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Peace Propaganda

Nebraska Key to Creating A Sustainable Energy Future

Lisa Renstrom
National President of the Sierra Club

Nebraska native Lisa Renstrom is the national president of the Sierra Club, the premier grassroots environmental organization in the United States. This past March, she made a return visit to her hometown of Omaha to promote one of the Sierra Club’s long-standing strategic goals — the development of a sustainable national energy policy.

In addition to appearing at a news conference where the communities of Bellevue, Lincoln and Omaha officially endorsed the Sierra Club’s “Cool Cities” initiative, Renstrom delivered an address on “New Energy Solutions” at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

As the reprinted text of her speech indicates, she did far more though, than tick off the compelling political, economic and environmental reasons for why we must move away from a dependence on fossil fuels. She outlined the leading role that her home state of Nebraska needs to play in creating a safe and sustainable energy future.

As you can imagine, being president of the Sierra Club, I have a front row seat in the global theatre where environmental challenges of today and tomorrow are played out.

• Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about how our federal government wants to sell off national forests for politically driven short-term profits.

• Or how mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants turns out to be even more dangerous than originally thought.

• Or how a new wave of scientific evidence is pointing to the disastrous conse-quences of the human-induced phenomenon of global warming.

Believe me. You would think, with the constant stream of bad news that emanates from much of the media in America today, that I would be more worried than I am.

But I’m not. While the doom and gloom scenarios abound, I am actually optimistic about the future of our planet. I see opportunity knocking on America’s door, because I, like more and more Americans, have a vision.

Part of my optimism, I’m sure, derives from the strong Nebraska values with which I was raised: There’s no problem we can’t lick. No wall we can’t climb.

These values are still my values today, but they aren’t just my values. They are America’s values as well.

And I’m optimistic because I see the same set of values that put a man on the moon 40 years ago alive and well in America today.

The other reason for my optimism is that where I see values, I also see action.

A whole world of environmental innovation and leadership is already happening out there, but you would never know anything about it just by watching TV — which is where many Americans get their news.

I want to give you a little taste of the progress being made, and more importantly, I hope to share my vision with you — A vision for a new energy future.

The New Energy Future

I did not come here to tell you that energy is the problem. I came to talk about solutions.

We rely on energy to heat our homes and fuel our cars. We use energy to blow snow, dry our hair, take us to the ballpark and amplify sound. Energy takes us to work in the morning and powers our workplaces. Almost all aspects of our lives and way of life depend in some way upon a robust, easily accessible and stable supply of energy.

Energy is not the problem, but how we meet our energy needs in America has become a difficult issue. It’s become complex, controversial and confusing.

So my job here is to make it simple for you, to strip away the rhetoric and ask each of you to join the growing cadre of problem solvers. I’m here to encourage you to move beyond the politics and the special interest groups — to move to a new energy future.

It’s simply in America’s best interest. Syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman nailed this point in the following quote:

“Being green is the new Red White and Blue. It is the most geo-strategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence — that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.”

What I am going to tell you today is that investing in a new energy future is the most important step the U.S. can take to making energy efficient, independent and environmentally green.

A Four-Step Path to a New Energy Future

Okay. So how are we going to get there? I see a four-step path: A. Face up to the problem. B. Focus on solutions. C. Ignore the rhetoric. D. Unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans.

POINT A: Face up to the Problem

Sometimes facing up to a problem is difficult to do. There are stages of denial and withdrawal. There are relapses and temptations to take the easy way out. That’s why organizations like the Sierra Club are staging an intervention.

It’s time to face the facts. America is addicted to fossil fuels — carbon-based energy sources like oil, coal and natural gas. So addicted in fact, that the future of America is now in a very dangerous position.

Even President Bush, an oilman, recognized the danger of our addiction to oil in his latest State of the Union Address.

There he said, “We’re held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us.” Let reemphasize that point: Americans are being held hostage for energy, often by unstable governments and people with fundamental differences with the United States.

The U.S. consumes about one quarter of the world’s oil production per year. Anyone care to guess how much of the world’s supply of oil lies within the United States? Just three percent.

The U.S. simply doesn’t have a lot of oil. And opening up ANWR or drilling off the coast of the Outer Banks isn’t going to change that either.

The result? Americans are pumping billions upon billions of dollars out of our economy each year to buy oil from foreign nations. Many of these nations have formed a cartel, limiting production to maximize profits, at the expense of American families and businesses.

Don’t expect a drop in prices any time soon. Emerging economies like China and India are only going to increase global demand for oil in coming years, which will likely keep prices high indefinitely.

But it isn’t just consumers that suffer. Oil alone is the largest contributor to our national deficit every year. So it’s future Americans who will also be forced to pay for our addiction for years to come.

President Bush recognized the dangers of our addiction to oil and the impact of this addiction on our national and economic security. But he only sees half of the pie. Not only is our addiction to fossil fuels pumping money, jobs and future prosperity out of America — and not only is it funneling that money to some of the most unstable regions of the world — but it’s also fueling global warming.

Our primary energy sources are packed full of carbon, and burning them at the rate we do puts carbon dioxide into the Earth atmosphere warming our planet. Do you know what the hottest planet in the solar system is? It’s Venus. Not Mercury — which is the closest to the Sun — but Venus. Why? Because Venus is wrapped in carbon dioxide and the Sun and warmth that enters Venus doesn’t leave Venus. It’s like that old line about Las Vegas: what goes to Vegas, stays in Vegas.

The carbon we release by burning these fossil fuels — this ancient solar energy — is enough to raise the temperature on our planet to prevent us from inhabiting this planet, at least in the way that we have become accustomed to.

The oil, coal and natural gas we’re currently dependent on are great for supplying energy, but they’re consequentially inhibiting our national security, economic prosperity, and the health and future of the people on this planet.

So that’s the problem we face.

It’s time to focus on solutions.

POINT B: Focus on Solutions

When I began today, I confessed to being optimistic about the future. Clearly our challenges are before us, but the good news is that many solutions to the problem are already at hand.

All around America, businesses, communities, local and state governments are buying into these solutions, through 1) Energy Efficiency 2) Renewable Energy

With current technology, we can reduce our fossil fuel demand by a third just through energy efficiency. Using energy more efficiently would, in turn, buy us time to reduce our demand for fossil fuels another third by converting to renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and biofuels.

Energy Efficiency

Okay, so lets talk about Energy Efficiency — the lowest hanging fruit on the tree. Energy efficiency offers the most immediate solution toward reducing our addiction to fossil fuels. Much of the technology has already been developed — we simply must change the way we think about energy and begin getting this technology in place.

To get an idea of what solutions are already available, let’s look at just two major areas: electricity and transportation.

Electricity

We can reduce demand for electricity by 30 percent by being thoughtful, efficient and taking personal responsibility. Here are some examples.

City of Wahoo Utilities Paul Erickson is the general Manager of the City of Wahoo Utilities. Their Energy Efficiency Program provides incentives to all customers buying electricity from Wahoo Utilities to make enhancements to their homes and businesses that will improve energy efficiency, without sacrificing comfort and convenience.

What Wahoo does is offer free energy audits that provide a financial analysis of the options and define the lowest life cycle cost. Wahoo provides incentives to purchase high efficiency appliances like heat pumps, lighting and insulation.

In 1995, Wahoo provided the local Hinky Dinky store with a zero-interest loan of $10,000 for purchase and installation of new lighting. It credited $4,500 in “buyback funds,” leaving a balance of nearly $1,500 out-of-pocket costs to the store. The monthly payments on the loan were $138.89, and monthly savings on the utility bills were $205.00. The store replaced 363 light fixtures for about $16,000. The retrofit has saved 73,000 kWh per year, for the last decade. That’s a large pile of coal.

What if every Utility in America offered efficiency incentives?

What if every grocery store installed high efficiency lighting?

• OPPD Omaha Public Power District is helping Omaha, Bellevue, Millard, Elkhorn and lots of public schools take responsibility, be thoughtful and invest in teachers rather than energy. At Westside, where I graduate from, they installed a geothermal heat pump system that will save between 1.5 and 3 million dollars in energy and maintenance over the next 20 years. It has reduced Westside’s annual energy costs by $30,000.

Imagine if every school in America did an energy audit, reduced its Co2 emis-sions and invested in teachers rather than heating or cooling the air?

We just looked at two public sector entities in Nebraska. But even Corporate America is being thoughtful and taking personal responsibility — and improving its bottom line.

• Texas Instruments Texas Instruments, based in Richardson, near Dallas, wanted to keep 1,000 high-tech jobs making wafers used in semiconductors near its design center, so that ideas could flow back and forth. But China, Taiwan and Singapore were all offering tempting alternatives, with low wages, subsidies and tax breaks.

Texas Instruments’ leadership laid down a challenge to its design team and said that if they could find a way to build a new plant for $180 million less than its last Dallas factory, they would build it in Richardson.

Innovations like big water pipes with fewer elbows, which reduced friction, passive solar, roofs with white reflective coating to reduce heat and improved air circulation enabled them to pull it off.

By building a so-called “green building,” the company was able to construct the new factory for 30 percent less per square foot than their previous conventional facility. It is expected to cut utility costs by 20 percent and water usage by 35.

Paul Westbrook, who oversees sustain-able design for Texas Instruments says, “By addressing the consumption side with really creative design and engineering to eliminate waste and reduce energy usage — we will have the next industrial revolution.”

Imagine if every new manufacturing fa-cility was built green?

Transportation

Let’s talk now about efficiency in our transportation — Cars and Trucks:

Forty-two percent of America’s global warming pollution comes from internal combustion engines, mostly from cars and trucks.

Overall fuel economy for cars and light trucks in the U.S. reached its best level in 1987, at 22.1 miles per gallon. The average in 2004 dropped to 20.8 mpg.

The Model T got better gas mileage.

If all of our cars, trucks, and SUVs simply got 40 miles per gallon — something that is already achievable with existing technologies — we wouldn’t need a drop of oil from the Persian Gulf.

Australia, Europe, Japan and China all drive cars that are above 30 mpg, far better than Detroit.

My Honda Insight got 65 mpg last week when I drove the 200 miles to Charleston, South Carolina. Each gallon we burn releases carbon that has been stored for millennia back into the atmosphere.

A couple of points of reference here:

• Each of the places listed above have plans and laws to increase fuel economy standards further.

• By 2010, the average new car sold in Europe and Japan will get over 45 mpg.

So you can see, there is vast room for improvement; the technology is there.

If 40 mpg is possible today, imagine the possibilities if America put as much effort (or had the same level of interest) into finding smart energy solutions as we have in finding the next “American Idol” pop star? I think we’d kick our oil habit in no time.

But I want to make one final point before moving on…

If you want some idea of what energy efficiency could do for America’s bottom line, consider that: The United States as a whole uses twice as much energy to produce a dollar of goods as our European and Japanese trading partners.

In this case, environmental solutions are not just good for our economy, they are essential to our ability to compete globally!

And believe me, if we don’t innovate first, we’ll be buying technology from overseas rather than creating the jobs at home. Just look at what Toyota is doing to GM and Ford factories right now. Ford actually has to pay Toyota for the use of its hybrid technology.

Substitution — Renewable Energy

The second big part of the solution that will enable us to move to a new energy future is substitution. We need to substitute fossil fuels with renewables, such as wind and solar, for coal and nuclear power, and we need to embrace new technology for gas by substituting biofuels.

Renewables are key not only for the clean power they can produce, but also because they can potentially produce clean hydrogen that can power our vehicles and heat our buildings emissions-free.

And Nebraska, in particular, is positioned to become a key player at every single level.

Wind

Wind is the most exciting. It is cost effective, and it is abundant, and our own state of Nebraska ranks 5th in the nation in wind energy potential. It is worthy of the coalfields of West Virginia or hydropower in Washington state.

Nebraska farmers are poised to become key energy providers, while supplementing their farm income by providing wind-based electricity to a very needy nation.

Wind developers will pay farmers to place turbines in their fields, often paying more than they can make from farming the land underneath — though it won’t keep them from doing it.

We need of course to be careful of where we place windmills to minimize danger to birds and other wildlife.

But there has never been a ‘wind-spill’ or an accident trapping workers underground. While providing income for farmers, wind will provide clean electricity and good 21st-century jobs.

Solar

Then there’s solar. Nebraska ranks 9th in the U.S. in solar power production potential.

The photovoltaic industry has doubled in size in the past ten years, while the cost of solar has fallen dramatically. Dollar for dollar, solar is still a more costly electricity option, but its time is coming.

Once the cost of global warming is built into the price of electricity (and an increasing number of Americans are already realizing this true cost), solar will quickly become the cost-effective option.

Biofuels

Finally, let’s focus for a minute on biofuels.

In Nebraska, there are many livelihoods that depend on corn-based ethanol. At the Sierra Club, we are committed to ethanol being part of the energy solution and not part of the energy problem.

We know that over the past decade Brazil has reduced its oil consumption by half through the usage of sugar cane-based ethanol.

On the Nebraska Government website, on the page listing vehicle fuel consumption in this state, you’ll find that in one year, 2004-2005, gasoline consumption in Nebraska declined an astonishing 32 percent. Another link on that same page takes you to the vehicle miles traveled in Nebraska. During that same period, vehicle miles traveled in the state increased two percent.

Two percent more miles on 32 percent less gasoline in one year, how did you Nebraskans do that? The website says Ethanol, a biofuel.

There is no question that biofuels are part of the solution and we’ve just scratched the surface in terms of what is biologically and technologically possible. I can say with confidence that the Sierra Club will be actively engaged in making this vision a reality.

POINT C: Ignore the Rhetoric

Today, we have the tools and resources, and we can solve our energy problems.

But there are obstacles in the way, those I call the ‘naysayers.’

Some naysayers negate the energy problem completely: “We have enough energy. It doesn’t pollute.”

Other naysayers say global warming is a natural phenomenon—or as Michael Crichton, the author of State of Fear would have us believe—a fiction manufactured by environmentalists like me so we can keep our jobs.

And others say there’s nothing we can do about global warming or pollution problems. China and India will keep polluting and our efforts will be for naught.

And still others say there’ll be an economic catastrophe, if we try to address our energy issues in a responsible way.

There will always be people who say, “America can’t do it.” Those people waste our time and delay solutions. I say, What happened to good old American know-how? Don’t tell us what you can’t do; show us what you can do.

The overwhelming evidence, from President Bush to your next home heating bill, is that these naysayers are wrong. The pollution, economic and national security problems with our current energy sources are all obvious and real.

President Bush finally is beginning to get it. But what may be even more encouraging is to see major businesses and national leaders beginning to come on board as well.

Major American corporations like Ford Motor Company, Goldman Sachs and General Electric are starting to get it.

Major American energy companies like Duke Power and Cynergy also are starting to get it.

Eighty-six major Christian Evangelical organizations just issued a “Call to Action” on climate change. They get it.

Based on Berkshire Hathaway’s recently released 2006 annual report, Warren Buffet gets it. You have to get it if you are in the re-insurance business.

As of last week, 206 American cities with over 42 million American citizens had joined the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. They get it.

By themselves, each one of these local and national stories won’t solve the problem. But every time one city, CEO or religious leader steps up to the plate, more and more seem to follow.

POINT D: Unleash the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Americans.

I said at the beginning that to move to a new energy future we had to define the problem, outline the solutions, ignore the naysayers and finally to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans.

Now is the time to stop doubting ourselves, accept reality and start making things happen.

I believe in the ingenuity and spirit of Americans. That’s why I stand before you today, as an optimist, asking you to join the cadre of problem solvers and lead America to a new energy future.

Leadership at the federal level is simply not getting it done. That puts weight on the shoulders of businesses and state and local governments to take us there. This is our situation — it’s time to face the challenge with the right solutions.

Where government is willing to act, we must help it act responsibly.

Where government is not willing to act, we must work to install leaders who will.

Where opportunity is not being realized, we must roll up our sleeves and take action ourselves, just as thoughtful, responsible business leaders are doing all across the country.

Let’s make it our job to see that they account for the true costs of our fossil fuel dependence, understand the benefit of moving to these new energy solutions, and get the job done right.

Conclusion

President Bush said that we are addicted to oil. I have never smoked a cigarette and heroin has not been a problem, but I think I understand the basics of addiction.

I know that kicking the habit requires strong incentives, discipline, tenacity and a little help from your friends.

We might need some methadone, a patch. We definitely need a vision for a ‘drug-free’ energy life. This is what I hope I have created for you: a vision of a new energy future.

Which brings me to my final question…

Ten years from now, are American businesses going to be buying the environmental technology we need from Japan, or are we going to be selling it around the world?

The answer to that is up to us.