Opinion: OU proposes carbon neutrality, takes step in opposite direction

In 2010, a coalition of students across the campus, working under the nationwide “Beyond Coal” campaign, targeted the Lausche Heating Plant located on West Green.

“Hold on just a minute, you’re trying to tell me that we have a coal plant on campus?”

That’s not exactly something they tell you at Bobcat Student Orientation before freshman year.  They probably didn’t mention, either, the lawsuit that “Beyond Coal” brought against the school, with the aid of Sierra Club lawyers, claiming that the coal plant violated the Clean Air Act. (Let’s just say that it never went to a judge because the school probably suspected that they wouldn’t win, although we can’t say for sure.) So the coal plant was doomed, and the school released a Climate Action Plan saying that by 2075, we would be an entirely carbon neutral school (investments and on-site emissions included). That’s 60 years.... not exactly the best promise ever.

If we had known just what they had in mind to get us there, however, those students might have hesitated.

By 2016, a co-generational natural gas and coal plant will be in full operation on Ohio University’s campus, one with the ability to “burn anything,” as Stephen Golding, vice president for finance and administration told me [Caitlyn McDaniels] in a meeting at Cutler Hall on Sept. 9. “We could even burn alien juice if we discovered it tomorrow,” Annie Laurie, director of sustainability, piped in. No offense, director, but we don’t think it’s a good idea to burn anything, and if this alien juice released toxic chemicals into our atmospheres, then we’d probably be against that, too.

OU is in the heart of a beautiful community, one that is dedicated to a truly sustainable and efficient way of life.  Yet the administration refuses to acknowledge that the community they serve—the students, faculty and staff they should be committed to—is almost exclusively against hydraulic fracturing.

Around 40 percent of gas produced last year was obtained through fracking, which makes it impossible to tell what the composition of the gas is. How can an administration that disapproves of fracking on its own land, and against fracking in Wayne National Forest, OK a gas plant that will ensure fracking in other areas across Ohio and Appalachia?

I haven’t even gotten into the environmental degradation that methane emissions from burning natural gas would cause: science shows that the methane released during the life cycle of natural gas is worse for the climate than by coal emissions. On top of that, gas prices are projected to double within the next 10 years, suggesting that this might not be a great investment.  Estimations on extractable gas amounts within shale rock have continually overreached their actual worth.  Do we really want to be dependent on an energy source that may or may not be around in 50 years?

There is a solution to fossil fuels at OU. Solar and wind energy have both been around long enough to prove their staying power. Due to a lack of funding and initiatives in both federal and state government, large-scale solar arrays are rare, and wind farms have yet to fully catch on in Ohio. Turning Point solar array, located close to Athens, is seeking investors and has already approached OU. While it might not feasibly meet all of OU’s wattage needs now, increased research and interest from institutions like OU can put solar well on the path to becoming a primary source of energy. Large utility companies like Xcel admit that solar is currently cost-competitive with natural gas and, in the future, could outstrip any fossil fuel energy source. Coupled with solar thermal or geothermal pumps, we could meet both our electricity and heating needs for much longer than 50 years.

We believe that the administration can still be convinced that gas in not the answer to OU’s energy crisis. A gas plant of the size and capabilities such as the one they are planning (projected cost: $100 million, but still unfunded), is a costly and dangerous path to head down. And once we start, there’s no going back.