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opinion:
pro/ con
Should environmental
concerns limit new plant production?
Pro: The energy
crisis has become so bad that new power plants must be built,
no matter the danger to the environment.
The solution to
our energy crisis may be exactly what has been causing it.
We live in a time
when lakes are dying due to vast pollution, the air quality
index is broadcast on the morning news, and it seems every
week we hear of yet another oil spill on some distant shore
causing ecological disasters.
In a million years,
I never would have thought that more power plants could possibly
improve our environment. When the price of 87-octane gasoline
went over $2 per gallon, it was then that I began contemplating
a solution for our energy woes.
In just the last
few months, Southern California has seen dramatic increases
in the cost of most of its fuels. Natural gas, electricity
and gasoline have all reached new levels. Unfortunately
for the American consumer, this also comes at a time when
billions of dollars are being lost in the stock market and
many major companies are whispering about impending lay offs.
According to Southern
California Edison, one of the primary reasons for our power
problem is the inability to build additional facilities due
to environmental constraints.
In recent years,
most of our suppliers have been forced to close facilities
due to their dire state of disrepair. The results of these
closures have been the remainder of the production facilities
operating at maximum capacity. Meanwhile,
the unused locations sit and wait for our government to determine
their future.
Our state and federal
governments are debating the possibility of allowing our power
and gas companies to produce new facilities that had been
previously rejected due to their negative impact on our environment.
At the same time,
the production of these new facilities will start the process
of putting our economy back on its feet as the reduced cost
for these services will put more money into the pockets of
the average consumer.
The solution is
before us and waiting to implement it will hurt our society
dramatically.
Jeff Dusing
is a print journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.
Con: Plans to
plunder the Earth to find new energy are just ploys to make
Bush's cronies rich.
Conservation is
not the key to solving the nation's energy crises, according
to President Bush's recent statements. Instead, he indicated
the key is to find more petroleum and natural gas, burn more
coal and build more power plants to process it all.
Conservation, environmentally
sound as it may be, would not keep Bush's oil and business
pals' pockets full.
So, with Bush's
encouragement America is spending more energy than we have.
To accommodate, he will build more plants and search for more
gas. In California alone, 19 new power plants projects are
under construction.
All are planning
to use natural gas, a resource we are producing domestically
in such small amounts that the Bush/Cheney energy task force
feels it is necessary to open up one of America's wildlife
refuges for drilling.
The Alaska Wildlife
Refuge is the birthing ground for the nation's largest caribou
herd and the home of 40,000 species of migratory birds. In
spite of the danger to the land and animals, the task force
insists on taking what little oil is in the refuge out, and
putting it into the new power plants.
There are several
ways to curb the energy crises without spending millions of
dollars to build new plants and conservation is just one of
them.
Currently there
are four plants in California that are not being used. Three
of these plants are powered by clean geothermal energy. Rather
than spending millions on building new power plants that burn
natural gas, wouldn't it be economically and environmentally
sound to renovate and reopen the ones that already exist?
There is technology
available today that would allow cars, homes and businesses
to function off of solar and other renewable energy sources.
The only reason these technologies are not economically feasible
to the average citizen is because the money necessary to mass-produce
them is being put into power plants.
With conservation,
alternative energy sources and more efficient use of power
plants that already exist, the United States could pull itself
out of the energy crises.
Jamie Rogers
is a print journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.
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