SENATE BILL 84
CASTING A WIDER NET FOR NET METERING
Someday, this age we live in - the Age of the Petrosaurs (whose range extends from Riyadh to Dallas to our own Enron-entangled state) - will be looked back upon with amazement by historians. We believe they will view bills like SB 84 as genuinely heroic contributions to the hope for a viable human future.
We do not know precisely which clean renewable energy technologies or sources will ultimately replace the fossil fuel sources now giving our poor planet a fever. But we know the illness will one day end, and long-delayed new technologies will replace the old. Decades ago, it seemed that solar photovoltaics would lead the way into the future. In recent years, wind power has become the leading clean energy source. Hydrogen may yet prove viable. Biomass is already used in Brazilian automobiles, as part of a mixed-fuel regime. California captures waste methane gas and uses it, doubly reducing global warming. We are glad to see this bill expand the roster of alternative energy sources that the state encourages, by qualifying them for the benefits of net metering. Who knows which way out of our polluted petroleum pickle will ultimately prove most promising? Better not to prejudge the answer, and open the doors instead to all qualified contenders.
Which is what this bill does. It is a small counterweight to the immense federal tax breaks and subsidies regularly shoveled into the furnace of the coal-oil-and-gas industry, but for whatever good it may do, let us ensure that this good is maximized. This bill would do just that.
A thought: can we include electricity-generating water wheels, installed alongside and into downspouts on buildings, as a qualifying clean energy source? Nobody has yet invented the home- or office-installed downspout water wheel generator yet, but why think small? Why not encourage it? It could make use of Western Oregon’s gravity-driven rains as an (at least local) energy source. Maybe a legislative push would bring out the creativity of our Oregon inventors? (We know - leave well enough alone and hope SB 84 passes. But we had to ask.)
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