Experts: Coast can generate, control energy

A standing room only audience of more than 100 people got charged up Friday in Fort Bragg by speeches on solar home power, wind power at the former Georgia Pacific mill site, and ways that the Mendocino Coast can plug into more alternative power and local control.

…To start the meeting Steve Heckeroth laid out the “peak oil” phenomenon, an idea which started getting publicity in progressive and energy circles and now has become mainstream he said, pointing out issues of National Geographic devoted to the fact the world is running out of cheap oil. Oil corporations have even been advertising the peak oil crisis lately in major magazines.

Heckeroth said predictions of when the crisis would hit vary between now and 40 years from now, with about 2010 a common date. He also showed how limited geographically natural gas supplies are. Rather than the federal government spending billions to build huge import terminals for natural gas, he said people should get behind federal funding to reduce the cost of solar and wind power, which brought cheers. He said a solar panel on every housetop and an electrical vehicle in every garage would go a long way toward staving off a global oil crisis and empowering locals.

Williard pointed out that energy is an issue that often divides progressive thinkers. Between NIMBYism (not in my back yard) that comes with virtually anyone who owns property adjacent to windmills (or any other power plant) and environmental factors, the liberal community is split over specific alternative energy plans in Marin, Williard told the crowd. He said getting energy plants through the California Coastal Commission and the Mendocino Historical Review Board would be tough.

“Every time you bring up wind energy in California you get beaten with Altamont Pass.” He said bird deaths there were the result of the huge scale of the project.

Mendocino Beacon