Recycling the visions for alternative energy's future

Is it me, or do a lot of the ads for gubernatorial candidates look like modernized commercials for Old Dutch Potato Chips?

There are windmills gently spinning in the middle distance as millionaire Democrats in coveralls stroll through farm fields.

With grim visions of oil-stained beaches, empty restaurants and petro-colored waterfowl on the news every night, you can expect more such ads as "alternative energy" becomes a dominant theme.

Great. I'm all for weaning us off foreign oil and building the economy here, but I had a notion we've heard this before.

So I asked Dan Carr, CEO of the Collaborative, an organization that matches emerging companies and investors, about the real potential for alternative energy in Minnesota.

Carr agrees the windmills are partly symbolic, but he believes "there is more meat on the bone than even three years ago.

"There is more merit to it, especially this time around," said Carr.

Carr points to Suzlon, a windmill manufacturer in Pipestone, Minn. (which brought in a few hundred jobs but has been up and down), Bixby Energy Systems, which is working on so-called "clean coal," and an emerging company making software to manage electric grids more efficiently.

I was still skeptical. So I used the WABAC Machine (our archives) to see what governors and candidates for the office promised before:

• In a 1984 debate involving gubernatorial candidates, Sen. John Marty said renewable energy was essential: "a lot cheaper, a lot smarter and a lot better for the environment."

Marty had a dream, then lost. Repeatedly.

• In 1986, before a single pelican was oiled, Gov. Rudy Perpich "made alternative energy a theme." His pet projects included a wood-burning heating system in St. Cloud, which was aborted for being economically unfeasible, and one in Bemidji that turned out to be more expensive to run after oil prices plunged.

• About that time, a business and magazine, Alternative Sources of Energy Inc., sprouted in Milaca, Minn., with promises that the town would become "an alternative-energy capital, of sorts."

So I called Becky Bergstrom, who runs the Milaca Chamber of Commerce. "They moved," she said of the firm. "Did we become the capital of alternative energy? Uh, no."

Another dream, of sorts, skedaddled.

• Gov. Arne Carlson was once called "Governor Green," before he got rid of his alternative-energy experts in 1997.

• In 2001, Gov. Jesse Ventura said, "I'm always in favor of anything that drops our reliance on foreign fuel." That included signing a bill that said turkey poop could be counted by utilities as "alternative fuel."

• Don't tell the "drill here, drill now" crowd, but Gov. Pawlenty has been supportive of alternative energy, pushing a plan that calls for a quarter of the state's power to be from alternative sources by 2025. He once said corn ethanol could make Minnesota the Saudi Arabia of alternative fuels.

Granted, a lot of western Minnesota towns resemble deserts, but not because they are awash in riyals.

I read some of those promises to Carr.

"I don't disagree with your skepticism," he said. "Are we actually going to see a pullback from fossil fuels? It's hard to believe unless there is a price structure (and attitude) change."

Jay Hare, a partner at the Minneapolis office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said investment is "clearly up," that "venture capitalists and politicians are willing to get a quick return on alternative energy, but when it's a 20-year venture instead of a five-year venture, both lose interest. The trouble with Americans is that we are big on ideas and short on memory. We're all kind of guilty," Hare said.

Particularly in rural Minnesota, "some people don't want to admit the farm economy has been replaced by nothing at all," said Ristau.

But what is a candidate supposed to say after the July 4th parade is over in Bumstump, and someone asks what they are going to do about empty storefronts?

All three DFLers running for governor push alternative energy on their websites. The Republican doesn't mention it.

As I watch the sheets of oil washing up across our shores and witness the state's economy wheeze, I look to the promises of the past and wonder if my choice for governor this year will simply be between people with pipe dreams and those with no dreams.