Renewable Energy Bill a Step Forward
Developing more of our nation’s renewable energy resources and moving away from dependence on foreign oil is a move most sportsmen welcome. But tell hunters and anglers that meaningful development of solar and wind power may come at the cost of losing some of the West’s best fish and game habitat on public land, and that welcome will be gone.Legislation just introduced in both houses of Congress, the Clean Energy, Community Investment and Wildlife Conservation Act, looks like a good first step in ensuring that renewable energy development will take place in a responsible manner. The bill requires public land management agencies to sell renewable leases on public land and then set aside a substantial portion of the revenues to mitigate impacts to habitat that may occur during development.
The bill’s not perfect. It lacks additional language that could ensure that renewable development takes place in areas that are already developed, and that existing energy infrastructure (like towers, powerlines and energy corridors) is used to transport renewable energy before new structures are built in undeveloped areas. But it’s worthy of sportsmen’s support.
Read TU’s reaction to the bill here, and contact your legislators and ask them help move it through Congress.
Posted Under: Sportsmen's Conservation Project
It’s past time to stop using foreign oil! Maybe we will always need some oil, but we just have to stop depending on Middle East oil. There are 3 fairly easy things that all of us can do now to make a difference. 1- Stop pumping gas into your car! If you have a gas guzzler now, convert it into an electric car (see this blueprint for example). No more gas! 2- Stop using electricity off the electric grid! Either build solar panels (like this one), or build a cheap magnetic generator (like this one). Not very hard! 3- Learn to bike or walk! If you are only going a mile to the shop, walk or bike there. My 2 cents.
If you support the development of wind and solar energy on public lands then you have probably never seen a wind or solar installation. Solar has a huge footprint, requiring hundreds of acres of collectors for small numbers of kilowatts. Windmills are ugly, intrusive, and noisy, and are known for killing birds who fly through them. And both require roads to be built to bring in materials and lots of very large construction machinery. Power lines to connect the “green” energy facility are constantly fought in court by so-called conservation groups. Renewable energy resources without power lines are just so much useless intrusion on the landscape.
On the other hand, drilling for natural gas requires a very small footprint for a very large production of energy. A gas pipeline, once buried, is no longer visible. And no, I don’t work for or have any connection to the oil or gas energy industry. I just believe that energy development should be made on supportable scientific facts, not on “feel-good” emotions.
I would like to see solar power get cheaper and cheaper to the point that it will replace every type of energy generation currently in place.