IRENEW Expo speaker: Renewables cure energy price volatility

Consumers and utilities should embrace renewable fuels as an escape hatch from sharp price fluctuations in fossil fuels, according to the keynote speaker at this year's IRENEW Expo this weekend in Cedar Rapids.

Jeremy Symons of the National Wildlife Federation said in a pre-Expo interview that the Keystone XL pipeline his group is opposing would drive up oil prices by sending Canadian oil currently going into Midwestern to Gulf Coast oil refineries, where they can be easily shipped to overseas markets commanding higher prices.

The result, Symons said, will be United States consumers paying more at the pump because less oil is going to produce gasoline for the domestic market.

"The reason they're spending $7 billion on a pipeline is so we'll pay more for it (the oil)," Symons said. "As soon as its built, the price Americans pay for all Canadian oil will go up by $4 billion."

The National Wildlife Federation and many other environmental groups are opposing the pipeline mainly because it will improve market access for Canadian tar sands-derived oil that Symonds described as "the dirtiest oil on the planet" in the carbon emissions involved in extraction and refining.

The federation is working with local governments, Indian tribes and local organizations to oppose the pipeline because of impacts to wildlife migration and the danger of potential spills to below-ground water resources.

Symons praised Iowa as a state that's renewable energy jobs in wind energy and biofuels. He compared Iowa's early emergence in renewable energy to California's role in the birth of the computer industry.

Iowa's support for renewable energy is now jeopardized, Symonds said, by a well-funded "misinformation" campaign to discredit renewable energy benefits such as green jobs, Symons said.

"Oil billionaires are starting to funnel money into the state through front groups," Symons said. "Oil companies have a vested stake in keeping us addicted to their products."

Symons said wind and solar energy help reduce volatility in electrical rates because the fuel is free, and does not fluctuate like the price of oil, gasoline or natural gas.

Despite a recent plunge in natural gas prices, Symons said the long-term trend in fossil fuels will inevitably be upward because the remaining resources become more remote and difficult to extract in places like the Arctic Circle and ocean depths.

The state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation has 27,000 members in Iowa.

Symons was Friday's keynote Expo speaker. He will speak at 1 p.m. Saturday at the IRENEW Expo at Kirkwood Community College's Cedar Hall on a panel discussion of "National Strategies to Grow Renewable Energy.

Tim Dwight of iPOWER, Saturday's keynote speaker, and Steve Frenkel of the Union of Concerned Scientists will speak on the panel with Symons.

IRENEW Board President Kimberly Dickey said the event, which runs through Sunday, will include more than 40 exhibitors and educational opportunities in wind energy, solar energy, game-changing technologies, policy and transportation.

Attendees with begin Saturday with a bicycle tour of renewable energy sites between the group's training center at Prairiewoods in Hiawatha and Kirkwood Community College.

Sunday's keynote speech will be "Running the World on Renewables Via Hydrogen and Ammonia Fuels in Underground Pipelines," by Bill Leighty, vice president of earth protection at the Leighty Foundation.

The event will be the 20th annual expo for IRENEW - the Iowa Renewable Energy Association, and its first at Kirkwood. The college was chosen as the expo site because of its new wind turbine and its wind technology program.