for transportation and to carry goods from place to place.

And oil from whales to light our evenings.

Today it's gasoline and motor vehicles, and vast amounts

of electricity to light our cities and power our economy.

But one study claims that Americans

spend just six minutes a year focusing on energy.

The American public does not like

to think about its energy use.

The one place Americans do think about energy use

is when they're standing at the pump.

Narrator: Global demand makes oil prices rise and fall

in response to events beyond our borders

and out of our control.

We worry about how our economy gets buffeted.

And the only way we do something about that

is to take into our own hands our destiny.

Narrator: In this program, we look at

how America uses energy.

And we'll meet people like you

who are helping their communities

find new sustainable resources and save energy.

Conservation, energy efficiency,

has already been something that the U.S.

has had tremendous achievement in.

And it is something, as the fifth fuel,

that can be very, very important for our future.

Narrator: Tapping that fifth fuel can be

as challenging as drilling for oil or gas.

But powering communities in these new ways

also empowers people.

We can control the things that go on in our home.

We can control the things that go on in our communities.

I'm a Republican.

What is more conservative than harnessing what is available

and around us in a long-term sustainable way?

Narrator: Our program's host, earth scientist Richard Alley,

knows the dangers of climate change.

But he also teaches about energy at Penn State.

And he's optimistic that Americans

can build a sustainable future.

Some states and cities are rolling up their sleeves

and moving ahead.

These citizens are heroes of America's new energy story

and show the way to a sustainable energy future.

The good news is we don't have to wait

for the national policies.

Narrator: Helping ourselves with clean energy

is also helping earth's climate.

The atmosphere doesn't care one whit what people think.

The atmosphere cares what people do.

Narrator: We visit five very different communities,

from Alaska to Texas, Portland to Baltimore plus Kansas,

in America's heartland, to find out how they're developing

new sources of energy, or cutting waste,

and why strategies like those make sense for all of us.

Female Narrator: Energy Quest USA -

Earth: The Operators' Manual is made possible by NSF,

the National Science Foundation,

where discoveries begin.

Narrator: Sometimes when Americans hear energy,

the next word that comes to mind is crisis.

It really doesn't have to be that way.

Shirley Jackson, former head

of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

and now president of one of America's leading

technical universities,

thinks the United States is actually well-placed.

Well, the U.S. is lucky because

we have such a diversity of climates

and diversity of geologies and in the end,

diversity of actual energy sources.

And that, in fact, makes us very fortunate

compared to other parts of the world.

They may have a given source of energy,

but they don't have the multiple sources.

Narrator: Alaska, like the rest of America,

has been addicted to oil.

Now, can abundant sustainable options

make it America's renewable state?

Kodiak Island, Alaska at 3,600 square miles

is about half the size of New Jersey.

Getting around almost always involves a boat, or a plane,

or a float-plane that's a bit of both.

Kodiak's population is less than 14,000,

leaving most of the island undeveloped and natural.

That beauty is one of Kodiak's economic assets,

bringing tourists to watch bears raising cubs

and catching fish.

Kodiak's human population also catches salmon,

with fish exports providing

another key source of jobs and income.

The island wants to limit imports

of dirty and expensive fossil fuels,

and tap natural resources to supply as much

clean and locally generated energy as possible.

Fuel prices, because we live on an island,

are very expensive.

You know, you learn pretty quickly

that you need an alternative.

Narrator: Kodiak was the first place in Alaska to make

wind power a substantial part of the energy mix,

with its three 1.5 megawatt turbines on Pillar Mountain.

So getting good quality, low-cost sustainable

power is really necessary for the long-term viability

of the economy of Alaska.

Narrator: Upgrades at the Terror Lake

hydro-electric plant, plus plans for three more turbines

leave the KEA co-op confident they can hit

95% renewables by 2020.

Though Kodiak uses diesel as a backup and during repairs,

the wind turbines save the island 800,000 gallons

of expensive, imported fuel each year.

And this matters to the local business community.

This morning, we're offloading pink salmon

and red salmon, chum salmon and coho

that came from the west side of Kodiak--

it keeps us busy, the plants work 24 hours a day,

and it's a very, very big industry for Kodiak.

Narrator: This processing plant runs

100% on renewable energy, so Kodiak's wind power

provides a clean, green marketing hook.

The package says, sustainable seafood,

produced in Kodiak, Alaska,

with wind-generated renewable energy.

You got some folks in the community

that are really concerned about price.

You know, they just want the lowest cost power

at their house or at their business.

The wind does that.

It's less than 50% of the cost of power versus diesel.

Then you got folks in the town that are very just,

environmentally concerned.

And they are incredibly excited,

because it's a whole lot cleaner than diesel is.

And then you've got the majority of folks who want both,

which is great as well.

Narrator: Kodiak is a genuine island, surrounded by ocean,

but vast areas of interior Alaska

are also islands of habitation, small communities

surrounded by open country and dense forests.

Many have no road access, and the only way to transport

heavy fuel is via rivers like the Yukon.

Bear Ketzler is city manager of Tanana,

a remote and mainly native Alaskan village

at the confluence of the Yukon and Tanana Rivers.

90% of our bulk freight

that comes in, comes by the barge.

Narrator: That includes diesel for the power plant

and heating oil for homes.

Diesel prices increased 83% between 2000 and 2005,

and utility costs can sometimes be more than

1/3 of a household's income.

The increase of energy costs,

it jeopardizes everything.

It jeopardizes our school, it really jeopardizes

the ability for the city to function effectively.

Narrator: Communities like Tanana

rely on the river for the fish protein

that's a large part of a subsistence diet.

And the river also provides

a cheap and local source of energy.

We have abundant resources of wood, biomass.

Wood that floats down the river, in the spring and the fall time.

Narrator: Timber is increasingly replacing oil

and diesel in Tanana's communal buildings,

like the washeteria, a combination laundromat,

public showers and water treatment plant.

Right now, we don't even need oil,

we're just running the whole place

off this one wood boiler, which is just amazing.

Narrator: Using biomass and solar, the washeteria

now uses only one quarter as much heating oil.

Instead, the city pays residents to gather

sustainable timber, keeping dollars in the local community.

And using biomass at the washeteria has proven

so cost effective that the city is planning

to install boilers in other public buildings.

Bear: We're going to be one of the first communities

on Yukon River that is installing

a biomass systems on the school.

In October of this year we're hoping to have

that wood system on line, so instead of burning

15,000 gallons of oil throughout this winter,

we're hoping to burn about 60 cords of wood.

And keep that money local and create

a little bit of an economy here.

Narrator: The bottom line for Tanana-- savings for the city.

Biomass is cheaper, local, cleaner and more sustainable.

Bear: Even though we are a very rich state, very blessed

to have the oil development that we do have,

those days are diminishing.

If we're going to make it in rural Alaska,

we have to move towards renewable resources.

I think we have, you know, less than 10 years

to move in that area.

Narrator: Winter in Alaska presents extreme challenges.

On this January day it was close to minus 50.

Gwen Holdmann is an engineer with the University of Alaska's

Center for Energy and Power.

She and her husband also raise sled dogs

and both are mushers who have raced in the Iditarod.

Today's run takes her past the Alaska pipeline,

which has transported more than 16 billion

barrels of oil since it opened in 1977.

Despite the fact that Alaska is rich in fossil fuels,

Gwen knows they're limited and expensive.

She wants to take advantage of every opportunity

to tap renewable energy.

Gwen: We are an isolated part of the world, and we are still

dependent very much on imports, and so becoming more

self-reliant on energy is still a real goal here.

Narrator: Gwen was part of the team

that built the first geothermal power plant in Alaska

at Chena hot springs.

Bernie Karl runs the Chena Resort

and came up with the idea of creating an ice museum

from the heat energy of the springs.

Bernie: Now you've heard of the great wall of China.

This is the great wall of Chena.

There's 800 tons of ice here.

Narrator: Bernie is a real American pioneer--

a showman, an entrepreneur, a tinkerer and enthusiast

for recycling old machinery, because it's cheaper.

He and Gwen successfully transformed the hot springs

into a geothermal resource that now generates power

from lower temperature water than anywhere else on earth.

What you're looking at is something that's impossible.

I went to the world's best manufacturer

of geothermal equipment and they said, "can't be done,

the word can't is not in my vocabulary."

It wasn't obvious at first that it could be done,

because these are low, really moderate

temperatures for geothermal.

The water that we're talking about here

is about the same as a good hot cup of coffee

and generating power from that isn't a trivial thing.

Narrator: Normal conditions for mid-winter Chena

are 3-4 feet of snow, subzero temperatures,

and only a few hours of daylight.

Heating and lighting costs were staggeringly high.

But now the resort runs year-round with over

90% of its electricity coming from the hot springs.

Bernie's latest impossible idea is to use geothermal power

to make the resort self-sufficient in food

even when it's minus 50 outside.

Bernie: We have 85kw of lights in here,

high pressure sodium.

We're changing it to 8.5 kw of L.E.D.s.

Now, this takes 1/10th the electricity.