2007 Essay Contest:
“Renewable
Energy:
Are Bio-Fuels the Answer to Our Fuel Crisis?”
2007 Essay Contest Winners
First Place ($750)
Sarah
Hagan
11th Grade
Broken Arrow,
OK
Coweta High School
1st Runner Up ($500)
Abby
Winstone
11th Grade
Ninnekah,
OK
Ninnekah High School
Honorable Mention ($250)
Zachary
Rice –
12th
Grade –
Pawnee, OK
Pawnee High School
The Kerr Center
invites all Junior and Senior High School students in the State of Oklahoma
to participate in an essay contest. The subject of the contest
is “Renewable Energy: Are Bio-Fuels the Answer
to Our Fuel Crisis?”
Is
Oklahoma poised to be a leader in energy production once again? Oklahoma’s
oil and gas boom in the last century may be reborn in the form of bio-fuel
production. Bio-fuels are fuel components produced from renewable materials
such as plants, straw or bio-mass waste products such as poultry litter. Is
there merit to seeking innovative ways to meet our nation’s increasing
energy needs in a world of limited fossil fuel production? Should
we diversify our energy base, and how would we go about doing that? Should
we focus on utilizing food crops for energy production? Additionally,
should we view bio-fuels as the ultimate solution to our increasing energy
needs or as a short term strategy to relieve the demand on fossil fuels
while developing new technologies?
Energy
production is Oklahoma’s number one income producing industry followed
by agriculture. Essayists are invited to explore the arguments
for and against the combining of these two industries to produce bio-fuels. Potential
benefits include a reduction in CO² emissions, increased market
prices for agriculture producers, and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. Potential
problems include: increased prices and demand of some agriculture
commodities; potential soil erosion from increased mono-culture cropping;
and a prohibitive cost of production and energy used to produce the bio-fuel
product. Arguments may include such emerging issues as the economic
sustainability of bio-fuel production, the ecological benefits of utilizing
more “green” resources in energy production, or others. Environmental
impacts from utilizing agricultural products and/or wastes may also be
explored.
In their
essays, contestants should compare and contrast the different aspects
of bio-fuels and develop a persuasive argument based upon their research.
This
essay contest is designed to include young people in a thoughtful discussion
of solutions and current challenges facing the renewable energy
industry in our state. The winning essays will focus on both sides
of the issues with a strong conclusion. The arguments and ideas
in each essay should be well-developed. Essayists will be asked
to include their own ideas and convictions, as well as relevant research
which could include personal interviews, print, media and website resources.
The
contest will begin on January 19, 2007. All essays must be addressed
to the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture and received in the Kerr
Center’s office by 5:00 p.m., March 28, 2007. Winners will
be announced on May 4, 2007. GRAND PRIZE is a cash award of $750.00;
1st Runner up is a cash award of $500.00; and one award
of $250.00 will be given for Honorable Mention. Winning
essays may be published in the Kerr Center’s Newsletter which is
mailed to approximately 8,000 people quarterly.
For further information regarding the 2007 Essay Contest, you may contact
Anita Poole at apoole@kerrcenter.com or
by calling 918-647-9123. Further information will be available
on the Kerr Center’s website at www.kerrcenter.com.

RULES
1. All
essays must address the stated target topic.
2. All contestants
must attend or be affiliated with an Oklahoma high school to be eligible.
3. Maximum
length of an essay is 1,000 words while minimum length of an accepted
essay is 800 words. Any essays that are submitted that do not conform
to these requirements will result in disqualification without exception.
The Kerr Center reserves the right to edit the winning essays prior to
publication in the Kerr Center’s
newsletter.
4. All children
and families of Kerr Center employees are excluded from the competition.
5. The essays
will be evaluated by an independent committee and will be judged on specific
criteria. The criteria for judging will be: the development of ideas,
overall use of good writing skills, attention to details and facts, the
preciseness of presentation and the emotional responses evoked by the
essays.
6. All
essays should be typed and double spaced with a standard readable font.
7. All essays
should include a title page which contains the participant’s name,
address, school, grade, paper title and word count.
8. Each
work must be original, and all quotes from other sources must be documented
either in the body of the paper or in footnotes or endnotes. You are
not limited only to the resources
provided, but remember, plagiarism will result in disqualification from
the contest.
9. All
essays become the property of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
10. Recommended
resources include books, magazines, news media, school personnel, and
personal contact with individuals either involved with agriculture or
an interest therein.
11. Entries
should be sent to Anita Poole, Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture,
P. O. Box 588, Poteau,
OK 74953. Inquiries may be made to 918-647-9123.
12. Have
fun, and remember that ideas you develop today may make a significant
impact on the world of tomorrow.

Hints for Writing a Winning Essay
Persuasive writing is a style in which the writer is trying to convince
the reader to agree about an issue that has more than one side. To write
in the persuasive style, a writer must:
- acknowledge there are two sides to every controversial issue;
- list and arrange arguments in a logical manner; and
- refute the arguments of the opposing side.
Persuasive writing uses different techniques such as analogies, examples,
definitions, compare/contrast, cause/effect and classification. If you
have any questions about any of these techniques, please feel free to
speak to your English teacher or other writing professionals.
Remember
to write a balanced paper, organization is key. One way to organize your
thoughts is to first develop an outline. Papers that are persuasive and
well organized have a better chance at winning this contest.

Resources
“Renewable Energy:
Are Bio-Fuels the Answer to Our Fuel Crisis?”
2007 Essay Contest
The following list of potential resources is not intended to be exclusive.
Essay contest participants are encouraged to do further research to support
the arguments presented in their papers. The resources list provided
was developed in part by executing searchs on the internet for “bio-fuels” and “renewable
energy”.
RESOURCE LIST
www.bdpedia.com/biodiesel/economics/economics links
research on “The Economics & Sustainability of Bio-diesel”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy “Renewable
energy”.
www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=royal-en&FC3=/royal-en.html “Bio-fuels”.
www.eia.doe.gov/fuelrenewable “Energy
Information Adaministration”.
www.biodiesel.org/resources/biodiesel_basics/default.shtm “Biodiesel
Basics”.
www.eere.energy.gov/biomass “Biomass
Program”.
www.worldwatch.org Use
search engine for “biofuels”.
www.worc.org/index.html See
section on Biofuels.
www.ncga.com See
site index and news.
www.sare.org Access
the SANET listserve and review archives.
www.oksustainableenergy.com
www.okfarmersunion.com
www.okfarmbureau.org Use
search engine for “biofuels”.
http://oklahoma.sierraclub.org
www.deq.state.ok.us/factsheets/air/biodieselfs.pdf

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