According to a recent press report, LifeLine Development Group of Sacramento, California, plans to submit an application for approval of a 200 generator wind power site on Shepherds Flat, up the Columbia River gorge. It will produce 750 megawatts in optimum conditions, which the gorge is usually generous in providing. The Shepherds Flat wind farm would be the largest so far proposed for the state, and this is a first for California developers. That brings Columbia River gorge planned and existing wind production to over 2 gigawatts. That’s five times the energy from the Boardman 400 megawatt coal fired plant.

You know where I’m coming from. I’m prejudiced. I want fossil fuel retired as a prime source for electrical generation. This is a giant step in that direction. Enough of this sort of thing and the Boardman facility could be de-commissioned. That thing has been accused of hazing four states. Hallelujah!

In other news:

The feds are holding hearings on a proposed liquified natural gas importation (LNG) facility at Coos Bay. We need the gas, don’t we? We’re talking about more and more carbon dioxide emissions and I don’t think so.

What the deal is, tankers will pull into Coos Bay. Aboard those tankers will be millions upon millions of gallons of liquified natural gas. To do that, you maintain the stuff at close to 300 degrees below zero. When I say maintain, I mean don’t let that sucker get away from you. The pressure from the expanding gas would blow anything a goodly distance toward kingdom come, and then the stuff would probably ignite. In port, the liquid gas must be transferred from the ship to a waiting facility. It must be fed carefully, very, very carefully, into a container that can shrink and expand as required, and there must be no air present. Letting methane and oxygen get together at any point in this process could be almost guaranteed to be quickly fatal. Most places around the country rise up in horror and holler at their loudest, “Not in my backyard!”

A couple of these facilities have gone off in splendid Fourth of July fashion. Nothing much left for miles around. I’m not sure it would break windows in Eugene but I’m also not sure I’d care to bet on it. Coos Bay is a town that is hurting, with timber shipping not being what it once was and not a whole lot else being attracted down there. Whether the possibility of 60 jobs will balance against such a menacing presence remains to be seen. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that hearing. On maybe not. The administration in Washington wants it, neither Coos Bay nor the State of Oregon packs much weight in that town these days.

On 7/12/06, The Register-Guard featured on article entitled “Governor’s energy plan hits static.” The Governor’s plan would mandate that 25% of electrical production in the state would be derived from wind, solar, geothermal energy and ocean tides (the list is not exclusive but pointedly does not contain hydroelectric power from dams) within 19 years. The opposition holds that since they have invested millions of dollars in coal and natural gas generating facilities they should be allowed to use them. I’m not personally much worried about the natural gas generators, though you may well be. I am convinced that future pricing of natural gas will be such as to drive businesses well away from the stuff. That’s what happened to oil burning generators.

To the utilities it isn’t a question of whether alternative sources of power can be had, it’s a question of getting your money’s worth out of an investment. I’ve no sympathy in terms of natural gas powered plants – it was evident to me before most of them were built that utilities and tar sand processing would produce the present crisis situation. In the case of coal-fired plants, they are nasty things and I look forward to their retirement. Retirement would be gradual in any case. It is very much in the nature of the utility business that there are vast differences in electrical demand. based largely on weather. Oregon, as everywhere, depends on electricity for coolness on hot days, and to a greater extent than most places space is heated electrically. There will always and forever be a need for peaking plants, and they can and probably will use the coal-fired for peaking plants. A little bit of CO2 and a little bit of hazing certainly beats a whole lot of either.

I don’t know about other municipal utilities in Oregon, but the managers of the Eugene facility are not party to the objections of the commercial operators.

Meanwhile, I personally favor the Danish model; small groups of individuals and/or businesses there band together in a power association and buy their own generators. Gets away from the possibility of an outfit like Enron taking possession of one’s energy source.

It might also be noted that 20 states have already adopted approximately the same measure the governor is offering. Those states enacted the laws over the objections of the utilities in their states. Oregon utilities are counting on getting a legislative body ready to give them what they want.

In the bad news department, another recent article in the R-G noted that the seas absorb CO2, altering the acidity of the sea. Calcium is a required for the formation of the shells that many forms of sea life depend upon – all shell fish and coral. Acid dissolves the shells, leaving the organisms easy prey for predators. Perhaps it bodes farewell to coral reefs, clams, lobsters, crabs – oh dear, what are we doing?

In the July 17th edition of “The American Conservative” Kevin Phillips wrote the lead article – he seems a frequent contributor to the periodical – and his article is entitled “American Petrocracy: Among the shifting rationales for the war in Iraq, the most plausible motive may be the least discussed: Access to oil.” Phillips says Iraq has been about nothing but oil from it’s creation after WW I – the British carefully drew the borders of the country in regard to oil Nothing has ever changed – Iraqi oil has determined everything ever since. Phillips notes that the gulf war of the 1990s was entirely about oil, and as late as 1999, Dick Cheney, then CEO of Halliburton, told the London Institute of Petroleum that by 2010 the world would need another 50 mbd and Iraq was the country to produce it. Phillips’ beef is that by every possible measure, this administration has failed miserably. Actual Iraqi oil production is but a third to a half what it was under Saddam, The price of oil has nearly quadrupled since our invasion of the country and any claims that the Iraqi are better off must come from somebody who doesn’t read the news.

On www.energybulletin.net is the rewarding news that Brits are submitting applications to install rooftop wind generators. Hallelujah! Another way to gain personal control over one’s energy needs. I’d wondered if wind generators might not be downsized for personal applications. Given wind patterns in Oregon, there is potential there for Oregonians who might wish to reduce their energy bills and dependency on power companies.

The last week of July produced a particularly lively set of offerings at www.energybulletin.net
A few minutes to scan the offerings is highly recommended.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 7:31 am and is filed under Energy Future, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.