Location(s)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day with an interesting group of heritage conservationists.  I attended the conference of the Society of Women Environmental Professionals, aka SWEP.  The conference, "Making Environmental Connections," was hosted by the Capital Chapter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the C. Ted Lick Wildwood Conference Center on the campus of the Harrisburg Area Community College.  (By the way, if you ever need to plan a conference in Harrisburg, this is a great facility!  Easy to get to -- it's right next to the Farm Show complex near I-81 and Routes 22/322; plenty of parking; all the amenities.  Lunch was great!)

I'm new to this group, so I didn't know what to expect.  There were about 130 attendees -- environmental engineers, elected officials, lawyers, policy makers, lobbyists, consulting firms, government agencies, and students -- it was an interesting mix.

The day started with the usual muffins and coffee and mingling.  The Plenary Session was presented by Janet Bowers, Executive Director of the Chester County Water Resources Authority who spoke about "Making Environmental Connections in the Brandywine Valley."  Janet drew on a 1912 description of the valley to demonstrate what changes have occurred there over the last century.

Following the plenary session, each of us had to decide which panel discussion to attend:  "Pharmaceuticals -- an Emerging Water Quality Issue" or "BioFuels -- Policy, Economics and Public Opinion."  I popped in on the BioFuels discussion. 

Jeanne Dworetzsky (Director, PA Energy Development Authority) gave an overview of the current energy usage in Pennsylvania.  Even though the oil boom began here at Drake's Well in 1859, Pennsylvania today is not a significant producer of gasoline, diesel, and other liquid fuels (about 294,000 gallons per day).  On the consumer side, however, we use 1.6 billion gallons of diesel and 4.87 billion gallons of gasoline each year.  Biodiesel, produced from virgin soybean oil, is made at four plants within the Commonwealth, with a combined output of 9 million gallons per year.  At least two other plants are under construction and should come online within the next year, pushing the annual production up by another couple of billion gallons.  The catch is that even though there are lots of soybeans grown in PA, they have to go to the Midwest to be crushed into oil, then the oil transported back to the biodiesel plants.  And, currently, no one is building a bean crusher plant here in PA. 

Nadia Adawi (President, Fry-o-Diesel) runs a company that converts the nasty grease that gets caught in the grease traps of restaurant kitchens into biodiesel.  Unlike other raw materials, such as soybeans and corn (for ethanol) which are also important food crops, or have other uses, trap grease, or "brown grease" is a waste product.  Nobody wants it.  It is more expensive to collect and convert to biodiesel.  But since the raw material, or feedstock, has no other use, it doesn't have the potential to drive prices like the dual use crops, and doesn't put us in the position to choose between food or fuel, with the potential to raise the price of both. 

Anne Steckel (Director, Congressional Relations, American Farm Bureau), described how ethanol production, from corn, is right now centered in the upper midwest.  In 2006, 5 billion gallons of ethanol were produced by 110 plants in 19 states; 79 plants are now under construction.  Because the plants are located near the source of the corn, ethanol has a positive energy balance -- it does not cost more energy to produce it than it produces.  This is a key concept in evaluating any energy source.  Ethanol is most commonly blended with gasoline in a 1 to 9 ratio (10 percent ethanol), and does not require any special pumps or change to your car.  E85, a blend that is 85 percent ethanol, aka "flex fuel," has been growing slowly, but because it needs special equipment to both dispense and use it, has not been adopted widely yet.  However, it was surprising to learn that there are already millions of "flex fuel" vehicles on American roads -- you may even have one and don't know it.  It's coded into your Vehicle ID Number (VIN) -- to find out, check your VIN at http://www.e85fuel.com/information/vin.php.  For now, biofuels tend to be a bit more expensive per gallon, but as supply and demand grow, the price should be comparable to non-biofuels.

The morning ended with a great mentoring session.  One or two students were assigned to groups of 5 or 6 professionals for three 20-minute long sessions.  The groups changed every 20 minutes, so in effect, each student got to visit with a couple of dozen professionals.  It was fun for everybody, and a truly inspired idea!

Joanne Denworth, of Governor Rendell's Policy Office, spoke at lunch.  She gave a very personal and insightful glimpse of her own experience in "The road to your future is not a straight line."  She pointed out that personal goals and objectives often get sidetracked by the realities of family and professional life.

The afternoon sessions once again forced us to make a tough decision between "Conservation and Open Space" or "Global Warming."  I opted for open space, and heard about the value of conservation easements and some success stories from Berks County and Northcentral PA.

Overall, I came away from the conference feeling optimistic.  This wasn't a conference where there was a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing about how bad things were.  This was a conference that talked about things that were working, or had the potential to work.  It was about lots of little connections making a big difference.