I’m waiting in line for gasoline at $3.83 a gallon. I want to fill up while it’s still cheap. And I’m doing the math on how much more it will cost to drive to mom and dad’s this summer. It’s not good.

We all know how much it costs to run our cars, but how many of us know the cost of operating our household appliances? What if the annual cost of operating appliances were to go up by as much 732 gallons of gasoline? That’s the equivalent cost-per-household of one climate change bill going through Congress.

At that cost, could we ‘keep the tank full’ for the new LCD television? Could we continue to afford the internet? Just in Loudon County, VA, 15 new internet server farms will require the power of at least one new 900 megawatt (mw) coal or nuclear base load plant. And what about the plug-in electric cars that are expected in a few years?

We all know about the proverbial ‘between a rock and a hard place.’ Today, climate change is the rock, and growing demand for electricity is the hard place. U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and demand for electricity are projected to grow 33 percent and 20 percent, respectively, by 2020.

We are locked in a debate on how to achieve major reductions in GHG emissions and still maintain our standard of living. Michigan may soon mandate that 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2015 and electricity consumption be cut by 1 percent a year after 2012. But these mandates would not keep up with the ever-growing demand. Rock meets hard place.

There are several ‘cap-and-trade’ bills in Congress that would reduce GHG emissions. This concept is supported by the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, making it seem inevitable. The Senate is poised to vote on the Lieberman-Warner bill, which aims to reduce U.S. GHG emissions by 19 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 71 percent by 2050. That’s our rock.

The sponsors estimate it will cost $5.6 trillion to implement Lieberman-Warner. Its impact on Michigan alone could mean 56,260 jobs lost and reductions in household income of $3,024 per year by 2020, and gasoline price increases of 141 percent and electricity price increases of 177 percent by 2030. That’s the hard place.

Realistically, if we are going to reduce the emissions blamed for climate change and maintain our standard of living, we are faced with three ‘inconvenient truths.’

First, no matter what we decide, the price of electricity is going up, probably a lot. The Michigan mandates will add some to your monthly electric bill, but doing nothing will likely add even more over the long term. And, we expect what happens in Washington will cost much more.

We are in an international market now, which is creating dramatically increasing demand for energy, as well as shortages in the supply of everything it takes to produce and deliver energy: steel, concrete, copper, and skilled workers. Renewable and nonrenewable power projects are increasingly difficult to plan, finance and construct.

Second, we cannot go it alone. Recently, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency stated that unless China and India work with the United States to reduce GHGs, there is “no chance” to make a difference. China and India will soon be the largest consumers of energy in the world. They rely primarily on coal. Chinese emissions have grown 120 percent since 2000, versus 0.75 percent for the U.S. China builds one to two coal plants a week, each producing roughly 30 percent more CO2 than an equivalent U.S. coal plant. Imports in 2007 from China accounted for 1,189 mmt (million metric tons) of emissions in China and equaled 675 mmt of avoided emissions in the U.S. Are we exporting jobs, importing goods, and making the world’s air dirtier in the process?

Third, there is no silver bullet, only silver buckshot. We must rely on all available sources of energy. There are passionate advocates in Michigan who believe we can meet our state’s electricity needs without building any clean-coal or nuclear power plants. But that is not plausible.

Even with energy efficiencies, our need for electricity is expected to grow by at least 20 percent by 2020. We would need to construct 433 1.65 megawatt wind turbines every year just to meet projected demand. And that does not even begin to replace the existing fleet of base load generation that is one of the oldest in the country, or cover our needs when the wind doesn’t blow.

Despite this gloomy forecast, Michigan’s family of electric cooperatives remains optimistic.

We have been in the forefront of developing renewable energy in Michigan. We have been using hydro for nearly 100 years. We helped develop the first commercial wind farm in the state, Harvest Wind, producing enough electricity for more than 15,000 homes.

We are studying the feasibility of another wind farm in conjunction with a 600 mw base load plant that can use either state-of-the-art clean-coal technology or biomass to replace electricity from old-style coal plants.

Energy efficiency programs are not new to us. Because we are member-owned nonprofits, we always strive to reduce members’ costs.

Cooperatives are not on one side of the energy debate or the other. We want a dispassionate public debate so that we get realistic public policy. We accept that it will cost more to keep the lights on. We believe nuclear, clean-coal, renewables and energy efficiency, along with more transmission lines, should be part of the solution.

Last month the Michigan House passed a package of bills that would allow the industry to move forward with a mix of energy efficiency initiatives, renewable energy development, incentives to grow green energy jobs in-state, and reforms to the state’s customer choice laws that will bring certainty to the retail market place, allowing utilities to move forward with building newer, cleaner generation. The Michigan Senate is studying these issues now and will likely amend these bills. But the Legislature must act soon on energy reform legislation if we are to meet our state’s growing demand for electricity by the most economical means possible.

We see the rock coming. Knowing what the landscape in Michigan is going to be is the first step in our efforts to soften the hard place.

Our economy needs affordable electricity in its tank.