Reports published by The Guardian the first week of February 2014 describe how the process of drilling 40,000 natural gas and new oil wells in the United States has consumed 92 billion gallons of water since 2011. An Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 648,000 gallons of water. Ninety-two billion gallons of water would fill 145,061 Olympic sized pools.
Several sources, including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, are reporting there are nearly 30 towns in West Texas that could be out of water in a month or so.
The Governor of California recently signed an order declaring a state of emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in the prime agricultural land of that state. On Jan. 31, the State Water Project for California announced that it could not deliver anything beyond the bare minimum of water to maintain public health and safety. There is a tremendous amount of food production at risk and that will lead to higher prices and lesser quality when we buy food for ourselves here in Arizona.
More than 40 percent of the electricity used in America comes from burning coal. Humans have used coal for approximately 500 years for our primary industrial fuel source. We live a great life in the modern world thanks to the energy we make with coal. The problem is that coal is filthy. There is no clean coal. There has never been clean coal. There will never be clean coal.
Take a look at Google Images and type “mountain top removal” in the search. You will see terrifying images of West Virginia and the ravages of mountain top removal. The image of the 2.8 billion gallon pool of coal sludge up the hill from the local elementary school is particularly disturbing. West Virginia is being struck on a daily basis with an amount of ordinance equivalent to 4,000 cruise missiles to harvest coal via mountain top removal.
Six weeks ago, the river that supplies fresh water to 300,000 people in the Charleston, W.Va., was poisoned from a chemical used to “clean” coal, which spilled from leaking tanks operated by Freedom Industries. That company immediately filed for bankruptcy.
On Feb. 6, it was reported that a ruptured Duke Energy pipe in Eden, N.C., caused the release of up to 82,000 tons of toxic coal ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water into the Dan River. Twenty-seven million gallons is a mere 41.6 Olympic sized swimming pools.
Did you hear about the 5.1 magnitude earthquake in the area near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant on Feb. 1? Have you looked at maps showing how much radiation hit Arizona within ten days after the original disaster at that facility three years ago?
If you look at maps showing how many Kwh/square meter/day could be produced in North America with solar energy, you will see Arizona has the most sunshine energy of any state at any time of the year. The APS website states that the utility company is planning to add 1,600 mega watts of renewable energy in the next 15 to 20 years. This energy will power 400,000 homes. We all pay an Environmental Benefits Surcharge on our APS bills to fund renewable energy development and energy conservation measures. Our money already has been used to build the 250 MW Solana Generating Station. This renewable energy development is happening at the same time that APS is back in front of the Arizona Corporation Commission requesting a release from the mandated Renewable Portfolio Standard it is required to meet by 2025. The corporations selling coal to APS do not want to lose them as a customer.
Everything described here is human behavior. We humans are making these gigantic messes. My question to you is: Do you honestly think we can wait for another 25 years of giant messes before we decide that we need to have renewable energy right now?
In the few minutes it took you to read this column, enough solar energy hit our country to supply our energy needs for a year. We have the technology and the labor force to harvest that energy now. Spilled sunshine will never poison your water, foul your air or give you radiation sickness.
Call your local solar contractor today. That is a really good idea. QCBN
By Jim Evans
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