Why I’m for Alternative Energy Development. Except in My Backyard

There has been much discussion in my town of  Cambridge, Massachusetts of late about a proposal to run trains carrying ethanol through the city to a blending plant in Revere. State Representative and City Councilor Marjorie Decker and School Board member Marc McGovern have been among the political office holders leading a movement to prevent the trains. Sundry neighbors and activists have announced their opposition as well, citing the hazardous nature of bringing so much ethanol through the densely populated urban areas.

I have my concerns as well. Yes, I take a back seat to no one in my support of renewable sources of energy. But, please, not when it involves my backyard. I like the idea of promoting development of alternative energy sources. I want to be able to have cheap electricity to charge a plug-in hybrid electric auto and have reasonably priced petrol to fill the tank should I need an internal combustion engine when the battery goes poof. But, I really don’t want any of the stuff that makes those available in my backyard.

I favor the notion behind a renewal energy source like wind. But please don’t put those tall turbines any place where I will be bothered by the whoosh of the turning blades. Or the shadow they cast. And what about the birds those blades might smash? Please don’t put wind mills out in Nantucket Sound, as efficient as that might be, but where they might spoil my view or interfere with my sailing or smash more gulls. Wind turbines are great. But not in my backyard.

I like the idea of power from the sun. I might put some of those solar cells on my roof, if my neighbors or the Historical Commission don’t mind. That might help heat some hot water unless it’s cloudy or dark. Those humongous fields of photo voltaic panels might be able to generate some serious power. They’re fine so long as they don’t take up any fields near me. Just find someone else’s back yard.

Hydro-electric power is clean and cheap. What’s not to like? To create more all we need to do is dam up some more otherwise navigable rivers. Yes, that involves submerging hundreds of thousands of acres of some valley, maybe relocating a few hundred farms. Fine with me. So long it’s not anyone near my backyard.

I’ve heard that we could become energy sufficient as a result of shale oil and gas, made possible through a process called fracking. The price of natural gas has already come down, which is great for me. My friend Jim lives in northeastern Pennsylvania, where much of the fracking is happening. Many of his neighbors have a new lease on life, reversing the near poverty that has come from closing old dirty coal mines out there. I’ve heard that fracking produces lots of environmetal damage, like unsavory waste water and some folks say it can make methane come out of their water faucets. No one has really substantiated that, but I don’t care. It’s happening in Jim’s backyard, not mine.

At one time there were great hopes that nuclear energy would replace most of the fossil fuels needed to create electricity. But we worry that there is no guarantee that there can't be a melt down. I agree it’s still a promising technology. Low carbon emissions. Cheap electricity. So we should build more nuclear power plants. I live near the coast, so what if we have another tsunami? Build the plants by all means. Obviously, though, it couldn’t be in my backyard.

Even a plug-in hybrid needs gasoline for those long trips. So I suppose we will need a supply of gasoline for the foreseeable future. And aviation fuel for our jet planes, because I haven’t heard any proposals for a plug-in electric 747. They say that there’s a pretty good supply of crude oil to be had off shore and up in Alaska. Yes, there could be another spill someday, hurting the fishes or elk. But in the scheme of things, that’s not my concern. I want cheap gasoline. How can I have that without drilling? Just be sure it’s not in my backyard or anyone’s where there might actually be oil.

I read where we still generate almost half our electricity from coal. Dirty. Well, technology has helped cut coal burning pollutants going into the atmosphere in half in recent years. Anyway, the coal comes from faraway places like Wyoming. They get it to our power plants by mile long trains. Fortunately they don’t come through Cambridge—too close to my backyard. We read about coal mining disasters every now and then. Did I see that more people have been killed mining coal than by any nuclear plant crises? But I don’t know any of them. They don’t mine coal in my backyard.

As I think about it, there are some drawbacks to any source of energy creation. But what if no one allowed it to be mined, drilled for, generated or transported in their back yard? I guess someone has to take some risk. But not me, here in Cambridge.

Maybe I was born too late. It would have been a simpler life, say 200 years ago, before we needed so much energy to fuel our lives. Just a few gallons of oil to light our lamps and a few acres of trees to chop to heat my house and fire my oven.

Oops—how then could I have opposed clear cutting forests, polluting the air or saving the whales? Sticky. But it might have all worked out, so long as none of it was in my back yard.