“Whenever there is a huge spill of solar energy, it’s just called a nice day.” It’s a quaint saying with a little bite to it; tough to replicate in this country’s mad dash to suck up the remnants of its hydrocarbon reserves. Who needs the future?
I may not be able to afford solar panels on my house, but I’ll support rebate credits for anyone who can, simply because it’s not hydrocarbon. Apparently, Gov. Paul LePage doesn’t have a lot of nice days. Maybe it would help if he put the sun to work. It’s a shame that his approach to energy lacks scope.
He does have a soul mate in the Heartland Institute, which praises his veto of the solar rebates in the Journal Tribune op-ed published May 2. Unfortunately, H.I. is a shill for the petroleum industry, and the writer only complains of space-wasting industrial applications of solar power. I, too, don’t like gigantic arrays of solar panels boiling water in a central vessel, but that writer totally ignores the fact that solar energy is most valuable when it is made available to the millions of homeowners across this country in the form of photovoltaic panels, panels to heat your water and passive solar home construction. Only then can you start saying the heck with oil. Oh, and don’t forget geothermal, governor.
Thirty years ago, my wife and I bid on a passive solar house. The main reason we didn’t buy it was the thought of doubling our considerable commuting distance. The house needed zero solar panels to be strikingly energy efficient. It was enough to make us think twice about the price of gas.
For those of us who refuse to consent to the evidence of global warming due to energy produced from hydrocarbons, think about the really big train wreck that happens when we haven’t phased cleaner forms of energy into the economy. Let’s trust oil companies that won’t even tell the railroads the volatile composition of tar sands crude being shipped in sub-standard cars which derail into hell on Earth.
Let’s trust a governor whose business acumen tells him to torpedo the deal for wind turbine farms out in the ocean, where most people don’t care about the scenery. Now you see the investment, now you don’t.
My best guess is there will be no veto if the political climate calls for a reversal of the Portland pipeline to pump tar sands crude oil from its new terminus in Montreal to Portland ”“ passing within spitting distance of Sebago Lake. Do you think this governor cares about drinking water for a quarter million people? About as much as sport fishing.
Things are changing. Either we plan ahead or we plan from behind. Sadly, the best strategy in the energy tool box is overlooked in our newfound oil wealth: conserve. The more you conserve, the further you go. It’s not in the hydrocarbon TV ads. And the price of those ads are in the always- increasing price of the energy source. It’s time to consider the costs.
-Doug Yohman, East Waterboro
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