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I think you might have overlooked my last statement -- turn inward and evaluate the resources available within one's bioregion both manages growth and develops sustainable communities. Secondly, spacial luxury is just one of the benefits of living in a rural place. I would also say there are social benefits and economic benefits. I know of many people in eastern Oregon that would argue that they exist because of western Oregon. The argument that farms exist because of the urban may be a current trend but looking back historically farms existed because they contributed to the needs of their local communities first and foremost. As far as energy needs, the rural is indeed tied to the energy grid. We do have great potential for wind production but that production of energy is not directly tied to our communities. It goes into the grid and eventually ends up at our homes. Decentralizing the grid and developing local solutions to our needs is really the only way to create sustainable and livable places.

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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I am a resident of eastern Oregon who has both grew up in the urban environment of Portland and lived in rural places around the west. My experiences living in the rural environment has reaffirmed the need for the urban environment to find solutions for their living needs that does not mine the rural for the resources. Eastern Oregonians are currently challenging the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line that Idaho Power is working to ramrod through private land in order to avoid Environmental Impact Statements. The coal for the Boardman plant comes from Wyoming by rail daily. A wind turbine grid is proposed on private land on the foothills of the Cove Oregon which is the gateway to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Obviously eastern Oregon has space, it has solar, and it has wind. We ship our energy to the urban. We ship our food and grassseed to the urban. Mining the rural resources provides economic rewards for the corporate stakeholders and marginalizes the vast majority of people living in these rural places. This feeling of being marginalized is further perpetutated by the urban/rural west/east divide so prevalent in Oregon. The distance people experience from their energy source and food source enables people to continue viewing progress as unchecked growth. Turning inward and evaluating the resources available within one's bioregion both manages growth and develops sustainable communities.

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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