| Who Put the Lights Out?
August 19, 2003 By Joyce Morrison The Illinois Leader To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@illinoisleader.com When the power goes off, we are so dependent on electricity, we are helpless. Communication systems, banks, gasoline pumps, refrigeration, air conditioning, water, sewage, everything in our homes, and anything computer-operated comes to a screeching halt. As the power grid dominoed Friday, major cities were paralyzed. Some of the stories that will surface will be everything from funny to tragic. But those who had no electricity will remember the blackout of 2003. How many of these blackouts will it take before people realize how much power the extreme environmentalists have been given? Common sense and the concern for people would easily unravel many of their trumped up statistics but they have money and power and many of our legislators won't buck them or they have joined them. The blackout didn't reach Illinois this time. But should we wait until it does before we begin to understand the problem? Electricity is not like a telephone. When a telephone line is overused, you get a message saying "All circuits are busy." When power is overused, you get a blackout. Most companies have extra units to produce more power during "peak" when extra power is used, which mainly occurs during hot weather when all the air conditioners are running full blast. But when will the next light switch that is turned on be the overload that causes the dreaded blackout? Between the environmentalists and deregulation, the electrical industry has been in restraints for years. This could prove to be the "missing link" in our national defense. Add the bad publicity from Enron, and it poses a difficult situation for those in the industry who have been sincere in their efforts to provide affordable electricity for the American public. Environmentalists and deregulation have been major problems to California. New power generation facilities have not been built there for at least ten years despite the increased use of electricity. They buy their power from other states. Texas is one of the few states keeping up with the demands and they are producing enough power to sell to other areas. There are many ways to generate power. Coal, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, or any fuel that will run the generators so they can create the wonder of "electricity." But all fuels that produce energy create some form of emissions. A much-needed clean up has been done by the power companies as scrubbers and emission devices were installed at great expense, but the environmentalists are still not satisfied. Illinois is rich in natural resources. Southern Illinois sits on enough coal to last for centuries, but it is considered "dirty coal" because of the high sulfur content. Clean coal technology is on the horizon as Illinois is trying to get the federal "Future Gen" project which would burn Illinois coal with virtually no harmful emissions. Natural gas conversions by power plants are on the increase because of their ability to more easily meet clean air standards. However, the use of natural gas to create electricity has in turn caused a price increase to the household heating needs and even the farmer's fertilizer uses. Hydro is a wonderful source of power. Although hydro units may not take care of all the electrical needs in Illinois, these units would be a tremendous asset on small rivers like the Fox River and would be invaluable when needed for "peak" times. If the environmentalists would leave these projects alone, we could be self-sufficient at a minimal cost. But instead, environmentalists are demanding the removal of dams all across the nation and are pushing very hard for removal of the dams on the Fox River. Hydro is a renewable, sustainable clean source of energy. Environmentalists have fought for stricter and stricter emission standards that are so costly, the power companies could not comply, resulting in very few new power plants now being built. The trade off is simple -- bow to the environmentalists or have electricity. It is up to the public to choose. After years of building power lines and generating plants, power companies can be brought down to their knees through deregulation. Deregulation takes away incentives to improve service as they will no longer will be serving their valued "customers" because those same "customers" will now belong to someone else. Has the power industry always been fair to the consumer? Probably not, in a few cases. But then do you want to live without electricity? That is the alternative. What deregulation would bring would make you wish for the "good old days" when you could call the power company and tell them you have an outage. With deregulation, you will have no idea who is responsible for your lines. The Western part of the U.S. suffered a few years ago because the environmentalists did not want trees trimmed away from the power lines. Flying in an airplane over a mountainous area and taking inventory of how many trees would actually be cleared for power lines would be like taking a grain of sand from a sand pile. In a scramble to bring about a source of electricity that would suit the enviros, the industry has been pursuing the use of wind farms. What is funny is [that] the enviros that screamed for this clean form of power generation are still not happy. They certainly don't want these wind farms in their "viewshed." Now they are saying they interfere with their "sound shed" and they kill birds. Wind generation is very costly to build and this cost would be passed on to the consumer. You have to have a continuous flow of wind to generate at capacity so not all areas are suitable. Like anything else, windmills have a limited life expectancy. When these problems are solved, wind is a wonderful, natural, renewable resource and in time may be an answer for supplemented power. Robert F. Kennedy. Jr., who says he is "strongly in favor of wind energy production at sea," doesn't want a wind farm on Nantucket Sound, where his family might see it from their elegant compound in Hyannis Port. News anchor Walter Cronkite is also a NIMBY (not in my back yard) and said "Our natural treasures should be off limits to industrialization and Nantucket Sound is one of those treasures." An ad was paid for by the Alliance to Protect the Sound, which also supports wind power, but not on Nantucket Sound. Isn't it funny, how these rich environmentalists don't want their views and sound affected but it is good for us? President George W. Bush said last Friday the power failures are a "wake-up call" to the antiquated state of the nation's electrical grid. "The grid needs to be modernized; the delivery systems need to be modernized," Bush said. "We've got an antiquated system." President Bush is right. The electrical industry has tried to update for years. The oil refineries fight the same battle but the environmental organizations make it next to impossible to build new power plants and oil refineries. There has not been a major oil refinery built in the U.S. since 1976. Woodriver, Illinois, once bustled with employment from numerous oil refineries but now only a few of these refineries remain. The environmentalists force us to be dependent on foreign oil. They have refused to let us drill for oil in ANWR in Alaska. The drilling of oil would be another grain of sand in a sand pile. The area used would be just a speck considered to the area that would remain pristine. It is time to check your legislator's voting record on environmental issues. Check the facts, search for the truth in statistics and then express your concern. Legislators are elected by the people -- not bought and sold by environmentalists and it is time to get this message across. In an article by Amy Ridenour on "Blackouts Today, Greenouts Tomorrow" she says, "Yet, when the EPA announced that it would alter the changes to remove impediments that are harmful to energy production but unnecessary for environmental protection, environmentalists scream bloody murder." What Amy went on to say should hit home to everyone because these same environmentalists don't want you to have a family as "those kids of yours" are using up the resources meant for "them." Amy said, "Of course, it would be wrong to be completely critical of our environmentalist brethren. Huge energy blackouts aren't all bad. If what happened during past blackouts -- such as 1965's "The Night the Lights Went Out" in New York -- is any indication, nine months from now many families in blackout areas will happily greet bundles of joy. Too bad environmentalists hate population growth, too." Joyce Morrison lives in southern Illinois. She is a chapter leader for Concerned Women for America and she and her husband, Gary, represent the local Citizens for Private Property Rights. Joyce is Secretary to the Board of Directors of Rural Restoration/ADOPT Mission, a national farm ministry located in Sikeston, Missouri. She has become a nationally recognized advocate for property rights. http://www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=7852 |