By Mike Matejka
The current stand-off in North Dakota between the Standing Rock Native American nation and the Dakota Access pipeline raises some deep questions. But the one that most provokes me is, do we have a coherent energy policy in this country?
Like any modern system, energy usage and availability is an incredibly complex topic. If someone says no pipeline, does that mean they prefer their fuel transported on rail or road, which is not only more expensive, but also more dangerous? Many pipeline opponents will say, no fossil fuels at all. If we are ever going to be a nation without fossil fuels, that doesn’t happen overnight. And does blockading pipelines actually help move us to both energy independence and energy sustainability?
For full disclosure, as a union Laborer, it is my brother and sister Laborers who build pipelines. They are the ones currently not getting paychecks because of the North Dakota stand-off.
If a sustainable, renewable energy system is our goal, number one, do we all agree on that, number two, how do we get there, and number three, how many decades will that take?
As a Laborer, we also build wind farms and solar fields. In neighboring Livingston County, a large wind development was turned down last year. There is wonderful wind on the Great Plains, but to reach to urban areas, it needs transmission lines. The Clean Line transmission project across Iowa and northern Illinois to Chicago is also being resisted. So in North Dakota we don’t want pipelines, in Livingston County we don’t want wind farms, and across our northern tier, we don’t want transmission lines. Yet we all want the light switch to turn on, the car to run and the air conditioner when the weather is hot. If every project is fought, how do we evolve our energy systems?
The final question that intrigues me is that alternative energy, wind and solar, is great as long as the sun shines and the wind blows. Most of the time we depend upon gas, coal and nuclear plants to deliver our power. Those large power plants can’t be turned off and on daily, depending on the weather report. They are engineered to run most efficiently when they can run continually.
As a nation, we need a coherent policy. If sustainable, alternative energy is our future, it will probably take another generation to fully develop the technology. In the meantime, natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear plants are what sustains us. They don’t run without pipelines, transmission lines and railroads. Before we oppose every energy project that comes along, let’s think about our needs and develop political will and long term vision for not only sustainable, but also, an energy independent future.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Normal. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
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