ROCKY MOUNTAIN LAND USE GROK
Gas Wells or Sun Tunnels?
By David Frey, 5-20-07
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In remote Utah, artist Nancy Holt has created her renowned Sun Tunnels land art installation. The work includes a series of tunnels that Holt, the widow of legendary Spiral Jetty creator Robert Smithson, created to turn sunshine into art.
That land is now up for leasing for oil and gas development, the Salt Lake Tribune reports, even though Holt says drilling equipment would intervere with her art.
“You have to remember the equipment that goes with a well,” she tells the Tribune. “The building of roads that would be necessary, the maintenance. It would become an industrial site of sorts and certainly would diminish the natural beauty of the site.”
Holt’s work sits on the western edge of the Great Basin Desert near Nevada. Four concrete tubes form an X that align with the path of the sun during summer and winter solstices. A series of “starholes” fill with sunlight in the shape of four constellations.
BLM officials say the wells can be positioned so they won’t get in the way of visitors.
Eminent domain is being cut back in Montana. Under a new law signed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the Associated Press reports, governments can’t condemn land and turn it over to another private property owner just for the sake of more tax dollars. It was one of many laws across the West and throughout the country being drafted as a result of a Supreme Court decision that upheld condenmation for economic development.
Most legislators agreed that Montana law wouldn’t have allowed that kind of seizure anyway.
“Rest assured,” says state Sen. Dave Lewis, “the issue is settled in Montana.”
The Rocky Mountain News reports on the ranchers who fear their way of life would be threatened if the Army goes through with plans to seize a half-million acres for the expansion of Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado.
Along the fenceline, landowners have posted sign after sign: “This Land NOT 4 SALE to the Army.”
The land is key to the rural economy of the region, the Rocky reports, and farmers are nervous about the Army leveling its economic future. But it’s not just about money.
“People don’t understand the tie to the land. People don’t realize there are fourth and fifth generation ranchers, and their families homesteaded there,” Otero County Commissioner Kevin Karney, tells the Rocky. He himself ranches 16,000 acres south of La Junta.
“There’s ranchers out there who you could offer any amount of money, and they’ll say no,” he says. “It’s not about the money. It’s their way of life.”
The Rocky also looks elsewhere in rural Colorado, where speculators are betting on ethanol as the next big thing. Writer Gargi Chakrabarty calls them “dot-corn guys.”
Corn prices are doubling. Farmers are planting more of it. In Yuma County, Colo., offials estimate farmers are upping their corn crops by 40 percent in dry-land acres and 10 percent in irrigated acres. Nationally, farmers are planting the most corn in the country since World War II. By 2010, ethanol production is expected to eat up a third of the nation’s corn crop.
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Comments
In order to insure energy and economic independence as well as better economic growth without being blackmailed by foreign countries, our country, the United States of America’s Utilization of Energy Sources must change.
"Energy drives our entire economy.” We must protect it. "Let's face it, without energy the whole economy and economic society we have set up would come to a halt. So you want to have control over such an important resource that you need for your society and your economy." The American way of life is not negotiable.
Our continued dependence on fossil fuels could and will lead to catastrophic consequences.
The federal, state and local government should implement a mandatory renewable energy installation program for residential and commercial property on new construction and remodeling projects with the use of energy efficient material, mechanical systems, appliances, lighting, retrofits etc. The source of energy must be by renewable energy such as Solar-Photovoltaic, Geothermal, Wind, Biofuels, Ocean-Tidal, Hydrogen-Fuel Cell etc. This includes the utilizing of water from lakes, rivers and oceans to circulate in cooling towers to produce air conditioning and the utilization of proper landscaping to reduce energy consumption. (Sales tax on renewable energy products and energy efficiency should be reduced or eliminated)
The implementation of mandatory renewable energy could be done on a gradual scale over the next 10 years. At the end of the 10 year period all construction and energy use in the structures throughout the United States must be 100% powered by renewable energy. (This can be done by amending building code)
In addition, the governments must impose laws, rules and regulations whereby the utility companies must comply with a fair “NET METERING” (the buying of excess generation from the consumer at market price), including the promotion of research and production of “renewable energy technology” with various long term incentives and grants. The various foundations in existence should be used to contribute to this cause.
A mandatory time table should also be established for the automobile industry to gradually produce an automobile powered by renewable energy. The American automobile industry is surely capable of accomplishing this task. As an inducement to buy hybrid automobiles (sales tax should be reduced or eliminated on American manufactured automobiles).
This is a way to expedite our energy independence and economic growth. (This will also create a substantial amount of new jobs). It will take maximum effort and a relentless pursuit of the private, commercial and industrial government sectors’ commitment to renewable energy – energy generation (wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, energy storage (fuel cells, advance batteries), energy infrastructure (management, transmission) and energy efficiency (lighting, sensors, automation, conservation) (rainwater harvesting, water conservation) (energy and natural resources conservation) in order to achieve our energy independence.
"To succeed, you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality."
Jay Draiman, Energy Consultant
Northridge, CA. 91325
Mar. 30, 2007
P.S. I have a very deep belief in America's capabilities. Within the next 10 years we can accomplish our energy independence, if we as a nation truly set our goals to accomplish this.
I happen to believe that we can do it. In another crisis--the one in 1942--President Franklin D. Roosevelt said this country would build 60,000 [50,000] military aircraft. By 1943, production in that program had reached 125,000 aircraft annually. They did it then. We can do it now.
"the way we produce and use energy must fundamentally change."
The American people resilience and determination to retain the way of life is unconquerable and we as a nation will succeed in this endeavor of Energy Independence.
The Oil Companies should be required to invest a substantial percentage of their profit in renewable energy R&D;and implementation. Those who do not will be panelized by the public at large by boy cutting their products.
Solar energy is the source of all energy on the earth (excepting volcanic geothermal). Wind, wave and fossil fuels all get their energy from the sun. Fossil fuels are only a battery which will eventually run out. The sooner we can exploit all forms of Solar energy (cost effectively or not against dubiously cheap FFs) the better off we will all be. If the battery runs out first, the survivors will all be living like in the 18th century again.
Every new home built should come with a solar package. A 1.5 kW per bedroom is a good rule of thumb. The formula 1.5 X's 5 hrs per day X's 30 days will produce about 225 kWh per bedroom monthly. This peak production period will offset 17 to 2
4 cents per kWh with a potential of $160 per month or about $60,000 over the 30-year mortgage period for a three-bedroom home. It is economically feasible at the current energy price and the interest portion of the loan is deductible. Why not?
Title 24 has been mandated forcing developers to build energy efficient homes. Their bull-headedness put them in that position and now they see that Title 24 works with little added cost. Solar should also be mandated and if the developer designs a home that solar is impossible to do then they should pay an equivalent mitigation fee allowing others to put solar on in place of their negligence. (Installation should be paid “performance based”).
Installation of renewable energy and its performance should be paid to the installer and manufacturer based on "performance based" (that means they are held accountable for the performance of the product - that includes the automobile industry). This will gain the trust and confidence of the end-user to proceed with such a project; it will also prove to the public that it is a viable avenue of energy conservation.
Installing a renewable energy system on your home or business increases the value of the property and provides a marketing advantage. It also decreases our trade deficit.
Nations of the world should unite and join together in a cohesive effort to develop and implement MANDATORY RENEWABLE ENERGY for the sake of humankind and future generations.
The head of the U.S. government's renewable energy lab said Monday (Feb. 5) that the federal government is doing "embarrassingly few things" to foster renewable energy, leaving leadership to the states at a time of opportunity to change the nation's energy future. "I see little happening at the federal level. Much more needs to happen." What's needed, he said, is a change of our national mind set. Instead of viewing the hurdles that still face renewable sources and setting national energy goals with those hurdles in mind, we should set ambitious national renewable energy goals and set about overcoming the hurdles to meet them. We have an opportunity, an opportunity we can take advantage of or an opportunity we can squander and let go,"
solar energy - the direct conversion of sunlight with solar cells, either into electricity or hydrogen, faces cost hurdles independent of their intrinsic efficiency. Ways must be found to lower production costs and design better conversion and storage systems.
FEDERAL BUILDINGS WITH SOLAR ENERGY – Renewable Energy
All government buildings, Federal, State, County, City etc. should be mandated to be energy efficient and must use renewable energy on all new structures and structures that are been remodeled/upgraded.
"The goverment should serve as an example to its citizens"
Jay Draiman, Energy Consultant
Northridge, CA 91325
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