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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2006)
The INDEPENDENT, March 16, 2006 Page 21 Power of the People By W. Marc Farmer, General Manager West Oregon Electric Cooperative There is a lot of em- phasis on re- newable energy due the rising costs of gas and coal, the continuing search for cleaner forms of en- ergy that produce less pollu- tants, and the need to become less dependent on foreign oil. Many states are adopting poli- cies requiring electric utilities to have a certain percentage of renewable energy in their pow- er portfolio. The federal govern- ment in the Energy Act of 2005 has set renewable energy re- quirements for larger utilities. Tax credits were included in the Energy Act and in the Presi- dent’s budget for developing re- newable energy projects from a large scale to home use. Ore- gon has not had requirements to date, but Governor Ted Ku- longoski plans on addressing this issue in the next legislative session. The Governor is even asking for all state agencies to have some of their electricity come from brand-new renew- able resources such as wind and sun power — and he wants it done in an ambitious four years. Kulongoski said possible options include the state buying and developing wind farms, or contracting with a private company to develop one. State agencies also could install more solar panels or build on-site biomass genera- tors. Currently, about 55 percent of the region’s electricity comes from hydropower dams with the rest coming from coal and nat- ural gas. Wind power gener- ates about 1 percent and there are several new wind farm proj- ects being built in the state and the region. With all of this push for renewable energy, where does West Oregon Electric Co- operative, Inc. fit into the pic- ture? We don’t know if or how much of our energy portfolio will be required to come from renewable sources or the time frame to comply yet, but we are actively looking at all of the op- portunities being developed. West Oregon EC does own a share of the Coffin Butte Re- source Project located just north of Corvallis that gener- ates electricity from landfill gas. A plan is being developed to expand the project. The cost of the power being produced by the project is higher than the cost of the power we purchase from BPA, which is one of the major drawbacks to renewable Our dogs are not dangerous killers. They have a job. They hunt, yes, but they are also our companions and friends. When my dogs are not in the woods they are on the couch with our kids. They are trained to hunt only specific species. Neither are we cruel to the animals we hunt, preferring to make clean kill shots. Most houndsmen keep the animals pelt so it would make no sense for a houndsmen to allow their hounds to tear and puncture the animals skin. There are also houndsmen who prefer to hunt their dogs without taking the game animal. Also, many times I have been approached by people concerned about the cruelty of shock collars. These collars are not fatal. In fact, many hounds- men have tried them on them- selves. The collar temporarily (one to four seconds) seizes your muscles. It gets the dogs attention when it is pursuing unwanted game animals, such as deer and elk. They wear the collars until the houndsmen is sure his dog has no interest in non-game animals. Houndsmen and women have felt our sport is discrimi- nated against, but I don’t think we have done enough to edu- cate the public about our sport. The next time you see a houndsmen say hello, you just might like him or her. Rebecca Thies Forest Grove Letters From page 3 Hound hunters seek public support To the Editor: I am trying to gain support for Oregon’s Revised Cougar Plan by writing local papers. In the hope that views contained within this letter will be pub- lished, thereby changing opin- ions regarding houndsmen that many people have formed (the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Com- mission will be meeting April 13 for potential adoption of the re- vised proposal). I am a houndswoman, and I would like to help dispel some of the myths surrounding houndsmen and their dogs. Houndsmen as a whole are not a hoard of blood thirsty bar- barians with nothing but killing animals on their agendas. As a whole, we are selective in the animals we take. We do not kill every animal we come across, in fact many animals are treed and then allowed to escape. We want and need a healthy population of game animals in order to continue our (endan- gered) sport. We are actually helping the species, we support them by keeping populations manageable and disease down by controlling the population. Family leaving area says goodbye to all To the Editor: We are leaving Birkenfeld af- ter living here for over seven years. There are so many of you that we have grown to love over the years here in Birken- feld, Clatskanie, Rainier, and Vernonia and it will be very hard to see each of you before we leave. We wanted to inform you of our departure by submit- ting this letter to the editor. We will miss all of your faces, smiles, “hellos” and “how are you doings?” and all of our get- togethers. We pray that each and every one of you looks to the Lord for where He leads you in life. He is the “soul” pur- pose of why all of us are on this earth. We love all of you so much! Looking to the Lord, The Huntington Family: Bob, Debbie, Michael, Michelle, Danielle, Justine, Shawna, Anna, Isaiah, and Sarah Birkenfeld energy. The cost to produce wind, solar, and methane proj- ects have consistently been much more expensive than al- ternative sources. One of the other major drawbacks is the fact that they are not consistent sources of energy. The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine through the clouds and there are no feasible ways to store the electricity for times when they don’t produce. There are other options such as geother- mal that are more consistent, but not available here. New technologies such as wave en- ergy are being developed on the Oregon coast. West Ore- gon and PNGC that we pur- chase our power through, will both be investigating all possi- bilities to see which one or ones make sense for us to par- ticipate. While we fully support the benefits of renewable ener- gy, it would be cost prohibitive for us to do a project on our own, so it will be necessary for us to join in with a group of util- ities. If and when we decide to participate, it will be done with careful and thorough research and done with what is best for our members under the rules that will be established by the legislature. Until then, the hy- dropower we purchase from BPA remains the cheapest and cleanest power available and to us is a very renewable re- source. Until next time, remem- ber that all of the rain and snow are renewing our power source.
