An Urgent Call to Energy Efficiency

Customers of Middleboro Gas and Electric received the Messenger enclosed with their bills revealing participation in complaints against ISO regarding the Canal generating plant, indicating the resolution

"...might result in saving each residential customer as much as $50 per year."

Maybe like most, I read the comment and almost accepted it believing it was real money. Then it occurred to me that that's only ~ $4.00 per month. As energy costs are rising, the percentage that $4.00 represents becomes increasingly negligible.

Further down, the same article spoke of the "Consumer Protection & Cost Accountability Act" and suggested checking out the News and Weather/News Brief section of the website http://mgandeonline.com/NewsWeather/Default.asp for the "latest information....'

I was hoping to find an explanation of the legislative act or even additional information regarding the Canal Plant, but the pdf is the Messenger. Maybe I missed something, but I could find neither covered more clearly and would appreciate the link if others are able to locate same. It would seem that if support were desired, I should know what I'm being asked to support.

Searching for the information, I also noticed that the Commissioners' Meeting Minutes that were previously posted are no longer available, so I couldn't even review those for a discussion of the Canal plant.

While I was thinking about this pittance of a savings the $4.00 represents and thinking about why our energy priorities are all wrong, I happened across the following in Cape Cod Today that just about says it all:

An Urgent Call to Energy Efficiency
08/16/08 · 6:14 am :: posted by CCToday
Canal Power plant is not just ugly, it's costly and unnecessary

$17 million a month to foul our air even when we don't need it
By Matt Patrick

Roughly seventeen million dollars a month, $200 million a year or 1.5 cents per kWh is what we are being charged to keep the Canal Power plant in operation even though it can't be justified economically. The Independent Service Operator of New England (ISO) that has ordered the Canal Power Plant to continue to operate even though oil is so expensive that the plant can't compete with other electricity providers. ISO says it's only needed to provide reliability to the transmission system six months out of the year.

Do you have any idea what we could do to make our homes, businesses and towns more energy efficient for $17 million a month?

It's an incredible lack of forethought on the part of ISO NE and our utility grid owner, NStar. It is a ridiculous policy that must be changed and that is why Senator O'Leary and I are intervening in the case brought by the municipal utilities against ISO at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But it serves to illustrate a much broader perspective on energy. We could be spending all that money to make ourselves energy independent.

Do you have any idea what we could do to make our homes, businesses and towns more energy efficient for $17 million a month? In a year's time every town in the Cape Light Compact could get a wind turbine to power their municipal needs. We could radically insulate thousands of homes on Cape Cod to reduce their heating and cooling energy needs by 80 percent or more. We could begin to put a photovoltaic array and a solar hot water system on every south facing roof on Cape Cod or we could install generating units at every hospital, school and nursing home to run when we are at peak load during the hottest summer months. That's what 1.5 cents per kWh will get you and that's what you are paying now to get more pollution from the Canal Power plant.

We could significantly reduce our energy requirements in ten years with that kind of money. Is it possible you ask? Not only is it possible but it may be the only thing that keeps us from returning to the pre industrial/fossil fuel era without an inordinate amount of human suffering.

For decades people have told me that energy programs to reduce our exposure to high priced fossil fuels are too expensive and the improvements took too long to pay for themselves. Well here we are paying the price that could make us energy independent and all we are getting for it is more heavy metals, more NOX and more SOX in our air (and water) of our already intensively polluted peninsula - what has been called the tail pipe for the northeast with air pollution levels above major cities according to the EPA.

Cape Codders, this is a call to prepare for inevitable future of ever increasing energy costs.

This is why I'm reaching out to the rest of my fellow Cape Codders. This is a call to prepare for inevitable future of ever increasing energy costs. If we are prepared we will weather the energy shortages gracefully. If not, there is no predicting the level of human suffering there will be.

What this saving would mean to YOU

For example: We made it through the heating season with heating oil between about $90 and $125 per barrel. Oil dealers have told me that they have never seen accounts payable so high. People just can't pay in full to fill their oil tank for $800 to $1000 for the normal 3 or 4 fill ups a winter. The fuel Assistance Program will not help very much because it is drastically underfunded. Many of oil heat customers are running out of oil and there is no leniency mandated by law for the oil dealers like there is for the utilities. Oil dealers, who for the most part are small family owned businesses, are struggling to meet cash flow. When they go to the wholesaler to fill their trucks they need upwards of $40,000 dollars. My question is what happens when oil hits $150 or $200 per barrel? Heating oil averaged over $4.00 a gallon across the Commonwealth in May.

Many of us who are over 45 remember the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979. We remember odd and even days to buy gas. We remember long lines waiting for gas and fist fights with the guy who wanted to cut in line. Every winter senior citizens were found frozen to death in their homes because of a lack of heat. Employment and the economy suffered terribly. It was not a happy time in our history. But the nation rallied to make our economy stronger and more impervious to the shocks of high energy costs.

At that time our nation's difficulties were caused by the cost of energy leaping so high yet it was the policies implemented at the time that gave us the reduction in energy costs in the late eighties and then the nineties. Congress implemented tax credits for weatherization of homes plus solar and wind energy. They also mandated higher miles per gallon fuel standards for cars. People don't realize it but we had more than twice the cars on the road in the 1990's using about the same amount of gasoline we used in the 1970's only because of the CAFÉ standards implemented by Congress.

The Cape Light Compact can be the vehicle or agency to help us do it. What do you think?

While we might see a short term reduction of oil prices as the market corrects for speculation, experts agree that we will see the price of oil continue to rise in the long term because of supply and demand. The world produces about 80 million gallons of oil a day but the world is consuming all of that because of the growing economies of India, China and Brazil. We are reaching peak oil where consumption of oil outpaces production. This will lead to ever increasing prices for not only oil but all other forms of fossil energy. It also has an impact on the price of food because of the fuel spent growing, fertilizing, harvesting and transporting it.

So, what can we do to prepare for the future? We can decide to continue to pay a portion of the 1.5 cents per kWh after the Canal Power Plant is shut down. We can then use it to make ourselves less dependent of fossil fuels. The Cape Light Compact can be the vehicle or agency to help us do it. What do you think? Is it worth the effort? Or, should we just sit back to see what happens?

Either comment below, or write me to let me know what you think here.

Matt Patrick is presently serving his fourth term as State Representative of the 3rd Barnstable District. He is a driving force on the energy front pushing legislation to create energy efficiency standards for many household products, and he has been working with House leadership to create legislation to address the rising costs of energy and the effect it is having on our most vulnerable populations now and in the long term. He is also working on new sources of funding for public schools. Mr. Patrick is a former Falmouth Selectman, environmental activist and the former Executive Director of Self-Reliance Corporation.

Can we work in a sensible direction to use those funds wisely? Will we have the wisdom to consider that $4.00 a month for its wisest use? I have long argued that ONLY conservation is the solution. Your thoughts?