Picto Diary - 13, 14 July 2015 - Beyond Coal

Above: Park City Beethoven Festival. City Park. Park City, UT. 13 July 2015.

Attended with TIMDT, 'Cake, Maui, Comic Mom and 1%.

Above: Lindsay Beebe, Utah coordinator for Sierra Club, Beyond Coal, speaks to La Societe Deux Magots (LSDM). Wasatch Bagel, Park City, UT. 14 July 2015.

Hat Tip. Deastman

Note: Note taker fallible. Mistakes are his. Lindsay is welcome to make corrections/clarifications to her remarks.

Background:

Utah transplant.

Came to ski.

Raised on a farm in Connecticult.

BA. University of Vermont, Community Development

Vermont has a progressive energy philosophy.

Came to Utah five years ago.

Started working with non profit: "Heal Utah," Organization devoted to eliminating nuclear waste storeage in Utah.

I joined Sierra Club to coordinate the "Beyond Coal" program. I'm the one who works hard to fill the rooms where we can get our message out.

Above: Lindsay Beebe, Sierra Club, Utah coordinator for "Beyond Coal," speaks to LSDM. Wasatch Bagel, Park City, UT 14 July 2015.


10 Facts You Need to Know About Utah's Energy Consumption

1. Utahns want to encourage solar and wind power development more than any other energy source.

2. Utah ranks last in renewable energy installations per capita among all western states.

3. Median wages are 13% higher in green energy jobs than the economy onaverage.

4. Clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels per $1 million investment.

5. Clean Energy provides more jobs than fossil fuels nationwide, even though renewables only count for 12% of our domestically produced energy.

6. Over 95% of the power generated in Utah is made with fossil fuels, more than double the national average.

7. Rocky Mountain Power, Utah's largest utility, is the top air polluter among all power providers in the western United States, by more than double the next closest polluter.

8. Rocky Mountain Power's energy mix consists of less than 10% renewables, excluding hydro. That percentage is forecasted to decrease by 2022 according to their own intergrated resource plan, due to increased investment in carbon polluting natural gas development.

9. Fossil fuels have received 75 times more subsidies than clean energy. Numbers are taken from a period between 1994 and 2009 and adjusted for inflation.

10. Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of many different air pollutants in the state of Utah; including, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, manganese, mercury, nickel, chromium, and selenium.


Beyond Coal

Michael Bloomberg has been the principal funding entity for Sierra Club's "Beyond Coal" effort. Sierra Club claims that the "Beyond Coal" effort has been responsible for shutting down one third of the coal fired facilities in the United States.

There are some good things in the works. Rocky Mountain Power, by law, is compelled to by renewable energy produced by third parties. There are some solar/wind fields in southern Utah now coming on stream that will reduce, if only marginally for now, the percentage of Utah power produced by burning fossil fuels.



LSDM Feedback

LSDM - The stats you show are biased. Many are partial truths... others are taken out of context.

LB - We believe our numbers are correct.

LSDM - There is a massive solar project near Tucson. I calculated how much it would cost to create sufficient of those facilities to power all US power needs. Close to three trillion dollars. Such an investment is impractical if not impossible. How do we benefit from eliminating coal fired plants.

LB - The costs of solar facilities is decreasing rapidly since the Tucson facility was built. Sierra Club does not advocate a wholesale, abrupt replacement of fossil energy. But, for the sake of future generations, we urge an ordered transition.

We acknowledge that over the last fifty years things have gotten a lot better with cleaner air and cleaner water. We don't say no progress has been made. But there is more that can be done.

LSDM - In some ways yes. But, in my day, kids could go out and play safely in their neighborhoods without parental supervision. Today, a parent could be hauled before Child Protective Services for allowing his/her child to play outdoors unsupervised. You say things are better. I say, "not so fast."

LSDM - My main problem with the Sierra club approach is that it is coercive. No one has discovered a better way of allocating scarce resources than the market place.

LB - We are harming our air shed by burning coal. Interestingly, Rocky Mountain Power is owned by Pacific Power one of whose principal investors is Berkshire Hathaway... Warren Buffet.

LSDM - There is coal in the ground to keep the US in abundant, low cost energy for centuries. Technologies to clean up the coal have already advanced significantly and there are further clean coal innovations coming on stream regularly. In contrast, the transitional strategy advocated by the Sierra Club, uses natural gas, where the supply ... say 50 years worth - is farm more limited than coal.

LB - Coal puts twice as much CO2 into the atmosphere per BTU as coal.

LSDM - I was at a meeting in Emory County a few months ago. I was there in support of initiatives to build jobs in renewable energy production. Many, at the meeting saw me as an advocate to kill coal jobs. I talked to one girl about the job potential of renewable energy sites that could be set up in Emory County as a transition away from coal... where, Emory County coal reserves are dwindling. By the end of our discussion I think she understood that an orderly transition to renewable energy would make a lot of sense for Emory County residents' employment prospects.

LB - A good story. Hopefully, such reactions will continue as we work to educate Utahns on the negatives of coal power.

LSDM - Windfarms are inefficient. They need back up power to support the grid when the wind is not blowing. All this renewable energy actually increases the cost of power, for ends that are still questionable.
I'm three times older than you are... I remember when things were really bad... dirty air... dirty water. What you are doing now seems unjustifiable to me considering the low cost of the power we now have. Look. I may be able to afford an increased power rate. But, your policies are putting a real burden on lower income people who cannot/ will not be able to afford significantly increased power costs. Not to mention, the fact that policies endorsed by the Sierra Club are killing all the jobs in West Virginia. People will suffer because of your idealism.

LB - We need to transfer to a new economy. We need to do all we can to mitigate climate change.

LSDM - Let's not get into global warming. The temperature increases forecast by the warming advocates have not materialized. We as a world need power... energy. Without it our standard of living sinks. You should go to China to see how clean we are here.

LB - We could eliminate the national deficit by giving up one half of all the deductions allowed (voire oil depletion allowance, for one) in the US tax code.


Thank-you

LSDM thanks Lindsay Beebe for her remarks and, as one LSDM member said during the proceedings, "we appreciate your dedication to and idealism for a cause in which you believe. It is important that someone push each side of the debate, and you have done a good job of putting forward your and Sierra Club's views."

Above: Fireweed. McCleod Creek trail. 14 July 2015.

Above: New thistle bloom. McLeod Creek Trail. 14 July 2015.

Above: Goldenrod below Thaynes Canyon. Park City, UT. 14 July 2015.

Addendum:

Actually, the photo was taken by our hostess, a friend of Karen's who lives on Chincoteague Island and is a NASA official at its Wallops facility. She originates from Vernal. A bridge connects Assateague Islland, famed for its wild horses, with Clhincoteague.

Spook,
Reston, VA

Above: Boris Trump. Image sent by Jack Aroon. 14 July 2015.