September '08 Carol Patterson Column

Do we want 3 coal-fired power plants built in Nevada?

Las Vegas, NV 9/10/08—Exciting news for our grandchildren’s futures, once again. You can help them. In play are two important problems here in our valley—air quality for our tourism base industry and secondly, the mammoth struggle beginning in what I refer to as the impending water wars. Proposed coal-fired power plants are an insidious bit of current events hugely impacting the future of our quality of life here in Nevada.

Tuesday evening, Harrah’s employees and the Paris property hosted an evening on the subject of renewable, clean energy and energy conservation. A grass-roots movement in the ranks of their employees has begun a greening of the Harrah’s properties, now extended to top management. They prepared an informative evening of film and discussion, held in the Theatres des Artes at The Paris. Co-hosting were the Sierra Club, the Nevada Clean Energy Campaign, and the Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve.

The screening of the documentary film, ‘Fighting Goliath, The Texas Coal Wars’, (produced & narrated by Robert Redford) preceded a panel discussion about clean energy issues in Nevada. The panel, moderated by our own Dave Berns of our Las Vegas Public Radio (KNPR88.9), consisted of County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, State Treasurer Kate Marshall, clean energy advocate Rose McKinney James, and Chris Brooks, a clean energy entrepreneur pioneering renewable energy in Nevada for over a decade (also with Bombard Electric & IBEW Local 357).

People are beginning to gather, and momentum is building for a greener economy, both here and nationally. As with any subject, it is difficult to get the ‘buzz’ going in a time when everyone is busy, usually in overwhelm with work and home. Generating interest isn’t just about getting something going, either. Even when the subject is a party or a marathon, concert or sports event, getting the word out is tough. The buzz this time is about energy, where to get it, how to use it, how to conserve it. The question of energy supply and use on this scale happened, first, about one hundred years ago, when Churchill decided to switch from coal to oil. One short century later and the ‘well’ is nearly tapped dry.

The subject of where to get the energy is open yet again—and unbelievably, we’re being asked to go back to coal. Profoundly misguided, fouling our air while using gluttonous amounts of water, coal-fired power plants are yesterday’s answer to tomorrow’s energy requirements. Granted, going for the status quo is easier to understand. We are all going to have to take the time to bring ourselves up to speed on the myriad alternatives. If we don’t, we leave our fate, and that of our grandchildren up to lobbyists.

Hopefully the turn of the next century will not begin on the same tired subject of energy consumption and supply. First time is always their fault, right? If we devote ourselves as Americans have proven time and again we can do, we can correct these seemingly insurmountable challenges. We will get this energy problem right this time, and there won’t be a third time.

The audience in attendance at The Paris yesterday was in a gala mood. Why? Because encouraging a groundswell for clean energy is a bit like lighting a match in a stiff breeze. Yet here was another crowd, only a few weeks after the Energy Summit. And new faces. We need these events to continue at this monthly pace.

It is simple history repetition. The United States is awakened from its slumber by a nasty jolt. The United States responds in a cleverly creative manner. Everyone is becoming aware of what renewable energy is—it is becoming a household phrase. Due to rising oil prices—energy alternatives have everyone’s attention. This transportation budget crisis for individuals is causing the national consciousness to tune in, and to learn if there will be relief.

Nationally, people are becoming aware that importing foreign oil is not only a national security risk it is contributing to us exporting our precious dollars to countries hostile to the United States. Another thing—using up what precious drops remain is not a swell situation when we haven’t invented other ways to produce most of the everyday items populating our homes, offices, refrigerators, closets, garages and cars. Nearly everything we take for granted is petroleum based. We need petroleum for our jeans, and yet we pour it into our vehicles which could as easily accept discarded cooking oil as fuel.

Nevada is one of the possible focus states in a shift towards a green economy. As mentioned in a previous column, the National Clean Energy Summit, attended by over 1000 people at UNLV this past month, affirmed what many of us hold dear, “Nevada is at the epicenter in the debate of how America should generate and use energy in the future.” To be a state many view as important in this discussion is exhilarating for Nevadans. It also means jobs and influx of businesses, broadening our economic base.

Nevada has geothermal, solar and wind sources sufficient to solve our own energy needs, and also share with neighboring states. California and Oregon, for starters, are huge client states. Nevada can get in on this green economy, if enough of us demand it. Today, geothermal is cheaper than coal. And we sure can’t afford to line the pockets of someone who heavily invested in coal-fired power plants…if they didn’t see this coming, they’re in the wrong business.

Now that we see it coming, we must meet the crisis straight on. Get every bit of information you can. Start interacting with your legislators. Tell them you are not asking, you are telling them that you want Nevada to lead the way in the greening of the West. Each of us matters. You make a difference.

If there ever was a time in our lives when we needed to be fully engaged in our community, our country, this is that time.