Periodically, we have to figuratively hang up our tool belt, put away our tape measures and flash lights and put on a tie. In the interest of gathering more valuable information and therefore hopefully the ability to ‘make a difference’ we need to temporarily leave the world of attics, basements and rooftops and ride the escalators to the heights where the top leaders of the energy world hob knob over croissants and coffee. Last week, that is exactly what we did. A drive to Atlantic City brought us to the Annual New Jersey Clean Energy Conference, hosted by, among others, the New Jersey State Board of Public Utilities. A force of more than 1,800 attendees from all over the state, the nation and even the world attended this conference.
The following interpretation speaks to the matters at hand and from our view of the world, what needs to be done to make New Jersey the ‘greenest’ that it can be.The two-day conference consisted of exhibit booths representing manufacturers, developers and distributors of high tech energy products- advanced solar systems, bio-mass, wind turbines, electrical distribution systems and such. Several large meetings and about 18 smaller break-out sessions, giving special attention to subjects such as financing solar projects to technical developments in LED lighting systems for home and industry. Of greatest interest and importance, was the opening general session. Hosted by the president of the BPU, Ms. Jeanne M. Fox, the two featured speakers were our Governor, Jon Corzine and the Secretary of the Department of Energy, Dr. Stephen Chu. Governor Jon Corzine welcomed Dr. Steven Chu, and spoke at length of the advances New Jersey has made in renewable energy, goals for the reduction of green house gasses and new technology being developed right here in the Garden State. He explained to the attendees that New Jersey is second only to California in the use of solar energy and that we here produce more renewable energy from the sun per capita than any state in the union.New Jersey is the real sunshine state!
The state Energy Master Plan calls for 20% of New Jersey’s electricity to be produced from renewable sources by 2020-(an ambitious goal, but reachable!). We boast over 4000 solar electric systems currently installed in New Jersey with over 100 megawatts of production currently. Most impressive was Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy. Dr. Chu is the winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in the year 1997. When Dr. Chu entered the room, the average IQ for the assemblage rose by 10 points! It is so refreshing to have a real scientist, a man that understands the larger energy picture at the top of the Energy Department. For so long, that department existed exclusively to protect the interests of the oil, gas and coal industries. Dr. Chu has a far larger vision. He spoke about the conclusive evidence that global warming exists, and that it is likely caused by human efforts. A rise in global temperature of just a few degrees centigrade, he explained, can raise sea level by 2 feet. If that happens, 9% of current land in New Jersey would be under water.Greater increases in global temperature, which are rising at accelerated rates, can cause additional flooding of low lying areas in the world and destroy crop producing areas of the planet.
If we put our heads in the sand now, when positive actions can make significant improvements, those heads will likely be beneath the ocean. Dr. Chu explained that within a few short years, world-wide production of petroleum will peak and then decline. This is despite expected new sources of oil brought into production. As oil production declines, and soon, oil demand will increase, and sharply as the energy hungry developing world, especially India and China voraciously increases its appetite for energy. Dr. Chu recently met with the president of China and was told by the Chinese leader that such a trend is unsustainable. Chinese leadership had decided to build huge solar arrays to provide energy for their nation. They will also be modernizing their electric grid to be able to move that power from where it is to be produced, in western China to the industrial east of the nation. The electric grid was invented by the United States, here, by Thomas Edison, but it’s being modernized by the rest of the world while we sit by and watch!
Old energy interests and other Luddites loudly proclaim that alternate energy is too expensive, that it requires subsidies that the American people shouldn’t have to pay. Subsidies! Developing technologies have ALWAYS been subsidized. The first roads through the Appalachian Mountains. The Erie and Panama canals, railroad land grants, mineral rights on federal land going for pennies! Did the airlines pay to build the airports? Did General Motors pay to build the Interstate Highway system? Of course not. Please don’t forget, oil is heavily subsidized in other ways. Look at the Middle East. Does anybody think we would be in Iraq if their main export was coffee?
We subsidize petroleum with our treasure and the blood of our daughters and sons. We MUST eliminate our dependence on imported oil. It’s the greatest transfer of wealth out of this country, mostly to nations that don’t like us and don’t wish us well. Let’s pursue alternate energy sources and make oil no more valuable than the sand from which it is drawn.
