Energy Plan – Reply From/To Governor Nixon

The first letter below was sent from Governor Nixon in response to David Epps’s original letter voicing concerns about Missouri’s Energy Plans and the better option of GSHP.  The second letter below is David Epps’s response-to-the-response.

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December 10, 2015

Mr. David Epps
406 E. Cape Rock
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701-3202

Dear Mr. Epps:

This email is in response to your correspondence to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Thank you for contacting our office. Your email has been reviewed and shared with appropriate staff.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) is the state agency to best address your matter. We have forwarded your correspondence to the DED Director’s Office. A response has been left up to their discretion.

Again, thank you for your correspondence. Please let us know if we may be of assistance in the future.

Sincerely,

Sam Rourke
Constituent Services Liaison
Office of Missouri Governor Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon
201 West Capitol Avenue, Room 216
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0720
T. (573) 751-3222
F. (573) 751-1495
http://www.governor.mo.gov
Follow: @GovJayNixon

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David Epp’s response to Governor Nixon’s letter:

Governor,

RE: Your response to my Letter regarding your Comprehensive State Energy Plan.

You said: “A response has been left up to their [sic DED] discretion.”

You sir are failing to live up to your own words “balance the need for low-cost, reliable energy with our duty to be responsible stewards of the environment”!

You Sir, are an irresponsible steward of the environment in that you have left it up to those that committed the egregious error to correct their error at their discretion. It is your job to provide oversight to prevent DED to continue to commit unrestrained manipulation of the facts and blatant bias!

I have sent the letters to all the Missouri Rural Electric Cooperatives and associations, and to a good number of the your Energy steering committee members, including the University of Missouri at Rolla and GSHP associations/Installers and Missouri Chambers of Commerce and commented on every news paper article reporting on your plan that I could find.

Consult with any expert and you will find that geothermal energy and GSHP’s is the least cost energy and has the least effect on the environment (that includes wind mills and solar electric panels) to obtain 70% of the energy consumed in Missouri homes.

Thank You
David Epps, BSEE
Cape Girardeau

It seems that the only methods the governments can fathom for reducing energy usage are solar panels, windmills, and biofuels… …all ripe for crony-capitalist corruption.  Hopefully, the next governor will promote energy consumption methods that actually work.

 

Letter To Jay Nixon – Failure Of Energy Plan

From David Epps…

 

Governor,

Your Comprehensive State Energy Plan took a terribly wrong approach!

For home and business owners/renters It is not about sources and demands of electrical energy as the plan is written it is about sources and demands of heat energy

Energy use in the US homes is all about BTUs (heat energy). 70% of the energy consumption in home is derived from sources of and measured in units of BTUs (heat energy) not KWh’s (electrical energy).  Your furnace, hot water heater, and air conditioner are sized based upon the amount of BTUs required.

I demand a rewrite of your Comprehensive State Energy Plan basing your analysis on the sources and demands of BTUs. This will give the true picture of the challenges and solutions facing Missourians high cost of energy.  You directed the Missouri Department of Energy to prepare a plan to “balance the need for low-cost, reliable energy with our duty to be responsible stewards of the environment”.  The current plan does not satisfy your requirements.

Upon a rethink of the plan, you will find that Missouri has countless BTUs of geothermal energy below our feet, all of which can be harvested by ground source heat pumps (GSHP).

$100’s of millions have been spent over the last 6 years on solar electricity and wind mills and their electrical generation has barely scratched the surface of the demand while the generation of boundless heat energy in the earth has been ignored.  It is movement of heat energy (BTUs) using electricity and natural gas that cost so much and is in so much demand by Missourians. Moving Geothermal energy, which is free and inexhaustible, costs significantly less.

Only a pitiful 0.25 trillion BTUs were generated by all solar electric panels in Missouri thus far. While, if in just 2014, the $187 million invested on solar installations in Missouri were invested in GSHP’s, 1.44 trillion BTUs of heat energy would have been generated and consumed in Missouri homes for heating and cooling and hot water.

Your recommendations in paragraph 3.1 Strengthening Missouri’s Renewable Energy Standard are mostly poor as they require more regulations, but specifically:

• Geo thermal AKA GSHP is a renewable resource and is not even mentioned
• You failed to prioritize your recommendations and that is needed for any legislative action to proceed
• Priority should be given to rental property rehab and upgrades where about 60% of Missourians live as most of these apartments use electric resistive heat, the most expensive heating there is by whatever means the electricity is generated.
• GSHP in the winter reduce electrical consumption by 75% over a electric resistive heater and thus electrical consumption is reduced.

By your focus on electrical energy and ignoring heat energy, your Department of Energy is a dismal failure (they don’t know energy), and your plan does not guide Missourians to the correct solutions to reduce their utility bills.

Thank You

David Epps