Climate and energy

by Nancy Jackson

Remember the Pony Express? While those heroic riders endured rain, sleet, and snow, the world was changing around them. In a short eighteen months, it left them behind. The Pony Express didn’t see the telegraph coming – when it arrived, they were done.

At exactly the same time, a stagecoach company called Wells Fargo was transporting passengers, packages and precious gold across the frontier in stage coaches. Unlike their pony-riding peers, the smart folks at Wells Fargo saw trains coming. With big changes afoot, they decided to take a calculated risk.

Wells Fargo looked forward, puts its iconic stage coaches in storage, and focused on keeping money safe and delivering it on time. The result is a multinational financial services empire that thrives today.
Today on the Plains, a new energy economy is coming with a low-carbon future. We will not escape it. But we are uniquely situated to benefit from it.

Kansas is blessed with abundant wind, sun, and biomass – we have huge natural advantages in producing renewable energy. We also live on top of some of the most promising geologic formations in the country for compressed air energy storage (which could act like a battery for wind) and long-term storage of carbon dioxide. Better yet – a good number of those very same formations yet hold oil and gas that may be economically recoverable with, would you believe, injection of carbon dioxide? Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a well tested practice and would pay to develop the infrastructure (pipe, injection technology) for storage and sequestration later.

If you are shaking your head and feeling a little sorry for me because clearly I just don’t know that much about energy or economics, I won’t hold it against you. But I will refer you to the case above and ask again: who do you want to be? The Pony Express? Or Wells Fargo?

The new energy economy is coming, folks. Financial giants like Warren Buffett and T. Boone Pickens are investing heavily in wind energy. Many of the dot.com geniuses who brought us the information age (and this blog) are similarly invested in solar, wind, biofuels, and wave energy. Energy giants (and huge greenhouse gas emitters) like Duke Energy, American Electric Power, and Florida Power & Light see a low-carbon world coming and are acting now to create carbon legislation at the federal level, as well as regional cap-and-trade systems. They will ensure that their business survives and their customers thrive.

We in the Heartland have an opportunity today to be part of the solution. This is that rare chance to do well while doing good, because the new energy economy brings with it many well-paid, non-exportable green collar jobs – jobs for which our state universities and technical colleges can train a new work force. Our best and brightest will have the opportunity – and also the desire – to stay in Kansas, because it will be “re-branded.” Kansas can be the new energy capitol of America. We can lead the nation in developing solutions for a low-carbon world.

Kansas has led before. Our ancestors stood up against the grave injustice of slavery, though its economics had been remarkably good. Our Free State was pivotal then, and it can be again today.

Skepticism and doubt rarely lead – few fortunes have ever been made by people who list the reasons a thing will not work. Innovation, hope, and determination do lead – and fortunes are made by those who create elegant solutions to pressing problems.

Who do you want to be?

— Nancy Jackson, CEP Executive Director
www.climateandenergy.org