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Whenever the local press is invited into a pulp or paper mill, I am always amused by the descriptions they apply to what they have seen. They usually describe the equipment as "huge" or "gigantic." They may call a paper machine an "assembly line." This is what we face when we talk to people about energy needs and supplies.

Laura and I just went to Hoover Dam. Even for us, Hoover Dam is "huge and gigantic." Do you know what percentage of the US electrical requirements is supplied by Hoover Dam? Less than 0.1% (less than 1/10th of one percent).

This is the problem we have when there is general discourse on the subject of energy in the United States or anywhere else: the average person cannot grasp the size of the power generation industry. They look at a telephone and think it is a cool gadget, doesn't use much energy. Yet, the typical iPhone uses more energy than does your refrigerator, and we are just talking about the energy consumed by this device, not your connections to the internet and cellular systems, cloud services and other links that make the phone so useful.

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If one drives I-65 from Indianapolis to Chicago, one passes through an impressive wind farm. It has 303 wind turbines and is spread over three counties. Looks like a huge opportunity for renewable power. Its nameplate capacity is 25% of Hoover Dam. Not so impressive now, is it?

Here in the pulp and paper industry, we have a difficult problem explaining our energy needs to the public. The scale of our facilities, the energy needs, just do not compute for the individual who is not regularly exposed to the scale of the business. This works to our detriment when the population puts pressure on the politicians.

What to do about this? I think we need to be more open, and by this I do not mean passively open, but actively "in your face" open. We need more tours of our facilities locally to educate the population as to the operations of our industry. We need more videos and more interactive web sites showing what we do.

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And we need to add energy usage to our products and packaging. In the last twenty years we have adopted recycling and certified forest labeling on our products. I think it is time we add energy consumption as well--energy consumption detailed to the levels of renewable, carbon neutral and so forth. Maybe we ought to denominate it in cell phone units (it took the equivalent of 1/1,000 of the consumption of electricity of your cell phone last year to produce this ream of paper). Of course, I have no idea if that number is correct; someone should calculate it accurately. But it would be a marketing move for us, wouldn't it?

What do you think? Should we adopt energy consumption labeling on our products? You may take our quiz here.

For safety this week, if you work in the power plant in your mill, do not take the equipment around you for granted. If you have not seen the results of a turbine explosion, let me assure you, you don't want to do so. Respect the equipment and keep it in good shape.

Be safe and we will talk next week.

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