North Dakota, especially the “energy corridor” in which our fair cities reside, provides electricity for a very large area. Although lignite coal isn’t necessarily the “best” coal, the people in charge of converting it to electricity continue to strive to extract the most out of it in as clean a fashion as possible. Since we need wires to get all that electricity somewhere, there are power lines wherever a hopeful photographer may point his camera. And there still aren’t enough, by the way.

That’s why somewhere along the line I fell in love with power line towers. Perhaps it’s because I know what they mean to our state. Maybe it’s the way they stand fast across the rugged prairie, or what they deliver to thousands, if not millions, of hopeful customers. In any case, I’ve got LOTS of power line tower photos.

This particular morning, from about a week or so ago, was quite hazy due to the humidity. That same haze was giving me a rough time in my quest to spot Perseid meteors, so I was happy to be able to at least use it to my advantage. I was getting ready for an all-day video shoot, so I ran to work early. Along the way I spotted these towers, and dashed out for a quick click of the shutter.

The electrons whizzing over my head probably heated up some Minnesotan’s breakfast that morning, or kept some little kid’s life support machine running in a hospital. Maybe it powered someone’s computer so they could read my blog!

I found this video while rooting around on the hard drives tonight and thought I would pass it along. I’m not sure who shot it, but kudos. Considering that the transformers in this substation still contained PCB’s, I’m not so sure I would want to be anywhere near them as they burned, at least not downwind. I’m sure they were replaced with more environmentally friendly ones.

You may remember a semi trailer parked in the Kirkwood Mall parking lot with temporary substation equipment on it. That’s long gone now, with a new (and presumably beefier) substation built in the location of the old one. I hope you enjoy the video.

Remember the stereotypical image of stacks belching forth acrid black smoke? Those days are long gone, thanks to pollution control measures. In fact, the only thing you’re likely to see from today’s power plants is steam…which makes sense, because that’s all a power plant really is: a steam factory. Once they’ve made the steam, they force it through the turbines of some very large generators, but the process of the plant is the liquefaction and ignition of coal in order to heat water into steam. As cleanly and as safely as possible, I might add.

I have a hard time believing the farmer or rancher is going to come out successful in the long run, and it’s obvious the consumer is getting robbed. So who’s making money? Simple: the people collecting the government subsidies on ethanol blended fuels.

In ND, E85 can contain as little as 70% ethanol. Check the text on that orange button on the E85 pump. That means an E85 producer can hedge 15% of the ethanol in the fuel he makes and collect a 50 cent per gallon subsidy on 15% more product! What a racket, eh?

Why do you suppose they give it 15% leeway? Perhaps it’s because the ethanol evaporates and/or absorbs water. That’s why they can’t transport it using pipelines. So if it will absorb water in a pipeline, what do you suppose it’s going to do in the underground tanks at the gas stations?

What about putting a hygroscopic fuel in your gas tank? Do you feel like replacing a $500 fuel pump in your General Motors Flexfuel vehicle every winter when the water absorbed by the ethanol freezes up and takes out the impellers of your fuel pump? Since 1995, GM has integrated the fuel pump with the gas gauge sending unit in its vehicles. Trust me, I had to replace one. I couldn’t believe the $670 bill! Look forward to more of those if you’re going to start making ethanol ice cubes in your gas tank.

Let’s not forget that E85 is a thermodynamic loser as well. That means you get less energy out of gallon of E85 compared to a gallon of gasolene. Simply put: your car doesn’t have much power, your mileage goes down, and you save ZERO in the long run. But you get to feel better (until you crunch the numbers) and some fatcat gets to collect a government subsidy. E85 is a joke, plain and simple. Anyone who tells you otherwise has a purely financial interest in doing so.

Photography is about being at the right place at the right time, and that’s how this photo came into being. The sun was just setting as I came up good ol’ 83 in my truck. I’d been eyeballing everything on either side of the road the entire time, looking for photo opportunities, and this one was not about to escape! I found an approach on which to park, sauntered over to the fence line, and here we are. I have a bunch of different angles and zooms, of course…but this one highlights the sun’s rays streaming from behind the clouds the best.