COWBOYS AND BIKERS FOR NEW ENERGY

Ranchers driving wind revolution
Roger Harrabin, 1 June 2009 (BBC News)

SUMMARY
New Energy is a non-partisan issue. Its advocates fit no single caricature.

Texas cattle rancher Mike Baca, wearing a cowboy hat and big-buckled belt, is no tree-hugging environmentalist and doesn't care for "Washington liberals" but is a strong wind energy advocate for one simple reason: He can earn money with it.

Republicans who doubt that greenhouse gas accumulations are causing a global climate change about to wreak havoc on planet earth are nevertheless strong New Energy advocates for an equally simple reason: It is domestic energy and moves the U.S. another step away from dependence on and defense of foreign oil imports.

Ranchers and farmers find themselves, atypically, politically in league with the current Democratic administration. They are all in pursuit of policies and incentives (like those in the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill so strongly opposed by Republicans and conservative Democrats) that support the building of more New Energy.

Home on the range. (click to enlarge)

Utilities that otherwise might be inclined to burn coal are building new high voltage transmission to carry wind energy-generated electricity (and, in the coming decade, solar energy-generated electricity) from the open plains of the Panhandle and other New Energy-rich arid Texas regions to the population-dense cities of Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, to beat the coming cost of greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs). Austin, Amarillo and other mid-size Texas cities have started clamoring for lines, too.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the wind resource blowing on the Great Plains between the Texas Panhandle and the Canadian border could provide twice the U.S. demand for electricity. The Plains and the Panhandle are similarly sparsely populated by big farms and ranches where aesthetic and environmental objections that might be otherwise raised against wind installations are less significant to the landowners than the rewards.

Plains landowners have made building wind so relatively easy that developers have abandoned other projects. Example: BP pulled its resources out of EU offshore wind projects to back a mega-installation on the Dakota border. (See SOUTH DAKOTA GETS IN THE WIND GAME…)

Even Texas bikers in the Goldwing Road Riders – a membership with Democratic, Republican and apolitical inclinations – back more wind energy in the Panhandle.

From BBC News)

COMMENTARY
A wind installation on cowboy Mike Baca’s high plains Texas Panhandle ranch could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to him. A wind pump that drew water from the arid land’s Ogallala aquifer once made Baca's property viable cattle land but the aquifer is running dry. The winds are still blowing.

The rural Texas Panhandle lands are sparsely populated. Wind installations can earn big money but the few landowners require political allies to have an impact on lawmakers and get supportive policies for proposed wind and tranmission projects. New Energy advocates such as environmentalists and administration Democrats have become the conservative cowboys' partners in an unlikely but increasingly effective alliance.

Texas has wind.

Much to the chagrin of environmentalists – and to the utter indifference of the cattle ranchers – the new transmission being built for wind will likely carry as much coal- and natural gas-generated electricity as wind-generated electricity.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration is now working with utilities across the U.S. to facilitate the building of new transmission. It is also backing Congressional initiatives to streamline the transmission building process and to fund a national New Energy transmission superhighway.

Not only do ranchers and farmers not object to the aesthetics and obstructions of wind turbines, they welcome the shade the turbines supply on otherwise barren range.

Backing New Energy puts rural landowners in the surprising position of backing a national cap&trade system and a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring regulated utilities to obtain 15% of their power from New Energy sources by 2020. Environmentalists are taking this unexpected backing as a signal to pursue even stronger policies.

click to enlarge

QUOTES
- Mike Baca, Texas rancher and wind turbine owner: "I like [the turbines]. And I like the cheque that comes with them…I could do with a few more of them. We have to be concerned about what the world will be like for our grandchildren. If the turbines get noisy I can just switch on the fountain."
- Donny Allred, Panhandle judge, lobbying for new transmission to bring wind-generated electricity to Amarillo: "This is the most perfect marriage of two industries - wind and cattle ranching…They were made for each other."
- Jennifer Layke, environmentalist spokeswoman, World Resources Institute: "I think that we could do more with the emissions targets on the renewables front…I think this is a political compromise to manage issues associated with specific geographical concerns for the southern part of the United States and other areas…As such, I think it creates the floor for action. That's a big improvement. It does not necessarily create the exponential scale-up of renewable technology that we need to combat climate change."

Texas cowboys, bikers and environmentalists are wearing the same colors these days. (click to enlarge)

- Wayne Jones, member, Goldwing Road Riders: "Oh lord! Climate change. I think that the wind is better than oil. It is a whole lot cleaner. Mother nature has given you the wind. It is free energy."
- Deborah Jones, member, Goldwing Road Riders: "We need to be self-sufficient. As a nation, we need to rely on the United States."