Sierrans and Friends:
The editorial [see below, after LTE drafts] earlier this week in the Des
Moines Register [or perhaps one similar in your own local paper], presents a
perfect opportunity for Letters to The Editor on future Energy Policy.
Please take a moment to compose your letter and send it in now.
This is a perfect opportunity for LTE's linking the Preidentıs obsession
with drilling for oil to the lack of update of the national electric grid.
You could mention that Iowans look to Sen. Grassley to ensure that an Iowa
Solution -- 10% Renewable Portfolio Standard by 2010 -- must be included in
the final Energy Bill this year. More wind will reduce dependence on more
conventional less secure energy, and help Iowa farmers. Please send me
copies of any letters you send in to the Des Moines Register, or your local
Newspaper.
Immediately below are 4 draft LTEs to help in your effort. Please add your
thoughts to them, and/change them into your own words, so that your paper
does not receive same letters from more than one person. The drafts do
provide excellent comments for your start.
Thanks, and please take a moment to compose your letter and send it in. The
DMR LTE email is: Editor <[log in to unmask]>.
Lyle Krewson
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862
[log in to unmask]
515/276-8947 - Ofc/Res
515/238-7113 - Cel
________________________
LTE #1 (federal message)
To the Editor,
While we are still waiting to hear exactly what triggered the most
massive blackout in U.S. history, we can be sure that it is a tangible
consequence of our over-reliance on a cumbersome centralized power grid
based primarily on large fossil-fueled and nuclear power plants.
The energy industry and their allies are opportunistically calling for
the passage of a dirty, dangerous energy bill that fails to protect
consumers from future Enron-like scams and doesn't increase our energy
efficiency or renewable energy resources, while weakening key
environmental protections and handing over millions in taxpayer
subsidies to polluters.
There is no question that our electric grid needs modernization. But
the emphasis should not be on more subsidies for business as
usual--building more power lines to link to more large power plants.
Nor should the response be more deregulation of the industry.
To prevent future problems, America deserves a reliable, affordable and
cleaner energy system. We urge Sen. X and Y to oppose the dirty,
dangerous energy legislation currently before Congress and instead
support policies that would tap our technological know-how to increase
energy efficiency and conservation, shift to clean, renewable energy
sources, and protect consumers from market manipulations by big energy
companies.
Signed,
________________________
LTE #2
Dear Editor:
Last weekıs frightening blackout revealed the vulnerability of our
complicated electrical system to human and mechanical error, as well as to
more sinister assaults. Our leaders President Bush and Congress must
work together to develop a more secure, safer, reliable system.
Unfortunately, they are working on an energy bill that would decrease
consumer protection, do little to reduce oil consumption, and continues to
rely on an outmoded electricity generation and delivery system. The big
energy companies would benefit from it while the rest of us will pay the
price, perhaps while sitting in the dark.
There is a better way. We can make air conditioners and other appliances
that use a lot less energy even on the hottest days to reduce peak demand
for power. Wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy are clean,
secure and will create jobs. And a more diverse energy mix makes the system
less vulnerable to giant failures. The provisions must be included in any
energy policy that comes from Washington if we want to prevent a repeat of
the Blackout of 2003.
Sincerely,
________________________
LTE #3
Dear Editor:
Last weekıs blackout provided another excuse to trot out old, discredited
solutions to our energy problems. After the blackout, the Bush
Administration been touting drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge as a solution to our electricity problems. Drilling the Arctic will
not solve our electricity problems. Arctic oil will take ten years to reach
the lower 48 states, and there is no more than a six-month supply of it. In
addition, coal, natural gas, or nuclear power not oil -- produces most of
our electricity. Arctic drilling would only benefit big oil companies,
while the little guy would still have an unreliable electrical system. If
the Bush Administration abandoned its obsession with oil drilling in the
Arctic, then maybe it could address the urgent need to modernize our
electricity delivery structure.
________________________
LTE #4
Dear Editor:
Last weekıs blackout demonstrated that we cannot have a 21st century economy
that relies on a 20th century electrical system. We need to modernize our
electricity system by relying on new technologies such as power from the
sun, wind, and clean biomass fuels to meet our energy needs. We can
reduce the strain on the system by reducing electricity demand through more
efficient power lines, buildings and appliances.
Unfortunately, President Bushıs energy proposals rely on outmoded,
expensive, unhealthy technologies such as coal burning and nuclear power
plants. Congress should reject these ancient technologies, and use the
energy bill to modernize our electrical system.
________________________
Des Moines Register Editorial Rebuild U.S. energy systems
Ramming a bill through Congress in a few months, however, would invite
political gridlock
August 20, 2003
A power plant shuts down in Ohio and the price of gasoline jumps 10 cents a
gallon in Des Moines.
That, more or less, is what happened when last week's power blackout in the
Midwest and Northeast interrupted oil-refinery production. It's one of the
many repercussions rippling through the U.S. economy. The power outage cost
the nation's economy an estimated $6 billion in everything from lost
business to spoiled food.
Economists likened the impact of the blackout to a snowstorm -brief,
expensive, tolerable. Yet the massive failure is a symptom of serious
long-term problems with the nation's energy systems. This is no snowstorm.
It's more like a return of the Ice Age. The difference is that we have it in
our power to do something about it if only our elected leaders have the will
to make tough decisions and be frank with the American people that the
solutions are neither simple nor cheap.
Alas, partisan bickering already has erupted in Congress, where the
Republican leadership and the Bush administration want to roll the
electric-power transmission issue into a comprehensive energy bill by
Thanksgiving. Democrats, meanwhile, want to deal with the blackout
separately. They fear it will get bogged down by hot-button issues like
opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling and auto
fuel-efficiency standards.
Both sides have a point. The energy bill, which sets national energy policy,
is a logical place to address the subject of building a reliable
electric-power supply for the 21st century. Indeed, why was nothing on this
issue in the bill before the blackout? Experts have warned Congress about
the problem for years. But it makes no sense to rush major changes through
in just a few months, either.
The problem revealed by last week's blackout is this: The network of
electric-transmission and distribution lines is inadequate to carry the
growing power demands of businesses and consumers. And because the network
functions with little federal or state regulatory oversight, there is no
meaningful authority to make decisions or discipline wrongdoers. What rules
are in place were inadequate or ignored, according to officials of the North
American Electric Reliability Council, which was created after the famous
1965 New York blackout.
Perhaps the biggest decision ahead is whether the nation intends to complete
the deregulation of energy begun in the 1990s but interrupted by the Enron
meltdown. Some say deregulation is the cause of these problems; others say
it is the cure. Having it both ways does not seem to be working. In any
case, there is no silver bullet. Congress would be crazy to try to ram one
into an energy policy bill already larded with controversial provisions,
certain to create political gridlock.
Americans may scoff watching Iraq struggle to recover basic systems, but we
now see that America's energy infrastructure is surprisingly fragile, too,
and in need of serious investment. We need to rebuild our own country, while
rebuilding others'.
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