production, not limited production, where money-is-no-object early adopters foot the bill, but true mass production. The products have to be affordable, perniciously available (read: on retail shelves), and advertised. How many TV ads have you seen for renewable companies, folks? About the best you get is BPs lip service.
There are, of course, several local companies who will sell you turnkey products today -- geoexchange, solar water, small wind, and solar electricity. They are swamped. They don't advertise because they don't need to. While this may appear to be great news ("renewables are booming!") the truth is that it is not. The real news here is that these companies are too small for the job they have cut out for them. They cannot get to all of us in time.
On the centrally generated side of the equation, we find ourselves ensnared in NIMBY/BANANA politics on the scale one would expect from a nuke build. Cape Wind, an off-shore project that would make Cape Cod nearly energy independent (at least as far as electricity is concerned) is opposed by many a bigwig. Even Sen. Kennedy. And Kerry hasn't made up his mind yet, saying he has yet to read the environmental impact study. (A bit more on that here.)
I've heard zero about serious wave power projects up here -- and by serious I mean someone's shopping a business plan.
Hull Wind straddles the border between centralized farms and rooftops, a more traditional local installation. Even that was an extremely cautiously managed -- I'd even say micromanaged -- project because they didn't want another screw-up to damage renewable energy's credibility in the state. At the time, that was a Good Decision. Now we have a template contract and solid planning case to base future local G&E projects on.
Time for meticulous caution may be running out, though. Maybe these politicians need to start thinking about the "what if we don't" impact just as much. What if we don't get the cost of winter heat under control? What if we don't have jobs for the electricians, plumbers, and roofers lined up as the bottom steadily crumbles out of the housing market? What if we don't shut down a couple of those dirty coal plants soon?
And maybe the businessmen need to start thinking about "external factors." Like how they are going to sell nanotech widgets to an angry mob, what they shouldn't carry in their soon to be mugged pockets on the way to get their biotech pattern baldness treatment, or just how much worse the view could get from their nice corner offices when the city catches fire.
Inaction, and worse yet, footdragging, in this area isn't "politics as usual." It's insane. We aren't doctors, and there is no Hippocratic Oath in effect. Everyone appreciates due caution in business and development, but not when it makes action past due. That's called a missed opportunity. Missing the opportunity to defray economic collapse... that's called stupid.
(UPDATE: now click on "harsh reminder" for the quoted article, sorry.)