March 12, 2008
To: The Honorable David Paterson
Governor of New York
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12247
From: David Amsler
VP Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County
417 Bush Hill Rd.
Franklinville, NY 14737
Dear Governor Paterson:
On behalf of myself and as VP of Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County ( CCCC ), we welcome you as Governor of our State of New York and wish you all possible success in bridging the divides in our State and its legislature.
Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County is an environmental watchdog group in Western New York very much concerned with alternative energy, global warming, and maintaining the natural advantages of living in our beautiful State.
I understand that you have been deeply involved with our State’s alternative energy policies, and ask that you remain so, and help our policies evolve as events and technology evolve.
We are daily confronted with the unintended consequences of corn-to-ethanol programs. Our wind energy subsidy programs pose an even greater threat to this State and our country.
This state runs on energy, and the rising cost of oil, and our bankrupting ourselves to pay for it, must be addressed. Electrical power in this country is derived mostly from U.S. sources, not imported fuels. Wind turbines do not replace imported fuels, but perversely may add to the demand for them. Wind turbines only generate rated power about 25% of the time. The remainder must be supplied by backup sources that must be able to go on line quickly. The most practical of these backup power sources is natural gas fired peaker plants; this country is now importing natural gas.
Wind may be free, but wind turbines are not. The resulting power is more expensive than from conventional sources. Worse, our current subsidy programs hide the expense of building, maintaining, staffing, and keeping ready the necessary backup generating capacity further raising our cost of electrical power.
Raising our cost for electrical power only makes this state and our country less able to compete in the global economy, as you have witnessed in the scramble to reapportion the low cost power from Niagara Falls.
The biggest tragedy of our misguided subsidies is missed opportunity. Transportation and heating are two of our biggest users of imported fuel, not electric power generation. New technologies are rapidly developing that will allow us to convert from imported fuels to U.S.-generated electric power for these uses, provided we do not allow the cost of electric power to be artificially increased. Two examples:
New battery technology for automobiles now allows powering decent sized cars 40+ miles on a charge from an outlet in your garage, at a cost of about 80 cents. This country’s own General Motors Corp. has made a huge commitment to this technology, with the chance to regain world leadership and create real jobs in this country. Internal combustion automobile engines only convert about 20% of the available energy in gasoline to motive power, while electric motors operate near 90% efficiency, and electric vehicles recapture energy when braking.
Heat pumps can pump about five times the amount of heat energy they consume, while conventional combustion furnaces cannot deliver even as much energy as they consume. Using the earth as a constant temperature heat source, sometimes referred to as using geothermal energy, is one means of making this technology practical for our cold climate. Another is the use of the new dual source furnaces that switch to natural gas on those few days when outside temperature makes heat pump operation less practical.
Lost Economic Opportunity: The U.S. with its entrepreneurial culture can develop these and other technologies, lead the world, and create jobs here, provided we do not skew the energy costs to place electric power at a disadvantage to continued use of imported fuels. Developing countries do not follow in lockstep behind developed countries, but leapfrog to best available technologies. To them, best available often means lowest cost. We can lead only if we focus on economic realities as well as environmental ones.
To allow the new technologies to flourish, we need an increased supply of economical, and 24-7 available electrical energy, not just alternative energy. Fortunately, there are alternatives that are both CO2 free and economical.
Nuclear power: May be our best choice in the near term, and it buys us time to develop other options.
Geothermal energy: Thanks to deep hole drilling technology developed for the oil industry, geothermal energy will soon be able to be accessed in most parts of this country. Most do not realize that the U.S. is the world leader in mass producing geothermal power, but until now it has been limited to geyser areas of our west.
Hydroelectric power: New means of harvesting it without dams are being developed.
Solar concentrators: Capture heat from the sun which can be stored, rather than converting sunlight directly to electrical power and thus minimizing need for backup power, are a viable alternative in sunny parts of this country. It is available during peak hours of electrical demand in those same areas further reducing the need for backup power. Solar heating of homes is viable in much of this country, and this state as it inherently includes means to store that energy.
We welcome your help in guiding New York State’s energy policies in a manner that truly will help this State our country and our planet.
David C. Amsler
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