{"id":1867,"date":"2011-04-25T10:58:18","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T10:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2016-02-04T23:34:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T06:34:35","slug":"letter-to-my-son-the-energy-engineer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/2011\/04\/25\/letter-to-my-son-the-energy-engineer\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to My Son, the Energy Engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Woman Of Green friend Phila Hoopes speaks below to her son, an energy engineer, about her hopes for renewable energy and the conflicting data coming in from all sides on the energy debate. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<h1><a href=\"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Phila-Hoopes_47459.jpeg\" rel=\"wp-prettyPhoto[1867]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1868\" title=\"Phila-Hoopes_47459\" src=\"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Phila-Hoopes_47459.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<p>Dear Son,<\/p>\n<p>I have the windows open to let in the sunshine, warm breezes, and the sound of a squirrel squalling in the Chinese Elm in the front yard. The ceiling fan \u2013 powered by electricity that your employer distributes to my house \u2013 is humming softly.<\/p>\n<p>This is a watershed day.<\/p>\n<p>Last night you responded to a\u00a0video I posted on Facebook \u2013 Dr. Helen Caldicott\u2019s assessment of the scope of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in the light of 25-year data from Chernobyl. To put it mildly, a frightening video\u2026.and I\u2019m not sure you actually saw the whole thing. I know I found it hard to watch.<\/p>\n<p>This was your response:<\/p>\n<p><em>I believe that nuclear power needs to be EXTREMELY tightly regulated, but mom, you have to realize that most of europe, and many other areas are primarily powered by nuclear energy. As an environmentalist I would think that you would understand \u2013 the only alternative forms of energy generation that are even remotely environmentally friendly are solar, water, and wind \u2013 all of which have problems with consistency. If we were completely powered by these methods there would be periods of time where we had no power whatsoever. Clearly governments are understating the dangers of nuclear waste to the public, but to say that nuclear power should be discarded because it has risks is just as questionable\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been sitting for hours with this, trying to work out a response that comes from my heart\u00a0<em>and<\/em> presents data.\u00a0 With the\u00a0 black\/white, either\/or, us\/them perspective that\u2019s becoming the rule in this society,\u00a0 Earth-based environmentalists often paint Big Energy as the greedy, rapacious, planet-destroying enemy\u2026.just as Big Energy paints environmental advocates as eco-terrorists, potential if not actual.<\/p>\n<p>I know you\u2019re not going to work every day with plans to destroy the planet. Your job is keeping the lights on, so to speak\u2026literally, at times, in the BG&amp;E storm center! You and I have been through enough tough discussions that I know you\u2019re reaching out to come to a shared, complex, understanding of a complex issue\u2026and that means a\u00a0<em>lot <\/em>to me.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve read my\u00a0posts and\u00a0poems\u00a0you know I\u2019m painfully aware that we\u2019re\u00a0<em>all<\/em> the problem\u2026it\u2019s not a matter for simple finger-pointing. Sure, I\u2019ve chosen 100% wind energy through\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleancurrents.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">WGES<\/a>\u2026and the house is still heated by oil, so my hands are not clean.<\/p>\n<p>On your side, I know that, given the sources of the energy your company provides \u2013 in 2009, at least, 33.6% was nuclear (according to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bge.com\/portal\/site\/bge\/menuitem.c76e0a8696602fccef5cee10426176a0\/\" target=\"_blank\">BG&amp;E website<\/a>) \u2013 they\u2019re likely to minimize the risks of nuclear power and not encourage employees to inform themselves further. In terms of job and income security, it\u2019s perhaps safer for you not to question the company line too closely or to look at too much of the opposing data.<\/p>\n<p>But I also know the fierce integrity of my son, who looks at all sides of an issue and makes up his own mind based on the information he has\u2026so here\u2019s some of the data that\u2019s being supplied about nuclear energy post-Fukushima, not by anti-nuclear advocates or environmentalists, but by people in the field, and by international investment advisors.<\/p>\n<p>UBS AG international wealth management analysts concluded in\u00a0a report released earlier this month \u2013 \u201cWe believe the Fukushima accident was the most serious ever for the credibility of nuclear power.\u201d In a nation as technologically advanced as Japan, one would think that steps would have been taken to avert such a disaster \u2013 and the plant did indeed withstand the quake, as Dr. Caldicott said in the video. What caused the disaster was\u00a0<em>not<\/em> the quake, but the tsunami.<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, nuclear power plants around the world are aging. According to a 2010 report by the U.S. Energy Information Association \u2013 \u201chigher capacity utilization rates have been reported for many existing nuclear facilities, and\u00a0it is anticipated that most of the older nuclear power plants in the OECD countries and non-OECD Eurasia will be granted extensions to their operating lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion \u2013 as Dr. Caldicott pointed out \u2013 the risks associated with nuclear power stand fair to leave this planet uninhabitable, not only for future generations, but for our own. That\u2019s not an acceptable risk for any gamble.<\/p>\n<p>While nuclear power is certainly a primary source of power in Europe (I would question whether it\u2019s\u00a0<em>the<\/em> primary source, based on the data I\u2019ve found), the Fukushima disaster is prompting a worldwide step back. Just in the past few weeks,\u00a0Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, for example, have moved to ban nuclear energy.<\/p>\n<p>Other energy sources are gaining attention as a result: according to the UBS AG report, \u201cNatural gas producers OAO Gazprom and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. are among companies set to benefit as countries shift away from nuclear power.\u201d So I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to hear that in Maryland, BG&amp;E may be gearing up in that direction also\u2026or that we will be seeing both an increase in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fracking\" target=\"_blank\">fracking<\/a> for natural gas, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;cd=3&amp;ved=0CD4QFjAC&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.artvoice.com%2Favdaily%2F2011%2F04%2F20%2Ffracking-disaster-unfolding-in-bradford-county-pennsylvania%2F&amp;ei=HVK0TZ_TIaW_tweNjI2vCA&amp;usg=AFQjCNE1xKyCMw_SbH3UzEHAgW5ZLDtwOA&amp;sig2=rRvcr--Kc6S0iPFktvLZ0Q\" target=\"_blank\">fracking <\/a>disasters such as the recent one in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>As you say, \u201cthe only alternative forms of energy generation that are even remotely environmentally friendly are solar, water, and wind, all of which have problems with consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re right in saying that if we went 100% to clean energy sources today, there would be periods without any energy.\u00a0 The technology, not to mention the infrastructure,\u00a0 to support a 100% switch doesn\u2019t exist. The problem, however, is that instead of ramping-up research and development of such technology (as we were briefly), this country\u2019s government appears to be pushing for new ways to<em>expand<\/em> extraction of fossil fuels and production of nuclear energy. \u00a0 Earlier this month\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/gwire\/2011\/04\/14\/14greenwire-house-gop-scores-early-victory-in-offshore-dri-77607.html?scp=2&amp;sq=offshore%20drilling%20atlantic&amp;st=cse\" target=\"_blank\">Republican-led bills <\/a>passed to continue and expand offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans. Not too long ago the headlines in the news were on<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/sltrib\/opinion\/51389205-82\/oil-energy-sands-bitumen.html.csp\" target=\"_blank\"> tar sands extraction<\/a> in Utah; just a few weeks ago I was seeing stories on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.truth-out.org\/uranium-mining-threatens-grand-canyon-communities\/1302678000\" target=\"_blank\">uranium mining in the Grand Canyon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As global energy consumption demand \u2013 and the demand for an American-style standard of living \u2013 continues to grow, regulation and oversight of fossil fuel producers is likely to dwindle (truth be told, it already is dwindling, witness Deepwater Horizon) with environmental impact increasing exponentially. And the U. S. is\u00a0 leading the world in a race of regression.<\/p>\n<p>You and I both know that the picture isn\u2019t good. Sure, swapping lightbulbs, turning off lights, cutting consumption, etc. etc., helps, but in the end, deeper solutions are necessary, both for consumers and providers. Our choices today, on both sides of the fence, have unimaginable consequences, today and in the long term.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, your company does have renewable energy initiatives. I am hoping that my boy, the engineer, has an opportunity to move into one of these\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026and no matter what, I\u2019m proud of you, I love you, and hope we keep talking\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>Mom<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woman Of Green friend Phila Hoopes speaks below to her son, an energy engineer, about her hopes for renewable energy and the conflicting data coming in from all sides on the energy debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1347,1348,1],"tags":[665,666,92,579,8],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innovation","category-leadership","category-uncategorized","tag-energy","tag-fracking","tag-green","tag-phila-hoopes","tag-women-of-green"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6387,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions\/6387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenofgreen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}