Nature Conservancy calls for thougtful wind development
Mark Tercek © Mark Godfrey/TNC Oklahoma’s wind energy potential seems nearly limitless.
But it might not be worth its benefit if the industry doesn’t avoid harming wildlife, persons attending the Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference in Oklahoma City heard this week.
The keynote speaker at Wednesday’s luncheon at the event was Mark Tercek, the chief executive officer at the Nature Conservancy.
The conservancy, he told them, has made its living throughout the decades by identifying and preserving areas of habitat, either by buying those areas and putting them into a trust or through working with federal, state and local officials to get the areas preserved by government.
Now, he said, the group realizes that global warming is a huge threat to its efforts.
“Over the years, we had bought and managed and conserved, believing it that would protect habitat forever. But if temperatures change significantly, habitat locations will change too, and that will make some of our preserves uninhabitable for the very species we were seeking to protect. So, climate change is heavy on the threat board for the Nature Conservancy,” he said.
The group realized something else, too: Energy change, while necessary, poses new threats to wildlife habitats.
Wind energy, biofuels and even solar energy are the new threats to wildlife habitats, Tercek said.
And that change is coming, like it or not.
High oil prices are pushing it forward, as are policies requiring fuel makers to use ever-increasing amounts of biofuels and for utilities to get more and more of their power from renewable sources.
“Now, let me be clear,” Tercek said. “Our nation needs to move rapidly to take advantage of renewable energy sources. We need to do it to protect our economy from the high price of imported fuel. We need to do to protect habitats around the world from global warming caused by our fossil fuel emissions, and green energy can also be a very important source of new jobs to rebuild our economy.
“The Nature Conservancy, therefore, supports public policies that encourage investment in renewable energy sources. But accelerating energy change will have a big impact on the landscapes that we share with nature. So, we must make these changes thoughtfully. We ought to be informed by the best possible science and understand the impacts on wildlife that these new energy sources will create.”
Concerns here
The Prairie Chicken
Thanks to T. Boone Pickens, Tercek said everybody in
Because of the important need for affordable power, grass lands extending from
To the Nature Conservancy, though, turbine development threatens the habitat of ground nesting birds like the prairie chicken.
It’s goal is to work with wind project developers to create conservation easements protecting certain parts of the high plains from turbines that appear to scare them away, Tercek said.
During his speech, he highlighted one such project done in Cloud County,
“These ground nesting birds avoid areas where wind turbines — in fact, any tall structures — are located when they are nesting, or raising their broods,” Tercek said. “The best science we have seen suggests the impact may extend as far away as a mile from each turbine. A large wind farm, with long rows of turbines, may eliminate habitat for ground nesting birds over a very considerable area.
“We are not even entirely sure why ground nesting birds avoid wind turbines and other vertical structures. Lots of science is being focused here, and it is likely the case that because the birds perceive the tower as a roost for raptors, and they have evolved over eons to avoid areas where predators may be located. It may also be the movement of the blades, the shadows cast by the blades, or the noise, or a combination of these factors that cause such large areas to be abandoned.
“The lesser prairie chicken population has already declined by more than 95 percent as the result of other threats to its habitat. The significant impact on nesting activity caused rapid development of wind energy could result in the listing of this bird as a threatened or endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — an outcome all of us would like to avoid.”
And by protecting parts of the land for prairie chickens, that would help other species that live on the land, too, he added.
But Tercek said it is important that programs be set up to compensate land owners to agree to put their land into conservation areas, rather than develop it for wind energy.
“I’m not here to tell you this job will be easy. The prairie chicken requires relatively large blocks of unfragmented habitat, on the order of 25,000 acres.”
But, he added, the concept of a conservation easement is a serious one that developers should consider.
“They keep working lands working, while providing the land owners with payments or tax deductions that support conservation activities.”
Most importantly to Tercek, he said, was the need for his group to partner with wind energy developers and landowners to develop a critical energy resource needed by the nation while still protecting the habitats needed by plants and animals to survive.
“We expect wind energy to play a very important role in protecting our planet from global warming. And we look forward to working with state and federal regulators and working with you as our partners on the ground to protect the plants and animals in high-priority prairie habitats that will be a new host to this new energy industry,” he said.
Bullish on wind power? You bet, conference goers say
Why should Oklahoma be bullish on wind power?
Well, for starters, Oklahoma has the potential of generating 300,000 megawatts using wind. If only 10 percent of that is developed — 30,000 megawatts — that’s still nearly twice as much power as is what is generated in
“That’s huge,” he said.
What else is huge is the potential for economic development it brings.
Officials estimate wind development within
Natalie Shirley,
The state’s mission, she told conference goers, is to make the potential environment for that economic development as friendly as possible.
An assembled panel discussed the topic during a session this week.
Weatherford Mayor Mike Brown talked about the benefits of having wind energy in his community.
The development there, Weatherford’s Wind Energy Center, has created about 15 permanent jobs. That means 15 additional families living within the community, he noted.
While the wind development was being built, another 150 workers were temporary residents of the community.
FPL Energy, the company that built the center, also has contributed $1.5 million toward the community’s schools and city to help them improve services to the city’s residents, he added.
And that doesn’t include the royalties landowners are getting for having operating turbines on their land.
“It certainly has been positive for our community,” Brown said.
Industry needs
Jesse Langston, vice president of commercial and utility operations for Oklahoma Gas and Electric and Kevin Ishmael, a general manager for DMI Industries in Oklahoma, talked about the kinds of workers they need to grow the wind energy industry here.
“We have a tremendous workforce in
Langston, meanwhile, said OG&E has a long history of working with Oklahoma’s education system to develop the workers its need.
“We are going to need skilled workers like everyone else,” he said.
Phil Berkenbile, director of Oklahoma’s CareerTech System and Delores Jackson, the director of corporate learning at Oklahoma City Community College, talked about meeting the industry’s needs.
Berkenbile said the goal for the state’s CareerTech System is to create a few, quality programs to turn out workers that not only can build the wind turbine towers, but also maintain them into the future.
“It is a fast ramp up. But is also is something we believe we need to stay with. Now that fuel prices have fallen, this is not something we want to put on the shelf — again,” he said.
Jackson said Oklahoma City
The school also works with its industry partners to find out what they need in workers, both today and in five years.
“When you look at skills needed for wind turbin technicians, the basics are electricity and electronics,” she said. “So, we were able to realign curriculum that we already had available and apply it to this particular industry.”
Secretary Shirley, meanwhile, said state officials will continue to work hard to develop the wind industry within Oklahoma.
“The wind industry shows significant promise for job creation, and most importantly, to me, the creation of quality jobs with salaries 15 percent or more above the state’s annual, average wage,” Shirley said.
Demand side management already going
Monday’s approval of Demand Side Management rules for Oklahoma’s regulated utilities will bring about more permanent programs once the rules take effect in June.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma already are operating Quick Start programs.
Public Service Co. expanded a weatherization effort for low-income residents’ homes, provided efficiency evaluations for state colleges and universities and give incentives to large commercial and industrial customers to replace lighting, chillers and motors or reduce power consumption in peak summer months. PSO’s program also encourages municipalities to replace traffic signal lights and home and small commercial builders to construct more energy-efficient structures.
Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. gave incentives to lighting contractors to replace inefficient lighting in clients’ businesses and to residential customers to buy compact fluorescent lights, provided residential energy surveys, offered energy efficiency information to all customers through advertising, direct mail, bill inserts and through the company’s Web site, provided energy conservation kits to schools for teachers and their students, provided incentives for commercial and industrial customers to replace inefficient motors, and expanded its weatherization program for low income residents’ homes.
Commissioners approved the Demand Side Management program 2 to 1.
Chairman Jeff Cloud, who favored the program, said, “this will help us avoid having to build another power plant as quickly as we might have had to, otherwise. What we did today gives our utilities a roadmap to decide what programs to offer, and gives them an incentive to slow the growth in our power needs.”
Outgoing Commissioner Jim Roth, who favored the program, said, “We struck the right balance because it gives the customers an ability to be rewarded for every kilowatt hour of power they save, and gives the utilities an incentive to save power as well. Critics would say the program might cost a customer a dollar or two a month. But for customers who make changes, it potentially can save them $8 to $10 a month.”
Commissioner Bob Anthony voted against the program, saying utilities shouldn’t be compensated for lost revenues achieved through power savings. He also fought hard to limit costs on customers, cap what percentage of those costs could be administrative, and brought other minor changes to the rules. “Still, I compliment Chairman Cloud for getting this process accomplished. Hopefully, this program will result in considerable efficiency and savings for Oklahomans. Time will tell. I admit, I had reluctance about how fast to move forward.”
AARP Oklahoma weighs in …
AARP Oklahoma said Monday it was pleased the commission adopted the rule.
AARP, the Office of the Attorney General, environmental groups, the utilities and others have collaborated for over a year on this effort. Monday’s action addressed AARP’s top priorities for the new rules—keeping program costs to a minimum and ensuring low income households and renters have access to energy efficiency programs.
“It is very difficult for lower and fixed income households and renters to invest in energy efficiency measures, such as new refrigerators and insulation,” said Sean Voskuhl, AARP Oklahoma’s associate state director. “These rules will provide programs that reach all types of customers, allowing them to lower their energy usage and their energy.”
With energy prices on the rise, AARP has advocated for affordable, cost-effective energy efficiency programs that enable Oklahomans to lower their electric bills without sacrificing comfort, Voskuhl said.
According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy,
Interstate oil and gas compact commission meeting ends today
Well, I’ve got my first Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission annual meeting under my belt.
Based on what I’ve heard, this is what I think oil and natural gas producers want the country to know about the job they do:
They want the country to know the industry faces increasing competition from large foreign, government-backed oil firms that have access to all the latest technology and can squeeze them out of lucrative areas that could provide affordable energy to consumers here in the
Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marathon Oil Corp., addressed the issue Monday during the meeting’s keynote address.
“Quite simply, securing America’s energy future is one of the most serious … issues of our time,” Cazalot said. “But notice — I am referring to energy security — not to energy independence.
“While I do believe energy independence, in the long term, is both desirable and achievable, in the near term, I don’t believe it is possible, nor in fact, is it desirable.
“Indeed, calling for energy independence today, particularly without recognizing the long transition times it will take to get there, actually creates uncertainty amongst our international trading partners, and hinders investment in critically-needed international energy supplies.”
Cazalot noted his company is spending $3.2 billion to expand a Louisiana refinery, and that it wouldn’t make that investment if it believed the country was prepared to move quickly to renewable fuels.
“My definition of energy security is an adequate, reliable and sustainable supply of clean, affordable energy to meet the needs and aspirations of private citizens, commercial enterprises, and public sector functions,” Cazalot said.
“Energy security is more than just about energy. True energy security also means first, that we need to ensure environmental protection and sustainability, and that the price of our energy is comparable to that of other nation’s so we can maintain our economic competitiveness and maintain our standard of living,” he said.
“It requires a new balance, more energy overall with much reduced carbon emissions and environmental footprint while still maintaining economic growth and prosperity.
“That’s a goal we all should be able to aspire to, irrespective of where we come from or what our political affiliation is.”
They want it to know the oil and natural gas that’s recoverable today costs more to find and get out of the ground.
They also want the country to know that oil and natural gas companies today are environmentally conscious and have no desire to leave behind the types of environmental messes the industry became infamous for in past decades — after all, its their homes too.
The commission honored two companies and two other organizations for their efforts to not only protect the environment, but also to educate the public about the work that they do.
Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. was honored by the commission for its water conservation activities in the Barnett Shale natural gas field in north Texas in the large company category. The company recycles water it uses to fracture wells it drills within the field.
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska, meanwhile, was honored by the commission within the small company category for its efforts to minimize environmental impacts of a North Slope drilling project it recently brought online.
The Energy and Environmental Research Center, part of the Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership, received the environmental partnership award for its multiyear collaboration of over 80 U.S. and Canadian stakeholders that is laying the groundwork for practical and environmentally sound carbon dioxide sequestration projects in the in the heartland of North America.
And the Coalbed Natural Gas Alliance, an organization of about 600 energy providers, businesses, ranchers, farmers and individuals, won in the energy education category for its work to educate people within the Powder
They also want the country to know that the industry is partnering with government to create new rules to take potentially harmful carbon dioxide that could cause pollution issues and instead use it in ways that would enhance oil recoveries from older fields.
But the issue is a complex one that industry representatives have put years of work into already, and much more work still is needed.
Larry Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, said the Interstate Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has been working on this issue since 2001.
It issued its first report on the topic in 2005, and issued a second one this year.
“Most people have misconceptions about what federal regulations will cover, and what they won’t.”
There are environmental and health and safety issues, resource management issues, such as storage rights, and regulatory framework dealing with cap and trade measures, Bengal said.
“All of these have to work together to really bring about carbon capturing and storage. And like I said, none of these really are at the stage of being completed, yet,” Bengal said.
Oil and gas commission looks at carbon sequestration
In fact, the U.S. still has no cap and trade system for the pollutant. But the United Kingdom and the European Union are going forward with their plans to do both. About 60 people at the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s International Committee Monday afternoon heard about what that part of the world is doing on the issue from Paul Lynch, the British Consulate-General in Houston.
Why it’s needed
Lynch said lastest estimates from the International Energy Agency predicts a 45 percent growth in energy demand between 2006 and 2030, with China and India responsible for as much as half of that and most of it coming from expanded use of petroleum products.
At the same time, everyone agrees petroleum reserves are getting more difficult to find and more expensive to produce. The United Kingdom, he noted, agrees that all the available oil and natural gas must be produced to help meet this demand, and that alternative energy sources are needed, too.
And the world must create a low-carbon economy, he said.
A new agency
The United Kingdom, said Lynch, has created a Department of Energy and Climate Change, believing one issue can’t be addressed without addressing the other.
It also is implementing the first mandated cap and trade system for carbon credits, and said the country, based on input from a climate change committee, is working on implementing improved vehicle mileage and pollution standards, and plans to require any new homes built soon to be carbon neutral.
It would be wrong for the nation to adopt the attitude that it should wait to go forward with its plans because it is an insignificant emitter internationally, Lynch added.
“Somebody’s got to show leadership. We think it is our job. The cost is going to be much higher if we wait 50 years to do something instead of doing something now.”
Carbon sequestration in the U.S.
Also on Monday afternoon’s agenda for the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission was a discussion of carbon sequestration programs across the U.S. from its carbon sequestration task force.
Larry Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, said the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission wants the nation to create a new framework to regulate carbon dioxide because the industry already knows how to handle and store the gas. It put out a model regulatory agency framework earlier this year. But much work on the effort remains to be done, Bengal said.
Stephen Heare, director of the Drinking Water Protection Division of the EPA, talked with committee members about a proposed rule it agency came out with earlier this year and what’s still needed to put the rule in place. A public comment on the proposed rules should end at the end of this year, he said.
Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry addresses Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission
Gov. Brad Henry and other panelists listen to discussion at the Interstate Oil and Gas and Compact Commission meeting this week.
SANTA FE — Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry told about 200 persons attending the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission meeting today that he’s excited by his appointment as chairman of the group.
“Particularly now,” Henry said, “when, at this critical juncture, the energy crisis and looking for strategies to help address it dominate our the nation’s discussions.”
Henry said it will be important for the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, which is made up of 38 member states and provinces in North America, to effectively communicate its goal and mission, “especially to those in our nation’s Capitol.”
Henry said he believes that while the nation has survived for decades without a cohesive or coherent national energy policy, “the forces of reality have finally proved to be too much for that to continue.
“For too long, Uncle Sam’s response to our energy crisis … lawmakers have been giving lip-service to the idea to the idea of weaning America off the addiction on foreign oil,” Henry said.
“That call always seems to fade away when the price of fuel falls lower,” he said. “But it would be a mistake, in my opinion, if we ignore this crisis any longer.”
Renewable energy is part of the solution, the Governor said, but so is oil and natural gas that’s domestically produced.
Henry said the commission is working on selecting participants for an initiative it is doing with the U.S. Department of Energy to producer under-developed petroleum resources. Three basins are being picked.
“Clearly, we have a lot of work to do. But let me tell you this. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission is up to the task at hand. We are a part of the energy debate, no doubt. But we are much, much more.
“The well being of our states and country depend on it,” Henry said.
The challenges of unconventional oil and gas
SANTA FE — Unconventional oil and gas has its name for a reason.
It generally involves getting product from rock or tight sands, requires horizontally-drilled wells, and requires hurculean efforts to fracture the reservoir rock to pull the product out of the ground.
It costs more to get on a per-barrel or per-thousand cubic feet basis than oil or natural gas from vertically-drilled wells, meaning its development depends upon attractive prices for companies to achieve acceptable returns on their investments.
This week, it also is the titlel of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s annual meeting, meaning that’s what the conference will focus on.
On Sunday, a panel of industry and governmental experts gathered to dissue the issue during an event called the Governor’s Roundtable.
They included C. Michael Ming, president of the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, Foster L. Wade, a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Interior Department, Tom Price Jr., Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s vice president of corporate development, and Denise Hamser, Enbridge Energy’s director of public, federal and regulatory affairs.
Natural Gas part of solution
Price told conference participates said a recent study estimated the nation has 120 years of natural gas supplies at current consumption levels. And just in the Marcellus Shale natural gas field, Price said the industry estimates there is about 1.1 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas there alone.
“That’s 50 years of U.S. supply at current consumption levels,” he said.
Price said it is important that oil and natural gas companies engage in practices that educate their consumers and other stakeholders about the roles the companies play in delivering not only affordable energy to the country, but also to improve people’s lives in other ways.
“We need people to understand our business and understand the products that we provide them, and that natural gas is a fuel that is viable in terms of cost, cleanliness and availability.”
Getting the product to market
Hamsher said a challenge for the natural gas and oil industry is to get the product to markets that can be thousands of miles away.
Enbridge is helping to meet that challenge, she said, by building $12 billion of expansions underway in North America to get oil from Alberta’s Oil sands and the Bakken Shale oil field south into Illinois and even to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, the company is working to get natural gas from the Barnett Shale in north Texas to other parts of the country.
Enbridge has expanded ownership at the terminal in Cushing, she noted, so the company is working hard to increase its pipeline capacities to and from that terminal.
Hamsher said challenges she sees for the industry include getting the right numbers of suppliers lined up to make projects suitably profitable. Capital and labor costs are up, and so are stakeholder resistance issues, particularly in Illinois, where getting lines across private lands can be quite difficult.
Cooperation is needed between state and federal agencies on pipeline projects, she added.
Don’t forget research and development
Ming told conference attendees that the nation is not running out of gas. In fact, the amount of proved reserves for natural gas continue to grow, he said.
“If you put a value on it, it would be worth $15 trillion,” Ming said of today’s natural gas reserves.
But, much more could be done, Ming added.
He praised government-funded research in development in Norway and in Brazil, and called for similar types of efforts in the United States. A $35 million amount provided by Congress in 2005 for the research partnership won’t go far, he said.
“If we want the status quo, we can keep doing what we are doing. But if we want to make breakthroughs, we need to spend 10 to 100 times more than we are today.”
When asked about cyclical price swings in natural gas and how that impacts the industry, Ming said the industry needs to be profitable at much lower prices, and the way it can do that is through lowering its costs.
“Steps are needed to make gas affordable and reliable to the nation’s population,” Ming said.
Governmental steps to obtain new oil
Wade said the government agrees that all of its resources must be developed, not just conventional ones.
“We have to be working on our coal natural gas, petroleum, nuclear and renewables in order to close that gap.”
Wade said oil shale holds tremendous potential of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil … three times aas what Saudi Arabia has, in parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
“That is a huge resource,” he said.
Wade spent much of his time talking about a programmatic environmental impact statement for tar sands and oil shale developments.
It looks at ammending a dozen land use plans where oil shale and tar sands reserves are present.
The agency’s goal is to identify areas that will be open to application for commercial leasing, exploration and development.
While he acknowledged the process takes time, he added it is just as important to involve the public in every step of the work as it is to produce the reserves.
“The government has to be doing everything it can to close the gap between supply and demand. The only thing to do is to go after and develop all of our resources, whether it be conventional, unconventional or renewables,” he said.
What unconventional resources are out there?
Gov. Brad Henry, incoming chairman of the commission, started off Sunday’s meeting.
“I don’t think we could have addressed a more timely or more important topic,” Henry told the ore than 100 commission representatives who gathered at the event.
“As dicussion begins in our nation’s Capital about energy independence, the IOGCC needs to be – must be — right in the middle of that discussion,” Henry said. “Unconventional oil and gas issues are a critical component of that discussion.”
Jim Dilay, a member of the Energy Resources Conservation Board in the Canadian province of Alberta, said his province has unconventional crude oil in the form of the oil sands and has unconventional natural gas, either from coal beds, shales, or tight sands.
Brad Field, the environmental conservation division director of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, said unconventional reserves are his state’s bread and butter. Historically, its tight sands have been developed. Today’s gas reservoirs in the Marcellus Shale are a big issue there. Also other shale fields are ready to be developed as well, he said.
John Baza, a director with Utah’s Division of Natural Resources, said his state has a great diversity of hydrocarbon resources, everything from light crude production to coal. Baza said coal bed methane really has been getting developed the past decade. Utah also has tar sands similar to Alberta’s, also mines Gilsonite … also, the state has oil and natural gas shale reserves that are just now being explored.
Don Likwartz, an oil and gas supervisor with Wyoming’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said 65 percent of the state’s oil and gas is on federal lands, managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The state has 250 year supply of coal resources, he said.
Larry Bengal, director of Arkansas’ Oil and Gas Commission, said his state’s natural gas resources are being produced from the Fayetteville Shale. By the end of this year, 50 percent of the state’s gas will come from unconventional resources, he said.
Victor Carrillo, a commissioner with Texas’ Railroad Commission, noted his state produces a third of the nation’s domestic natural gas. 900 active drilling rigs in the state — nearly half in the nation — are in Texas. Calls the Barnett the grandaddy of unconventional fields. MT 10,000 producing gas wells there. Vast majority are horizontal, with virtually all subjected to massive multi-stage fracture jobs. There are more than 200 operators in the Barnett, alone.
Kevin Banks, director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, said his state is most excited now about natural gas trapped in the ice of the state’s North Slope. Some 85.4 trillion cubic feet of gas could be technically recoverable, Banks said.
“If we can get a handle on how to make this gas flow, it will be a tremendous asset that could fill a gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 states,” Banks said.
Joe Pettey, the president of Pettey Oilfield Services in West Virginia, said wells there have changed during the years, and hold great promise for his state and nation today. But that development depends upon attractive prices, Pettey noted.
Don Bradshaw, a board member of Montanna’s Board of Oil and Gas, said his state has a lot of coalbed natural gas, vast coal reserves and that some shale drilling is being is being tried. The state is working on plans to export carbon dioxide to other parts of the country. Some producers also are trying to use carbon dioxide injection within the Bakken oil field in Montanna.
Lynn Helms, a director in North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources, said North Dakota’s production is coming mostly from the Bakken Shale oil field, a state representative said.
Other notes about Santa Fe:
Driving into the Sun on Saturday afternoon on my way through New Mexico at times was challenging. But once the sun slipped below the horizon, I realized the most amazing thing. Even though the sun had set, the sunset it left behind lasted –I swear — for more than an hour.
Pink and rose shades gradually gave way into darker reds, purples and blues in the western sky, even as darkness swooped in overhead and pushed Mother Nature’s painting closer and closer to the horizon.
At the very end, nearly 90 minutes after the sun had set, bright stars twinkled in a night sky just above a thin strip of red sky on the horizon’s west edge.
If you’ve never seen anything like that before, see it at least once. It’s worth the drive.
Remembering a giant of a guy
Most posts I make on the Oklahoma Energy Blog are pretty straight-forward — just the facts, with maybe a question or two thrown in to try to generate just a little bit of discussion.
Today, though, I’m deviating from my usual format.
Today, I’m remembering Mark Schwartz — a giant in a little guy’s body who took on politics as usual on the local, state and national levels.
Schwartz died Thursday after a long battle with prostate cancer. He only was 58.
Who was Mark Schwartz, you might ask?
Well, Mark Schwartz was the guy who led the fight to get your kids the help they might need the first time they get caught out after curfew in Oklahoma City.
He was the guy who led the charge to bring curbside recycling to Oklahoma City, and to make sure City Hall properly was spending your public safety sales tax dollars to better equip your police and fire departments.
He was the guy on the local governmental level who worked extremely hard — largely, behind the scenes — with President Clinton’s White House staff, local city staffers and elected officials and the state’s delegation to help bring financial aid to Oklahoma City in those dark days after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
John Montgomery, a Congressional lobbyist for Oklahoma City and many others across the country, remembers working with Scwartz and other Oklahoma City officials in the days immediately following the Oklahoma City bombing.
They quickly figured out the federal government was not geared to help the city and its businesses with recovery — traditional victims assistance programs were not what the city needed, Montgomery said.
Montgomery said he and Schwartz determined using community development block grant money from the U.S. Department of Housting and Urban Development could be the answer.
Sure, it never had been tried before. But Schwartz worked with the White House, and Montgomery worked Congress in an environment where a budget showdown nearly had closed the government.
“Feelings were a little raw,” Montgomery remembered.
To Montgomery, Schwartz’s efforts helped bring federal support for the bombing recovery effort, and he said he always will remember the hour he spent in the Oval Office with Clinton and Schwartz, Mayor Ron Norick, and his assistant, Rick Moore.
“We have our picture with President Clinton in front of his desk that, as Mark often said, binds the four of us at the hip, for life,” Montgomery said.
“Now, it is part of the legacy of Mark’s exemplary and unselfish public service for all of us in Oklahoma,” Montgomery said.
Schwartz also was the guy who worked with state and federal governments on issues important to municipalities both inside of Oklahoma and across the nation, leading both the Oklahoma Municipal League and the National League of Cities as the president of each organization.
He was the guy who, as first vice president of the National League of Cities, chose civility as the focus of his coming administration within the group.
Dirk Johnson, a reporter with The New York Times, wrote about Schwartz’ concerns about civility — or a lack, there of –in a 1997 article.
“Mark Schwartz, a City Councilman from Oklahoma City who is president of the League of Cities, said his group had published booklets on civility and conducted seminars aimed at raising the level of consideration in public forums.
“Political life, Mr. Schwartz said, simply mirrors a society that has gone from mannerliness to motorists’ making obscene gestures. Baseball players spit at umpires and attack coaches. Parents sue Little League teams over playing time given to their children.
“And respect for authority, Mr. Schwartz noted, has taken a dive. He pointed to a plan a while back by Congressional Republicans to wear Pinocchio noses when President Clinton addressed them, a move that was ultimately put down by House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“”There is a way to register disagreement,” Mr. Schwartz said. ”It’s called the ballot box.” ”
Most importantly me to me, he was the guy who cared deeply about his city, state, and nation, and did so without engaging in the partisan politics that seems to get in the way of otherwise good people who are serving our nation on local, state and national levels.
He also was the guy who often interjected a little humor into otherwise hazardously monotonous meetings, I’m reminded.
For example, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett recalls the end of one council meeting he covered as a reporter for a local television station where, as the meeting had progressed in its typical, slow-moving fashion, people had left as their issues had been heard and settled.
“At the end, Mayor Norick announced it was time for “Citizens to be Heard,” Cornett recalls. “He and the council all looked up into the audience, where they saw that I was the only person still around.“Councilman Schwartz broke the silence, by saying, “Now’s your chance, Mick.” The ensuing laughter ended the meeting on an optimistic note.”And so with that, I do the same.
God’s speed, Mark. I’m sure you’ll have everything straightened out by the time I get to where you are.
By Jack Money, Business Writer
Renewable fuels and corn: the discussion continues
By The Oklahoman
Are growing requirements to produce ethanol putting a strain on the corn supply, and subsequently making prices more expensive for food at the grocery store and feed for cattle?One speaker told attendees at the Grow Oklahoma Biofuels Conference in Oklahoma City on Wednesday he didn’t think the ethanol requirements played a direct role.
But another speaker who is on the schedule for today’s discussions might take a differing point of view. Martha Schlicher of GTL Resources in
Schlicher and Adcock also will talk about whether the growing and harvesting of biomass is expected to put a significant strain on water resources.Other topics that will be discussed today include new developments in feedstocks for biofuels, both here in the
At lunch, attendees will here about the potential use of carbon trading as a pollution solution.
The event is being held at the Skirvin Hilton in Oklahoma City.
By Jack Money, Business Writer
Grow Oklahoma Biofuels Conference starts today
Kwai Wah Pang, president of Synergy Flash Mart, describes earlier this year how he labled his fuel pumps to inform consumers about the fuels he offers. Initially, he used yellow lables beneath the two selection buttons on the right tell to buyers those fuels were 5-percent ethanol and ethanol free. Later, state officials required him to sell the two fuels in completely different pumps to prevent cross-contamination. BY JACK MONEY, THE OKLAHOMAN
Well, today is the first day of the Grow Oklahoma Biofuels Conference.And some of the folks on the agenda are people who work in the petroleum industry, who are expected to talk about the growing presence of biofuels in Oklahoma’s marketplace.
Readers often have called me during the past year to talk about the introduction of those fuels. During these conversations, they often have suggested petroleum marketers only are interested in using biofuels to save themselves some money and to stick it to the consumer by using fuels that give vehicles poorer gas mileage and more vehicle problems.
Generally, I tell my readers three things. The first is that while the loss of fuel mileage is well documented with E85, or fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, it isn’t with E10 — a mixture of fuel used here by many marketers that is only 10 percent ethanol. The second thing I tell them is that today’s engine manufacturers — whether it be for automobiles, lawnmowers or boats — commonly say their motors can operate using E10.
Finally, I tell them that our governments are mandating its use.On a federal government level, you can trace renewable fuel and conservation initiatives back as far as the Clean Air Act of 1970. That act created initiatives to reduce pollutants from mobile sources, such as cars.
In 1988, Congress offered incentives to automakers that increased fuel economy for automobiles. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 required the establishment of alternative fuel vehicle fleets. In 2005, Congress approved the Energy Policy Act, which emphasized using alternative fuels.
The Energy Indepence and Security Act required fuel distributors to increase the use of renewable fuels, requiring that transportation fuel sold in the U.S. to be a minimum of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, and told automobile makers they had to raise fuel mileage standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
Most recently, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, signed by President Bush, included the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008.
The act:
Extends tax credits for biodiesel mixture and agri-biodiesel production tax credits through the end of 2009;
Allows most biodiesel to qualify for the $1.00 per gallon mixture incentive;
Extends the excise tax credit for alternative fuels to the end of 2009;
Creates a new tax credit for qualified plug-in hybrid electric vehicles bought between Dec. 31, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2014;
Extends the tax credit for existing alternative fuel infrastructure through Dec. 31, 2010, and adds electricity to the list of qualified alternative fuels.
By Jack Money, Business Writer
