TIFFIN, Ohio — The need for a team approach to controlling energy costs and increasing the use of renewable fuels was the message last week during an Ohio Self-Help Energy Program conducted by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF).

The meeting was one of four hosted around the state to make farmers aware of the changing world of energy.

“Energy independence is a myth. Energy interdependence is a very viable strategy,” said Dale Arnold, OFBF’s director of energy services. “There ain’t no silver bullet. No single technology can meet energy needs.”

Arnold was joined by Mark Shanahan, energy director for Gov. Ted Strickland, who explained the need for Ohio to reverse its plan to deregulate electricity companies. In 1999, he said Ohio and 13 others states started the deregulation process, but competition hasn’t emerged and other states are seeing cost increases of 30-50 percent.

“Ohio is the fourth most energy intensive state in the nation,” Shanahan said. “We can’t afford to have energy costs go up.”

He encouraged attendees to contact state legislators about passing House Bill 221, which he has been with OFBF for 24 years – back when gasoline was less than $1 a gallon and electricity was less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour. He reviewed energy market trends, which showed prices for crude oil, natural gas and electricity have been rising and becoming more volatile. He expects costs to continue going up in the future.

In the agricultural sector since 1970, Arnold said electricity use has been growing steadily, which means farms are more dependent on electricity today than they were 25 years ago.

While the demand for energy is increasing, Arnold said the infrastructure required to get fuel from its source to consumers is getting old and breaking down. Also for electricity, the system of transmission and distribution is requiring more repairs. Revamping the energy infrastructure would cost around $2 trillion, he said. “A trillion dollars is a million million,” he said. “We’re talking about a major refit of that infrastructure to serve our needs.”

Arnold said a combined approach is needed to meet consumer demand. Ethanol and biodiesel play a part in meeting fuel costs, both from corn and soybeans and from new cellulosic technologies. He sees the electrical system moving from a centralized system in which electricity is distributed from companies to consumers to a decentralized system in which consumers – such as farmers – generate some of their own electricity and help supply their neighbors by putting extra power back into the grid. “Advanced coal and nuclear” power sources such as clean coal technology will continue to provide 75 percent of energy needs, he said, continuing to provide an energy base while renewable forms grow. He said wind power, solar, biomass and other renewable technologies are becoming more important.

“That’s an opportunity for agriculture,” Arnold said, because farmers have the open space and feedstocks needed to provide renewable fuels.

“It’s essential that Ohio begin to take advantage of these options for several reasons,” Shanahan said. Not only would consumers benefit, he said, the transition of manufacturing plants to make parts for wind turbines and solar fittings would increase the number of jobs in Ohio.

He said wind technology was created in Ohio, but Americans weren’t ready for it, so it moved to Europe. “Now it’s coming back,” he said.