Schreiner’s Media Landscape

I like to give credit where credit is due, especially when it’s someone who repeatedly disappoints and angers you. So congrats to the Bush EPA who finally did something good for the environment: tightened emissions standards for gas-powered lawn mowers. This is no small feat as fossil-fuel burning lawn mowers produce more pollution than vehicles, according to a famous Swedish study.

Me? I’m still using my now two-year-old Ken-powered mower though I’ve nearly beaten it to death and am a little disappointed that it wasn’t more durable. My next mower- solar-battery powered.

Even the mainstream media are reporting and lamenting what appears to be the senseless but calculated demise of federal support for renewable energy. The renewable industry admits the final attack on American independence launched by the Bush White House with Cheney’s Big Oil task force behind them is going to be Katrina-esque in scope. We can only hope that President Obama and an enlightened Congress can resurrect renewable energy tax credits before Bush and Company destroy more jobs, environment and hopes that the United States can ever be anything more than a fading empire again.

Like the U.S. and other countries, Mexico faces an energy crisis as the underground supplies of oil show rapid deterioration and ultimate exhaustion in as few as ten years. Do they have geothermal, solar, wind and other renewable resources? They sure do. Check the solar power map, the wind map, and especially the geothermal map (left). If there was a country ready for renewable energy, it’s Mexico.

But the opportunities to change their fortunes are lying there waiting, like they are for America. And some visionary individuals and companies are saving the planet and making money off the Renewable Revolution. Read on.

I don’t consider myself a member of either party. But clearly, one party appears much more ready to make America more energy independent and environmentally responsible while the other is satisfied with enslaving Americans to foreign terrorist governments, wealthy multi-national corporations, deteriorating air, water, environmental and climate destruction, and economic doom. Maybe there is a clear choice for president this year…

The editorial board of the Provo Daily Herald suffers from the same psychopathy that the Bush Regime has: constantly searching for ways to attack their opponents instead of reading the facts and doing what’s right. In their latest campaign to stop renewable energy in Utah, they’ve written a volume of steaming excrement saying “wind power will be an environmental disaster.” They strangely cite West Virginia’s “much-lauded mountain skyline” as being potentially ruined by the sight of windmills. Apparently, they haven’t seen the pictures of the tops of that state’s gorgeous mountains already ruined by being blown off to dig coal.

Why does a newspaper that ostensibly serves the public spend so much time defending the wealthy fossil fuel industries that gouge not only their customers but our precious natural landscapes as well? Why do they ignore Utah’s abundant renewable resources- solar, wind, geothermal, biomass- and advocate more drilling, mining and other destruction of Utah’s public lands so the rich can get richer?

To their credit, they did run the story by AP about how the oil sands project in Canada is ruining the environment while producing little oil and doing nothing to lower prices. But the question is: IS THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE PROVO HERALD ACTUALLY READING WHAT’S IN THEIR OWN NEWSPAPER? Or is there something bigger going on here. My reporter instincts tell me- follow the money.

The only viable criticism of solar energy is that it requires the creation of solar panels which, opponents ridiculously and deceptively claim, causes pollution. Hey folks- everything causes some pollution. But every study ever done shows making solar panels produces virtually zero pollution compared to coal, oil, nuclear and every other form of consumable energy.

But soon, even that outrageous argument may be moot. Scientists in South Dakota are finding ways to turn organic material into solar conductors instead of the greatly benign and prevalent silicon. The day is not that far off when an entire building, parking lot, or virtually anything can be a solar energy producer. Let’s hear the argument against that.

$24 million. Not a bad investment in the security, independence and economic stability of our country as recently announced the Regime. But their “efforts” to help implement solar energy on a mass scale pales before similar programs in Germany, China, India and virtually every country on the planet. We can only hope that the next administration recognizes the urgent need to develop renewable energy- not give away more public land for fruitless drilling and digging by obscenely wealthy oil and coal companies who THEMSELVES admit the days of fossil fuels are numbered.

The question over whether the growing oil crisis is real or manufactured or the product of geopolitical partitioning is moot to the consumer. We are going to pay more and more unless we as the bottom feeders invest in technologies that don’t pollute, are durable, and don’t go up endlessly in cost of operation. That’s why SIMPLE CONSERVATION in the form of driving less and renewable electricity in the form of solar and wind energy and battery-powered vehicles look like the best options.

Ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable resources are not only more polluting, powering engines that require high maintenance, but are commodities controlled by a conspiratorial market (OPEC) that can manipulate and gouge the consumer any time the boss needs a new summer home. Again, if you don’t care about the Earth, IT’S STILL YOUR PROBLEM. You’ll end up doing it for the wrong reason- but you’ll do it.

In 1988, I was a reporter/producer covering Jesse Jackson’s bus motorcade from Chicago to the Democratic Convention in Atlanta for the Gannett Broadcasting television stations. It was right at this time of year: the dead of summer driving through the hottest and most humid part of the country. One of my most vivid memories was standing in the parking lot of a church in Louisville, Kentucky where Jackson was delivering one of his many speeches along the way. It was the middle of the afternoon, 100 degrees, blinding sun. The newly-laid black asphalt felt like it was about 200 degrees- the surface of Mars or perhaps a giant frying pan. I remember thinking of the time that this didn’t make sense. Parking lot, road and roof surfaces should be more reflective and therefore less hot.

I may have been right then. But now, 20 years later, I may be wrong. Science Digest- the best source of news on environmental innovation- reports that researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Insistute have found a way to take the heat absorbed by asphalt surfaces and turn it into energy. This ranks high on the weekly renewable energy breakthrough list with MIT’s recent discovery of how to make solar panels produce energy even at night.

Now that’s brilliant. And hot.

Mark Thomas, a Mormon business consultant, sitting on a recent panel on the environment (that’s a headline in itself!) said some interesting things about his religion’s markedly disinterested position, according to this Deseret News article:

“I have a notion in the next few years you will see some surprises,” he said, advising people to stop and look around, and talk to their bishops and others about ways to save energy and help the environment. He believes creativity is the key to solving environmental issues. “With a small effort, we may save ourselves,” he said.

Important to note is the state motto of Utah is one word: Industry. It appears Mormon leadership wants us to believe the conspicuous absence of any environmental policy or commitment by the LDS is due only its monolithic lethargy, not its aversion to the concept of stewardship at the expense of holy, transcendent commerce. Also note that it will only take “a small effort (to) save ourselves” according to Thomas.

The talk is encouraging. But talk is hot air that won’t help power the Tabernacle’s sound system. Where are the solar panels on the churches? “You see the rumblings already started,” Thomas said. I just hope that’s not just another “earthquake” caused by one of “BS Bob” Murray’s coal mines collapsing on more of Utah’s hard-working, church-going worker bees.