Renewable energy makes sense for Vermont


The editorial, "Facts, Not Fantasies," (Free Press, June 4) makes us ask: Who is in fantasyland?

While this local editorial heralds an anti-wind and -solar energy Flat-Earth-Society approach to energy, national energy experts are warning of a crisis next winter in natural gas supplies and disastrous price increases.

Past solutions are now the fantasies that won't work. Vermont is on the right track in moving forward on renewable energy.

The energy world is changing rapidly and we need to get up to date on what is myth and what is fantasy in 2003.

-- Fantasy: Natural gas-fired electricity is half the cost of wind power.

-- Fact: Natural gas is now more expensive and electricity from some new wind farms in Texas is half the cost of natural gas electricity. Purchasers of "green power" in Texas now pay less than the standard power others automatically get from their power company. Texas is hardly a left-wing energy fantasyland.

-- Fantasy: Natural gas is clean and good for the environment.

-- Fact: Natural gas, like oil and coal, is a fossil fuel. It adds to global warming with its pollutants. Wind produces no emissions and is good for the environment. Pollution is why our forests die and we get to breathe the hazing air in Vermont .

-- Fantasy: Natural gas is abundant.

-- Fact: Natural gas is a finite resource and the North American natural gas supply is a huge problem that is quickly turning into a threat to our ability to heat our homes next winter. We have too many new demands for gas and a declining reserve and production base for supply. Just to keep up with present demand requires drilling 50 percent more wells each year to replace depleting wells.

The industry is seeking government help. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has called a June 26 meeting to devise ways to help boost supplies this summer and avert a crisis.

-- Fantasy: Natural gas is cheap.

-- Fact: Natural gas was cheap and is no longer. Future costs will be much higher than historical costs. Wind has fixed costs for 10 to 20 years. Wind power will lower costs over time, not increase them. If natural gas is used for future electricity supply, we will all pay more.

-- Fantasy: Wind power has significant environmental problems because of its visual impacts on the landscape.

-- Fact: All other options have greater true environmental problems. Aesthetics is a perceived problem for a very small minority of citizens, not an environmental problem.

In a recent poll asking Vermonters to choose one energy source they would like to see more of in Vermont 's future, an overwhelming majority chose renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro-electric power over fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas.

Seventy percent said they would like to see more wind turbines. Only 9 percent disagreed with that.

-- Fantasy: Renewables are "unreliable."

-- Fact: Wind and solar are intermittent sources of energy, not unreliable sources. Modern wind turbines are very reliable. We can count on having wind. To call wind power unreliable is like saying you can't count on hydro-power because the amount of water over the dam varies from time to time.

Unreliable is when Vermont Yankee shuts down without notice and over 500 MW has to be replaced in seconds. Losing a third of Vermont 's power in seconds is a real reliability problem. Wind and other renewables will never leave our electricity grid so open to failure. They will increase the reliability of the grid.

The Vermont General Assembly has asked the Public Service Board to study whether our utilities should be required to include renewable energy in their portfolios. Vermonters can hope that this action will help our state move up from behind the leaders in this field and start to reduce our costs for electricity as well as our pollution from fossil fuels.
David Blittersdorf is founder and CEO of NRG Systems, a Hinesburg company that designs and manufactures wind energy measurement systems, and a member of Gov. Jim Douglas's recently announced Jobs Cabinet. He lives in Charlotte .