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STEADY STATE COLLEGE August 13, 2014

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ LOCAL DEMOCRACY & SKILL-BUILDING Calendar of Events

• August 12 – 14 – Ag Progress Days at Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research farm at Rock Springs. Tues. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wed. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thurs. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Online: agsci.psu.edu/apd

• August 13 – Lemont Farmers Market - 2 to 6 p.m. – Lemont Granary

• August 15 – State College Downtown Friday Farmers Market - 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Locust Lane

• August 16 – North Atherton Farmers Market - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – State College Home Depot

• August 16 – Millheim Farmers Market. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Millheim American Legion on Rt. 45, 162 W. Main St.

• August 19 – State College Downtown Tuesday Farmers Market. - 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Locust Lane

• August 19 – Boalsburg Farmers Market. 2 to 6 p.m. PA Military Museum.

• August 20 – Lemont Farmers Market - 2 to 6 p.m. – Lemont Granary

• August 20 – Friends & Farmers Cooperative – Volunteer Meeting – 7 p.m. at New Leaf Initiative, Third Floor, 243 South Allen St.

• August 21 – 28 - 140th Annual Centre County Grange Fair. Grange Fairgrounds, Centre Hall. Online: grangefair.net/

• August 22 – State College Downtown Friday Farmers Market - 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Locust Lane

• August 23 – PSU Community Solar on State Workshop, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Park Forest Elementary School. Contact Jeffrey Brownson for more info: brownson@psu.edu.

• August 23 – North Atherton Farmers Market - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – State College Home Depot

• August 23 – Millheim Farmers Market. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Millheim American Legion on Rt. 45, 162 W. Main St.

• August 26 – Boalsburg Farmers Market. 2 to 6 p.m. PA Military Museum

• August 26 – State College Downtown Tuesday Farmers Market. - 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Locust Lane

• August 26 – CITY-GREEN Organizing Meeting – 7 p.m. at New Leaf Initiative.

• August 31 – CrickFest. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Coburn Park in Millheim

• September 4 – Citizens’ PSU-DEP Document Review in Williamsport. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• September 9 – “Farmer Comes to School” presentation at a local elementary school. Boalsburg Farmers Market vendors talk to children about their farms and provide samples of their products. School TBA.

• September 10 – Third Annual “Plow to Plate” Harvest Dinner – Boalsburg Farmers Market at the Mount Nittany Winery. Dishes prepared by our area’s best chefs from fresh ingredients obtained at the BFM. 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. $35 per ticket, kids under 12 free. Tickets available at BFM.

• Sept. 14 & Nov. 16 - Youth Sewing 101 at Contempo Studio in Boalsburg. Kids learn basic sewing machine skills. Email amy.c.frank@gmail.com.

• September 16 – “Kids Day” at the Boalsburg Farmers

Market. Students from Sept. 9 “Farmer Comes To School” can use a $5 voucher to purchase products from market vendors.

• September 18 – College Township Backyard Hens Public Hearing. 7:30 p.m. at College Township Municipal Building.

LOCAL FOOD What’s Fresh & Local at the Farmers Markets? Freestone Peaches, Blueberries, Sweet Plums, Sweet Corn, Lodi Apples, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Bell Peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Eggplant, Onions, Red Beets, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Red potatoes, Cabbage News from Way Fruit Farm in Port Matilda: “We have finally started our first variety of yellow, freestone peaches named Red Haven. Freestone simply means that a fruit is easily removed from it's pit, and this makes working with large amounts of the fruit much easier. Because they are freestone, these beauties are great for fresh-eating, canning, freezing, jam and baking. We will be offering peaches in both small and large quantities at our farm store. We will have freestone peaches available at the local Farmer's Markets we attend, but not in 1/2 bushel quantities for obvious logistical reasons. Please visit us soon!” Friends & Farmers Cooperative Updates Survey The Friends & Farmers Survey went out by email to the MailChimp mailing list on August 8. Carpools for Farm Products Board members exploring the possibility of creating an online market to begin developing vendor relationships, inventory management skills and the co-op’s customer base have also been thinking about how to get more local produce to the State College area in the winter. During the summer, many farmers drive into town at least once a week to sell their wares at the farmers markets. Winter markets are smaller – with fewer vendors. A couple of years ago, I got an email from a woman in North Dakota who started a business coordinating carpools and layover stops for produce (online at aggregatend.com/hungerfreeND.html). Andrew Batdorf – dairy farmer, PA Certified Organic board member and enthusiastic co-op supporter – brought up a similar idea when I spoke with him at FarmFest, noting that people are driving into State College from the surrounding rural areas every day at all hours, and that there should be a way to organize rides for farm products with those commuters. So that’s something we’ll keep in mind going forward. Living Wages for Young Farmers - Email from Dorothy Blair The article below brings into strong focus the real issues of farming small, local and green. It doesn't pay because we don't

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pay enough. [See: Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers, by Bren Smith (New York Times, August 10, 2014)].

“…It’s not the food movement’s fault that we’ve been left behind. It has turned food into one of the defining issues of our generation. But now it’s time for farmers to shape our own agenda. We need to fight for loan forgiveness for college grads who pursue agriculture; programs to turn farmers from tenants into landowners; guaranteed affordable health care; and shifting subsidies from factory farms to family farms. We need to take the lead in shaping a new food economy by building our own production hubs and distribution systems. And we need to support workers up and down the supply chain who are fighting for better wages so that their families can afford to buy the food we grow…”

I like the idea of paying for levels of ecosystem services. The difference between grocery store pork, pastured pork (Cow-a-Hen Farm), and pork raised indoors in a way that is humane and doesn't damage the environment (Lyn Garling's Over-the-Moon Farm) should prompt us to pay on a graded scale and to educate consumers accordingly. Are you thinking of doing this when Friends and Farmers gets going? I know this is premature, but the article prompted my outburst. I also lived this with my husband when we had the CSA. But we had security such as health care and retirement from my university job. Katherine Watt Response I wonder sometimes if there's potential for a tithing model, especially useful when the customer base is primarily the urban upper-middle class CSA customer base. Customers would pay 10% of their annual after-tax income to a farm or farm cooperative in exchange for access to the local portion of their food supply. At some point, American household food budgets will need to come more in line with household food budgets in other countries, if we're moving away from the agribusiness production model toward the small family farm model. [See thewire.com/global/2011/04/dont-look-united-states-household-food-spending/36279/] But definitely the farmers in Centre County would benefit from organizing themselves to negotiate with buyers and push food prices higher in a way that gets across to customers that they're not just paying for their food. They're paying for the system that grows their food, which is more expensive. Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative was farmer-led, not consumer-led, according to Tony Ricci. To me, that's the biggest hole in the local food movement in Central PA. The marketing organization Central PA Farmers, put together by Laura Young, is as close as they've gotten so far, although I've also thought about checking with Hannah Smith-Brubaker about whether there are any active PA Farmers Union members in Centre County who might make good negotiating partners for the purchasing side of Friends & Farmers, when the co-op gets further along in the sourcing process. Friends & Farmers directors are already aware of the need to develop the educational wing of the organization, to bring more consumers up to speed about the deeper economic and ecological significance of local food systems. Other than those developments, every time the subject of a farmers' advocacy organization comes up, I hear again about how

the farmers have no time to organize themselves to advocate for the farmers' needs because they're running flat out, 24/7, on the farms. Related: October 2012 Interview Notes from Meeting with Tony Ricci of Green Heron Farm Re: Tuscarora Organic Growers (TOG) Cooperative [Report Recipients (via email, then-job titles): Dave Cranage (PSU Hotel, Restaurant Mgmt); Clare Hinrichs (PSU Rural Sociology); Jeremy Bean (PSU Sustainability Institute); Laura & Jay Young (North Atherton Farmers Market, Central PA Farmers, Young American Growers, Rising Spring Meat Co.); J. Moore (Eat-n-Park); Tony Ricci (Green Heron Farm, TOG); Lisa Wandel (PSU Residential Dining); John Mondock (PSU Residential Dining); Eric Sauder (New Leaf Initiative); Emily Cook (Former Local Food Coordinator for PSU); Jenn Landry (PSU Horticulture); Mark Maloney (Greenmoore Gardens); John Eisenstein (Jade Family Farm); Jim Eisenstein (Jade Family Farm); Joshua Lambert (Spring Creek Homesteading Fund); Dana Stuchul (Spring Creek Homesteading Fund] TOG is a working model in this area with a strong track record. Tony said he thinks there’s room for in Central PA for the overall local food production and sales market to expand, so that success for a new organization managing sales to Penn State, Mount Nittany Medical Center and other big institutions doesn’t mean stealing business from TOG farmers. TOG would be interested in being one of the vendors if a new sales venue opens up a path to the Penn State dining halls. Tony highlighted three key things to get something off the ground. One - A credible lead farmer with a very strong interest in creating the organization, and a very strong, confident, persuasive personality able to give other growers confidence to join and able to negotiate firmly with buyers to meet the terms required by small growers. Grower momentum really matters; Tony’s view is that if the push is coming from a third party community organization [such as Spring Creek Homesteading Fund] or from the [institutional] buyers, there won’t be enough participation by farmers to make it work. Two – Once the core group of farmers is committed, they need to decide among themselves how much acreage to dedicate to the growers’ cooperative, to be able to talk about production capacity credibly, create effective joint marketing efforts, decide what to plant, and then sell their produce. Three – Make quality a selling point, to reduce waste by the end-user and therefore save buyers’ money. Create quality assurance system for the crops, as part of the quality-as-selling point. Organizational Structure Considerations: There are a lot of options for how to structure a distribution organization. It could be a member-owned agricultural cooperative, like TOG, whose board of directors hires staff. It could be an independent wholesale distributor. A two-tiered system would work – if quality standards were very clear – to allow both organic and non-organic growers to participate at different price points. If TOG were to expand its operations to try to sell to Penn State dining halls, the growers would all have to be organic. If growers started an independent distribution business, TOG could be a key vendor moving the organic products. Another entry point might be creating a staffed central clearinghouse phone line, to link purchasers to producers looking for specific products. The phone operator would need to have a good grasp of exactly where

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products are being grown or processed. (The 2012 Spring Creek Homesteaders’ Handbook might be a partial first step toward such a service-based business). Start-Up Considerations – Minimum number of farmers, volume of produce and monthly sales? Tony said there’s no minimum for any of those things. TOG started with three farmers selling 1,500 cases of produce to break even their first year. Lead farmer was Jim Crawford of New Morning Farm. In more than 20 years of operation, they’ve broken even or made a profit in all but one year. They now have 40 member farms and have gross sales of $3 million per year. Each member farm had to sell produce through TOG as a non-member for one year before joining at $100 per share. Many are Amish. TOG growers range from 2-3 acres to 30-40 acres under cultivation. Facilities Considerations – How many square feet of commercial space, what equipment? Tony said a co-op/distribution center needs a storage building with a loading dock and a walk-in cooler (32-40 degrees), and a small office with a phone. TOG started with a refrigerated tractor trailer parked in a building (their first cooler). During a 2004 expansion, they added two new coolers and new dock. In 2011, they added a fourth cooler just for tomatoes. Staffing Considerations – How many people to run a growers’ co-op, with what job titles/responsibilities, and what salary? Tony said TOG started with one staff person, a sales rep working the phones to build relationships with buyers and with farmers. They now have four full-time staffers, including the Production Coordinator, who talks with growers to coordinate planting and harvesting and align crops with what customers want to buy; sales coordinator; operations manager; general manager, plus part-timers as dock crew, drivers, sales helpers. Pricing Considerations – I asked about pricing strategies and template sales agreements (co-op & farmer; co-op & buyers) to sustain co-op and provide profit to farmers. I don’t have a clear understanding of how TOG does it, but Tony said they don’t use contracts but instead use looser agreements, and he emphasized that risk-spreading is a key business strategy on two levels: Multiple farmers in the cooperative gives the buyer confidence that if one farmer doesn’t have a particular item, another one will: pooled assets. Multiple farmers also gives greater product variety. One farm might produce 10 crops, but as member of the co-op, could offer 40 products to customers. On the other side, multiple buyers committed in principle to the “Buy Local” directive, gives the growers some confidence that if one buyer doesn’t follow through on a purchase, another buyer can be found for the produce before it spoils. Tony said blind bidding will never work for small growers because they can’t compete cost-wise with giant wholesale distributors. Likewise, locked-in contracts don’t work for small farmers on their own or for co-ops, because of the vagaries of farming – weather, precipitation, insect issues, crop failure, rainfall. It might be possible to get buyers to commit to a range of prices, but I still wasn’t clear on how much of a commitment is made by the buyers and sellers and at what point in the sales process. When does money change hands? Before planting? At harvest? And I still don’t know what happens to the farmer or the buyer when a crop fails – how that affects the purchasing arrangements. Key Point – Successful institutional buy-local programs are driven by motivated farmers but also by top-down directives from universities, hospitals, ordering purchasing departments to buy local. [If Penn State students and employees are to eat more local

food, then] Penn State buying practices will have to change to meet small grower needs – expand the system used at Nittany Lion Inn to cover one dining hall, for example. Examples of Successful Models – Bon Appétit Management Company is successfully doing “buy local” institutional food service. bamco.com/sustainable-food-service. Student mobilization could help at PSU. One percent of students demanding “local food in the cafeterias” would be a big deal. Financing Considerations – Tony said most financing for TOG has come from low-interest government loans for small businesses. They’ve gotten one grant, to install a computer system to manage sales/purchasing, inventory, etc. Transportation Considerations – Some farmers deliver to the TOG distribution warehouse. A TOG truck also goes to some farms for pick-up, which is worth it if the trucks get filled. School Garden to School Cafeteria Update With a team of moms, I help coordinate the Easterly Parkway Elementary School Garden. We had a bumper crop of zucchini this year - more than the gardening families could eat. I was thrilled when Megan Schaper, SCASD Food Service Director, said we could bring the zucchini to the high school kitchens, to be grated and baked into zucchini bread for the kids to eat in the fall, and chopped and frozen for soups. So I delivered many pounds of schoolyard-grown produce to the high school kitchens, and Megan sent photos and a note... “Thanks for the zucchini! See the attached picture of Melissa Workman processing it for soup and zucchini bread. We got five gallons of diced zucchini that we'll add to soup in the fall and shredded enough for 300 servings of zucchini bread that we plan to bake and freeze on Monday, August 11.”

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College Township Backyard Hens Update (From Scott Stilson) On August 7, College Township Council voted 3–1 to move the chicken ordinance to public hearing again on September 18 at 7 p.m. LOCAL ENERGY August 23 PSU Community Solar on State Workshop July 25, 2014 Invitation Email from Jeffrey Brownson: “We request your participation and valued input for our “Community Solar on State” design workshop, on Saturday, August 23, 2014 at Park Forest Elementary School. The event will be facilitated by industry green building and sustainability experts from 7Group out of Kutztown, PA, and lunch will be provided. This important workshop will shape the development of the first University + community solar project in the nation, and help develop a platform for continued growth of solar photovoltaic power in the region. Please find attached an agenda with our purpose statement, and a poster with information surrounding our project efforts and potential outcomes. For over eight years Penn State faculty, staff, and students have been working together to incorporate solar photovoltaic power within the University Park space. The efforts have demonstrated a strong collective will to grow solar capacity, both on campus and in the surrounding area. Through Reinvention Fund support from the PSU Sustainability Institute, our team led by Jeffrey Brownson (EME), Rob Cooper (OPP), and Susan Stewart (Aero/AE) has been applying a process of integrative design to implement and document multi-stakeholder engagement and project planning. Now we have an opportunity to develop a next generation culture of solar farming, as PA has only 15% less solar capacity than any of the Southwestern states. We seek to cultivate the growing sense of ownership for local energy resilience in the area, encouraging local stability, growth, viability, and vitality. By developing a platform to grow PV, we also take steps to enrich the memory of Happy Valley as the best place on earth to nurture the future. A key event in this process for “Community Solar on State” is this Summer workshop. We need your input and participation to succeed. Please RSVP by Friday, August 8, 2014 so that we can plan accordingly for lunches and breakout sessions. Any questions or concerns can be addressed by Jeffrey Brownson (PSU) and/or Sarah Klinetob (State College Borough Council). Invitees include: Staff and elected officials from the Borough, Townships, and the Centre Region Council of Governments (CRCOG); Representatives from CITY-GREEN, a local grassroots organization for community energy conservation and renewable energy; Community group members from local businesses and schools (SCASD, developers, non-profits, etc.); Penn State administrators, faculty, students, and staff from multiple PSU departments (Earth and Mineral Science, Sustainability Institute, Office of Physical Plant, etc.)

Editor’s Note: I originally declined the invitation, arguing that “the agenda strikes me as being built around the jargon of corporate psychology and not especially practical or likely to open a pathway for people on both sides of College Avenue to acknowledge and begin to deal with the gritty political and economic dynamics involved in energy system planning, so I can't see myself being able to contribute or gain much from this type of event.” However, I met with Jeffrey Brownson and Tom Keiter to discuss the meeting further on July 29 and changed my mind, since they are open to my interest in attending as a Steady State College reporter/agitator to observe the proceedings, take notes, and provide my portion of community-based participation in writing afterwards, but not take part in the discussions or luncheon during the August 23 event itself. They are also willing to open the event to the general public for registration during the week of August 8 to August 15, if there are fewer than 60 registered attendees from the original 100+ invitations sent by email. Their goal is to get roughly 65-70 participants total, and to specifically get as many as possible of those who are actively working on energy issues in the Centre Region. So, if you didn’t get a personal invitation and want to attend, contact Brownson (brownson@psu.edu) by August 15 to register. Brownson very clearly communicated that, in his view, this workshop is the beginning of the engagement process for adding more solar to the PSU energy mix, not the middle or the end. He also clearly communicated that one possible result of the workshop will be that the specific solar farm envisioned by the small steering group that set the August 23 workshop agenda won’t have enough community support to move forward, but that planners intend to follow the conversation wherever it does lead, in the hope that mutually-beneficial Community-University projects can emerge in the coming months and years. There’s been more correspondence about the power dynamics in the last couple of weeks, as I try to get a handle on affiliations/potential conflicts of interest for the Aug. 23 organizers and those of us who were not involved in setting the agenda. From a standpoint of trying to assess the relative decision-making power and status of the different players, these role classifications matter. I don't believe being paid by Penn State is, by definition, suspect. But I do believe that it's an important influence on private thought and public speech and action that strongly shapes power relationships within the community, and so I think acknowledging the fact of that financial relationship is one part of helping community stakeholders (especially those who are not paid PSU employees) to assess the different players' public statements and establish their own positions during this process. In other words, it's not bad faith to be a Penn State employee or contractor. It is bad faith to deny or minimize that being a Penn State employee or contractor influences what a person says and does with respect to Penn State energy planning. From the positive side, it's a sign of good faith to publicly acknowledge those financial relationships and give people the opportunity to evaluate public statements with that information in mind.

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Disclosure: My husband is a tenured PSU professor. He doesn't speak publicly about PSU energy issues, because we are both aware that PSU-affiliated individuals who do speak publicly have been subjected to reprisals, and that many PSU-affiliated individuals don't speak publicly out of a very rational fear of those reprisals, which have included measures up to and including job loss. My freedom of speech is directly related to my indirect affiliation with Penn State; I can make public statements critical of PSU decisions because I don't have to make a calculation about whether I will still be able to feed and house my family if I criticize powerful individuals within the university administration. Others do have to make that calculation; I've written about this chilling effect publicly, and encouraged people within the university to consider the significant risks before speaking out, and to speak in groups to make it more difficult for administrators to quietly punish individuals and legally gag them from speaking publicly about their adverse job consequences. However, it's a conscious tradeoff for me. Although I'd like paid employment, for some positions, I'm unemployable because of my community activism. It's a small town, so I'm still learning about how far the Penn State influence reaches in terms of blacklisting. ESMP-in-Exile Update (Minimal this edition…) Three source documents on PSU energy demand and production data available at Steady State College online: Combined Heat & Power as a Boiler Replacement Opportunity (EPA Webinar); PSU Office of Physical Plant Miller Moser EPA Presentation re: CHP; Webinar Question & Answer Notes From the Q&A Question 6: You mentioned that thermal needs aren’t sufficient to support production of all of your on site electricity needs. This surprises me - as I would think the campus would have a high thermal load (dorms, heating, cooling). Answer 6: Campus Electric and Steam Demands. Campus electric demand ranges from about 50 MW in the summer to about 30 MW in the winter. Chilled water is produced using electric chillers. Campus steam demands are primarily heating and are provided by both high pressure (150psig) and low-pressure (13 psig) distribution systems. Campus high and low-pressure steam demands are about the same; each range from a low of 40,000 lb/hr in the summer to a high of 200,000 lb/hr in the winter. Electric and Steam Production - West Campus Steam Plant. At PSU West Campus Steam Plant cogeneration, low pressure system is served by backpressure steam turbine- generators as well as turbine driven feed-water and lube- oil pumps and turbine driven draft fans. All turbines exhaust steam to the low pressure campus supply. Turbine-Generator Set steam conditions: Turbine inlet: 240/540 psig/oF. Turbine outlet: 13/540 psig/oF. Each turbine produces about 35 lb-steam/kW-hr of electricity generated. T-G2 is rated at 2.5 mW. T-G3 is rated at 3.5MW. At these steam rates, electricity production ranges from 1,100 kW-h to 5,700 kW-h. With the contribution of the feed-water, lube-oil pumps and draft fans to

the low- pressure system, the steam produced by the turbine- generator sets is even less. Typical summer electric generation is about 500 kW. Winter generation is about 3.5 MW. Far below that of the campus electric demand. Electric and Steam Production - East Campus Steam Plant. At East Campus Steam Plant co-gen, high pressure system is served by combustion turbine with heat recovery steam generator (CT/HRSG). The 7mW Solar Taurus 70 coupled with HRSG produces about 30,000 lb/hr steam without duct firing and about 117,000 lb/hr steam with duct firing. While additional CTs would possibly meet the electrical demands, they would be way oversized for the low thermal loads in the summer. As reported in the June 9 and July 9 editions of Steady State College: “From the University Archives: records of the Penn State Energy Conservation Committee, which worked from 1977 to 1983 to conduct detailed internal reviews of campus buildings for energy conservation. For each reviewed building, the report has a narrative section and a small spreadsheet focused on “C.A. – Cost Avoidance,” “C.I. – Cost to Implement,” and “P.P. – Payback Period” for a set of proposed energy retrofits. In other words, they quantified potential energy savings and laid out criteria for judging proposed projects. There may have been similar committees since 1983; if so, we have no access to records of their work.” I find myself wondering what the P.P. and C.A. are, for the $66,500,000 natural gas pipeline installation and West Campus Steam Plant boiler conversion and whether those calculations include fuel costs for the gas-fired boilers over the next 30 years. Strategic Energy Update to PSU Trustees (August 4, 2014 Watt Email to Board of Trustees. Reply received August 5: “Dear Katherine, Thank you for this. I will read it carefully. Best, Alice Pope” Welcome to the new board members. For those who don't know me, I publish Steady State College, a fortnightly newspaper in State College covering primarily local food and local energy issues during the transition to a steady state economy. I've written on local food and energy issues (including fracking) for the Centre Daily Times and Voices since 2009, supported the campaign and voted for the Community Bill of Rights in 2011 and became deeply involved in the community campaign against the Columbia Gas pipeline through the Highlands neighborhood in 2013. I've been actively working on community preparedness for the decline of the fossil fuel economy since 2005, when I read Richard Heinberg's 2003 book "The Party's Over." I helped found Transition Town State College, founded Spring Creek Homesteading Fund to focus on reskilling, and helped launch Friends & Farmers Cooperative (member-owned grocery store) and CITY-GREEN (community-based energy advisory committee). I'm also a Penn State alum, Class of '96, Philosophy & Natural Sciences. My particular interest with respect to the Penn State Board of Trustees is to contribute to the removal of your plausible deniability excuse for why Penn State has no specific, documented, public plan to wean the university off of fossil fuels.

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To that end, from time to time I send along news articles updating the board on the current status of the shale boom/bust cycle, since Penn State has made a 30-year commitment to running the University Park campus on natural gas. Herewith, the latest: Shale Gas: ‘The Dotcom Bubble Of Our Times’ (telegraph.co.uk, Aug. 4, 2014)

“…hardly anyone seems to have asked the one question which is surely fundamental: does shale development make economic sense? My conclusion is that it does not. That Britain needs new energy sources is surely beyond dispute. Between 2003 and 2013, domestic production of oil and gas slumped by 62% and 65% respectively, while coal output decreased by 55%. Despite sharp increases in the output of renewables, overall energy production has fallen by more than half… Those who claim that Britain faces an energy squeeze are right, then. But those who claim that the answer is using fracking to extract gas from shale formations are guilty of putting hope ahead of reality. The example held up by the pro-fracking lobby is, of course, the US, where fracking has produced so much gas that the market has been oversupplied, forcing gas prices sharply downwards.

The trouble with this parallel is that it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the US shale story. We now have more than enough data to know what has really happened in America. Shale has been hyped (“Saudi America”) and investors have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the shale sector. If you invest this much, you get a lot of wells… If a huge number of wells come on stream in a short time, you get a lot of initial production. This is exactly what has happened in the US. The key word here, though, is “initial”…Compared with “normal” oil and gas wells, where output typically decreases by 7%-10% annually, rates of decline for shale wells are dramatically worse. It is by no means unusual for production from each well to fall by 60% or more in the first 12 months of operations. Faced with such rates of decline, the only way to keep production rates up (and to keep investors on side) is to drill yet more wells. This puts operators on a “drilling treadmill”, which should worry local residents just as much as investors. Net cash flow from US shale has been negative year after year, and some of the industry’s biggest names have already walked away. The seemingly inevitable outcome for the US shale industry is that, once investors wise up, and once the drilling sweet spots have been used, production will slump, probably peaking in 2017-18 and falling precipitously after that. The US is already littered with wells that have been abandoned, often without the site being cleaned up.”

And attached, a December 2013 overview of the PSU situation drafted for and emailed to the trustees then in office, and the current draft of the PSU Energy System Master Plan-in-Exile, since the ESMP internally used by the Office of Physical Plant is held confidential and therefore not available to the public. Thanks very much for your time and service to Penn State; please let me know how I can help if and when the Board of Trustees decides to take a leadership role in post-carbon energy planning for the University Park campus. Sustainability Institute Columbia Gas Investigation Update (From Alex Wiker) “We are planning a public meeting to discuss the soon-to-be-released stakeholder assessment report. The meeting will be open to anyone interested in attending, but, as participants in the report, your attendance is most important. Please look over this Doodle poll and mark the times and dates [first two weeks of September] on which you can attend: doodle.com/annyfrvareyzhgp6. Lara Fowler and I will schedule a date and time that is convenient for the greatest number of interviewee participants as possible.” Community-Driven Strategic Energy Planning (June 18, 2014 Email from Joleen Hindman, Area Manager of FirstEnergy-West Penn Power, to Katherine Watt, Mike Rybacki, Nari Soundarrajan and Sarah Klinetob-Lowe)

“Concerning the usage reports being requested for the Georgetown competition, West Penn Power is willing and able to produce the reports you requested. The initial fee to set up and run the first reports will be $350. Each subsequent report will be $50 to produce.

PSU Trustees as of August 4, 2014 Abraham Harpster amh102@psu.edu Adam Taliaferro ajt164@psu.edu Albert Lord All300@psu.edu Alice Pope Awp130@psu.edu Allison Goldstein Asg206@psu.edu Anthony Lubrano apl12@psu.edu Barbara Doran bld221@psu.edu Betsy Huber beh17@psu.edu Carl Shaffer cts15@psu.edu Carolyn Dumaresq No email Clifford Benson Cgb148@psu.edu Daniel Mead Dsm232@psu.edu Donald Cotner dgc14@psu.edu Edward Hintz erh4@psu.edu Ellen Ferretti Emf15@psu.edu Eric Barron president@psu.edu George Grieg gdg13@psu.edu Jennifer Branstetter jub50@psu.edu Karen Peetz kbp12@psu.edu Kathleen Casey klc341@psu.edu Keith Eckel kwe1@psu.edu Keith Masser kem375@psu.edu Kenneth Frazier kcf11@psu.edu Mark Dambly mhd15@psu.edu Paul Silvis phs4@psu.edu Richard Dandrea rkd135@psu.edu Robert Jubelirer Rcj10@psu.edu Ryan McCombie rjm40@psu.edu Ted Brown ebb136@psu.edu Todd Rucci Tlr113@psu.edu Tom Corbett Twc11@psu.edu Walter Rakowich Wcr121@psu.edu William Oldsey wxo111@psu.edu

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If you intend to proceed, please let me know when you would like the first report, and where to send the invoice. Thank you for your patience as I worked through the internal channels to ensure we give you what you wanted.”

(July 31, 2014 Letter from Smita Bharti, Executive Director of CommunityWise, to Joleen K. Hindman)

Dear Ms. Hindman: CommunityWise is a registered nonprofit corporation formed in August 2013 to create a mechanism for community members to directly and proactively participate in local energy system decision-making, along with the Borough of State College, Penn State University and the Downtown State College Business Improvement District. Several months ago, a group of State College area residents (including CommunityWise founders), formed an informal citizens energy advisory committee called CITY-GREEN. The group’s first project was to lobby the Centre Region Council of Governments Public Services & Environmental Committee and the Borough of State College to enter the Georgetown University Energy Prize Competition. As part of the lobbying process, CITY-GREEN members reached out to West Penn Power to find out if WPP would be able to provide aggregate baseline electricity consumption data in the format requested by GUEP organizers: monthly data for the 24-month baseline period January 2012 through December 2013 (Attachments 1 & 2) Through correspondence with you and representatives of Borough government and State College Area School District physical plant management, community leaders developed a list of account numbers (Attachment 3). We learned that West Penn Power’s energy efficiency vendor is CLEAResults, and that aggregate monthly data for the 12,000+ residential and municipal/school district accounts, is available for an initial data processing fee of $350, with updates available thereafter for $50 per update. In late May and early June, the CRCOG PSE Committee and the State College Borough Council decided not to sign on to the GUEP competition, citing a lack of available staff support. CommunityWise and CITY-GREEN members have a continuing interest in obtaining the electricity consumption data, to use as a baseline for understanding consumption patterns and designing community-wide conservation strategies. On behalf of CommunityWise, I write to request the 2012-2013 monthly electricity data set. Enclosed please find a check for $350 to cover the initial data processing fee. Please contact me with any questions, and thank you for your support of this citizen initiative.

(August 8, 2014 Joleen Hindman to Smita Bharti)

I am in receipt of your letter and check requesting baseline energy data for all the State College Borough residences along with select borough buildings. West Penn Power does not release consumption data without authorization from the customer, in this case, the State College Borough.

I called the Borough today regarding your request and spoke with Courtney. She informs me the Borough actually has this data already. They recently partnered with SEDA to participate in another energy initiative and she has all the borough accounts consumption data compiled. Each month they are adding onto the data with current billing from West Penn Power. She did mention she intends to make the information public very soon. By the way, she tells me the Borough is taking full advantage of FirstEnergy’s Energy Efficiency & Conservation rebates from our website, EnergySavePa.com. We both agreed that having West Penn Power devote resources to write customized programming to reproduce borough data is redundant and a waste of your resources. Courtney was familiar with the GUEP competition. You may want to reach out to her directly for further understanding of her current energy initiative. In the meantime, I would like to return the Community Wise check you sent me, in the amount of $350, which represented the amount WPP previously quoted to cover the cost of programming for a report. Any questions let me know.

Community energy strategists are continuing to pursue this data. More info in future editions as the story develops. Steady State College is a fortnightly publication covering local democracy, food, energy, skill-building, and investment during the transition to a steady-state economy. Single copies - $2 each. Annual subscriptions for home or electronic delivery - $40 per year. Back issues (Sept. 2013 - April 2014) and source documents are online at steadystatecollege.wordpress.com. Contributing writers and authorized resellers welcome.

Copyright 2014 – Owl & Turtle Press Editor & Publisher – Katherine Watt

156 West Hamilton Ave. State College PA 16801

katherine_watt@hotmail.com 814-237-0996