All That Water – Behind a Government Dam

We have looked for the water needed to make enough power to replace all that burning coal that pollutes the atmosphere as well as the ground. We have found enough to do just that and more – such as provide clean drinking water at the same time.

But what about the statement that the government is getting in the way of using the hundreds of thousands of water sources that could be used to generate power? Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Lori Barg, Chief Executive of Community Hydro in Plainfield, Vermont, has been encouraging developers to use the small hydropower techniques for harvesting energy from moving bodies of water – especially horizontal movement. She states that these methods should be a priority for every state.

She reports that her state hasn’t had a new grid-connected hydroelectric facility built in 20 years because of the “….slow, expensive permitting process that makes projects economically unfeasible.” She calls this problem “a project killer.”

And we submit that the combination of the oil/coal self-interests and the ignorance of the subject displayed by those portions of the government, federal and local, that should be on top of the problem are committing a serious, if not criminal, action against the health and safety interests of all the people.

Further, according to Barg, “Obtaining federal and state permits can add $2,000 per installed KILOWATT for a small hydro system.” She further states, “Obtaining the necessary permits is such a deterrent. It’s important to have regulations, but I find myself having to go through 12 different agencies just to get a project off the ground. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not allowing Vermont to develop its abundant hydro resources.”

And this is true all over the country.

As we have pointed out before, there is at least a 100 Gigawatt source of power out there, undeveloped and whose development would threaten no one.

All this reminds us of the argument that the government should create a program to cure cancer. To that came the answer that “if the federal government had been made to be responsible to develop a cure for polio, you would have a 21st century first class iron lung but not a vaccine.” Who said that? The president of the American Cancer Society.

There are some things the government should have no business meddling in
The replacement of dirty energy with clean energy is one of them.