Biking to better commute options

In keeping with the spirit of last Tuesday's Georgia Rides to the Capitol event in Atlanta and also as a tribute to the start of my work at the Clean Air Campaign, I wish to reprise a wonderful opinion piece by Jim Durrett that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution printed in 2009. Durrett wrote about riding his bicycle as a daily commute to his job as executive Director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District (CID.) A CID is an organization of property owners and businesses who tax themselves to pay for transportation and other area-specific improvements.
Many have assumed for far too long that the most reasonable way for people to commute to their jobs and schools is via the solitary drive in a car. Our current struggles with traffic congestion, air pollution and rising gasoline costs tell a different story.
Durrett eloquently explains the need to give Atlanta-area commuters more transportation options such as mass transit and bicycling, and how this approach benefits all commuters: That’s the thing about not driving. Regardless of how one feels about it, the folks on bikes, walking or riding in buses and trains are not driving cars, not taking up precious capacity in our road system. They’re not in your way and they’re not adding to traffic congestion. In fact, they’re helping to reduce it. We have to get past this false idea that it’s cars vs. everything else, including public transportation. It is not an either/or situation; it is a both/and situation and opportunity.
My new job affords the luxury of choosing how I commute four miles from my home to the Clean Air Campaign's offices, either by bicycle or by bus. While riding my bike, some motorists traveling in the same direction as I will have to slow down until it is safe to pass me.
Some will not like this and let me know. They feel that bikes don't belong on the road especially when it slows them down.
How can I help them understand that they are merely racing past me to reach the next traffic bottleneck a little sooner, to wait with the other cars at that gridlocked intersection, that overflowing left turn lane, that cop holding up traffic for a school's "car pool" lane?
I am not their problem, and neither are the hundreds of thousands of other clean commuters in Atlanta. We need all these transportation options, and more.
The sixth-annual Georgia Rides to the Capitol event was held to rally political support for improved conditions for cycling, including the development of regional systems of both on-road bicycling facilities and multi-use-trails. I and one thousand other cyclists loudly demanded action on a proposed three-foot safe passing law now before the Senate.
More laws that protect cyclists and provide safer routes will give commuters more opportunities to ditch their solo commutes. For now, I'll do my part as best I can.
You can join the revolution, too.

- As always, thank you for reading and stay in touch!

The Biggest and Best Job Ever

So far as my career choices go, the third time is a charm.

I left IBM in 2008 feeling as if I had fought long enough in the world of information technology. For most of my 25 years there I developed and sold products tailored for use in very specific industry settings, products that were often on the leading, bleeding edge of electronics manufacturing, digital medical imaging, life sciences R&D, paper-making, and so on. Not only were we faced with competition from smaller, more nimble innovators, we often struggled to convince skeptical customers of the product's value based on a very limited history of practical use.

It was a privilege to work at IBM, and I learned just how hard it is to translate the tremendous potential of technological innovation into sustainable businesses.

In 2009 I joined the renewable energy industry, seeing how solar energy seemed poised to take off in Georgia. I loved working in this field and the sense of satisfaction I got knowing how this work will inevitably become an important part of Georgia's energy future.

Fueled by a wave of Federal stimulus funds, solar did take off. At Empower Energy Technology we completed three really excellent commercial projects in 2010. But without further action by Georgia regulators and legislators to create a level playing field for us renewable energy upstarts, the future of solar energy currently lies in the powerful hands of Georgia Power and the state's electric membership cooperatives.

I am thus starting a new career in transportation advocacy with the Georgia Clean Air Campaign. They want me to develop relationships with executives at private and public organizations who employ 100 or more people and to convince them to provide their employees with options for doing their work other than through the solitary daily commute in an automobile.

I'll be speaking the language of alternative commuting, such as employee teleworking, compressed work weeks, commuter shuttles, car pooling, mass transit, and (my favorite) transportation under one's own power. My new boss was worried that this wouldn't interest me as I have been immersed in all the technology of my past 27 years.

What alternative commuting may lack in glitz is more than compensated by its results. Already enough workers in metropolitan Atlanta telework in one week to eliminate an amount of traffic equivalent to what passes through Atlanta's bloated Downtown Connector in one day. And that only represents a small percentage of all the Atlanta workers who can potentially telework.

Talk about making an impact!

Besides, the case for commute options practically sells itself, transcending much of what culturally and politically divides us on other important issues. Who can argue with cleaner air, less traffic congestion, saving money and happier employees through the use of methods that have a long history of success?

Georgia workers need year-round alternatives to the solitary commute by automobile as urgently as they need air conditioning in August. This will become reality through more education and gradually changing people's perception of what constitutes "normal" commuting behavior.

Let me tell you how!

The Water-Electricity Nexus

Water and electricity represent two resources essential for maintaining our standard of living and economic growth. At last month's Clean Energy Speaker Series at Georgia Tech I learned how our use of both creates a very tight relationship that must not be overlooked.

The seminar started with comments from Judy Adler, a Senior Program Officer at the Turner Foundation who oversees their water, energy and air programs. She emphasized the importance of viewing water and energy issues holistically, especially as Georgia's governor is about to commit to a $300M plan for new reservoir constructions in efforts to strengthen the State's ability to meet its growing demand for water.

The important question of how the Governor's plan will be paid for has yet to be determined, but it hopefully will be directly linked to water usage in a way that rewards efficiency and penalizes those who waste it.

When it comes to all the ways that we use fresh water, I was surprised to learn how much goes to energy production. Water used for cooling purposes is an important resource for all thermoelectric power plants, and electric power generation accounts for one half of total freshwater use in Georgia.

Many power plants return most of this water to the local river or lake, albeit at a higher temperature, and the rest is lost or “consumed.” But the newer plants consume much more water, which creates added stress on water supplies and water ecology.

These are the power plants that we easily recognize by their distinctive cooling towers, which signify a process called mechanical draft cooling. Most of the water they use is lost to evaporation and not returned. For example Georgia Power and its partners are using $8.3B in Federal loan guarantees to double the size of its Plant Vogtle nuclear plant, which uses mechanical draft cooling.

When all four nuclear reactors are online, Plant Vogtle will consume more water from the Savannah River than is consumed by all residents of Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah combined. That's water removed from the river and not put back.

I am not going to argue here about the necessity of building the nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, but the fact that this and other power plants consume so much water prompts some important questions.

Faced with a serious long-term water supply problem, Georgians are being asked to pay more in their taxes and in their water usage fees.

How much should the power plant operators pay? Currently they pay nothing.

Another question: How would the introduction of accurate cost signals change Georgia's renewable energy industry?

Our utility companies strenuously oppose legislation and policies needed for Georgia to develop a healthy renewable energy industry. Specifically, most states now have a renewable portfolio standard that sets specific targets for the development of renewable energy sources. Many states also do not impose territoriality protections for the utility companies and thus allow private equity sources to spur the development of new energy sources and provide customers with more energy choices.

Without either of these conditions, Georgia's renewable energy industry remains in the shade. Utility industry lobbyists argue the renewable energy is "too expensive" relative to coal and nuclear power.

But what if the many externalized costs of coal and nuclear actually became part of a utility company's profit and loss? What if the value of the $8.3B in Federal loan guarantees for Plant Vogtle were shouldered by the Southern Company's shareholders?

Maybe, we should start by sending them a water bill. That's how the rest of us have to live.


- As always, thank you for reading and stay in touch!