THE Massachusetts Port Authority has installed 20 wind turbines on the roof of its main office center at Boston Logan Airport. The eight foot tall turbine towers will generate power equivalent to 2% of the building’s monthly energy use. Investment is $140,000 and will provide an annual savings of $13,000 in electricity cost at the same time saving about one ton of CO2 per year. The payout period is 10.77 years without considering cost of money. We can see from the preceding figures that indeed wind power is NOT YET economically feasible and cannot serve the entire power needs (in this case only a miniscule 2%!) of a given establishment. And so RISE (Responsible kuno Ilonggos for Sustainable Energy) should stop boasting that wind power is the alternative energy source to replace the 164-MW coal fired power plant of Global Business Power as power source in Iloilo, besides there is NO wind energy potential in the entire Panay and Guimaras Island.

Denver International Airport is among the first airport to consider carbon offset programs for its air customers. It estimated that a fee of $2.50 to offset 1,000 miles of air travel would be in line with the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10% per capita by 2012. This VOLUNTARY fee of carbon offset paid by travelers to “cancel out” the carbon emission generated by their flight out of Denver will then be given to environmental advocacy groups for tree planting and FOR OPPOSING “dirty” power projects. So far, NO INTERESTED COMPANY have bided to run the project because a dry run showed that almost all air traveler does not want to pay voluntarily, including this writer who flew out of Denver months ago. Intelligent people believe that the fee will just be used by activist environmentalists to impede progress by opposing oil and gas drilling and the construction of coal power plants and oil refineries. Besides this global warming thing supposedly caused by CO2 emission is not fully proven by climate scientists. In fact 30% of them say the theory is not true. This is actually the racket of certain groups in Iloilo to secure dollars from this carbon offset fund had they prevented Global Business Power from constructing the 164-MW coal power plant in Ingore, Lapaz. Fortunately for the Ilonggos they were not successful. Had they prevented the approval of the ECC, not only will they impede the progress of Iloilo but in the process will also earn dollars and where this dollars will go, your guess is as good as mine! Remember that tyranny and greed is always better organized than freedom.

Still on the subject of energy, the Hybrid Car is the thing to own in the U.S. Hybrids run on electric motor powered by a battery for some time and then the internal combustion engine takes over when the battery gets weak. When the engine is running it also charges the battery so that later on, the car can again switches back to a battery operated motor. At the moment Hybrids are expensive, about 30% more than the conventional model and the savings on gasoline one will get cannot justify the additional cost of the car, so Hybrids as of now are just status symbol cars. Hybrids may then be economically viable by 2011 when Ford, Toyota and Honda will be able to come up with a smaller model that can run up to 40 mph on electric power alone, can be recharged from wall sockets and will make SHORT TRIPS on electrical power alone. So it may be reasonable to purchase a hybrid five to ten years from now. Advancement in batteries such as the lithium-ion battery will also shrink the battery pack from the size of a suitcase to about the size of a 12-pack softdrinks box.

One trait of the Americans that I admire most when I was in the US is their love and protection of wild life. A city like Colorado Springs which was established almost 150 years ago still abounds with wild life like deer, antelope, foxes, coyotes, goats and a variety of birds even at the very heart of downtown Colorado Springs. Coming out of TARGET super grocery mall, we have to stop our car because wild rabbits are crossing the street! To balance the rapid growth of rabbits, wild coyotes and foxes are also everywhere so that at night I can hear their eerie whine from the house where I stayed. On our way back from the CPU Global Reunion in Las Vegas, we stopped at a Mc Donald store to relieve ourselves and for snacks.

On the way out towards the parking lot, I have to way lay with my feet dozens of wild ducks before I can pass thru. Apparently these wild ducks (and they are fat!) are from a nearby lake but frequenting Mc Donald during the day for the crumbs that customers on the way out throw at them. But feeding of wild life is being discouraged. When a wild fox made a den and gave birth outside the office building where my daughter works, they then started throwing sandwiches inside the hole to feed the mother fox. A memo from the CEO addressed to all employees came out admonishing them not to feed the mother fox because it will diminish its ability to hunt and to survive. Protecting the wild life is such a big deal in the US.

We have the opposite trait here in the Philippines. Sixty years ago in my hometown of Pavia, owls and eagles inhabit the bamboo grooves along Maliao Creek which was then teeming with mudfish and gourami. Today all of the big birds are extinct except for the maya which is now a pest to the rice farmers and the waters devoid of fish because of pollution and electric fishing. In just sixty years we have transformed a once vibrant and alive creek into a drainage canal, a place for dumping dead animals, garbage and human wastes! Destroying our environment is a curse like the recent disastrous flood that we have bestowed upon our own selves!

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