Environment

WomenMatter will continuously post updates on all this and other issues as we monitor the continuing philosophical and practical debates nationwide. Please check back often for updates. Past updates are available for reference on the Environment Archives page.

Glow in the Dark: Blackout Lights up the Politics of Energy Reform

The Big Blackout illuminated several aspects of our electricity culture and made the connection between government and environment quite visible.

Usually, we consider "environment" to mean our natural environment, but the human-made environment (the one that demands all of this electricity) sometimes requires government protection as well.

Like the natural environment, the human-made environment is an intricate web of systems, and when a problem occurs in one sphere, the whole sphere is affected. The blackout illustrates this point; a glitch in the grid caused power failure for a group of states, not just one community, city, or even state.

The Energy Bill

Energy bills passed by the House and the Senate contain provisions that improve electricity transmission and prevent power failures. These bills are currently in conference committee, where their differences ought to be worked out, but energy is tied to local issues and to the very real difference in policy and controlling philosophies of the two major parties.

And states often are not happy with federal rules and regulations telling them what they should do about supplying power and transmitting it. Public money is needed for upgrades, but private power companies (since deregulation) are not happy being told what to spend to modernize equipment and build new power lines. And tax reductions and military spending leave less for power grids, water treatment, and transportation – all known as infrastructure.

Everyone now agrees to fix the electricity grid, if it were a separate bill. But it is in a large bill that includes drilling for oil and easing regulations on businesses and pollution controls, etc., etc, etc. The party in power ties the actions that everyone agrees on to the items that only the majority party wants. So balance is put aside for item by item compromise where possible. A vote in exchange for aid to one representative’s district – until something gets passed. But not big, expensive solutions to major problems.

The energy bill has been in Congress for the past two years; as it was in the Clinton administration. In both administrations it has been held up because lawmakers can’t agree on policy which in turn is based in philosophy -- how to resolve the demands of the human-made environment and the natural environment.

To read more about the energy bill recently passed by the Senate, click here

Enlibra

Utah Governor Michael Leavitt uses an approach he calls “Enlibra" to balance environment and industry. “Enlibra" is a word that he created from Latin to mean consulting all sides of an issue and allowing them to collaborate to create a solution. This assumes that there is always an acceptable solution between two different philosophies. Western-state governors say that they have adopted the Enlibra approach, recognizing that logging and mining are critical parts of their local economies.

Environmental groups say that despite the promising sound of “Enlibra," the environment often loses out. They maintain that sacrificing the ecosystem on which we all depend for industry is a basic mistake. Since Leavitt’s Enlibra approach is all about compromise, he sometimes compromises the environment, leaving it vulnerable to attack from industry. For this reason, conservationists are not in favor of Leavitt heading up the EPA. Bush nominated him August 11, 2003.

WomenMatter raises the question of the difference between balance and compromise.

Protecting the human-made environment

The blackout proved to us that we must improve our electricity grid. We have increased our demand for electricity, but done little to meet that demand. Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico and the Secretary of Energy from 1998 to 2001 in the Clinton administration, claims that we need more transmission lines. Further, he says that government needs to oversee the energy industry’s transition from regional monopolies which owned both the power plants that generate electricity and the transmission lines that take it to our houses. Now we have separate generating companies which sell as much as they can to a wholesale market of transmission companies that would rather not spend on new lines. He claims that the industry is caught in between; it needs clear regulations from government in order to improve services and prevent power outages.

A grid problem

Our power grid does not know city, county, or state lines. It is its own grid system that does not necessarily correspond with our grid of cities and states. This is a problem because local, state, and federal government must work together in order to strengthen the electrical grid. There are often conflicts of interest among local and federal government that prevent utilities from being regulated. Although no one wants a power shortage, few people are willing to have transmission lines in their neighborhood.

The blackout elucidated the need for the various systems in government to work together to improve our power system.

Will the Bush administration be willing to support federal regulations over states? Will they support a tax increase to pay for a renewed and updated grid?l

To let your representatives know what you would like to see in the energy bill, click here. To discuss this topic with other WomenMatter readers, click here. To read more about the environment, click here

Posted on: 8/22/2003

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