That old Inconvenient Truth, dang it all
A Personal Story and Testimony
By Steve Reese
Just information, nothing more here; I began writing this around January this year (2022), and it just ended up being a story of how and why Diana & I got solar for our house.
Well first, we moved to the valley in '89, & bought our home here a few mile north & a little east of Salida. We began making insulation improvements pretty much right away – storm doors and insulated doors first – you could see daylight through cracks in the front and side doors! (and feel a breeze) Then new insulation in the floor under the kitchen, the dining, & a lot of the living area (which is the ceiling of a small unheated 2 car garage underneath them), double pane windows, storm door and insulated downstairs door. As we've needed we have replaced all kitchen & laundry appliances and hot water heater with energy star appliances & energy star hot water heater. All installed do-it-yourself to save money, and over several years as we could afford these things, in addition to other needed home improvements (new roof, stucco siding – over cedar lap board siding to created dead air space...). Never ends, right?
But then, a couple years ago, probably a day like any other, nothing special going on. I was probably frustrated about something I’d just read or seen about something else we are doing to our planet. Anyway, Diana & I talked and we just said, “screw it,” we have to do something. Something that matters, something we can touch, see, be proud of. So we took a last deep breath, and plunked down our money - for solar, here at our house. Just like that, we did it. It was a lot of money, but it didn't matter so much that it would pay us back in 10 or so years. Maybe it will..., whatever.
The driving reason was it felt like we had just been waiting for too long to do something, and that had to stop. Right THEN. For some reason, right then! Sending money to good organizations - environmental/humanity/planet “systems” – organizations to do good work is a good thing. But doing that and writing letters wasn’t enough. It was just all paper and computers at our end, removed.
What we needed, what was so important to us, was that we were not going to be part of ripping holes in the ground to get coal out - contaminating the air, the land, the water. We would not be part of polluting the health of the people and the environment - in that part of the country where those holes are being dug; we would not be part of burning that coal in huge incinerators, wrecking more human health by causing more harm to the environment, wherever downwind and downstream of those incinerators is - all this and merrily pouring carbon into the sky, destroying the health of our planet's environment and our grandchildren’s health with it. We would not be part of that.
We would not be part of sending that generated power through thousands of miles of power lines that fall down, break down, need re-stringing; leak (waste) millions of kilowatts of power as they come our way. (Those same kilowatts taken out of the ground and burned to create at such cost thrown away!). And seemingly there are never enough power lines, we build more! And then, delivered right to our happy home – we flip a switch and have light! "We” are using "clean electricity!” Right? Sure we are. That’s the part we see – clean, wonderfully convenient electricity to turn on our lights, plug in the TV & watch movies, make the washing machine work, cook our food, charge the cell phones, take hot showers. – charge our “clean” electric cars, for crying out loud!
This has got to be why this is so hard to describe! What we see at our end looks and smells nothing like what it looks and smells like at the other end and on the way here!
We could not stand that anymore, not if we could prevent at least our share of it. The cost of our convenience in everything in our lives is so much more than dollar signs.- and way above and beyond the amount in our monthly and conveniently delivered electric bill. Producing solar energy on our rooftop is something Diana and I do now. We’d made enough money to do this; we simply had to decide to do it. I only wish we had done it sooner.
We made our chance to change things right here in the house we live in now, in the valley we live in - the electric light shining overhead, electric submersible pump sending us water for our coffee, laptop and cell phones charged. And all the land, and all the people in those far off places, they are healthier. Right here in this place, this valley we live in, we can say we do this. Technology is changing fast; I hope we can add batteries next.
Well, you know what; the sun shines on everything I hold dear, all the same. It shines on our house; it shines on everyone’s house. We “use” this sunlight now, pouring no carbon into the sky, turning no streams dirty, throwing no dust in the air people breathe. We do still use our Sangre distribution lines, and they still tie in to Tri-State, (Tri State, that’s another sore subject).
Local Electric Associations, like Sangre for us, can be, and are, leaders in conserving electricity and providing us a means for using clean renewable energy – here and around our state. I’m sure everywhere there is change (boy, do we need change) it can seem like a mutually intense love/hate relationship somewhere along the way! We’re all finding ourselves and working on that here with other folks using sunlight in our valley, we’ve got to work together! If I can keep myself going, (sort of questionable some days) I would like to show other people, neighbors, the Sangre de Cristo Board members, that there are ways for all of us to make a difference, right here where we live. It will take making people OK with change, and that is hard. It will take a “show me” kind of proof that we should change. Like me, it’s going to need to first become a reason, then a decision, then change. Actual change, once it’s decided on is the easy part.
The more Arkansas Valley people who decide for themselves that not burning coal is a good thing; that minimizing the need for oil and gas is a good thing; that not stringing cables (wires?) all to heck and gone is a good thing – and then make conservation and renewable energy work for them..., well then, those Arkansas Valley people can show other Ark Valley people – it works! Sunlight, wind, thermal, hydro, whatever, it makes electricity for their houses, then those people show other people.... It will become a movement! (for those old enough and remember Arlo).
Our rooftop solar panels are a sort of message to everyone who sees them up there! We need more messages, we do! This valley can become the same kind of example we become for each other - for other valleys.
Way back when, Walt Kelly’s Pogo said “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunity.” A little later he said “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo was a opossum that lived in the Okeefenokee Swamp. (A wonderful place; I recommend it). Pogo was right then, He would still be right today!
Our heat? Yeah, it's a propane stove downstairs, a couple fans blowing warm air around the house. The next round will be additional solar panels for heat, I plan for this summer. I just read something about “electric source heat pumps.” Gotta look those up.
I can’t allow myself to sound “holier than thou,” though (I never should anyway), we still take up a lot of space and use a lot of natural resources I would like to use way less of.
An Ark valley, planet earth resident - Steve Reese
