Last week’s bit on ethanol was eye-opening. I sort of went into it with the idea this was entirely a not-in-my-backyard issue - and it is that - but the more stuff you read questioning the legitimacy of ethanol as a viable alternative, the more you begin to suspect that maybe this isn’t the great savior.

But even if it were - even if it were already possible to commercially produce “cellulosic” ethanol, the great hope of the industry - and if this proved to be less of a boondoggle, if it mitigated the impact corn-based ethanol has had on food prices across the board, if it ultimately used less energy to produce than the amount of energy saved by the product…

Could it then be constructed in Conoy Township?

I suspect neighbors would say “no.” I suspect they would organize against it as they have organized against it; I suspect the arguments would be largely the same - environmental and safety and traffic issues.

Not to say such arguments aren’t legitimate; of course they are. But where such arguments are successful in preventing new “alternative” power plants - doesn’t that have an impact on energy policy in this country?

I think of this every time a conservative says that what we really need to do in this country is build more oil refineries. Great idea. But where are we going to build them? In whose backyard shall they be constructed? For even in rural settings - like Conoy Township - there are legitimate complaints from those who would live next to such a thing. The president once proposed building them on closed military bases. Indiantown Gap obviously isn’t closed, but suppose it was: Do you think its neighbors in Lebanon County - in Lancaster County - would cheerily say, “Great idea,” and stand aside?

I thought of this again upon seeing the AP story in yesterday’s Intell about the federal government’s attempt to establish two “national interest electric transmission corridors,” which cut through Pennsylvania and nine other states “where officials say aging high-voltage lines are not capabble of handling growing power demand.” This would be the feds coming in and building new power lines in places where state officials have specifically prohibited them “often because of local opposition.”

Worse - the feds could use eminent domain to take the property it needs. So while there’s a very good case to be made that shorign up the Mid-Atlantic power grid is a necessity, how can this ever fly?

I feel for the people in Conoy Township, and were I to live there I’d probably oppose the idea of the plant, too. But part of me thinks: If not there, then where?