Mayor Darwin Hindman said it was “very, very, very impressive,” and Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe said it left a lasting impression with her, as well.
“An Inconvenient Truth,” which follows former Vice President Al Gore around the world as he campaigns against the threat of global warming, became a topic of discussion at Monday’s City Council meeting.
The conversation began after Columbia resident Roy Hartley urged the council to vote against an ordinance to purchase electricity from a coal-fired power plant in western Missouri.
“The health of the city of Columbia is more important than a well-lit parking lot,” Hartley said. “I hope you will vote to disengage from this project.”
The ordinance was to amend an agreement for the city to purchase a 20-megawatt share of electricity from Iatan 2, a coal-fired power plant in Platte County that will be operated by Kansas City Power & Light. Columbia’s Municipal Power Plant, by comparison, has the capability of producing 86 megawatts on its own.
When it came time to vote, Hoppe was the lone dissenter.
“No,” she said, leaning forward into the microphone. “We have to find a different way and we have to find a different way now.” Hoppe added that as a “busy person,” she still manages to hang-dry her laundry, which is one of many ways people can conserve energy. Hoppe then raised the issue of moral responsibility to provide cleaner sources of energy that don’t contribute to global warming.
“What about our moral responsibility to provide electricity for the citizens of Columbia?” Fourth Ward Councilman Jim Loveless replied. “We’re going to supply our energy with what’s available on the market, and that’s coal.”
Fifth Ward councilwoman Laura Nauser agreed.
“We’re always going to need more energy,” Nauser said. “I think we would be doing a disservice to the people of this community to not provide energy.”
Gore’s purpose in “An Inconvenient Truth” is to convince viewers that global warming is a moral challenge and not just a political issue, according to the film’s Web site: www.climatecrisis.net. According to Encarta’s online encyclopedia, burning coal emits environmentally harmful greenhouse gases that trap the Earth’s heat like the roof of a greenhouse. Some say that this process leads to global warming. Burning coal also contributes to air and water pollution.
“The movie highlights in no uncertain terms a very clear crisis that the world is in whether people are aware of it or not,” Hoppe said on Wednesday. “I was very uncomfortable voting to get power from yet another coal-fired power plant without an old one being put to rest.”
Hindman said he voted for the ordinance because it simply will replace some of the electric supply that will be lost when the city’s new three-year contract with Ameren UE ends in 2008. In addition, he said, the coal-fired energy that the city will get from Iatan 2 will be much cleaner than its Ameren UE predecessor.
“I’m going to support this, but I don’t like it,” Hindman said at the meeting.
Hindman said that his discomfort stemmed from the fact that the city had to replace its future loss with coal.
Columbia Water & Light Director Dan Dasho is working to address the council’s concerns.
“We are working on implementing conservation measures and renewable measures as we speak,” he said, adding that the renewable-energy ordinance approved by voters in 2004 requires his department to do so. The voter-approved initiative mandates that 2 percent of the city’s power come from renewable sources by the end of 2007 and that the city gradually increases its purchases of power from renewable sources to 15 percent by 2022.
“We are out there and doing everything we possibly can,” Dasho said.
Hindman said the city staff is doing an “excellent job” in searching for alternative sources of power and “implementing strategies and programs to reduce power demand.”
By fall, or at least next spring, Columbia could be receiving some of its energy from three wind turbines if approved by the council, Dasho said. Each turbine would supply two megawatts of energy for the city. Dasho said Water and Light is still negotiating the price and the transmission of the wind power.
But coal energy won’t go away.
Dasho said the city will continue to purchase electricity from coal-fired plants elsewhere or possibly add on to the Municipal Power Plant.
“We can’t just restrict ourselves to doing conservation, or just renewables or just conventional generation,” Dasho said. “We have to come forward with a balanced approach and in that approach there will be coal. Coal is going to be in our future. That’s what we’ve got out there, we can’t just jump to a 100 percent of something else. It would not be responsible on my part to not bring forward all of the options that are out there.”
To subscribe or visit go to: http://www.digmo.com/