The Friday Video: Flight over Sunset Trails of FMSP

The video above was shot by Derek Spear. It is a flight over the Scenic Overlook and Sunset Trails at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. Check out and subscribe to Adventure Drone on YouTube. Look at his other terrific videos.

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Cemex Continues to Eradicate Mountainside

Click on image to enlarge. A long, long time ago when the McKelligon Canyon Quarry was not. Sugar Loaf  Mountain is on the far right in the foreground.

Aerial of Cemex Quarry, 2014. Sugar Loaf is center right.
Photo by Scott Cutler

I was interviewed today by Daniela Pardo of KTSM El Paso. She and her crew met me at the Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park to talk about the Cemex quarry. KTSM is working on a story to air next week. The interview helped me to focus on quarrying and especially on the painful quarrying at Cemex's McKelligon Canyon operation. 

I understand the need to mind rock, sand, gravel and limestone. We need these materials for our homes, our roads, our sidewalks and, to some extent our landscaping. What I question is how much is adequate and how well we choose alternatives.

As we entered the State Park, I pointed out the use of red rock (rhyolite) to trim and landscape the entry. Much of that rock is used in our landscapes, our medians and our parkways. It comes principally from the Cemex McKelligon Canyon operation. I pointed out the caliche along the hills to the news crew. We dig up huge amounts of it all over town when we excavate for roads or buildings. Then we dump it. Why can't we use more of that in our landscaping and gouge out less of our mountains?

I know about landscapers in the Tucson area who, when digging up the caliche in the yard, then use the rock in the landscaping rather than buying rock quarried from our precious mountainsides.

With the glass recycling pilot program starting in January, El Pasoans will have yet another alternative for mulching. Rather than red rock of all sizes, we can use glass. Also, with all of the dead trees around town that many people can't afford to cut down, perhaps the City could start a mulching program. They could take down the dead trees for free, chip the wood, and use it as mulch instead of rock. 

Quarrying and especially the Cemex operation produces dust no matter how much water they spray to keep the dust down. (There's that issue of water scarcity again.) Many in the neighborhoods below Cemex have complained over the years about respiratory distress. Then there is the loss of ecosystem services and habitat. 

We just don't need this much mining and we need to find alternatives. The City of El Paso could take a giant leap toward rescuing our Franklin Mountains by refusing to buy anymore rock and setting restrictions on its use in landscaping.

Hopefully the KTSM story will be a good values clarification for El Pasoans. What are we doing to our beautiful mountain? How do my buying habits encourage the destruction of the mountains? How can my voting elect people who really care?

Secure Energy for a Sustainable Future

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Tonopah, AZ
From businesswire.com

The future of El Paso is the reason so many oppose the El Paso Electric rate hikes and their attempt to destroy the rooftop solar industry. EPEC's business model does not provide El Paso with a secure and sustainable future.

Consider that we get about 30% of our power from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Tonopah, Arizona, 485 miles away from us. Not only do we lose about 6% of that energy from there to here, but there is a lot of nothing between there and here. A lot of nothing makes us vulnerable.

Consider this fact from USA Today: "More often than once a week, the physical and computerized security mechanisms intended to protect Americans from widespread power outages are affected by attacks, with less severe cyberattacks happening even more often." Be sure to watch the video in the online article.

Attack on Yemen grid
From alainonline.com

Consider what happened last year in Yemen following a terrorist attack on the electric grid as reported by Peter Kelly-Detwiller in Forbes.

Watch the CNN video:

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Not only does our current network of power distribution from faraway generating stations means that we lose power in transition, but we also leave ourselves vulnerable to sabotage.

With rooftop solar the energy you use is the closest to where you need it: from your rooftop to your home or business. If you don't need it, those little electrons will just take the path of least resistance to your neighbor as she runs her washing machine or your abuelita as she tries to keep warm.

EPEC wants to raise everyone's rates in order to make-up for a model of distribution which is not efficient serving homes and businesses which are more energy efficient. And you should pay higher rates for lowering your energy needs?

Solar is about the future. EPEC is about the past.

Oil, Gas and Solar Industries

Do we need the oil and gas industries? The answer is an obvious "yes". In fact, I'll go further. I am grateful to these industries. After all, I drive a car powered by an internal combustion engine that burns gasoline. I drive on streets paved with asphalt. Polymers are ubiquitous in my lifestyle. 

However, I have four problems with the fossil fuel industries. First, they do contribute more to climate change than alternative sources such as solar for example. Next, they do extraordinary violence to the environment and to the earth. Fracking and oil sands (tar sands) productions are the most vile of Orcs. Third, they are more politically powerful than each of us who cast a vote. They wield that power to stifle the free market of competition. That is why the Koch Boys want to help utilities across the country destroy the rooftop solar industry. Finally, like so many things in our consumer economy, oil and gas is overused. This final objection is really not about the fossil fuel industries but about our choices as consumers. 

To be sure, the production of photovoltaic panels is not as clean and green as we would want. However, changes occurring in that industry are moving in the direction of being cleaner. Recycling toxic compounds has become more of the standard than the exception. Better yet, less or non-toxic compounds are being substituted for nastier chemicals. There is a small amount of water used in the production of photovoltaics since other fluids are used. Finally it is becoming increasingly the case that photovoltaics are powering photovoltaic plants and not natural gas meaning that the industry is decreasing their carbon footprint. To be sure, there is much more to be done. 

Keep in mind that our consumption of fossil fuels is principally as an energy source. If you take a barrel of oil, only 7% of it is used for non-energy products: petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, rubber, etc. 

So, is the fossil fuel industry a bad guy? No except when they use their vast wealth to crush competition, buy state legislators to pass laws against local governments putting restrictions on fracking and wreak havoc on the environment. Still, in the final analysis, the finger must be pointed at you and me who make consumer choices that provide the market for any industry to run a profitable business. That is why I am all for an unstifled market place by powerful interests such as the oil and gas lobbies. That is also why I'm trying as a consumer to make better choices and live greener while realizing that there are and always will be trade-offs.

More Mule Deer Sightings

I love these animals. A reader who lives near Temple Mt. Sinai just north of Crazy Cat mountain took these pictures. These are probably the same mule deer that were recently spotted at the Palisades. 

Mule deer are browsers who like lower branches of trees, grasses and shrubbery. They need range which is why it is so critical that any development around the Franklins respects their and other animal's habitat. By the way, their mating season is about to begin.

Click image to enlarge.

At the very right hand bottom of the map is the Palisades. About 45° northwest of there is the Synagogue and just below that is Canterbury Dr. along an arroyo. The animals have also been seen at the Camelot Condominiums just to the north of Temple Mt. Sinai.

Our Franklin Mountains are the home of an abundance of animal (and plant) species. Tomorrow, the local Audubon Society is leading a birding trip from the Museum of Archaeology as part of Celebration of Our Mountains. Join them. You may see more than just birds.

Get outside!

Don't Get Shockleyed

El Paso Electric Company - not exactly the future

Someone recently sent me a link to Six ways oil and gas drilling is bad news for the environment by the Wilderness Society. It's an easy read with some graphic images. In fact, just scrolling through the images will sicken you enough. The point sticks that we (our community, nation, world) need to switch fast to cleaner energy sources.

The need to switch is just one more reason to oppose El Paso Electric Company's rate hike proposals and their attempt to destroy the rooftop solar industry. EPEC wants you to pay for their business model based on the past and not on the future. You pay for their "clean" natural gas power stations. (Just remember how devastatingly unclean producing that gas is. Scroll through those pictures again.) You pay for their mostly idle power stations. Demand has gone down. We really do have more energy efficient homes and appliances. You pay for their squashing the future of rooftop solar technology which, in time, will become affordable to all.

In fact, the day will come (soon I believe) when the ability of a single solar home to store power for use at night will be convenient and cheap. Solar panels and batteries will become fixtures in our homes just as vacuum cleaners and smart TVs are. 

El Pasoans should be able to invest their money in making their homes more energy efficient not in making EPEC CEO Tom Shockley richer. Just look at his salary and bonus history. Wow! And he wants to raise your rates!

Don't get Shockleyed by El Paso Electric. Oppose the rate hikes.

Spend the Day at Keystone Heritage Park

Click on image to enlarge.

Definitely click on the image above to read all about this great event on Saturday at Keystone Heritage Park. It is a Celebration of Our Mountains event.