I’ve been rebuked by a reader for insufficient labeling of my product. He’s right, at least part of the time. Some of the stuff I write doesn’t break up into segments, since it deals with a single topic. But on these monthly reviews of the Oregon energy situation, it might work well.

Please note that if the source of my information is not noted in the article, it came from www.energybulletin.net.

Praise for Portland
Quoting the first paragraph of a broadcast of August 15th by the British Broadcasting Corp.:

“By Sayeeda Warsi
Vice Chair, Conservative Party

If you thought political cross-dressing was a recent British phenomenon, you obviously haven’t been to Portland.

In Oregon they were ‘cross dressing’ as far back as the 1970’s when the Republican Governor, Tom McCall, took radical steps to prioritise public transport over roads, using the freeways levy to invest in the foundations of what is undoubtedly one of the most integrated and dynamic public transport provisions anywhere in the world.”

How’s that for recognition? Step up and take a bow, Portland. You are basking in international praise and fame.

Wind and Water
Otherwise, the views from the news can be a good bit less encouraging. In my hometown paper on 8/27, is a piece entitled “Katrina on the Potomac,” penned by a Marylander who sees a troubled future for his area. He foresees a mere three foot rise in sea levels (providing the Greenland ice cap doesn’t give way), but that’s enough for a very large part of Maryland to become a new Atlantis, and Washington, D.C. to be cowering behind dykes, hoping that the big one misses. The author is Mike Tidwell, director of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council.

That came right after my reading of the August, 2006 National Geographic, which ordinarily offers beautifully illustrated but rather staid articles on wild life and native peoples. This time they’re visiting the New Orleans office of NOAA. These are the hurricane hunters, the guys who watch for storms in the Atlantic, and when storms develop they track them with intense curiosity. They’re the guys who tell you when it’s time to run. Those people are acutely aware of the shortcomings of their predictions and are doing all manner of things to improve their reliability. It’s an engrossing story, well illustrated in the National Geographic tradition, and one emerges from the reading a good bit more informed about what’s going on in terms of both weather and weather-watching. The big question, of course, is will things get worse under climate change?

Energy and the ‘06 Campaign
The top half of the front page of my hometown paper today, 8/28, is devoted to an article entitled “Renewable energy revolution.” My immediate reaction was “Yeah, yeah, been there done that.” But there was a second story on page seven dealing with what I didn’t previously have, and that’s the position of this year’s gubernatorial candidates. The incumbent proposes to make Oregon the 21st state to adopt the “Renewable Portfolio Standard,” by way of an initiative on the ballot. Kulongoski says “Utilities have made strides hut would be more likely to continue their expansion into non-emitting, environmentally sustainable energy if government sets such standards.”

The governor’s opponent, Ron Saxton, says of renewable energy sources, “They’re gimmicks and they could turn into very expensive gimmicks.” Saxton would permit utilities to obtain renewable resources, but does not plan to encourage them to do so.

Innovative Energy
Moving our focus to the underside of the world, there’s a fascinating bit from Australia. The place is famous for its wide-open and scarcely populated interior, sunny and dry. The Aussies answer to the energy situation is to use a tract of land to construct a humongous electrical generation facility using their abundant sunlight. They will build a structure larger than the Sears Tower in Chicago – taller and with about a 250 foot diameter. The structure operates as a chimney, collecting heated air from acres and acres of land covered with transparent material – a huge greenhouse with a chimney in the middle and wind turbines mounted at the top. A vertical, rather than horizontal, wind machine, if you will.

Can it work? Well, the National Geographic article said that hurricanes are a direct result of sun-heated seas releasing that heat back into the atmosphere and creating the tropical depressions that can develop into hurricanes. A couple of average hurricanes, they say, equals the energy generated by the capacity of every power plant in the world. Any small aircraft pilot can tell you what’s it’s like to fly over sun drenched terrain, particularly when there are abrupt changes in elevation in the terrain. Wind shear it is called and can be deadly, even for very large aircraft. The energy is there, it can be captured.

A vertical wind tunnel, like the one in Australia, wouldn’t seem like a good idea west of the Cascades. But southeastern Oregon, unless it has changed quite a lot since I last traveled through, would seem a likely candidate. Just mentioned it in case those counties were looking for something with which to attract industry into their areas. BPA was a winner in Oregon; this could be another.

Celebrating A Winner
To close with a jolly good story – a woman works at a modest salary in the Portland area for a health care provider . She’d been conned by the media blitz into buying an SUV and reportedly was buying about 6000 gallons of fuel annually to get to work. Sounds high to me, but what do I know? Anyway, her employer offered a monthly subsidy to employees who elected to switch to public transportation. Our lady did. He employer’s subsidy largely covered the cost of her new mode of transportation and she kept the $18,000 a year she was spending on gas. Win-win for all. Employer got splendid publicity, the employee got a fantastic raise in the form of reduced expenses, we all gained because she stopped contributing to carbon loading of the atmosphere and the balance of payments deficit.

Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Corp. announced a 20% reduction in the vehicles it produces next year while it scrambles to find a new formula for surviving in the increasingly difficult market. Ford, I’m sure you are aware, was a major player in the media blitz that pushed SUVs upon the public awareness. In my town at the Ford Motor lot the big stuff has been shoved to the back of the lot and more fuel efficient units are up on the front line, to be seen by passers-by.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 8:08 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.