Alternative energy is seen as a very positive thing to most Americans. According to a poll done by The U.S. Conference of Mayors, 66% of Americans believe that green programs and initiatives will make the U.S. a better place. The “Green Movement,” has gained support from all demographics across the nation and has become a championed cause by the American media. President Obama is strongly in favor of developing and perfecting different forms of alternative energy and has championed the passing of legislation to raise the nation’s energy standards.
Despite the overwhelming good of alternative energy, there are still groups that are not sold on the idea.

With overwhelming support coming from all of these directions, it’s hard to imagine there being much resistance to the “Green Movement.” After all, the aims of alternative energy are to shift America from finite, dirty, and inefficient forms of fuel to clean and renewable sources. Even if the issue of global warming is taken out of the equation, alternative sources of energy will be cheaper and more efficient in the long run than traditional sources. Fossil fuels will not last forever, and much of the world is desperately in need of new efficient energy sources.

One of the biggest forces opposed to the green movement is the Competitive Energy Institute (CEI). CEI is a public interest group “dedicated to free enterprise and limited government.” In an article entitled “Greening America – At What Cost?”, Iain Murray makes an argument against the Obama administration’s proposed plans for alternative energy. His primary argument is that the proposed changes won’t have any impact on the environment. He claims that even if global warming is happening and man-made (a position he doesn’t hold), that the changes Obama has proposed wouldn’t have any effect on the environment. He says the energy need caused by our rapid population growth will overcome any improvements made.

America, starting from a much higher base in terms of energy use, will have to reduce its emissions intensity by about 2 percent each year for an entire decade just to meet the President’s targets, which are in turn much less stringent than those that would have been required by the Kyoto treaty (and therefore significantly less stringent than demanded by environmentalists). This level of decarbonization is unlikely to be achieved by the investments signified by the budget and stimulus act, which will, if sustained, merely double alternative energy generation to around 1 percent of all energy use over the next few years.

In another article of his,”Global Warming – The Backlash is Growing“, Murray rallies support for skepticism of global warming. Since Murray isn’t really concerned about global warming, the issues of alternative energy and protecting the environment don’t demand high priority from him. Most of those who oppose special treatment of alternative energy are those who don’t believe that man has a negative impact on the environment. Therefore, groups like the CEI think that the strong emphasis on funding alternative energy is unnecessary and unfairly focused upon. If there is no crisis to avoid, why should we take such drastic measures to reform our entire energy industry?

While one would expect opposition to alternative energy from big business orientated interest groups that deny global warming, there has also been strong resistance to particular forms of alternative energy from the last place one would expect: environmentalists. That’s right, there are a number of cases where more radical environmentalists have destroyed equipment used to generate alternative energy due to the equipment’s effects on local wildlife. (From the“Government is Not Your Daddy” blog)

Wind power used to be championed by environmentalists; however, once winds farms started being put up, environmental groups began to oppose them because of their negative effects on bats, birds and squirrels. Environmental groups oppose hydroelectric power because the dams such power requires can alter the natural habitat of fish. Even natural gas, one of the cleanest forms of energy, has been met with disdain from environmental groups because of the effects of pipeline drilling.

Another example of environmental groups opposing alternative energy comes from Oregon.

Geothermal power is an interesting concept, because it’s clean and safe and permanent. It doesn’t vary with the weather, and it can never be depleted. Yet, the Sierra Club’s Juniper Group is litigating to prevent an exploratory project for development of a geothermal plant on a 5-acre parcel outside Oregon’s Newberry Crater, which is one of the most promising geothermal resources in the world. There is no specific threat to the environment or habitat of any particular species. They’re just concerned that having the project so close to a national monument might have a potential impact on forests or wildlife.

Environmentalists and the CEI are as different as two groups can be. Each group has their own very different objections to various forms of alternative energy. The CEI and groups like them simply think the priority we’ve placed on developing renewable energy forms is misguided and unnecessary. Certain environmentalists like the idea of having renewable energy, but they don’t approve of the methods we’re using to get it. Even though alternative energy is almost universally agreed upon to be a good thing, it doesn’t follow that everyone will support its development.

         Mattie brought up an important point in her latest blog entry titled “Going Green Means Changing Lifestyles.”  The United States is a very developed country that is at the forefront of many of the world’s advancements, yet in regards to our status we are currently lagging greatly in terms of achieving our renewable energy potential.  The focus of much of  our group’s topic is featured in the Northwest, so another question that could be asked is how is our particular state progressing in alternative energy in comparison to the rest of the nation?  The U.S. has planned to close the gap between our green energy production and the production of parts of Europe and Asia, but what role is Oregon playing as the United States attempts to reach its energy goals of the future?  

         The truth is that Oregon is currently no prime example of green energy utilization, but has major plans to progress and emerge into a region that is on the leading edge of renewable energy development for the future.  According to the Environment Oregon website, in 2005 Oregon derived more than half of its power from fossil fuels ( 41 percent from coal, and 10 percent from natural gas).  This is better than the national average in 2007, yet still shows an extreme dependence on fossil fuels that is not beneficial to the state of Oregon or the nation as a whole.

       However, in order to combat this dependence on finite resources, a legislative session was held in 2007 in which Oregon enacted what is known as Senate Bill 838- the Oregon Renewable Energy Act.  The act has created more than just goals, but rather concrete regulations that Oregon will have to abide by in the near future.  According to the Oregon Renewable Energy Act, by 2025 Oregon’s largest utilities will be required to acquire 25 percent of their energy from renewable sources, and smaller Oregon utilities will have to derive between 5 and 10 percent of their energy from domestic green energy sources.  The Powering Oregon’s Future website states that the act has the potential to meet the needs of 1.25 million average Oregon homes.  This is an extremely large step considering the deadline for these transitions is only 16 years down the road.  The Perkins Coie website states that the following sources of energy meet the conditions of the act:

• wind
• solar photovoltaic and solar thermal
• wave: tidal and ocean thermal
• geothermal
• biomass
• spent pulping liquor
•  electricity derived from hydrogen gas derived from an eligible source
•  hydroelectric

          The Powering Oregon’s Future website has also quoted governor Ted Kulongoski referring to Oregon’s Renewable Energy Act as, “the most significant environmental legislation … in more than 30 years that will also stimulate billions of dollars in investment – creating hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs in both urban and rural Oregon.”  It is clear Oregon is on the right path to becoming a central player in the utilization of renewable forms of energy.

• http://www.poweringoregonsfuture.org/PoweringOregonsFuture/
• http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/pdf/letters/faq_energy.pdf
• http://www.environmentoregon.org/legislature/testimony/energy/energy/sb-373-the-oregon-renewable-energy-act–25-by-2025
• http://perotcharts.com/2008/07/us-primary-energy-consumption-by-source-and-sector-2007/
• http://www.digestiblelaw.com/news/pubs_detail.aspx?publication=1354&op=updates

There are nearly 7 billion people on this earth, and roughly 300 million people in the United States. According to hybridcars.com, as of the year 2009, there are already 1 million hybrid vehicles on the road, not including the plug-in type. President Obama has made a goal of having 1 million plug-in hybrid cars (cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon) on the road by 2015. To me, that number seems too easy to accomplish, since there are already so many hybrids on the road and we are only six years away from the president’s projected goal. This makes me think maybe Obama isn’t giving his country the correct goal we require to succeed at leading in alternative and renewable energy and environmentally friendly vehicles.
It’s no lie that right now is the time for all of us to alter the way we live. More people are riding their bikes to school or work, bringing their own bags while grocery shopping, increased recycling, and even eating and growing organic and natural foods. We are seeing positive change in the United States but unfortunately we aren’t even close to other places in the world, like Europe or Japan, when it comes to going green. Governor Ted Kulongoski has said, “We’ve wasted 8 to 10 years in not engaging our citizens, and that’s why Europe is so far ahead of us.”
Kulongoski has stated, “There’s a lifestyle issue involved in this, about our penchant for consumerism and consumption,” he said while discussing his support for a state emissions cap-and-trade scheme in Portland. A state emissions cap and trade is a complex bait and switch game. It requires industry to buy and sell its pollution. The Oregon governor has always been a strong supporter of renewable energy development, and also supports emerging technologies like wave power, which Oregon State University is working on currently.
The Pacific Northwest is seeing a positive change but we all have to change the way we live for our environment to progressively get better. Going green and changing the way we live our everyday lives is what our local and federal governments are trying to promote.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/lifestyle-and-the-carbon-cap/#more-7553http://www.hybridcars.com/faq.html
http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2009/02/06/news/doc498c7f8b730fd174395361.txthttp://wave.oregonstate.edu/
http://governor.oregon.gov/

http://www.nwcommunityenergy.org/utility-considerations/value-to-a-utility-1/transmission-distribution-value-1/transmission-in-the-pacific-northwest

We all know that the Obama-Biden Administration is working on making America the leader in renewable and alternative energy but America has fallen behind. Countries like Germany and Japan have passed the U.S. in renewable energy. Obama plans on doubling our renewable energy in the next three years and with that, improving employment and making more green jobs. The U.S. has also made the largest investment in American history for energy research. So there’s hope that the U.S. can once again lead.

by: Mattie Schnurr

This graph represents where the power for one of the Northwest’s largest and most innovative energy providers, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), comes from in terms of renewable and non-renewable sources.  The largest percentage of PSE’s energy comes from hydroelectric power (42 percent), a renewable form of energy that has been a fixture in the region for quite some time.  The next largest is coal (at 37 percent) which is obviously a finite source that the United States has been attempting to reduce our dependence on.  PSE’s graph shows in the “other” section that only one percent of their power comes directly from solar power and wind power, two other prominent forms of renewable energy in the Northwest.  This could obviously be improved through innovations in the state of Washington.  However, these numbers do not include the amount of power generated by two wind facilities managed by PSE, one being the Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility which is featured in the video below.

            This video focuses on the idea that Western Washington will be experiencing large amounts of population growth in the next decade, and will need to find new and stable energy sources to match and support this growth.  In order to do this, the region will have to utilize green forms of power.  For quite some time the Northwest has been able to harness the power of tidal energy, but more recently wind power has become a factor in the area.  To show the capability of alternative energy sources in the Northwest, the video uses the Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility in Columbia County, Washington as a prime example.  Hopkins Ridge is powered by turbines on a single farm, and generates enough energy to power about 40,000 homes in the state of Washington.

            In addition to increasing the amount of energy that Washington is able to utilize, there are apparently many other positive factors that the institution of turbines and wind energy has generated in their respective regions.  In the Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility case, Douglas County has struggled for decades to overcome changes in agriculture that have caused the decline of employment in the county.  Hopkins Ridge not only produces clean power for the state, but also raised the job rate percentage, created a new tax base for the community, as well as brought in money for a new library district in Douglas County.  Aside from the positive energy source that can be derived from a wind facility, Hopkins Ridge shows how many other economic benefits can be generated from a facility such as this.

The public dialog about alternative energy has rapidly grown louder over the past few years. Instead of being a topic largely confined to particular interest groups, alternative energy has now caught the attention of a mainstream audience. Below are two very different videos. The first is GE‘s highly-publicized wind energy ad. The second, is a story of Alla Weinstein, a private entrepreneur who is making advances in the realm of alternative energy.

This is a very crisply produced ad from General Electric promoting their rapidly growing wind energy department. In November of 2008, GE ran “Green week”, a major effort which showcased alternative energy on its tv network NBC. This was in a “post-’Inconvenient Truth’” time, and major energy companies were trying to appear more “green” to the public. This ad received much attention, and it made its premier at Superbowl XLIII.

This video features Alla Weinstein, who is a former Honey Well engineer and the creator of AquaBuOY. She explains the way her device efficiently captures wave energy. It generates electricity by converting the “up and down motion of the waves into pressurized water.” Weinstein founded her own energy company and works as a private entrepreneur, which she favors over working for a large corporation. Her AquaBuOY technology was purchased by the Canadian renewable energy company Finavera. Weinstein’s AquaBuOY is one prime example of how major energy companies are purchasing the work of individuals and turning it incorporating it into its own energy network.

The stark differences between these two videos are obvious. GE’s ad, while supporting a real wind energy division, is largely a lot of pomp and circumstance. It’s a public relations ploy to change the way the public views GE’s environmental impact. The second video, the story of Weinstein’s AquaBuOY, shows real and unpublicized change in the realm of alternative energy. We knew alternative energy had strong support in environmental movements and eco-conscious groups, but now the push to “go green,” has made a leap to the mainstream.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Over the last 35 years, America’s coal-based electricity providers have invested more than $50 billion in technologies to reduce emissions. Many people, however, have a misunderstanding of what coal does for our energy. Coal actually accounts for half of the electricity use in the United States. Also, America has more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves. Click here to see how the Northwest region of the United Sates is doing in clean coal research.
The calculations of the graph above are based on five pollutants: carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particular matter. The data from Environmental Protection Agency reflects the environmental performance per unit of energy produced. That is, the relationship of emissions per kilowatt hours.

by: Mattie Schnurr

http://www.americaspower.org/The-Facts/77-Percent-Cleaner

There are many forms of alternative energy that are being utilized as a part of the “green energy,” movement. Wikipedia’s list of alternative energy includes biofuel, biomass, geothermal, hydro power, solar power, tidal power, wave power, and wind power. The unique geographical landscapes across the country each provide their own opportunity to generate energy based on the characteristics of the individual region. Map of Alternative Energy in U.S. Naturally, coastal states have the potential to generate wave energy, and the Pacific Northwest is a prime region for this form of energy harvesting.

According to the US Department of Energy, “In the Pacific Northwest alone, it’s feasible that wave energy could produce 40–70 kilowatts (kW) per meter (3.3 feet) of western coastline.” The energy harvested from wave energy collectors can be converted to electricity by either offshore or onshore facilities. One way that this is done offshore is through Salter Ducks, a large turbine driven-device placed on the ocean floor. The motion of the waves bob the “duck” and converts this movement into electricity. Onshore, there are many types of facilities which capture the energy generated by waves, including the Oscillating water column, tapchan, and prendulator device. (Energy Savers: Ocean Wave Power)

Also according to the U.S. Department of Energy, wave energy has had a difficult time competing with traditional power sources so far. The facilities are complex and expensive, but once they have been built, they have a low maintenance cost and a very minimal operational cost. (Because their major resource, salt water, is free) This creates a situation of difficult startup, but probably longterm success. Because of this situation, in order to startup new facilities, government funding is usually needed.

In 2009, David Wu, federal congressman, announced that over $2.3 million would be given to Oregon State University to be spent towards the improvement of wave energy in Oregon. (Press Release from Congressman Wu). The release acknowledges that the Oregon coast is an ideal place for the development of wave energy, and with this funding congress hopes to open up the possibility to a wider access to this new energy.

As of April 22nd, 2009, there are fifteen proposed wave energy plants in the Pacific Northwest. (Renewable Energy Projects List) Most of the facilities are still in the process of acquiring the necessary permits to begin construction and operate, but but a facility n Clallam, Wahington has already been approved.

(Image source: http//www.rnp.org/projects/REmap.html)

There are many proposed wave energy projects and research projects underway in the Pacific Northwest. The office of Oregon governor, Ted Kulongoski, is promoting the development of this new technology, as well as the strong wave energy program at OSU. The Pacific Northwest is an ideal region for the development of wave energy, and it is well on its way to becoming the country’s foremost testing ground for this eco-friendly source of energy.

*http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/wesrf/
* http://www.rnp.org/projects/projectlist.php
* http://architecture2030.org/images/regional/Renewable-Map.gif
* http://www.energysavers.gov/renewable_energy/ocean/index.cfm/mytopic=50009
* http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/tidal7.htm
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_energy
* http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/or01_wu/090225fy09appropssuccess.html
* http://www.rnp.org/projects/REmap.html
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kulongoski