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Meeting hits topics from cap-and-trade to energy footprints

For the second year in a row, the energy footprint for Basin Electric's 2009 annual meeting was derived from renewable energy. Highlighting the start of the annual meeting was John Doggett, senior lecturer at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - November 15, 2009

John Doggett

For the second year in a row, the energy footprint for Basin Electric's 2009 annual meeting was derived from renewable energy. That's because Basin Electric retired 100 green tags from its inventory equal to the environmental impact of the electricity and natural gas used at the hotel during the three-day meeting.

From Nov. 4-5, about 300 million British Thermal Units of energy from natural gas and about 30,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity were used throughout the Ramkota Hotel in Bismarck.

A green tag represents one megawatt-hour of electricity produced from renewable energy resources. The green tags retired for the annual meeting were produced from Basin Electric's heat recovery resources.

Cap-and-trade "simply won't work"

Highlighting the start of the annual meeting was John Doggett, senior lecturer at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. He believes that a cap-and-trade system for managing carbon dioxide emissions is not feasible. "I am completely opposed to the introduction of a cap-and-trade system in the United States. It simply won't work," he said. "There is no way to monitor and audit emissions on a 24-hour basis without creating a police state."

Doggett said a cap-and-trade system didn't work in Europe. "Energy prices skyrocketed and many energy intensive businesses in Europe closed their doors," he said. "What the Europeans somehow didn't factor into their plan was the fact that these businesses just didn't die, they were moved to China, India and other countries that were excited to have economic growth and jobs, regardless of the impact these industries had on the environment."

If China doesn't commit to reducing carbon emissions, Doggett said there's nothing we can do in the West that will have much impact on reducing global warming. "Because if you haven't figured it out by now, there are more Chinese than Americans and Europeans combined. And their economy is growing at a rapid rate while ours are stagnant at best."

Doggett said technologies can be and are being developed to capture carbon emissions. "We must develop new technologies that will allow the economies of the world to grow so that more and more people can have jobs that will raise them out of poverty while at the same time reducing the negative impact that we have on the environment," he said.

Doggett said scientists all over the world are developing new technologies that turn pond scum (algae) into oil, ocean waves and the tides into electricity, and the temperature differential between the surface and depths of the ocean and the earth into a constant source of carbon-free energy.

"My message is simple," Doggett said. "Politicians must not be allowed to wreck our economy just because they don't have faith in the creative abilities of Americans," he said. "Let me be clear. Government does have a role in this. That role is to provide tax credits and research grants that speed the process of innovation. I believe in the carrot, not the stick. I believe in America's creative genius, not in a government-mandated cap-and-trade dictatorship."

Directors re-elected

Three directors were re-elected to three-year terms at the annual meeting: Kermit Pearson, representing District 1 – East River Electric Power Cooperative, Madison, SD; Cliff Gjellstad, representing District 3 – Central Power Electric Cooperative, Minot, ND; and Dean McCabe, representing District 8 – Upper Missouri G&T, Sidney, MT.

For more highlights from Basin Electric's annual meeting – photos, videos, speech excerpts and more – visit www.basinelectric.com.

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