Photo from Sierra and courtesy of Dan Hamerman/Green Mountain College
Do Green Schools Work?
Photo from Sierra and courtesy of Dan Hamerman/Green Mountain College
Our willingness to part with something before it is completely worn out is a phenomenon noticeable in no other society in history… It is soundly based on our economy of abundance. It must be further nurtured even through it runs contrary to one of the oldest inbred laws of humanity, the law of thrift.We've been living that way ever since. Now there's some dissociation for you -- and one of the most environmentally destructive philosophies in history.
Wind power, which has plenty of construction and maintenance costs but no fuel costs at all, now ranks among the cheapest energy sources, according to separate analyses by the U.S. Energy Information Agency and the global investment bank Lazard, whose annual Levelized Cost of Energy Comparison is an industry staple. And that's not because of federal subsidies and credits. The latest figures show that when the effects of subsidies that all energy industries receive are stripped away, wind power beats everything else, natural gas included. This dramatic calculation has been largely left out of the nation's energy debate, allowing the image of wind as expensive and impractical to persist.Many states are investing heavily in wind, such as Iowa, where farmers like Randy Caviness have turned it into a second crop. Twenty percent of Iowa's generating capacity is now wind-based.