PowerTourist - Julianne Couch

High Plains Book Award nomination

2015-01-03T07:08:00.003-08:00

Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy, was a finalist in the Non-Fiction category of the High Plains Book Awards. I traveled to Billings, Montana in October, 2014 for the event. It was, as always, held in conjunction with the High Plains Bookfest, sponsored by the Billings YMCA. I was a featured reader at the Bookfest, as well as a panelist. Although another author's memoir won the category, I was very pleased that the esteemed judges selected my book as one of the three best. Thank you, University of Nebraska Press, for your decision to publish my book. Thank you, especially, to readers and reviewers for helping me illustrate how important it is for us to be knowledgeable consumers.

Traveling the Power Line: Review from Publishers Weekly

2013-03-15T10:53:00.003-07:00

Journalist Julianne Couch (Jukeboxes & Jackalopes) leaves her home state of Wyoming to learn how electrical power is generated across the United States and to uncover the impact of various production methods. In story-driven prose, she shares her experiences touring many types of power plants, from nuclear to solar. Couch addresses pros and cons of each method alongside detailed verbal descriptions, though generally photographs would have saved more than the proverbial thousand words. Throughout, she returns both in body and spirit to her home base, contemplating the local climate and how it impacts daily life. Couch balances information obtained from power plant tours with commentary from local and national environmental advocacy groups; at times, complex environmental concerns impede decision-making, such as pitting local wildlife against greener power. Readers will gain information about each form of power—wind, coal, nuclear, natural gas, biomass, geothermal, solar, and hydroelectric—but Couch's aim is not to provide an exhaustive scientific evaluation, and she avoids direct comparison and specifics, such as efficiencies, in her discussion. Rather, this is a layman's guide to the choices facing much of the country as state and federal governments move toward cleaner fuels that produce fewer greenhouse gases. (Mar.)

Traveling the Power Line review from Booklist

2013-03-02T05:54:00.003-08:00

Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy. Couch, Julianne (Author) Mar 2013. 240 p. Univ. of Nebraska, paperback, $19.95. (9780803245068). 333.793. Flip a switch and voilà, the lights come on. Bump up the thermostat, and kiss that winter chill goodbye. It’s magic, really, or might as well be for all the average user knows about the origin of the electricity that makes one’s life run smoother, brighter, warmer, faster. To investigate such established sources of energy as nuclear, natural gas, and coal as well as cutting-edge technologies involving wind, solar, hydropower, tidal, and biomass production, Couch traveled from her resource-rich home state, Wyoming, to visit producers of various forms of electrical power around the country. Whether motivated by concerns over global warming, disturbed by the nation’s dependency on foreign suppliers, or troubled by the depletion of natural resources, the debate over how to become a more energy-efficient nation is, well, a highly charged one. There is no simple solution, and no process is perfect, but as Couch demonstrates, all have important roles to play in our nation’s energy policy. In clear and straightforward terms, Couch demystifies the science and takes an equitable and even-handed approach to the politics involved in energy production. The result is an accessible primer and essential guide to crucial issues surrounding critical challenges. — Carol Haggas

Survival of Rural America

2013-02-22T07:09:00.004-08:00

Survival of Rural America: Small Victories and Bitter Harvests is the title of an excellent book I just read, written by Richard E. Wood, published in 2008 by the University Press of Kansas. Wood focuses on certain small towns, or small town clusters, in various areas of Kansas. He examines the factors that might make a small town sustainable or even resilient. These include the presence of a school, a grocery store, medical services, a post office, a restaurant or two. He uses a term I found intriguing: purple cow. That is something a town has that is individual, unique, and even a bit quirky, that helps people decide "this one, not that one" when considering where to stop for lunch or even locate a business. He also explores why some towns that have some of these amenities falter and fail. He cites small town jealousies and rivalries, the inability to accept that a new bar in town might be good for the existing bar in town, even if that new bar is owned by "outsiders." He places some of the blame for these failed interactions on those "outsiders" who may not respect local processes and culture in their zeal to "save" a town and make good there. Wood also widens his discussion to the Central Plains and Great Plains,when making comparisons is appropriate. Further, he writes about policy for rural development, as well as energy policy around ethanol, and of course, agriculture.

Great Plains Energy Commons

2013-02-20T10:42:00.000-08:00

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to my native state of Kansas. I'm intrigued by the state's creation of Rural Opportunity Zones designed to attract natives to return through various economic incentives. I've also been thinking a lot about energy, of course, and watching development occur from Texas up to North Dakota, cutting a pretty wide path through the Great Plains. I just finished Anne Mathews' Where the Buffalo Roam: The Storm over the Revolutionary Plan to Restore America's Great Plains. The book was published in 1992 but it is still relevant because it is her profile of Frank and Deborah Popper, the academics from Rutgers who suggested depopulation of the plans opened a great opportunity for restoring the prairies. The discussions in that book make me consider that the Great Plains might now be on the verge of being ceded over to energy development, both extractive and renewable. This is not something I would advocate but I can see the arguments for it, and taken separately, they make some sense. Towns with roads, homes & infrastructure but very few people could absorb the boom and bust of energy development. Transmissions lines are available. Workers are not far away. And the viewscape that people do not want prickled with wind turbines or solar collectors or cooling towers would be on private lands off highways few people travel. It would fit in with current use patterns of commodity agriculture on a scale that it seldom needs to be tended by resident farmers.

Traveling the Power Line Review from Kirkus Books

2013-01-19T07:07:00.002-08:00

TRAVELING THE POWER LINE From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy Author: Couch, Julianne Review Issue Date: February 1, 2013 Online Publish Date: January 13, 2013 Publisher:Univ. of Nebraska Pages: 240 Price ( Paperback ): $19.95 Publication Date: March 1, 2013 ISBN ( Paperback ): 978-0-8032-4506-8 Category: Nonfiction A Wyoming-based journalist and essayist chronicles her visits to nine electrical power stations across the country, examining the pros and cons of the fuel sources used at each site. In a book that is part travelogue and part news report, Couch lucidly confronts the specter of what she calls the "new energy crisis.” Her project began as a way to learn about the major methods of electrical production, including those that involved wind, water, geothermal, solar and nuclear power. Between 2008 and 2010, Couch traveled around Wyoming and then to Nebraska, Iowa, Utah, Nevada, Texas, Kentucky and Maine to talk to "scientists, engineers, policy advocates, environmental activists, industry experts and the folks who work in or live around various sites of energy production." The result is a study that shows both the positives and negatives associated with nine different fuel types—excluding oil, which Couch associates with transportation rather than household or industrial needs—from which electricity is generated in America. She shows that none, including those that seem the greenest and the safest, are without some cost to use. For example, although the sun is an inexhaustible source of energy, its power can only be harvested for large-scale use in certain parts of the country. Moreover, a solar plant currently needs "seventeen times as much land as a nuclear [one] to generate the same amount of electricity." Couch does not offer any opinions on which fuels are ultimately best for an energy-hungry America. Instead, she presents information clearly and objectively to help readers better discern "the difference between numbers meant to impress, stories meant to persuade, and facts that prompt action." Fair, thoughtful and balanced.

University of Nebraska spring catalog

2013-01-01T06:52:00.002-08:00

Traveling the Power Line is listed in the Spring/Summer 2013 catalog. It was so thrilling to receive a copy of the catalog in the mail and to read the long book description and blurbs. I hope many schools, libraries, and individuals will buy copies. No, not because I think I'll get "rich" -- I definitely will not. But it will tell me that people are interested in energy, the environment, and how humans adapt to climate change. It is hard to imagine any more relevant issues.

Traveling Power Line blurb from Daily Yonder

2012-06-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

I've received some wonderful quotes to use in marketing Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy. Here is the quote , or the "blurb" from Julie Ardery and Bill Bishop, wonderful editors at Daily Yonder, a project of the Center for Rural Strategies. If you’re reading this with the lights on, in a heated or air-conditioned home, having just dried your hair or microwaved dinner, you¹re electrified.We all are. But how? Julianne Couch has trekked across the continent to the far-flung places that make our lives hum. Because power plants tend to be “out of the way,” nobody has gone to so many sources before, meeting the people who keep the juice flowing to us all. Couch has a knack for disarming the wonkiest engineers and discovering the intrigue in cooling rods and “geothermal brine.” Her travels along the powerline are entertaining, but her book is more than that. From here, we can start making smarter, kinder, more realistic and responsible decisions about our energy future. Bill Bishop and Julie Ardery/The Daily Yonder

Walking the Publication Road

2012-06-05T07:40:00.001-07:00

Considering how silent I have been on this blog space for months at a time, you might think I've nothing left to say about energy, environment, or sustainability. Not so. However, most of my writing on these subjects has appeared in forums such as Sustainable City Network and Daily Yonder. I've been working on getting the Power Tour book through the publication "hoops" at the University of Nebraska. The official title is now Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy. I'm collecting lovely and humbling blurbs from Julie Ardery & Bill Bishop of Daily Yonder, and from authors Jeffrey A. Lockwood and Ann McCutchan. The press hired a great freelance copyeditor named Karen Brown, who is from Boulder. She did a terrific job saving me from embarrassment in a few spots and giving me the sort of kudos writers crave, while she was at it. So now the book is back with the press awaiting the next phase. Going the traditional route of publication really makes for a long process but patience will pay off, I think. I did not want to go the route of the self-published e-book, but there were a few dark hours when I gave it serious thought.

About new coal plants

2011-12-20T09:04:00.001-08:00

Here's something I came across researching updates for my chapter on coal-fired power plants. It is often less expensive to mine for surface coal than it is to drill for natural gas. That’s one reason that when the price of natural gas skyrockets, developers are encouraged to propose new coal plants to take advantage of that less expensive fuel source. The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory tracks the progress of new power plant development. According to their 2011 report, “Experience has shown that public announcements of power plant developments do not provide an accurate representation of eventually commissioned power plants. Actual plant capacity commissioned has historically been significantly less than new capacity announced.” But as of July 2011, eleven new power plants were under construction and one near construction, for a combined capacity of 7,704 megawatts from burning coal. The year 2010 was active for new coal plants, too, after many years of very few coal plants coming online. In fact, the DOE reports that more new capacity came online in 2010 than in any of the previous 25 years.

University of Nebraska, Spring 2013

2011-12-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce that the University of Nebraska press plans to publish Traveling the Power Line: Electricity from the Mohave Desert to the Bay of Fundy, in spring 2013. The book title has changed a bit since I started this project and may still change again if the marketing folks can think of something better. The delay in publication since this project has transferred from Texas Tech press to UNeb has given me the opportunity to update much of my research. I'm currently at work revising and updating my chapter on wind. I learned that there is much more wind development in Wyoming on private land on public. That's because the regulatory environment on public land(state and federal, such as BLM) is vastly more layered than on private land development. I've also revisited the 2009 Harris poll on attitudes toward energy development in the United States. In the 2011 survey, respondents say much the same thing: while only 12 percent of Americans say they are "very knowledgeable" about energy development, 53 percent say they are interested in learning more.I hope a few of those folks are regular readers! I'll continue to post some of my new findings in this blog. The publication impasse lulled me elsewhere, but I'm back!

Writing about Solar

2011-11-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

Even though my book travels, writing and general progress have been glacial of late, my interest in energy and sustainability continues. Thankfully I have Sustainable City Network as a place I can write for on these subjects. Case in point: in about fifteen minutes I'll be interviewing Barry Shear with Eagle Point Solar in Dubuque, Iowa. We'll be talking about the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that involved his business with a plan to provide rooftop solar panels for a city works building in Dubuque. Short version: Iowa law isn't clear whether these sorts of arrangements, that give renewable energy tax credits to tax exempt municipalities, are legal. We'll be talking about that. I'm also hoping to hear back from someone in Nevada, a state where so-called third party PPAs are legal. Nevada is the state I visited for my power tour, stopping by Acciona Solar Power outside of Boulder City. It was a PPA that made their arrangement to provide solar power to Boulder City and beyond possible.

Constantly changing plans

2011-08-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all all of you who've been asking when the book is coming out. Texas Tech University Press, with whom I had a contract, originally speculated it was to come out this fall, so that's the date I was going with. Then they pulled out of the project due to their own scheduling issues. I've since spoken with several publishers, who've asked for the manuscript. None seemed to feel the sense of urgency I do (whether or not I should, I still do.) Friday I got an email from a publisher who sounds very interested. It is a press I'd be crazy to pass up. But I can't let another two years go by only to once again find out they've dropped the project. I'm going to be cautiously optimistic this time, hopefully not to the point where they think I'm going to be Difficult. Fingers crossed, please...

Just a matter of time

2010-06-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

There has been so much vilifying of BP in the last month or so, much of it with good reason, as oil gushes from a gash in the Gulf of Mexico floor and glubs its way on to the marshes. But may I point out, it was just a matter of time before this happened. It was BP's bad luck to be the oil company it happened to. Perhaps BP should now stand for Bad Planning. At any rate, it could be too soon to focus on the good that can come from this disaster while the bad is still so very bad, and the families of 11 men are in mourning. But sometimes it takes a crisis to wake people up. Consider for a moment how many solutions are being put forth by interested individuals to solve this problem. Some of them are impractical at 5,000 below the surface, but others of them might just work. My main point, though, is the ingenuity of people. Ingenuity to make deep water drilling work is what got us here.
We are all responsible for the disaster in the Gulf: we all demand energy and transportation fuel every day. Sometimes directly to turn on lights or drive our car, sometimes indirectly, like to eat processed food, take medicine, wear clothing. Oil is a part of the energy portfolio that makes the world go around. Maybe we can find better ways to get that oil, better ways to use it safely, better ways to prolong the inventory of it we have. We're getting a whole lot closer to running out. Thanks, BP.

Final chapter in

2010-05-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

I think I set a land speed record in finishing the final chapter of Earth Wind & Sky: A Power tour. I sent the Chapter 9, A Maine Tidal Power Project, off to Texas Tech University Press on Thursday. When I say final chapter I actually mean draft. I look forward to some quality revision time this summer. I've already thought of things I'd like to change in the final chapter. For example, I read a story in the paper today about how many people are watching the Gulf of Mexico oil leak on the internet. An AP story today quoted a man who said seeing it all gush out made him think hard about how much energy he himself was using. Aahhh. The power of seeing things for oneself. In a nutshell, that's what has driven me in this project.

Ocean Renewable Power Company: Worth the Wait

2010-05-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

Finally, I made my trip to Maine to visit Susy Kist and Bob Lewis with Ocean Renewable Power Company. Susy is the marketing manager, who is based in Portland, Maine. Bob is the director of operations, based right there in Eastport. Susy took charge of me right away, making our first stop a mercy visit to the IGA where I could get a cup of coffee. From there we visited the Boat School, where final assembly of ORPC’s Beta Turbine Generator Unit (Beta TGU) took place this spring. Morrison Manufacturing in nearby Perry, Maine, built the Energy Tide 2 vessel, from which the Beta TGU is deployed. There are many cool things about the TGU. One of the things that struck me as most interesting is that the foils (not blades) in the TGU revolve in only one direction, yet their design allows them to spin regardless of the direction of the tides. ORPC's immediate goal is to gather data showing power created during one full lunar cycle. This process of being licensed to put power onto the electrical grid is a long one in which energy developers have to prove they know what they are doing and can do what they know how to do. Thanks to Skip Harris for taking Susy and me out on his cousin Butch's lobster boat so we could get a close up view of the TGU at its mooring site. And thanks to Bob for letting us into the craft shop so we could see the Quoddy Dam model, created to show a now-abandoned plan for tidal power developed during FDR's presidency.

Ground hog day and Maine

2010-05-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

The date approaches for me to try (again) to get to Eastport, Maine. I'm supposed to fly out of Laramie on Monday to Denver. That's as far as I got the last time I tried this stunt. The weather for this Monday is supposed to be cool and rainy (what else is new) but hopefully the pilots of the plane will be able to see the runway well enough to actually land on it and take me away. Let us all hope I get out of Laramie, get to Denver, then to Laguardia and on to Bangor. Tuesday morning I should be able to get up bright and early and head for Eastport. Susy Kist, bless her heart, is going to make another trip out there from her office in Portland to meet me. She is a saint.

Rescheduling Maine

2010-04-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

This is so depressing. I was sitting at the Laramie airport Thursday morning waiting for my 8 a.m. flight to Denver, then on to New York, then on to Bangor where I'd rent a car and get myself to Eastport.
Then whadya know. About 4 a.m. a big blizzard comes and doesn't stop. The airplane, which was coming down to Laramie from Worland, couldn't land in the half-mile visibility. It kept trying and even thought the visibility had increased to three-quarters of a mile, and all us passengers had high hopes, no luck. When the airport lady came out and said it couldn't land and they'd rebook us all on the 11:25, I knew my trip plans were ruined. My plane out of Denver was to take off just after 10 a.m. Even if the roads weren't closed, there was no chance to make it. There was also no way to reschedule my departure for later in the day. It is pretty hard to travel east, it turns out.
So, I'm going to try again. Hopefully Susy and Ocean Renewable Power Co. can fit me in for another visit in May. I plan to give myself an extra day between travel and touring, just in case. There's no reason to believe it won't still be snowing in Laramie in May.

Maine visit almost here

2010-03-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've been emailing Susy Kist at Ocean Renewable Power Company about my visit to Eastport, Maine, to see their Tidal Generating Unit in action. She's setting up a few people to meet with me. More importantly, she's given me good driving directions from Bangor, where my plane will land, to Eastport. I have motel reservations in Eastport and think I can wing it my first night in Bangor (I hope so - I'll be getting in there late, picking up my rental car, and hoping to collapse at the first motel I see.)
I just hope I survive changing planes at Laguardia. I don't know why but I'm a bit freaked out by the fact that I'm stopping there. I'm sure once I've done it and see that it is ok, I'll wonder why I was dreading disaster. Breathe, Julianne, breathe...

Remembering Maine

2010-03-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Now that I have sent off most of the manuscript of Earth, Wind & Sky: A Power tour to Texas Tech University Press, I need to remeber I have one more chapter to write! That chapter will take me to Eastport, Maine, in just a few weeks. There I will meet with Susy Kist and others from the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC.) In a press release they announced that on March 2 they unveiled the tidal energy company's proprietary Turbine Generator Unit (TGU) "With a capacity rating of 60 kilowatts, the TGU will be the largest ocean energy device ever deployed in U.S. waters.'
I expect I'll be seeing the TGU when I visit, and I'll meet lots of interesting people. I'd better get going and confirm my plans with her.

It's in the Mail

2010-02-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

If I may participate in a little self horn-tooting, my manuscript of Earth, Wind & Sky: A Power Tour was in the hands of the U.S. Postal Service as of yesterday. My husband packed it up in multiple layers of bubble wrap and plastic and bundled the whole thing into a Priority mail box. It is on its way to Texas Tech University Press. There editor-in-chief will send it out to various readers. I should know by early summer whether the book has been accepted, that is, whether it fulfills what I was contracted to do way back last summer. If so, then I imagine the readers will have ideas for revisions, and that's what I'll work on this summer. Then after I do that, the book will be copy edited, and I anticipate receiving many great ideas for improving my prose. If all goes well, the book will be released in early fall 2011. That seems like a million years from now but I think it will go by quickly. That is, if they accept it. There's always something to worry about!

Daily Yonder Nevada Solar One

2010-02-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

My story about Nevada Solar One that ran in the Daily Yonder recently has gotten a bit of attention. Thought I'd share the link here, too. Bill Bishop and Julie Ardery at Dailyonder.com ran the story with a picture of the desert tortoise, which figures into the debate about commercial scale solar power in the desert. Take a look! Here's the link.
http://www.dailyyonder.com/julianne-sun/2010/02/15/2590

EPA testing wells around Pavillion, Wyoming

2010-02-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

I was able to talk by telephone yesterday with Luke Chavez, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8, in Denver. He is overseeing the testing of water in various wells in the area of Pavillion, Wyoming. This is an area long used to a mix of uses from agricultural to oil and gas development. About a year ago residents brought to the attention of the EPA that odd things were floating in their well water. Not only that, but the water smelled bad and tasted worse. Some of these wells were for human consumption, while others were devoted to agricultural purposes. Still others were production wells used in gas drilling.
The first round of testing turned up no chemicals that the Clean Water Act identifies as toxic. But that doesn't mean something bad isn't in the water, Chavez told me. That's why the EPA did another round of well testing in January. The results of this last round of testing should be released some time in May, he said. Then they hope to have a better idea of the source of the unpleasant water. The EPA is not assuming the cause is gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing, agriculure, or anything else. That's why they test.
Stay tuned.

Putting on finishing touches

2010-02-09T11:42:00.001-08:00

Well, at least for the draft of Earth, Wind & Sky: A Power Tour. I've received feedback from almost all of my outside readers. Jeffe Kennedy was the most recent reader to give me feedback. I'll take her great advice on my chapter about visiting a natural gas field in Texas. While there I saw drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and water recycling. Needing to update my information about well contamination in Wyoming possibly due to "fracking" I'll hope to contact Luke Chavez this week. He is the Superfund site project manager in charge of reviewing the problems at Pavillion, Wyo.

Remembering Maine

2010-01-04T13:13:00.001-08:00

I took the plunge and booked the flight for my trip to Maine. As soon as I corresponded with Susy Kist, the marketing manager with Ocean Renewable Power Company, I hopped on to Expedia. I wish I could control my itchy fingers when it comes to booking flights. I'm always paranoid that flight prices will go up and available seats from Laramie to Denver and back will disppear. There - I think I've just comforted myself that booking three months in advance was the right thing to do. Especially since I'm traveling on Easter weekend. I plan to fly out of Laramie on Thursday April 1 (uh oh) at 8 a.m. and get into Bangor at 8 something p.m. I'll be changing planes at Laguarida airport, which I don't think I've ever done before unless it was in 1973 when I went to Europe with my parents. Anyway, I've managed to pick the flight that doesn't change airlines a million times along the way. I'll fly into Bangor on Thursday, drive up to Eastport Friday morning, see the tidal generating unit in action (I hope) on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday make my way back to Bangor. There I'll catch a mid-morning flight on Sunday and repeat the process home. Except I'll gain back the two hours I'm losing by flying to the easternmost point of the country.