In the Pacific Northwest there is a perfect example of this problem being played out between hydroelectric dams and salmon runs.  For years, since the big dam building projects of the Great Depression, the Northwest has had relatively cheap, and some would say, very green power.  The dams are non-polluting and use the natural energy of gravity acting on the water to produce millions of megawatts of electricity.  This power was so cheap that a large aluminum smelting operation was developed because of the availability of this inexpensive source.  Aluminum smelting is very power intensive so by building their factories here, Alcoa and other companies could produce at competitive prices.

Every thing sounded great until the salmon issue came up.  These dams, by the fact that they change and interrupt the natural flow of the river, had a negative impact on the salmon runs.  A few centuries ago there were millions of fish returning to their spawning grounds each year. But eventually this dropped to just thousands.  Restoration projects have helped re-establish these runs but they are no where as big as they used to be.

So the hydro power was not "green" right?  Well not so fast. One of the biggest issues facing us as a planet is green house gases.  Hydroelectric dams do not produce any of these gases.  But, in order to replace the power that has been turned off to protect the fish, coal burning plants have been built.  These do produce the nasty gases.  That is definitely not very green.

So as you can see, there are a lot of sides to this issue of whether the dams produce green power or not.  As we move into the next phase of energizing our country these types of decisions will need to be made.

Whatever your pet subject, Squidoo will give you a place to not just showcase and share your knowledge, but also give you the opportunity to make some money off of it. And if your Squidoo "lens" is exceptional enough, you might get picked to be highlighted on the "Lens of the Day" blog.

The purpose of the blog is twofold: first, to display the neatest pages on Squidoo, and secondly, to show new Squidoo members what to aim for. There is no formal nominations process to get your lens featured on the blog; either the editors stumble across your lens and like it, or they don't. But you can email your favorite lens that you or someone else made to the editors and ask them to check it out.

So go create something cool and unique over at Squidoo, and send it in to the blog. Maybe you too can get featured on the Lens of the Day blog!