Rational

5/26/2015

Thank you, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for publishing my letter to the editor!

Kevin Horrigan’s May 17th op-ed, “Reason v. Guilt” makes no sense. How is it rational to know the devastating effects of climate change, yet completely ignore any culpability you may have in the problem? As a person of faith, I see it as my moral responsibility to take care of all that God has given us. I want my children to enjoy all the beauty and diversity in the world that I have enjoyed. I also realize that to make this happen, I need to take action. While it will be a challenge to make the necessary changes, it’s increasingly clear that supporting clean energy will have both economic and health benefits. According to a recent NRDC report, Missouri could see the creation of over 3,900 jobs. I encourage my fellow rational Missourians to contact Gov. Nixon’s office to support a strong, clean energy based Comprehensive State Energy Plan and to advocate support for the EPA’s Clean Power Plan with our Senators. Not only is this a rational approach, it will also relieve some of that guilt.

In faith,
Tracey

1 Comment

David Epps

12/14/2015 08:34:27 am

Letter to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon

Your Comprehensive State Energy Plan took a terribly wrong approach!
For home and business owners/renters It is not about sources and demands of electrical energy as the plan is written it is about sources and demands of heat energy

Energy use in the US homes is all about BTU's (heat energy). 70% of the energy consumption in home is derived from sources of and measured in units of BTU's (heat energy) not KWh's (electrical energy) Your furnace, hot water heater, and air conditioner are sized based upon the amount of BTU's required.

I demand a rewrite of your Comprehensive State Energy Plan basing your analysis on the sources and demands of BTU's. This will give the true picture of the challenges and solutions facing Missourians high cost of energy. You directed the Missouri Department of Energy to to prepare a plan to "balance the need for low-cost, reliable energy with our duty to be responsible stewards of the environment". The current plan does not satisfy your requirements.

Upon a rethink of the plan you will find that Missouri has countless BTU's of geothermal energy below our feet, all of which can be harvested by ground source heat pumps (GSHP). Geothermal heat energy is the lowest cost to obtain and does the least harm to the environment!

$100's of millions have been spent over the last 6 years on solar electricity and wind mills and their electrical generation has barely scratched the surface of the demand while the generation of boundless heat energy in the earth has been ignored. It is movement of heat energy (BTU's) using electricity and natural gas that cost so much and is in so much demand by Missourians. Moving Geothermal energy, which is free and inexhaustible, costs significantly less.

Only a pitiful 0.25 trillion BTU's were generated by all solar electric panels in Missouri thus far. While, If in just 2014, the $187 million invested on solar installations in Missouri were invested in GSHP's 1.44 trillion BTU's of heat energy would have been generated and consumed in Missouri homes for heating and cooling and hot water.

Your recommendations in paragraph 3.1 Strengthening Missouri’s Renewable Energy Standard are mostly poor as they require more regulations, but specifically:

1. Geo thermal AKA GSHP is a renewable resource and is not even mentioned
2. You failed to prioritize your recommendations and that is needed for any legislative action to proceed
3. Priority should be given to rental property rehab and upgrades where about 60% of Missourians live as most of these apartments use electric resistive heat, the most expensive heating there is by whatever means the electricity is generated. GSHP in the winter reduce electrical consumption by 75% over a electric resistive heater and thus electrical consumption is reduced.

By your focus on electrical energy and ignoring heat energy, Your Department of Energy is a dismal failure (they don't know energy), and your plan does not guide Missourians to the correct solutions to reduce there utility bills.

Thank You
David Epps, BSEE
Cape Girardeau

Rational

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