LTE: Bill could empower people to produce energy

So far this winter, my electric bills have not been “good,” but have certainly been more reasonable than they were last winter. I imagine many of my fellow UK students have noticed the same trend.

Unfortunately, in much of Kentucky, energy bills are still a financial black hole for lower-income families. In some areas, particularly in Eastern Kentucky, residents pay between seven and 14 percent of their income towards electricity. The national average is 4.17 percent. The data, taken by the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence, shows how desperate the situation is with Kentucky’s low energy rates when compared to the rest of the nation.

As the prices of energy rise, there is one solution that the state government continues to sell short: renewables. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has mapped Kentucky’s wind resources in the North and West in particular. Their data also suggest that the state’s sunshine could generate between 1,500-1,800 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year of solar power.

Instead of trying to roll back environmental regulations and put our public health at risk, the state could invest in not only safe electricity, but in the high-tech industry and skilled workers that come with it. A more diverse economy means a safer, more stable economy.

To that end, a coalition of student and community groups went to Frankfort on Thursday, Feb. 5 for the 2015 Clean Energy Lobby Day. Among the groups were the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club. We discussed a number of renewable energy bills with legislators, such as the Clean Energy Opportunities Act.

Without touching our state’s coal industry one way or the other, this bill can slow our ever-rising energy costs by expanding energy production from geothermal, wind, solar, landfill gas and more. By using energy sources that don’t have to be extracted, transported and possibly refined afterwards, we can buffer ourselves against the inevitable market fluctuations related to those materials. Estimates from the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance also suggest the Clean Energy Opportunities Act can help create 26,000 jobs for the state.

Empowering Kentuckians to produce their own energy will decrease our dependence on the big utility companies. For example, by creating an improved system for feed-in tariffs, Kentucky homeowners can invest in improvements such as solar panels and then sell their homes’ excess electricity. In the economy of the past and present, you paid the utilities behemoths whatever they charged. In the economy of the future, imagine how nice it would be if the utility company paid you.

To learn more about Clean Energy Lobby Day, and the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition, you can visit www.kystudentenvironmentalcoalition.org or email at [email protected].