Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex Green Initiative

First words:

I want you to know something I discovered over the past few weeks about the DFW Metroplex's alternative energy-production potential.

First: Average winds speeds are just too slow to make wind turbines cost effective in this part of Texas. Wind energy is not a viable option here.

Second: However, clean solar energy is abundant in the metroplex. 100,000 Kilowatt Hours are being generated by the DFW Airport every year; proving that we do in fact have adequate solar kilowatt hours per square foot (3.6 to 4.7 KWH per square foot yearly bracket) for this area. More than adequate to phase over to photo voltaic generation in order to reduce fossil fuel energy consumption. However, most of our cities are only using spot photo voltaic arrays to power signs or temporary lighting rigs where running standard netgrid connections would be cost prohibitive to install.

In the area of large vehicle fleets, again, the DFW Airport's fleet of busses, transporters and utility vehicles uses compressed natural gas (CNG) to reduce vehicle pollution to 5%. Again as a model that by initiative, large operations can reduce pollution while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. (DFW Airport is rated as the most popular large airport in the U.S.A.).

The primary reason for so little policy or operational utilization by our city and county governments, to reduce the pollution and dependence of netgrid power appears to be conservatism on the part of our city and county council boards in the metroplex. Change threatens those who would do nothing rather than make waves and risk voter loses. As such it is incumbent on we, the constituency of our respective city's, to make known to our elective council board member's that it is our wish that they become aware that we want them to phase into the use of green initiatives and policies that promote less dependence on fossil energy with its pollution and unsustainable upwardly mobile costs.

Clean, sustainable energy is no longer just a fad or a wave of the future. The City of Austin, Texas is making history by its policy changes and initiatives and could be a model by which our own local county and city governments could implement first strike efforts onto the books for each city and all the counties in the metroplex. Austin's actions are not the actions of our capital city but as a Texas city, independent of state level support or mandate. We can and should all follow suite and make our councils aware that we are tired of the rubber stamp energy and economic models that will only lead to more pollution, more dependence on dirtier electricity for our homes and businesses and more fossil or bio fuel for our cars.

We need to make Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles the vehicles of choice for our city busses and utility services. We need to change our building codes to make it worth while to put photo voltaic arrays on our businesses and homes. We, ourselves, need to make it known that we want alternative energy in our daily city lives and are activley planning to purchase upgrades to our homes and business and vehicles that will reduce our carbon emissions and increase our energy efficiency, as well.

This blog is a chance for you to become educated on the subject of alternative energy. Take advantage of the links to an ever growing number of blogs and websites that have abundant, good information about the practicalities of alternative energy. Be a part of this change. Please, contact your respective council members and forward your thoughts about alternative energy to them and this blog and include their email addresses, here as well. Together, we can build a coalition of metroplex city councilmembers and constituents that can effect very real cooperative and effective change to the policies and initiatives that are the tools of government on the local level.

J. Warren Richardson a Grand Prairie Constituent