Readers of mine will all be interested in preserving the environment, not only because you want your kids and grandchildren to enjoy a green and sustainable future – indeed, any sort of future beyond the bleakly industrial – but also because you know that it lessens the re-/insurance exposures you may have.
So you will be surprised and happy (no, you cynics at the back there, hush!) to learn that Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon wants all state agencies to be run off renewable energy. Within four years.
Kulongoski had previously set the mark at 100 percent by 2025, before deciding to ramp up the schedule as a way to create jobs and set an example in responsible energy consumption.
“I want to shorten our timetable by 15 years. I want to do it by 2010, and I think we can do this if we set the bar and say we are going to move toward this target,” he said in prepared remarks to the Oregon Sustainability Board. [Source: Oregonlinve]
That’s a pretty tall order – currently the state agencies energy requirements are fulfilled as to 1% by renewable sources, but as long as it’s not just a political stunt (if he were to be re-elected the deadline would fit nicely with the end of the Democrat’s second four-year term), it would be great as an example to the rest of America. And the wider developed world. Some think it can be done, even if it is a tall order:
Bob Jenks, executive director of the consumer-friendly Citizens’ Utility Board, said government is poised to encourage demand.
“Twenty years ago, government did a lot to push the purchase of recycled paper and helped build the market for that,” he said. “And they can do the same here: use their purchasing power to develop renewable energy.”
Go team!
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