I-80 Energy Past and Present
Posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Last weekend, I drove from Salt Lake City back to my home in Golden, Colo. and I happened to pass several new wind turbines.
I really enjoy the drive across Wyoming because every time I do it I can see some new turbines. There is a lot of wind energy to be harvested from the landscape up there, and I cant wait to see even more turbines dot the landscape in the future.
I thought it was also very interesting that as you drive on I-80 (a truly long and winding road), you pass a massive open-pit mine just near Red Hill in the middle of nowhere, and inside is a massive creaking beast of a machine. I’m not sure what they’re mining there, but it really appears as though an angry machine is tearing at the earth, while in the distance the wind turbines are spinning like silent white sentinels.
The last few weeks have been quiet.
I’m focusing on training, which means lots of time at the gym and lots of plastic climbing and campusing and circuit workouts. I don’t know if I’ll be as strong this year as I was last year in Rocklands, but I’m going to try. My campusing is inconsistent and I’m doing weighted pull-ups with much less weight than I was at this time last year.
Anyways, spirits are high and I know I’ll have a great season of climbing and filming down there regardless of the difficulty of the boulders I’m climbing on. Here’s a couple photos from the weekend.
An open-pit mine near Red Hill
Wind Turbines on a plateau
Francis, Utah. Our starting point for the I-80 drive.
They are mining coal at the second biggest power plant west of the Mississippi. It is also the cleanest burning coal in the USA. Jim Bridger Power plant also is the soul of our community’s employment in Sweetwater County. Yes there has been a increase in oil and gas development however the coal and Trona mines have been here since the start of this great county. The coal mine provides almost all of the northwest United States with its power. You would have to fill every inch of this county with wind turbines to even scratch the ass this power plant. And the trona mines that you didn’t see just 30 miles before the coal mine provide the largest trona deposit in the world. Trona makes everything from glass to baking powder. I am natural resource management major and I love the idea of wind turbines the problem is they do nothing for the local jobs and like almost everyone else I think they are a great idea everywhere but in my backyard. They are an eye soar on the landscape. And unlike the mine that is concentrated in one area they stretch for hundreds of miles. I know since you live in Golden why would you care but you should really think about the people that live here, everyone loves to tell Wyoming how to mange there land and wildlife and it becomes very annoying. If Colorado had managed there’s correctly they wouldn’t be trying to build a pipeline from the Flaming Gorge to the Front Range to supply there over developed land. To wrap it up we do need clean energy and we need it fast but we shouldn’t do it at the expensive of the people’s land we drive through at 80 miles an hour, and are very uneducated about. There is room for both wind and coal energy but they both need to be used in a way that is sustainable both for the country and the county environmentally and economically. People live and make a living here.
Thanks for the lecture Derek.
The transition to sustainable energy is going to be hard for everyone, from millionaires who have to learn to live in a 4000 square foot luxury home instead of a 8000 square foot mansion, all the way down to guys like me, who may have to get used to paying $3 for a sustainably made beer instead of $1 for a beer made with energy from fossil fuels. Instead of drinking four beers on Saturday I may have to learn to deal with only drinking two.
I love the wind turbines. My family has a house in Laramie and I have been spending a lot of time up there lately. One of the reasons I like it so much is that it’s just a short drive either East or West to go see wind turbines.
In fact, I think I’ll make a special blog post about this. Right now.
Cheers,
Chuck Fryberger
Laramie, Wyoming
You missed the point I am all for Wind energy, and I think they are a modern marvel with there size and efficiency. There are many great places to put them away from established communities. I personally don’t want them where I live but I like to look at them as I drive down the road. Ted Kennedy one of the most liberal senators in congress also fought wind farms off shore in Massachusetts so I am not alone in this view, which is a major hurdle in wind energy’s future. You may love to have them in your backyard and you are welcome to, but telling residents of another community what they should have is probably not a good approach, when there livelihood depends on Coal, Trona, and Natural Gas. Some day hopefully we can transition out the fossil fuel monopoly we currently find our self in but, I was merely trying to point out the importance of the angry machine you talked about both for energy needs and economic needs of the surrounding communities and the United States as a whole. Supporting a family is much different then drinking a beer? Bridger Coal is one of the cleanest coal fired power plant in the nation and in the top five as far as size. You can fill I-80 with win turbines but you won’t get close to providing the power you need to fuel the Western United State.
I guess what I’m arguing is that it’s time to change the CULTURE. For instance, I would wager that most of the pick-up trucks in Wyoming are currently driving around empty. Most people who own large pickup trucks would be better off driving little cars and then renting a big truck on the days they actually need it… but I dont see this plan gaining much ‘traction’ in Wyoming – or any western US – culture.
While I appreciate the economics of energy production, there comes a time also when people have to take responsibility for staying up with the times. The government had to bail out the big auto makers largely because the employees said they needed the jobs. I feel bad that US auto makers are struggling, but as far as the employees are concerned…. well…
If you were working on the H2 assembly line and you noticed on you drive home that gas was over $3 per gallon…. would you maybe consider updating your resume? Make a back-up plan? Learn some new skills? Or just keep your head down, wait for the company to fail, and the government to bail you out?
I think my generation will largely be judged by how effective we are at reversing the decadence of the previous one.
You said it brother… decadence is the word and as a kid I never could figure out why people in the 80s and 90s had to have so damn much stuff. Giant homes, giant cars… always had to be trying to be better than the next guy. Some of the things going on today are good in many ways… maybe people will figure out that the simple life it really joyful. Remember the saying, “the best things in life are not things”. I do believe minimalism is becoming a trend and that is not so bad.