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Energy: A Socially And Environmentally Responsible
Energy Plan For Our School
Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies
1101 Eleventh Street, Suite #311
Sacramento, CA 95814
(415) 751-0901 (San Francisco)
Sara Stern
saras213@hotmail.com
Correlation to CA State Content
Standards for Science:
Grades 9-12
Physics #3
Biology #6
Earth Science #4, #9
Investigation and Experimentation #1
Correlation to CA State Content Standards for Social Studies:
Grades 10-12
#10.13.4
#12.14.5
Background/Rationale
Beginning with the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, widespread access
to affordable, reliable electricity transformed the lives of millions
of Americans. Today, electricity is at the heart of the technological
revolution that is sweeping the world. Yet, electricity production generates
more pollution than any other industrial activity. Greenhouse gases,
air emissions, groundwater contamination, mine tailings, radioactive
waste, and severe habitat destruction are among the major environmental
consequences of our reliance on large, fossil fuel or nuclear powered
plants for our electricity needs.
The human costs are equally significant, especially since they tend
to be borne most heavily by the urban and rural poor, those who most
often live adjacent to polluting power plants, and Native Americans,
particularly western Indian tribes. Across the West, tens of thousands
of American Indian households are still without electricity; this despite
the fact that a substantial portion of the nation's electricity need
is met by fossil fuel and uranium resources mined from Indian lands.
On the Navajo Nation alone at least 25,000 families live without electric
power, and rural electrification is an ongoing dilemma for many other
tribes. Moreover, historically fossil fuel and uranium extraction on
Indian lands has occurred under contract terms grossly unfavorable to
the tribes themselves. In many instances, these contracts were negotiated
between private corporations and the federal government, with little
if any direct involvement from the tribes. While certain tribes have
benefited from jobs associated with resource extraction, the costs in
terms of environmental degradation, infringements on tribal sovereignty
and economic dependency.
While California's strict air pollution laws nearly prevent the burning
of coal within the state, they do not prevent California electric utilities
from importing highly polluting coal-fired electricity from power plants
located throughout the West. Coal-fired power plants, largely supplied
with coal mined from Indian Country, supply nearly one-quarter of California's
power needs. In state nuclear generating facilities, located along the
coast at San Onofre in southern California and Diablo Canyon in central
California, supply about 16% of the state's needs. Old, inefficient,
polluting gas-fired plants, many of which are located in urban neighborhoods,
and large hydroelectric facilities supply the lion's share of the balance.
Renewable resources, such as wind and solar power, currently meet about
10-11% of the state's electricity requirements.
Recent changes in the electric power industry nation wide now allow
consumers to make many of the decisions once left to power company executives.
Citizens in California, for example, can now choose what types of power
plants they wish to support with their electricity dollars. Thus, there
has perhaps never been a better time to examine the environmental and
social costs of our current electric power system. A myriad of options
await those who believe the time is right to forge a more sustainable
path. In many communities, schools are leading the way to a cleaner,
more equitable energy system by developing their own energy programs
to reduce the environmental and societal impacts of their electricity
use. Energy audits, roof-installed solar panels, small-scale wind powered
turbines, community workshops, and fundraisers to purchase solar panels
for impoverished families are among the student-initiated programs now
in place in schools around the nation.
Projects
Subject:
Possibilities include:
Social Studies: Public Policy Unit
Economics Integrated Science/Social Studies Program
General Science
Grade Level:
High School, Grades 11-12
Time:
5-10 Days
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Consider the importance of electricity to their way of life
- Define and describe the primary fuel sources used to generate electricity
in the U.S. and for the local community
- Identify environmental and human impacts associated with electricity
production in the U.S.
- Compare and contrast the cost of electricity generated by various
sources, including fossil fuel, nuclear power and renewable resources
- Evaluate the impact of the hidden costs of electricity production
to society, including environmental and human health impacts
- Analyze the ability to account for and minimize the true costs to
society and the environment from electricity production
- Synthesize what they've learned about the hidden and true costs
of electricity production into a socially- and environmentally-responsible
energy policy for the school
Materials:
Internet Access:
Articles:
- Arizona Republic Commentary:
"Hopis: Plant wastes our precious drinking water"
- Los Angeles Times Article
"Mohave Power Plant's Future a Thorny Dilemma"
- Arizona Republic Article
"Navajos Sue Coal Company for $600M - Claim Land Was 'Energy
Colony'"
Overhead
Butcher Paper
Concepts:
Hidden Costs
True Costs
Policy Alternatives
Project
This project is designed in several steps. Each section builds upon
the next, to give the student a comprehensive study of how the electricity
industry affects their lives. The final step of the project allows the
students to submit a request for proposal to various energy providers
in order to obtain a socially and environmentally responsible energy
program for their school.
1. Electricity in Our Daily Lives
- Create an electricity-free environment for the students. No lights,
no computers, no overhead, no fans, no electric pencil sharpeners.
This atmosphere should be set as students enter the classroom.
- Students should "quickwrite" on the topic: "Electricity
in Our Daily Lives." This quickwrite should be conducted within
the electricity-free environment. If students need light, have flashlights
and/or candles available.
- Class discussion on quickwrite topic. Ask students to imagine how
their lives would be different without access to electricity at home.
2. Study of Electricity Fuel Types
- Students will identify the processes and fuel used to generate
electricity. Teacher should list these on an overhead or piece of
butcher paper.
(Note: This should be straightforward for students who are participating
in this lesson as part of a broader science-based energy inquiry.
Otherwise, the teacher may wish to consider presenting this information
to students in short lecture format or through an Internet assignment.
A good general energy overview is available at Error! Reference source
not found..)
- Students are divided into five groups of four. Groups each will
be given an electricity source to briefly research as to: a) percentage
of overall U.S. electric power system; b) costs to consumers; c) environmental
impacts; and d) human impacts.
- Group One: Coal
- Group Two: Nuclear
- Group Three: Gas
- Group Four: Large Hydroelectric Dams
- Group Five: Renewable Resources (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass)
- Group Six: Energy Efficiency and Conservation
- Groups' research will be conducted via Internet (see websites listed
above).
- Groups report their findings to the class. As groups report, teacher
should chart findings by energy source, costs, environmental impacts
and human impacts.
- Class discussion
Questions to Consider:
- What sorts of costs are included in the price we as consumers pay
for electricity?
- Should such things as air quality impacts, water quality problems,
habitat destruction, and human impacts be figured into the price we
pay for electricity?
- Why are such things (air and water pollution, habitat destruction,
etc. associated with electricity production) often referred to as
hidden costs?
- Are they hidden? Identify some ways in which air pollution, for
example, damages our society. How are these damages paid for? Are
they accounted for in the price we pay for electricity?
- How could such costs be avoided or minimized through the energy
choices we make?
- Some economists and policy makers say that you should add hidden
costs, such as damage from air pollution, to the price we pay for
electricity. That we would know the true costs of the various types
of fuel options for electricity production. Coal currently may be
least expensive source of electricity, but if you added in the pollution
and acid rain costs on society, it could become the most expensive
source of electricity. Do you think this should or could be done?
Who would support such action? Who would oppose it?
- Do you think electricity customers should help pay to bring electricity
to people in the United States who don't have access to power? What
if many of the people who don't have access to power actually work
in the mines and in the power plants that produce electricity for
millions of other people?
3. Interview a Local Power Provider
- Invite representative from local power provider to address the
class on what types of fuel sources are used to produce the electricity
needed for the school. (Note: Generally, local utilities are quite
pleased to provide a representative to address school or community
groups. If teaching this activity to more than one class, it may be
possible to invite speaker to attend a question and answer session
held before or after school or during lunch. Credit would be given
to all students who attend such a session.)
- Prior to such an event, each student would be required to list three
questions to ask the local utility company representative related
to the school's electricity use and associated environmental and human
impacts. From these, the teacher would select students to ask questions
of the local utility company representative.
- If unable to schedule a meeting with a local utility representative,
teacher should assign students to collect this data by contacting
local utility companies by phone or accessing information over the
Internet.
(Note: California law requires electric power providers to make this
information publicly available.)
- Based on information gathered about the sources used to generate
electricity for the school's use, each student should compile written
list of possible hidden costs of school's electric power use.
4. Devise an Electricity Action Plan for the School
In groups, students are to devise an electricity action plan for the
school. Action plans would be required to address the following considerations:
- Types of electricity fuel sources that currently provide power
to the school.
- What does the school currently pay for electricity?
- Three hidden costs associated with school's current electricity
supply.
- Three recommendations to raise awareness of and reduce the environmental
and human costs associated with the school's electricity consumption.
Each group will present school electricity action plan to the class.
The teacher will list individual points on butcher paper during group
presentation. A class discussion will follow group presentations. The
teacher may want to share with the class some of the programs already
underway in other schools, such as energy conservation audits, community
workshops, and the installation of solar panels on the school site.
At the end, the class will vote on three recommendations to adopt as
"official recommendations of the class." These will be compiled
and sent to the school principal, and then on to the local utility company
and one or more alternate electric power suppliers with a request that
each provide the school with a written response and a school program
proposal. This will serve as the basis for receiving power bids from
electric power suppliers.
Evaluation:
Quickwrite (individual)
Group Project 1: Research on specific fuel source
Class discussion
Questions to local utility company (individual)
Group Project 2: School energy policy recommendations
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