By: Tony Anderson, General Manager Cherryland Electric Cooperative
Marketing 101 teaches us that if you are selling a product, you need to convince the consuming public that it has value. If it is a higher priced product, you really need to focus on value and maybe even attack your competition directly.
Talking about value is a regular occurrence these days in the energy industry. Proponents of wind and solar energy want to talk about how these forms of energy benefit society because they lack the greenhouse gases associated with coal and natural gas. An often used term is the “social cost of carbon” and how society is paying a high price due to a myriad of climate change consequences. We seem to be moving from a scientific debate to one of economics.
If you believe that there is a cost to society in the burning of carbon fuels, then you have to agree that there is value in nuclear energy which emits no pollutants. What about the waste? What about the fact that wind and solar products are manufactured and transported through the use of carbon based fuels?
If we reduce the emissions of an existing coal plant, build newer and better coal plants or construct natural gas generation (60% less carbon than coal), we can reduce the pollutants in the air. How come this is not supported by the proponents of the social cost of carbon? If there is value in no carbon, there has to be value in less carbon. Yet, a segment of our society says “no” to anything but wind and solar.
Think about this: Hawaii and California have an abundance of sun. Yet, they are not 100% renewable. Heck, Hawaii is not even at 50%. How can this be? It is because there is real value in the reliability of around the clock electricity. The sun sets every day and the wind doesn’t always blow but from the shores of Maine to the beaches of Hawaii, society demands electricity every minute of every day.
Think about this: What is the value of 24/7/365 electricity to any hospital or business in any city in this country? It is hard for some to admit that coal, natural gas or nuclear energy might actually contribute to the success of our nation every day.
Take the granddaddy of all generation – the coal plant. Then, think about something as simple as refrigeration. Have lives not been enhanced, extended and saved by this one simple invention. What has powered this invention for more hours over more years than absolutely any other form of energy? Now, let’s hear that argument about coal having no value.
What is my point? My cooperative does support wind, solar and other renewables but we also need coal, natural gas and nuclear. We need to all get behind making every form of energy better tomorrow than they were yesterday. You can’t market the virtues of one while ignoring the benefits of the other. They ALL have value.
your statement that “nuclear energy which emits no pollutants” is true, when it comes to air pollutants, but it is misleading. It is not a clean energy. Disposing of the low and high level radioactive waste is a huge problem.
I do agree that all forms have value and all have drawbacks. Another part of the discussion is conservation of energy. Let us figure out how to make what we have last longer.
Mr. Warren
Nuclear does indeed have a waste comment. I wrote that it did not emit any pollutants into the air. I had no intention of being misleading. However, it is hard to cover every issue in detail in 600 words or less.
Conservation is an issue we have always worked on at Cherryland. We have had an employee available to consult with members, free of charge, on usage complaints and questions for decades. Michigan also has a statewide conservation mandate which Cherryland has met for the past several years. Conservation is a utility responsibility but is also an individual choice. Everyone must strive to educate the masses on conservation.
Thanks for taking the time to comment on our blog.
Tony Anderson, General Manager
What is total energy footprint of a solar panel, wind mill as compared to a coal or nuclear powerplant. I am talking cradle to grave. Energy to produce, operate, maintain and decommission? Also considering the output percentage per day.
We have installed 2 strings of solar powered Christmas tree lights with the last 3 weeks of cloud cover we have enjoyed about 15 minutes to 1 hour of display per day. Good thing our house isn’t solar powered.
You, Mr. Anderson, are simply a bought and paid for mouth piece, you might as well be a politician. There is absolutely no value in coal nor nuclear, none. The cost of coal and nuclear to society now and in the future, completely eliminates any value of the energy from those sources. The amount of carbon based fuels used in the manufacture and transportation of wind and solar energy infrastructure, delivery and use products is a fraction of that from coal generation and poses absolutely no hazard to society as does nuclear.
Your position on this matter is in line with your position on the infrastructure upgrade that you recently conducted when you rebuilt delivery lines in the Cherryland service area and put them back in the air versus putting them underground. You claim that you must destroy peoples property every year by hacking on and destroying trees on personal properties, because those trees poses potential problems “if” they fall on lines during inclimate weather. If you would have just put those line underground, the infrastructure rebuild would have posed no additional costs and there would have been no more risk of lines being damaged during inclimate weather. You were able to double talk some customers about the cost of an aerial rebuild versus an underground rebuild, but that is all it was, a bunch of double talk. Long term, underground is more cost effective and better, across the board, period.
So, tell your customers again, as you so often do, that you are working in their best interests to bring them cheaper, more reliable energy. You are a bought and paid for dinosaur and, you need to go.
Mr Hopkins
I respectfully disagree with your comments about coal and nuclear. They indeed have value. We will have to agree to disagree on this one.
The underground vs overhead construction is a common question. I can show you the actual numbers if you like but underground is typically 3 times the cost of overhead. Thus, we cannot always justify putting in underground wire if we are also going to continue to keep rates affordable.
Our outage numbers are solid. Our rates are lower than Consumers Energy for the first time in our history. This is not double talk from a dinosaur. These are facts that I am happy to review with you in my office at your convenience.
Thanks for taking the time to comment on this blog.
Tony Anderson, General Manager
What climate change. Mother nature persewverses, as does the jetstream, which controls our weather. Politics is about money and control, and why this idiot in Washington, wants to raise prices on power?, to put people out of jobs, in the coal industry, and stop drilling where he can. The world revolves about oil. Solar is to expensive, as how many companies have gone out of business? Wind power is to expensive and I have seen hundreds of windmills stopped, because of the comoanies going out of business that make them, o,r awaiting parts.
“All energy sources have value”
Well said Tony.
Now if you could only convince the Sierra Club.
Excellent article. The movies ‘Pandora’s Promise” and Windfall”, both shown at the Traverse City Film Festival and endorsed by Michael Moore promote nuclear power and show the short comings of wind and solar which today produce less than .10 of 1% of the worlds electrical power, and their percentage is falling as world wide demand increases…Nuclear seems to be the only safe, abundant and non polluting source available with today’s technology!
John Harrison
Northport, Michigan
Tony, excellent points, all! I have long found in our society and in humans in general that they tend to follow the loudest voice, not necessarily the most informed. Your short article points out some very real and honest situations. Everybody is used to 24/7/365 electricity, but there are only so many ways to provide this economically. Thank You!
Mr. Anderson
Keep up the good work, you and Cherry Land are doing a great job of providing us with affordable, reliable energy. I read some of these comments and I feel that has be lost in the mix. Yes we need to look for new source of energy, but we also need to provide energy for today tomorrow and 100 years down the road.