Op-Ed: U of Maine renewable energy conference disallows dialogue

 

 

Op-Ed: Renewable energy conference disallows dialogue on effective alternatives for conservation at UM

 

Last Thursday I attended the Renewable Energy Meeting held at the University of Maine and
finally witnessed the politics that rule our lives firsthand.

I observed as 20 representatives from the University of Maine System laughed and hugged in complete agreement on the direction and material future in which students will learn.

From here on out, the UMaine System will be indoctrinating our children into believing the myth of “free energy.”

At a meeting regarding energy, I figured I would hear mostly engineers talking about what incoming students will need to learn to be successful when they enter the work force. Instead, I heard economics and law professors discuss schemes to use taxpayer money to push their agenda through. That agenda fails to recognize our energy problems by applying expensive, inefficient technologies as the solution.

 

Don Zillman, president of the University of Maine in Presque Isle, said Maine’s future curriculum needs to teach students that we need to rid ourselves of the carbon economy.

He spoke of five reasons we need to do so — global warming is an immediate threat; China and other developing countries are increasing their demand of oil; the threat of peak oil is real; we don’t have the infrastructure to ship and deliver our own natural resources; and the threat of terrorist attacks is too high to trust the far most efficient energy source of nuclear power.

 

Although each of these reasons is highly debatable, I’ll give him the benefit of doubt. So assuming we have to leave the carbon economy, what are the solutions?

 

This meeting had one direction and they held a tight ship. There was no straying away from the consensus that students would be taught the benefits of renewable and alternative energy. By teaching only these benefits, there would be no room for children to question the efficiency of wind and solar technologies or the direction our lawmakers are pushing us in.

 

In fact, one brave man named Jim LaBrecque — from the UMaine Mechanical Engineering department — spoke up against all the suggested changes in the energy curriculum. He was the only person with a differing opinion in the group.

 

LaBrecque presented common sense facts explaining why there is no hope for alternative energies making a substantial difference in quality of life here in Maine. We have such rare conditions in Maine where it’s cold, hazy and full of trees. The gray days and cold temperatures turn solar panels into gold shingles.

 

If we put up wind turbines, we must clear-cut the trees which sequester our carbon dioxide. The new wind turbine at UMPI can’t even pay off their interest in energy savings.

 

According to LaBrecque, we can’t control our supply because it is influenced by global markets, but we can improve our energy demand by becoming more efficient in the “stuff” we already have.

 

Instead of investing in dead-end technologies, we could be re-engineering setups and systems we currently have. For instance, instead of pumping $500 per day of heat out of Little Hall all winter at UMaine, we could just reprogram the building to claim it as useful heat. This would save more energy per day than six residential windmills would per year.

 

Imagine if we invested in real solutions instead of garbage.

 

Before LaBrecque could finish his complete thought, he was rudely interrupted by Evelyn Silver, the senior advisor to UMaine President Robert Kennedy. Throughout LaBrecque’s moment on the floor, Silver shook her head and spoke with her neighbors. She was very close-minded on the issue, cutting off all naysayers.

 

Our children will be trained to invest time, money, effort and life into a bottomless pit of failure all because of meetings like these. Administrators sit behind closed doors and turn their noses up at public opinion.

 

I write this in hopes that someone else will see public injustice firsthand and start getting involved in public actions. It is getting near the time we all make a stand for right rather than wrong. We’ve fallen to half-truths and hidden agendas for too many decades.

 

Alexander Polk is a fourth-year mechanical engineering student.

 

http://mainecampus.com/2011/02/20/op-ed-renewable-energy-conference...

 

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Comment by MaineHiker on February 22, 2011 at 3:15pm
Who are these 20 UM representative bumble stumbles. I'd like their names and information.
Comment by freemont tibbetts on February 22, 2011 at 4:34am
It sure would be nice if Alexander Polk would come to Dixfield Thursday, March 10, 2011  6-8 pm to speak at the Department of Environmental Protection public meeting at Dirigo High School Dixfield Me.       Freemont Tibbetts  37, Bruce Tibbetts Dr, Dixfield Maine.
Comment by Monique Aniel Thurston on February 21, 2011 at 8:07pm

please read  the  comments on the  maine campus website  quoted  on the article  above , at this  time  there  are  39 comments  available .

Alexander  Polk is  a brave  young man who has the  courage  to  face  this insane  brave  new  world  imposed to us by  a collusion between corporations , academia , media , politicians and environmental organisations

monique  aniel

Comment by alice mckay barnett on February 21, 2011 at 11:41am
Jim Labreque is our man.  wixh we could get more information from him.
Comment by MaineHiker on February 21, 2011 at 10:21am
Q: What is a conference that disallows dialogue? RIGHT! Nothing at all.
Comment by Karen Bessey Pease on February 21, 2011 at 7:19am

How lucky we are that there are students who are not susceptible to the brainwashing done on today's campuses!  This young man 'gets it'-- and is brave enough to say so!

 

Kaz

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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