In 2007, the
Oxford American Dictionary named “locavore” the word of the year. As
most High Country News readers know, locavores are people who choose to consume
food that is locally grown, harvested, or produced, usually within 100 miles of
the purchase point. The locavore
movement came into being after a small group of people realized that the food
they ate wasn’t just sustenance, but a political, social and ecological choice
and statement. They realized that eating food grown and produced close to home
builds local economies, fosters accountability from producers, reduces fossil
fuel dependence and carbon output and usually results in healthier and more
environmentally sound food. As with many good ideas, the idea of eating locally
grew, slowly at first, and then rapidly, until just four years after the
movement started, “locavore” received official imprimatur as part of
the popular lexicon.
I think it’s
time to start a locavore movement for energy generation and distribution. Call
it the “logen” (local + generation) or “lenergy” (local +
energy) movement. Whatever you call it, it would follow the same principles of
the locavore movement. People
would use energy sources available to them locally. Local energy generation and
distribution would result in cleaner, greener energy consumption. Since most
places in the U.S. aren’t located near fossil fuel or uranium deposits, the
majority of energy sources would be renewable. Even if there are locally
available fossil fuel or uranium sources, the capital costs of extracting,
processing and generating electricity from these sources are usually
prohibitive except for huge multinational corporations. As more communities generate and consume
their own energy, less carbon will be emitted into the atmosphere and fewer
communities will suffer the ecological destruction that is inherent in energy
resource extraction.
Local energy
generation and distribution would also be a strong political statement. Communities
would be rejecting the centralized corporate model of energy generation and
distribution that is currently the norm in the U.S. Communities would instead
embrace a decentralized, distributed, and fundamentally democratic model.
Community-based
solar, wind, geothermal, biodiesel, or micro-hydro power are likely within
reach for most communities. A community’s pooled resources could be the seed
money for a collectively owned and operated power supply. Every community
member would have a stake in how energy is generated and decisions about energy
sources and distribution would be made democratically. This cooperative model
is not just practical in theory, it’s practical in reality. Co-op Power, in New England
and New York, is a consumer owned electric utility whose members drive co-op
policy and foster innovative projects for community generated power. The aptly
named Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, co-op membership has raised the capital
for and is building a biodiesel power plant that would provide energy to the
community by burning waste vegetable oil.
Alternatively,
each residence or business could install its own power generation
infrastructure – most likely solar panels or wind turbines – and after
satisfying their own energy needs, could feed energy back into a localized
grid. Although this model would require some changes to the power grid, that
investment would be a small fraction of the money that is currently being
proposed in the U.S. Senate’s energy bill to subsidize the fossil fuel and
nuclear industries. The Climate Energy Policy Institute at the University of
California at Berkley has already published a roadmap [PDF]
for a localized energy grid, based on an analogy to the Internet.
These models
shouldn’t be seen as academic exercises or purely theoretical. In places like
Grants, New Mexico, Jeffrey City, Wyoming, and Uravan, Colorado, whose economic
fortunes have been tepid since the last uranium boom went bust, locally
generated and distributed power could be the way out of an untenable situation.
Those towns are now faced with the stark choice of having to submit again to
the environmental destruction of the uranium mining companies in exchange for short-term,
modest economic development or continue in the economic doldrums. These
communities deserve a better choice. They deserve to be able to generate their
own clean, sustainable power and reap the economic rewards that come with doing
so. They deserve to be able to
determine their own energy and economic future rather than grovel and scrape
before out of state mining companies and utilities. In short, they deserve what
every community deserves – a real and meaningful choice about how their
community is run. Local energy generation is the first step in a truly
self-sufficient and democratic society. Let’s start the locavore energy
movement now.
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