2007 Essay Contest:
“Renewable Energy: Are Bio-Fuels the Answer to Our Fuel Crisis?”

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