When it comes to renewable energy, progress is slow. That’s how it should be.

By Dave Martin, Western Regional Sales Manager, Connector Products Inc.
B.A. Environmental Science, Shippensburg University

If I only looked at the small percentage of renewable energy used in the U.S. from my background as an environmental scientist, I'd be unhappy with the sluggish pace of this country towards renewable resources. But my experience with utilities allows me to see that getting a cohesive national transmission grid that has an increased reliance on renewable sources of energy completed in 30 years would be so fast that I don't have a metaphor to do it justice. The fact that things are moving at all is encouraging.

Yes, the economy is a hold up. But it is temporary. Money will start to flow again and when it does there are countless wind projects ready to go that can immediately begin construction. If this lack of lending lasts a couple of years it will be a footnote in the history of wind power in this country. To be honest I feel this is a blessing in disguise. Most of the manufacturers do not have the capacity to meet the demands that would be placed on them should things progress as fast as they would if Obama's promises were met. There is also only so much capacity for wind power. A slower move is better for two reasons: It allows the manufacturers to build high quality capacity to meet the needs of the growing industry and it allows for a more sustained growth that will have more impact on jobs and economic growth.

The bigger issue in this country, and one that poses the greatest threat to the promises Obama made in the run up to the presidential elections, is the "not in my backyard" mentality. If we are to move things forward we must all petition our senators and congressmen to push for more federal control of transmission line placement and right-of-way acquisition. Ignoring off shore wind, which is not yet economically viable, most of the potential wind power is in the Great Plains and Midwest. But the greatest demand is from the coasts. The states in between fail to see the benefit of allowing transmission lines to pass through their states. They need to think as residents of this country rather than residents of their state only. Until we establish a federal body to oversee this issue, states will continue to pose a major impediment to progressing the cause of creating an efficient, cohesive nationwide transmission grind. Regardless of the source of the power, this is an import task that needs to be completed.

In regards to moving this country towards renewable energy, we have to remember that as far as the utilities are concerned, wind power has nothing to do with saving the environment and everything to do with finding a consistent source of energy that is not affected by the rising and volatile cost of fossil fuels. Until the costs of fossil fuels are high enough to push things forward, utilities will only do the bare minimum to satisfy the more environmentally conscious among their consumer base. If there is no economic reason to move to renewable sources of energy, we will stay with the status quo.

We saw a glimpse of this with the high gasoline prices last summer. The bike shop I frequent sold more dollars worth of racks, fenders and bags for people to commute to work then they did in bikes. These were not people who were already cyclists. These were not tree hugging environmentalists. These were average blue collar workers who saw that riding their bikes to work was far less expensive then driving. In all the years that I have been really aware of the threats facing the environment, this was the most encouraging thing I have ever seen. Too bad it didn't last.

Let me try and sum up. Environmentalists are unhappy and pessimistic with the slow pace of progress. Business people who are used to the glacial pace of change in utilities are happy with the progress and are optimistic because the potential for growth is great if we look past this temporary slump. People who work in the utility industry and care for the environment, should be happy with the fact that things are moving at all.