AERO KUFM Commentary Archives

AERO KUFM Commentary

January 2006

AEROs Big Ideas on Energy

by Cliff Bradley

In 1975, the price a Montana farmer received for a bushel of wheat and the price of a barrel of oil were about the same, $3.50. Now that oil is over $50.00 and the wheat is still at $3.50, the vulnerability of Montana¹s economy to multinational energy companies should be obvious. And, what do you think the comparison between the price of oil and a bushel of wheat will look like in another thirty years?

Montana refineries produce more than twice as much gasoline and diesel fuel as is sold at retail in the state. Yet in recent months, prices spiked to $3.00 per gallon for gas and diesel produced by these same refineries. Oil companies told us that the price Montanans pay for fuel increased because of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and demand in China. Nearly $1.5 billion leaves Montana's economy each year to pay for petroleum-based fuel.

Montana generates more than twice as much electricity as consumed in the state. After the deregulation debacle of 1997, when Montana entered the "free marke" for power, our rates doubled while PPL made a killing selling low-cost Montana electricity to California. Now Montanans are paying for the cost of constructing expensive new generating capacity to replace the electricity that formerly came from some of the lowest cost hydropower in the nation. Electricity from new coal-fired power plants will cost ten times more than electricity from the dams already paid for by Montanans.

The global petroleum economy, with its erratic price spikes and plunges, operates far beyond Montana's control, yet it dominates our economy, making our own energy supplies uncertain and our energy costs unpredictable. Federal energy policy offers states like Montana little or no protection from these uncertainties, and this may be one reason why, in October 2005, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer convened a Montana Energy Symposium in Bozeman. There the governor expressed dissatisfaction with the federal energy policy and pledged that Montana would develop its own policy. Governor Schweitzer challenged Montanans to think big, to come up with Big Ideas.

AERO¹s Big Idea is to think small and diverse. It is now possible to insulate Montana¹s economy from the uncertain supply and prices of global fossil-fuel markets. Montana can have reliable supplies of cost-competitive, nonpolluting renewable energy. Energy produced or saved thanks to new technologies in conservation and biofuels, and electricity generated from our existing hydrobase and from wind and solar are cheaper, better, and faster than developing more fossil energy. In contrast to the global energy economy, an economy based on locally owned and locally produced energy can ensure reliable supplies of fuels and electricity at predictable costs. It can help revitalize our agricultural and manufacturing economy, and it can reverse the decline of both rural and urban communities around our state.

AERO¹s Big Ideas for small and diverse ways to generate and conserve energy rest upon five key assumptions:

1. Continuing growth in energy use is neither inevitable nor desirable, and it is certainly not sustainable. Cost-effective investments in energy efficiency can stabilize and eventually reduce overall energy consumption.
2. Montanans may continue to export energy for what the market will bear, but it is in our best interest to have full control of production, distribution, management, and financing of our energy resources.
3. Montanans -- who enjoy a constitutionally guaranteed right to a clean and healthful environment -- can produce all the fuel and electricity we need using currently available, cost-effective technologies to tap our abundant renewable energy sources.
4. Montana needs to resist new coal-fired electricity generation and coal syn fuels plants. We need to gradually phase out coal dependency. An orderly transition to a clean-energy economy ultimately will be less expensive for consumers and will create new jobs.
5. Citizens must play a central role in shaping Montana's energy future. Decision-making must be open to public participation and scrutiny, and decision-makers must be accountable to the public.

Montanans can and should ask the following questions of any proposal for new energy sources:
* Is the source sustainable?
* Does it rely on current (not stored) solar energy?
* Is it non-polluting?
* Is it Montana owned? Montana financed? Montana produced and distributed?
* Does the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) stay in Montana¹s economy?

The answers are the three key elements of a sustainable energy future for Montana:
Energy efficiency
Biofuels
Dispersed electrical generation

Montanans can grow an economy based entirely on conservation and renewable energy without damaging our air, water, land, or quality of life -- and without spewing more greenhouse gases into Earthís atmosphere. Doing this right means developing diverse and decentralized energy systems, creating meaningful work for our citizens, broadening local ownership of production and distribution systems, reducing our vulnerability to natural- or human-caused disasters, and enhancing the resilience and well-being of our communities.

A group of AERO members is currently at work on an energy blueprint for Montana. We welcome your input. We will have a draft of the blueprint energy plan on the AERO website, in early February.   Go to   www.aeromt.org

I¹m Cliff Bradley for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. AERO welcomes your comments and perspectives. AERO is a grassroots membership organization working to help create farm, food, energy, and growth solutions for communities throughout Montana. For more information about our programs call us in Helena at 406-443-7272.