Montanans for Pickens Plan

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Comment by Greg Wortham on May 25, 2009 at 4:33pm

Great Plains Energy Summit -- Omaha -- June 17-18, 2009 -- Leaders from the states & provinces of the USA-Canada Wind Corridor are gathering in Omaha, Nebraska on June 17-18 to plan for action in 2010 & beyond. Through the Great Plains Energy Alliance, we are gathering community & regional leaders, state officials, component manufacturers, colleges & universities, wind energy leaders, ranchers, farmers & more. We will discuss transmission infrastructure, community benefits, workforce preparation, state & federal policies, environmental perspectives, The Pickens Plan, and more. There will be caucuses of the state/provincial delegations and learning of best practices from each other. Please join us!

Check out www.GreatPlainsEnergy.us for more info, including registration forms, sponsorship opportunities, and more.

Comment by Robert Schultz on May 7, 2009 at 12:45pm

Invitation to join the NW Renewable Energy Group
I have started a Regional group, welcoming comments, ideas, and suggestions for Renewable Energy in the NW Region. Including states from the Pacific, Cascade and Rocky Mountain areas. I realize that some of my Pickens Plan friends are outside this region, but you are always welcome to join and add your thoughts to the discussion. We should be looking at best available sources of energy in our region, and ways to improve the power grid to transfer energy from region to region as it is needed.

Robert Schultz
Pickens Plan
WA-05 District Leader

Comment by Micah Lauer on November 17, 2008 at 3:31pm

T. Boone for Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2008! Click on the link and rate Boone a '10' to give him your support: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1857576_1857573_1857557,00.html

Comment by Micah Lauer on October 30, 2008 at 10:02am

Hey Montanans! We're hoping to find someone to deliver the petition to the election offices of McCain and Obama in each state. If you can help out in the state of MT, please send me a message! Now is the time to make our voices heard.

Thank you,

Micah Lauer
Regional Leader

Comment by Michele on October 15, 2008 at 1:09pm

Ditto Mike A!!

"our farm land in MT should be transitioning toward energy crops instead of world food crops. Feeding the world has not exactly been a successful ag policy for MT. Look at our small ag towns. Farmers and land owners should be spreading the economic $$ throughout our land instead of Saudi Princes."

I believe that as we (regular folks) demand new energy(wind, solar, etc.)equipment and seek it out, it will develop into a larger market, which in turn will bring competitive pricing. This, in concept, should bring lower pricing, better access and make installation and integration information more available. In other words, it won't be so darned hard to find or complicated to put together!

I know I live in Texas (Canyon Lake), but after living in Montana (Columbus, Billings) for 5 years, my heart is still with y'all.

Comment by John & Carly Cochrane on August 6, 2008 at 1:03pm

We received this reply fro Denny Rehberg's office and thought it might interest the group

Dear John & Carly:



Thank you for contacting me regarding energy independence. It's good to hear from you.



High gas prices at the pump right now are the result of simple economics, increased demand, and limited supply. One of the major contributing factors is the price of crude oil, which rose to a record high of $147 per barrel in July 2008. These price increases are caused by, among other things, the 2002 OPEC decision limiting production quotas and a rapid increase in demand from developing countries such as China and India. The relative decline in the U.S. dollar has also had the effect of making foreign supplied oil more expensive. These situations, combined with regional disruptions in major oil producing nations such as Iran, Venezuela & Nigeria, have produced the prices we see today.



Another problem exists because of the realities surrounding refined gasoline. U.S. refining capacity has declined, both in number of refineries - from 324 in 1984 to 153 in 2002 - and in total capacity - from 18.26 million barrels per day (mbd) to 16.78 mbd. Unlike the past, when refineries were usually small components of larger oil companies, most modern refineries are independent. Under the old system, refineries could operate at little or no profit because the rest of the oil company was doing well. Today, independent refineries must make a profit from refining alone, which means they have to consolidate their operations and charge higher prices. Also, because of differing environmental regulations in different states, many refineries produce specially formulated "boutique" blends of gasoline that cannot be used outside a particular region or state. This severely limits the ability of refineries to work together in order to prevent the kind of supply shortages that result in higher prices.



The challenges are immense, but Congress can and should take measures to help alleviate gas prices. Below is a brief description of the bills I am currently working on in the U.S House of Representatives that will help implement my plan for Energy Independence:

H.R. 3089, No More Excuses Energy Act of 2007
Reduces the price of gasoline by opening new American oil refineries; investing in diverse energy sources such as wind, nuclear, and clean coal-to-liquid technology; and making available more homegrown energy through environmentally sensitive exploration of the Arctic Energy Slope and America's Deep-Sea Energy Reserves.

H.R. 2279, Expand American Refining Capacity at Closed Military Bases
Reduces the price of gasoline by streamlining the refinery application process and by requiring the President to open at least three closed military installations for the purpose of siting new and reliable American refineries.

H.R. 5656, To Repeal the Ban on Acquiring Alternative Fuels
Reduces the price of gasoline by allowing the federal government to procure advanced alternative fuels derived from diverse sources like oil shale, tar sands and coal-to-liquid technology.

H.R. 2208, Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Act
Reduces the price of gasoline by encouraging the use of clean coal-to-liquid technology authorizing the Secretary of Energy to enter into loan agreements with coal-to-liquid projects that produce innovative transportation fuel.

H.R. 2493, Fuel Mandate Reduction Act of 2007
Reduces the price of gasoline by removing fuel blend requirements and onerous government mandates if they contribute to unaffordable gas prices.

H.R. 6107, American Energy Independence and Price Reduction Act
Reduces the price of gasoline by opening the Arctic Energy Slope to environmentally sensitive American energy exploration. Exploration would be limited to 0.01% of the Refuge, and revenue received from the new leases would be invested in a long-term alternative energy trust fund.

H.R. 6108, Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2008
Reduces the price of gasoline by enabling the United States to responsibly explore its own deep ocean to produce American energy. The bill would grant coastal states the authority to keep exploration 100 miles from their coastlines and it would also allow states to share in the revenues received.

While it is critical that Congress pass legislation to expand domestic energy production, this is just one part of my four part plan to achieve energy independence.



In addition to increasing American production of fossil fuels, we must also practice conservation, expand the use of alternative energy sources and develop the new technologies necessary to meet our nation's future energy needs. For more information on my comprehensive four part plan, please visit www.house.gov/rehberg/energyindependence.



Thanks again for contacting me. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 225-3211. Please keep in touch.






Sincerely,
Denny Rehberg
Montana's Congressman

Comment by Sam Korsmoe on July 28, 2008 at 3:34pm

I had an interesting meeting last week with a rancher in Southwest Montana (Madison County). We spoke at length about the need to help local ranchers and farmers become as independent as possible from the commodity markets. That would be for both raw commodity exports (e.g. selling cattle or wheat to large agribusiness conglomerates out of state) in which the value gained is almost entirely outside of Montana as well as commodity inputs such as electricity and diesel. We can slowly begin to add value to our agriculture products by producing our own bread (e.g. Wheat Montana) and cattle (local brands such as Montana Black - which is a branded beef project of the Madison County Economic Development Council). Basically, this is the creation and support of a 'buy local' campaign.

More to the point of this discussion and my discussion with the rancher, how can we make ourselves more independent from the commodity energy market? Can we make our own biodiesel? Can we have small wind turbines that produce just enough electricity to run a pivot? There are a lot of small generators on most any farm or ranch that use electricity or diesel. Can these be weaned off of imported diesel or electricity? Are there any technological solutions available? My rancher friend mentioned that on his ranch they had small wind mills to pump water beginning in the early 1900s. They were phased out in the 1960s because electricity became cheaper and efficient. That is not the case any more. Perhaps we already have the technology we need to begin this transition. What do you think?

Comment by Jay Rutherford on July 25, 2008 at 7:45am

Listening to T. Boon Pickens on C-Span as he testified to congress about his plan, made me realize we must get away from the blame game and get politics and idealogy out of our discourse. The Pickens plan does exactly that and I am joining the group because his plan to me at least provides a focus that makes sense and is acheivable.

Comment by Diane O'Neil on July 23, 2008 at 12:10pm

The following is from a blog entry of mine on EONS.com, entitled "Living Green by Necessity". We lived totally offgrid for 10 yrs here in Montana. Changing our energy usage can happen in smaller ways than large wind and/or solar farms too.

When Dan and I bought our 20 acre property in Montana, we loved the idea of living far from a city. We had done some research, but it wasn’t nearly enough to be prepared to build a home here. Our property sits at about 3800 ft. and is considered “high desert”, receiving 14-15 inches of rainfall in a good year. Well, those good years ended the year after we moved from Illinois to make plans to get ready to build our home. We’ve been in a drought the past 8 years, receiving only 11-12 inches of rainfall per year. We rented an apartment in a small town near our property, and began to get to know the area.
Our first challenge prior to building came when we contacted what was then Montana Power. We wanted an estimate on the cost of running power lines the four miles from the county road to our property. Our “subdivision” of 20 acre properties had been part of a couple of cattle ranches previously, so there were no power or phone lines anywhere nearby. The initial estimate given to us was $60, 000-80,000! After getting up off the floor and wiping the tears from his eyes, my husband told them what they could do with their power (can’t repeat that one), and we were back to square one. Luckily, we met a man shortly after who was knowledgeable about wind & solar power. He & my husband hit it off right away, and bored me to tears speaking what sounded to me like a foreign language for hours. They eventually designed a combination wind & solar power system to run our home. At that time (1997) it cost about $20,000. We’ve added to the system over the years and have replaced the original batteries, so have spent a little over $30,000 in all.
I just erased a whole page of the construction process, as that’s a separate story that sounds like a modern day pioneer story – I’ll save it for another blog.
Once we finally finished the building project, we had a 2000 sq. ft. home operating completely on solar & wind. We installed a bank of batteries in the basement that would keep the system going for several days when there wasn’t any sun or wind. On those days I wouldn’t iron, run the vacuum, or wash clothes – darn! We also use compact fluorescent lighting. Some of the worst power consumption no no’s are “ghost loads” – all those things that use a little power all the time. Think of all the appliances in your home that have clocks (stove, microwave, VCR, TV, computer, etc… We installed power strips or switches on the outlets where these plug in. When we aren’t using them, they’re shut off. You’d be surprised how much power that saves.
Cooling in summer could have been a problem, as a moderate sized alternative energy system could not support air conditioning (or a forced air heating system). Luckily, our humidity here is very low. We were able to find a DC evaporative cooling system “swamp cooler”, which uses very little electricity to keep our house cool. We open all the windows at night to let the cool night air bring down the temperature. In the morning we close the house and lower shades we installed on the outside of the windows, keeping the heat from entering. When the temps get warm enough the swamp cooler turns on. The house has never gotten above 78F, even when it’s close to 100F outside. For heating, we have a propane stove in the basement that’s on a thermostat, and a woodstove in the living room. The propane stove is mostly to keep the pipes from freezing when we’re not at home. In retrospect, we wish we’d used in floor heating, but at that time we weren’t aware that there was be a relatively inexpensive method of doing it with our power restrictions.
Back to the water issue. Our well was a bust, so we had to rethink that too. Luckily, prior to installing the subfloor, Dan had put several large plastic cisterns totaling 2200 gal. in a room in the basement. Initially, we had water delivered by a service in the next town. We met someone in the area who had installed a rainwater collection system, and Dan grilled him on what had worked and what he would do differently. When we were ready to build our garage, Dan had them build a “basement” that consisted of two 8,000 gal. concrete tanks, separated by a wall. We have gutters and downspouts on both the house and garage that empty into these tanks. When the plastic cisterns in the house drop below a certain level, a float switch turns on a pump that brings water from the garage tanks to our house. Water passes through a system of filters, then a UV light, making the water clean enough to drink.
Just to complicate things, I wanted some landscaping. We built a teardrop shaped flower bed in front of the house. I used the most xeric plants I could find, but water was still an issue. Once again Dan came to the rescue. He designed a greywater system that uses the water from our showers, washing machine, dishwasher, and kitchen sink to help water my flowers. We have a 500 gal. tank in my vegetable garden (hidden by the fence) that we fill with excess spring rains (when we have them) or by having a load of water delivered by a local service. Drip irrigation, lots of mulch and intensive planting help with the water usage there too. Composting really reduced the amount of garbage we take to the dump each week, and enables our poor soil to produce veggies in my garden.
This whole system may sound really odd to many of you. It does require some thought and maintenance, but it allowed us to live in a remote area we could not have afforded had we been forced to run in grid power. In the last few years others have brought the power lines past our driveway. We hooked up to power last year, only to charge our batteries when there’s no sun or wind for a few days. My husband is out of town several days a week, and that always seemed to be the time when someone(me)needed to go start the gas generator to charge the batteries. Those days it was usually snowing and -20F or raining like crazy. Yes I’m a wimp these days, and was the one who insisted on having grid power as a backup.
Don’t judge my current wimpiness too soon. When I get a few minutes, I’ll write another blog about our building experience with the Amish, living with an outhouse, and being bitten by a rattlesnake.

Comment by Mike A on July 23, 2008 at 6:18am

The actual state of MT is the largest farmer in the US. No kidding. They own a huge amount of land that is both farmed (leased out to farmers) and grazing pasture land. That is where I think the wind turbines should go. on marginal land owned by the state. The tax value goes up and the local economy is impacted.

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