Pipe dreams - Providing Power to the People
| Author | G. Tracy Mehan III |
| Position | Principal with The Cadmus Group, Inc., an environmental consulting firm. He is also an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University School of Law |
| Pages | 6-7 |
Page 6 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2010, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, Sept./Oct. 2010
Homer Simpson no doubt
spoke for many who are
concerned about the
world’s dependence on
fossil fuels when he of-
fered this prayer: “And, Lord, we’re
especially thankful for nuclear pow-
er, the cleanest, safest energy source
there is. Except for solar which is just
a pipe dream.”
Nuclear, solar, wind, wave, and
geothermal power, as well as biofuels,
electric cars, and enhanced energy ef-
ficiency, are all touted as elements of
the new dispensation, each with its
own lobby and constituencies. ese
options, it is argued, will substitute
for coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
But there is fierce debate
as to which of them, indi-
vidually or in combination,
might lead America into
the promised land of clean,
safe, and secure energy.
at said, the very efficacy
of such a new energy regime
is often questioned by those
who do not see long-term,
insurmountable problems
in supply and environmen-
tal effects.
Dr. Daniel Botkin, a
world-renowned ecologist
and author of a well-regarded
textbook on environmental science,
proposes to explain it all to us in his
masterful, comprehensive new volume
Powering the Future: A Scientist’s Guide
to Energy Independence. He brings to
bear significant amounts of data and
professional expertise to a debate often
driven by uninformed assumptions.
While the reader may disagree with
Dr. Botkin’s policy preferences, he or
she will profit from his erudition and
integrated approach to envisioning an
alternative energy future.
Twenty years ago, Botkin penned
a classic book on ecological science,
Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology
for the Twenty-First Century (Oxford
University Press), which profoundly
shaped this reviewer’s thinking on
the natural world and mankind’s re-
lationship to it.
His most recent book, Powering
the Future, was published before the
disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, as
vivid an example of the downside
of our dependence on fossil fuel as
one could ever imagine. Here is an-
other:
On Christmas Eve in 1988 a
pipeline near the Gasconade River,
a beautiful tributary to the Missouri
River, burst open, spilling 860,000
gallons of crude oil into that little
piece of heaven in mid-Missouri. Ac-
cording to Todd C. Frankel of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, “It was the worst
inland oil spill in U.S. history.”
Just after New Year’s 1989 your
reviewer left St. Louis for Jefferson
City, Missouri, to take over as direc-
tor of the state department of natural
resources, which was charged with
overseeing the cleanup and seeking
cost recovery from Shell Oil, a divi-
sion of which operated the 22-inch
steel line carrying crude 435 miles
from Oklahoma to a refinery in
Wood River, Illinois.
In retrospect, that mess, over-
whelming at the time, was minor
compared to what the gulf coast is
experiencing today. Two decades lat-
er, the Gasconade appears to have re-
covered. e spill happened in winter
with the bird population diminished
and fish in the deeper water. Yet, it
was an experience one still recalls
with a shudder.
Turning to the National Research
Council’s recent report, “Hidden
Costs of Energy: Unpriced Conse-
quences of Energy Production and
Use,” we find an attempt to put a
price on the actual or true costs to
human health of generating energy
from coal and gasoline.
Damage to human health from
burning coal for electricity totaled
about $62 billion in 2005. Driving
motor vehicles produced $56 billion
in health and other dam-
ages. Using natural gas to
heat homes, workplaces,
and factories resulted in
approximately $1.4 billion
in harm. In sum, the dam-
ages from U.S. energy use
that the NRC was able to
quantify came to $120 bil-
lion for 2005. And this does
not include any calculations
of harm from a changing
climate, which would add
anywhere from 0.1 cent to
10 cents per kilowatt hour
for burning coal.
Of course, there are risks to go-
ing without adequate energy sup-
plies; and fossil fuels are better than
no energy at all. Still, the negative
externalities are real and will only
get worse if current trends continue
unabated.
Dr. Botkin asks us to consider a
scenario, “business as usual,” in which
the United States grows to 420 mil-
lion citizens by 2050, an increase of
120 million Americans, as currently
forecast by the Census Bureau, while
in T h e li T e r a T u r e
Poweri ng the Future: A
Scientist’s Guide to En-
ergy Independence. Daniel
B. Bot kin. F T P ress; 3 30
pages; $25.99.
Hidden Costs of Energy:
Unprice d C onsequence s
of Energy Production and
Use. National Research Coun-
cil of the National Academy of
Sciences. National Academies
Press; 350 pages; $5 4.00.
PIPE DREAMS
Providing Power to the People
By G. Tracy Mehan III
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