We read with dismay the recent opinion piece written by Bill Hamlen (“We need reliable data about energy sources”; Feb. 13). This piece could have been written in the 1960s. We don’t believe it addresses current energy technologies, costs or environmental realities.
Hamlen asked the question: “Could renewables ever provide the same level of dependable heat” as “reliable energy sources — heating oil, natural gas and wood.” The answer is a resounding YES! We know from personal experience that we do not need fossil fuels to keep our buildings warm when temperatures fall well below zero in the Upper Valley. There are several households — including one of ours — that are comfortably heated entirely with heat pumps (and no fossil fuels) in the Hanover area. Low temperature hot water heating systems with building-scale heat pumps have been comfortably heating 100-year-old buildings at Dartmouth College since 2018, even in below-zero temperatures. And since heat pumps are much more energy efficient than fossil fuel boilers, they reduce energy system operating costs as well.
Regarding Hamlen’s comments on energy policy needing to be “grounded in reality,” he makes no mention of a key reality that needs to inform energy policy — climate change. Increased burning of fossil fuels over the past several decades has resulted in rising global temperatures, which has resulted in increasingly devastating (and expensive) floods, storms, wildfires and damage to habitats in the U.S. and throughout the world. Moreover, according to research in England and the US the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for one in five deaths worldwide. Rather than “prioritizing expanded natural gas infrastructure” as advocated by Hamlen, we need to prioritize energy policy that incentivizes and supports the rapid development and deployment of non-combustion, low carbon technologies to mitigate climate change and improve public health.
We need to convert our buildings from burning fossil fuels to using low carbon heat pump, solar thermal and solar electric technologies. We need to prioritize and support development of non-combustion, low carbon, utility scale electric generation and distribution technologies, including off-shore wind and solar electric. As proven both in the US and throughout the world, these low carbon technologies are reliable and less costly than fossil fuels, and don’t have the significant negative environmental impacts that fossil fuel extraction does. The Trump administration’s efforts to block the Infrastructure Renewal Act, which provides funding for renewable energy infrastructure development, is counter-productive to Hamlen’s stated goal of developing “reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible energy solutions.”
We agree with Hamlen that “the stakes — economic stability, national security and the well-being of our communities” are high. If we don’t implement energy policy to drastically reduce fossil fuel burning and mitigate climate change, then we are continuing to cause irreversible damage to the world’s ecosystems, and jeopardize the well-being of our children, grandchildren and future generations.
Abbe Bjorklund is the former director of engineering at Dartmouth College and lives in Hanover. Robin Kaiser lives in a net-zero home in Hanover.