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.