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GUESTI EDITORIAL
It’s good to have neighbors with gas
ll m C. "Will. I PRES. ASSOC. 0F WA BUSINESS
By 2025, the TransAlta energy facility in
Centralia must replace coal with natural
gas to generate electricity, but Washington
has no gas to offer. Fortunately, we have
neighbors with an abundance of gas—
natural gas, that is—to ship to us.
In Washington, three-quarters of our
electricity comes from hydropower. But
14 percent of it comes from coal burned
at the TransAlta facility, which employs
600 people in good family-wage jobs and
provides heat and light for 1.23 million
homes. We must replace that coal with
another type of fuel, and the energy source
of choice these days is natural gas.
Natural gas already plays ‘a major role
in serving homes, hospitals, schools and
retail centers in Washington. Bellevue-
based Puget Sound Energy serves nearly
750,000 natural gas customers in parts of
Snohomish, King, Pierce, Lewis, Thurston
and Kittitas counties. On the east side of
our state, Spokané—basod Avista serves
nearly 147,000‘natural gas customers.
As our population continues to grow
from an estimated 6.5 million today to
8.2 million in 2025, Washington will need
more natural gas and electricity, but from
where?
The Washington Utilities and Trans-
portation Commission reports that cur-
rently half of our natural gas supply comes
from British Columbia and Alberta; the
remainder comes from Rocky Mountain
production sites, primarily in Wyoming.
Our state will rely on those suppliers and
may also see an infusion of natural gas
from Alaska’s North Slope and possibly
from liquid natural gas if a suitable port
and an accompanying pipeline receive
permits.
As electric utilities across the country
face eliminating coal while meeting grow-
ing energy needs, the demand for natural
gas around the nation will continue to
rise.
Coal, which accounts for nearly half the
power production in our nation, is consid-
ered a “dirty” fuel because of the green-
house gases, sulfur and mercury emitted
. , flake
. Published by tho m‘m Journal, Inc.
, Copyright 2011. .
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vens Journal is to provide informative and
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Mantra“:
Your hometown newspaper slnce 1960
during burning. Even though TransAlta
has significantly reduced its emissions,
the Legislature bowed to public pressure
and decided to accelerate the conversion
to natural gas.
While most view natural gas as a desir-
able environmental alternative, much of
what is called “conventional” gas is drying
up. Conventional gas is where producers
drill wells and tap gas pockets or forma-
tions where it flows freely to the surface.
A new wave of “unconventional” gas
is filling the void. Newer horizontal deep
drilling is opening up deposits which
can be 10,000 feet or more beneath the
surface.
This gas is in shale basins that must be
fractured or broken apart and injected
with water and chemicals so the gas can
flow to surface. While none of those shale
formations are located in our state, they
are prevalent in northwest Canada and
in massive formations that run diagonally
from Texas to upper NewYork state and on
into eastern Canada.
Last month, London’s online version
of the Guardian newspaper reported
that, in the next 10 years, the US. will use
fracturing technology or “tracking,” which
President Obama favors, to drill hundreds
of thousands of wells in cities, rivers and
watersheds. Both drilling and fracking are
fast expanding across Europe, South Africa
and Russia, as well.
But local resistance to the increased
drilling is beginning to surface in upper
New York, Pennsylvania and in Quebec.
The rub is the sight of drilling rigs, chemi-
cals used in the fracking process and po—
tential groundwater contamination.
However, what 'may be even more
troubling is scientists are learning that
the new natural gas may emit equivalent
levels of greenhouse gases as burning coal.
Gas conversion may not be the win-win
lawmakers trumpeted.
, &), while it is good to have neighbors A
blessed with abundant gas, our elected
officials must understand that there is no
panacea. All fuel sources, whether natural
gas, solar, nuclear, crude oil, wind power,
hydro, gee-thermal and even coal, have
their good and bad points.
Corned Us
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Lake Stevens Journal June 1, 2011
YOURl LETTERS
Is our government beyond repair?
Dear Editor,
Our government is broken almost to a
point of no return. Our party system is not
worldng properly and never will. We hire
these people in Congress to do the will of
the people who vote them into office. We
pay them about $3,400 per week and all we
hear onTVis them giving speeches that we
have heard over and over and over again,
but speeches get nothing done. Instead,
we need action. No one has the guts to tell
the truth. Now our debt is so high that the
interest alone is eating us alive.
The Senate wants to cut the debt by cut-
ting spending. The first thing they want
to cut is Medicare, Medicaid and Social
Security, etc. Now where did our money
, go that we have all put in when we were
working? The government took it out and
what is left but IOUs that they cannot pay
back to the Social Security Fund because
our government is broke. You never hear
about cutting out all the people hired by
the government that we do not need or
cutting the wages of Congress in both
houses.
We are buying oil at top prices when
we have all the oil we need right here in
the USA. The government has tied up
the land so no one can drill on it. Big
oil companies are ready to finance the
drilling, creating hundreds of jobs, but
are not allowed to. '
Now as far as the two wars, Iraq and ‘
Afghanistan, those people do not even
want us there and the cost is staggering.
Russia had sense enough to quit because
they knew they could not win. Other
countries around the world are rebelling
because of corrupt government, so what
have we got in our own government but
some of the same. We do not need rich
lobbyists to bribe our lawmakers to do
what they want them to do.
So the story is, we need a whole new
system of running this great USA of ours
that we all love.
I am writing this as a United States
citizen, born in the USA in 1917. I. have
seen our country go downhill over the
years. So may God help us if it is not
already too late.
Russ Page
Granite Falls
Thanks to those who helped at ’Noodles forNoah' fundraiser
Dear Editor,
On behalf of Mike and Grace Silva, I
would like to thank everyone who turned
out for the “Noodles for Noah” spaghetti
dinner on Saturday, May 21. .
An especially big thanks goes to Luca
Nasti of Luca’s Pizzeria & Ristorante for
his generosity of time, skill, and ingredi-
ents; Eric Stewart and Ebenezer Lutheran
Church, far/their time and space; Susan
DaSilva for her skill in the kitchen and
organizing the food service; and all of
our volunteers who put in so much time
and effort.
While we raised about $2,500, we fell
short of the $7,500 the Silvas need to travel
to Eastern Europe to rescue Noah from an
orphanage there.
If anyone was unable to attend and
wishes to donate, they can do so at http://
reecesrainbovv.org/sponsorsilva.
AmyBattei-sonw
Lake Stevens
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Lake Stevens
. 9623 32nd St.
Highwey 9 business corner
(425) 335-1111
DEITISTR'Y
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