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Gary L. Teeter
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Gary's views |
Farming is an ever changing industry. Technology paired with change is inevitable and
necessary for mankind's progress. History shows that significant change
ushers in new and sometimes unseen challenges for many. In the past few
decades there has been a sharp decline in the family or mid-size farms
for various reasons. This fact is concerning to me and should be to all.
This country grew to where it is now, on the food produced
by the family farms across Ohio and the United States. To permit the
continued loss or break up of the mid-size farm classification is
risky for future generations and places too much faith or stock in the
commercial and smaller part time farmers. The persistent loss and stress
on family and mid-size farms should lead its own task force research for
the purpose of immediate preservation. Creating new taxes and impact fees should not always be the first answer for dealing with new and challenging issues. The strongly proposed "cow tax" by many in Washington exemplifies their current willingness to tax now and pay later. Our Ohio Senators need help at the Federal level in looking after Ohio's best interests. Research funding for Ohio's colleges and universities is key in overcoming today's challenges with tomorrow's solutions. Support for proven new technologies to be incorporated to main stream use should be paramount. Tax credits for industry research and development should be encouraged to aid the continued advancements in all smart energy saving technology to benefit all. Clean safe alternate energy combined with continually improving the use and consumption of our existing resources must be expanded to meet our current and future needs. I believe that combining efforts from all energy preference groups will be the smartest avenue for a true cleaner, greener progress and prosperity. As your Ohio Senator I will assist with these issues and interests with the highest regards. |
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Trivia |
Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. The small landowners are the most precious part of a state.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of
the United States.
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Note |
These website articles are for bringing attention to issues facing our nation and world today. The links to the sites that host their featured information are listed so that you may visit them to view and derive your own conclusions and opinions. |
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RESEARCH THAT WORKS |
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Some small and medium-sized farms don't generate enough to serve as a
family's primary income, putting pressure on farmers to sell land. "Many leave farming to get a job," said Christy Montoya, an organizational director with the Ohio Farm Bureau. "Livestock-based and grain farms have taken a major hit." |
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Ohio.gov
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As far as farming operations, Ohio parallels national trends in that the
number of mid-size farms is decreasing and the numbers of small and large farms are increasing. U.S. and Ohio farm income has generally trended upward in the last few decades, but the trend is decidedly volatile. Farming continues to be an inherently high-risk endeavor. Some of the most recent prospects available to farmers are opportunities to invest in value-added ventures and the ability to participate in the new energy economy. Industry observers project that Ohio will have seven ethanol plants in production by the end of 2008, as well as a number of biodiesel plants. Producers of biomass are also likely to see increased demand from the energy sector because of state and federal policies encouraging greater use of renewable resources. Another important trend in agriculture is increased research and development of genetic engineering, yielding crops with particular traits that create added value. Ohio hosts a number of world class research institutions, both public and private, that work on genetic engineering and other issues in agriculture. |
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Small and large farms generally have been doing well in Ohio, Cornely said. It's the medium-sized farms that have struggled…. …Most small farms do not generate enough to serve as a family's primary income, but medium-sized farms used to be big enough. That's the segment of Ohio farms that is hurting the most, said Christy Montoya, organizational director for Butler, Warren, Hamilton and Montgomery counties for the Farm Bureau. "Many leave farming to get a job," Montoya said. "Livestock-based and grain farms have taken a major hit."
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Ohio's First Commercial Wind Farm
Largest Wind Turbines East of the Rockies...In Ohio!
Ohio is now the home for two 1.8 MegaWatt (MW) utility-scale wind turbines in Bowling Green. These are the largest wind turbines west of the Rockies (similar 1.8 MW units are in Wyoming and California wind farms). The wind farm operated at 30% capacity and 97% availability during its first month of operation according to Bowling Green Municipal Utilities. Photo at left below by GEO Volunteer Craig Miller shows 132 foot-long turbine blades bending in a high wind that month (early November to early December 2003).
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visit: http://buckeyepower.com/news_stories.asp?int_articleID=292 A greener and more energy-independent future The symbol is a concrete-and-steel stack, rising more than a thousand feet into the air. It’s part of a new “flue gas desulfurization” (FGD) emissions control system that’s being added to the Cardinal Station’s Units 1 and 2. Buckeye Power, the electricity generation and transmission Co-op that serves the 24 local electric Cooperatives in Ohio, owns Unit 2. American Electric Power (AEP) owns Unit 1 and operates the Cardinal Station for both companies. When it’s completed next year, the new FGD system will use a slurry of water and powdered limestone to remove sulfur dioxide (SO2) from the exhaust gases produced by coal combustion and reduce the output of SO2 by at least 80 percent and help to reduce mercury emissions by an estimated 85 percent. Once completed, Cardinal will be among the cleanest power plants in North America. The FGD project is part of nearly a billion dollars Buckeye is investing in environmental enhancements at Cardinal over the span of a decade. To pay for this and other generation projects, Buckeye’s wholesale rates to its members will be rising through the next decade. These rate increases have been structured and scheduled to keep the financial impact on your household to a minimum. Current projections show that Buckeye Power’s rates still will be among the lowest in the state and the region for the foreseeable future. Available and affordable power Demand for electricity has grown by more than 130 percent during the last three decades and is expected to rise another 40 percent by 2020. Today, Americans annually spend more than $210 billion on electricity. In fact, electricity and food are the two largest commodities bought and sold in America. To meet that need, we are heading into a new cycle of base load power plant construction. To drive these plants, coal and nuclear fuels are the choice. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than half of the electricity consumed by American homes and businesses (51.8 percent) now comes from coal. That’s more than all other energy resources — nuclear (19.8 percent), natural gas (16.1 percent), hydroelectric facilities (7.2 percent), petroleum (2.9 percent), and renewables such as wind and solar (2.2 percent) — combined. And given the public attitude towards nuclear energy, coal remains the overwhelming choice for the near term future. Thankfully, the United States has an estimated 240 billion tons of recoverable coal, or one-fourth of the world’s coal reserves. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), America’s coal reserves are 39 times the size of known domestic natural gas reserves and 54 times the size of known U.S. oil reserves. Based on the current rate of consumption, U.S. coal supplies could last for 250 years. Coal is also affordable. Current data from the DOE show that, on average, the cost of producing electricity from coal is less than half the cost of producing electricity from other traditional fuels, such as natural gas or oil. What about renewables? Our nation will need renewable resources such as solar and wind. The electricity produced by domestic wind generation alone already has increased five-fold in as many years. But such resources are spotty and fickle (the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow!) and don’t lend themselves well to the reliability demands of an industrial society. Integrating these resources into the existing mix of the power plant fleet will continue into the future, yet their total contribution will likely remain less than 10% of the nation’s generation resource for decades. |
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Perry Nuclear Generating Station The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is located on a 1,100-acre (450 ha) site on Lake Erie, 40 miles (65 km) northeast of Cleveland in North Perry, Ohio, USA. The nuclear power plant is owned by First Energy Nuclear Operating Corporation. The reactor is a General Electric BWR-6 boiling water reactor design, with a Mark III containment design. The original core power level of 3,579 megawatts thermal was increased to 3,758 megawatts thermal in 2000, making Perry one of the largest BWRs in the United States. Built at a cost of $6 billion, Perry-1 is one of the most expensive power plants ever constructed. Perry was originally designed as a two-unit installation, but construction on Unit 2 was suspended in 1985 and formally cancelled in 1994. At the time of cancellation, all of the major buildings and structures for the second unit were completed, including the 500-foot tall cooling tower. Aerial pictures of Perry show what appears to be two nuclear units. The completed sections have since been raided for spare parts to maintain Unit 1. It is theoretically possible that a second unit could be constructed on the site, but current economical and regulatory conditions are not conducive to doing so (in addition to back taxes that would be due to the "abandon in place" designations on many objects in Unit 2). At any rate, the second unit would have to be re-built from the ground up to accommodate the newer reactor design that would almost certainly be installed. Perry was the 100th power reactor licensed in the United States. In addition to Perry, FirstEnergy also owns and operates the Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley nuclear plants. |
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