For two weeks in February, Carroll County, along with a broad swath of the South-Central U.S., experienced record-breaking cold weather. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration said the polar vortex was a result of climate change. Local climate activists consider the event more evidence of the urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as those from coal and other fossil fuels in order to deal with the increasing frequency of severe weather events.
They have found themselves at odds with the largest electric cooperative in the state. The Carroll Electric Cooperative Corp. (CECC), which has long supported coal-fired power plants, mailed out a newsletter and survey in March that pans renewable energy sources, pins the blame for coal emissions on China, and asks members to support “a diverse mix of dispatchable resources that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas” and to “end unfair subsidies to unreliable forms of power generation.”
“My heartfelt conviction is that rolling blackouts in 2020 and 2021 would not be happening if our nation had preserved many (certainly not all) of our traditional generations resources,” Rob Boaz, president/CEO of CECC, wrote in the newsletter.
The newsletter was like adding fuel to the fire for area residents who have invested in energy conservation and alternative energy such as solar panels.
“They conveniently gloss over the fact that their ‘dispatchable sources of power are the carbon belching triggers for these extreme weather instances while also saying that we basically shouldn’t be doing anything about carbon impacts because China is worse,” Eureka Springs resident Jeff Danos said. “Not to mention that when discussing subsidies, they don’t talk about the subsidies that fossil fuel has received and continues to receive.”
Jerry Landrum, a local solar energy proponent, said that the first thing to focus on is energy conservation. He had a CECC energy audit when he first bought his five-bedroom home near Eureka Springs. In addition to energy conservation improvements, he installed solar panels. His electric bill for February from CECC was $21.42 with only $5.22 being for the energy used. Because he stores solar energy in batteries, he had no interruption of power during storms.
“It is true as you begin to add lots of solar power onto the grid that you need to have some energy storage somewhere,” Landrum said. “Tesla and Southern California Edison opened up the world’s largest battery storage facility recently. It can store enough energy to power 2,500 homes for a day or 15,000 homes for four hours.”
When the sun goes down and solar stops working, they supply the grid power off those batteries. Or, Landrum said, you can put batteries behind the meter and everyone gets their own battery.
“That works really well because before long, you don’t really need the power company anymore if you have rooftop solar and your energy storage,” Landrum said. “Anyhow, I’m kind of annoyed at Carroll Electric’s resistance to cleaning up their act.”
Faith and Michael Shah have invested in solar panels at their home and workshop that actually generate more electricity than is used, feeding power back into the grid. They find it offensive for CECC to advocate an end to “unfair subsidies to unreliable forms of power generation.”
“They call people who put solar up freeloaders,” Faith said. “Excuse me? We paid to put up our solar panels. I could understand it if they paid for the solar panels, but we paid for the solar panels. We feed electricity to our neighbors. We’ve never gotten a thank you from Carroll Electric.”
She said that even if it is 30 below zero, if you have sun, you can generate solar electricity.
Danos also took issue with Carroll Electric advocating ending “unfair” subsidies for renewables. He said that conveniently glosses over the fact that the current fossil fuel industry has been receiving government subsidies for over a century and is currently enjoying about $20 billion worth of subsidies per year, according to some conservative estimates.
“There is no doubt in my mind that any form of energy would become quite reliable if given a hundred years of research and development, paired with annual healthy subsidies from the government, so I fail to see how current renewable energy subsidies can be considered ‘unfair’,” Danos said. “If anything, it seems more unfair to still be subsidizing an industry that is already well developed and reliably enjoying healthy profits. I was recently reading an article about fossil fuel subsidies, and it mentioned another cost I hadn’t considered – the billions and billions we spend on our military every year to defend fossil fuel interests.”
Danos said that, clearly, with so much investment in the current carbon-based energy system, it is not in the best interest of monopolistic companies like Carroll Electric to devise, develop, and deploy alternative models of energy production.
“Instead, they patronize claims of global warming and climate change,” he said. “Meanwhile, the sea levels are rising, summers are getting miserably hotter, and I’m tired of having to leave our faucets dripping so often during the winter. For over a century, Eureka Springs has been a summer haven for southerners, and a winter haven for northerners. That could be changing. I advise my fellow citizens to look past the self-serving rhetoric of this latest newsletter and tell Carroll Electric that as their ‘members’, the future of our children and grandchildren deserves more consideration.”
Danos depicts Carroll Electric’s latest newsletter and customer survey as a pathetic attempt to bolster the unsustainable status quo of fossil fuel-based energy, while dismissing the threat of climate change.
“This is unbridled capitalism at its finest, in that they are essentially trying to sell us a solution to a problem that they helped to create,” he said. “Climate change is only exacerbated by the further use of their ‘dispatchable sources of power,’ which results in more extreme weather patterns. As power consumers, we’ll of course react by using more heat in the winter, and more air in the summer, which means they’ll need to generate even more of their dirty and dangerous dispatchable power. It’s a vicious and unsustainable cycle, ultimately rendering certain parts of the world unlivable in the near future.
“Conveniently for fossil fuel producers, the same extreme weather patterns caused by climate change can negatively affect the efficiency of competing renewable energy sources. Droughts can hamper hydroelectric power, and of course extreme storms with wintry snow and rain clouds make for less-than-optimal solar collection. Wind turbines don’t fare too well against the latest super-hurricanes and tornadoes we’ve been seeing.”
Danos said with climate change exacerbating these extreme weather patterns, it’s almost as if the current carbon-based production industry was designed to preserve its dominance over the energy market.
“Perhaps if the tax-funded grid were somehow made available to competing alternative power producers, similar to what the 1996 Telecommunications Act did for telephone utilities, we might see the positive impacts of American ingenuity and some true outside-the-box thinking that actually tries to solve our impending global climate crisis instead of pointing fingers at other countries and making excuses.”
My hat is off to Becky Gillette for writing this article, to Jeff Danos and Jerry Landrum for offering such useful, informative comments, and to the Independent for publishing it!! Excellent work by all of you.