The E82 Project exists to pay tribute to Epcot’s past and explore the near limitless potential for its future. As such, it has been a long-standing policy not to get involved with current events nor address rumors regarding the park’s redevelopment. However, when rumors are this persistent and the implications this far-reaching it becomes necessary to break with policy and illuminate the larger issues involved.

As reported by a great many sources, the Universe of Energy is at the top of Epcot’s endangered species list and is reported to be replaced by a franchised thrill attraction that is in no conceivable way connected to the pavilion’s subject matter or Epcot’s mission to “Entertain, Inform and Inspire”.

To be completely clear, this plea is not in any way a defense of the absolutely indefensible Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Nor is it a condemnation of the “marvelous” intellectual property alleged to replace it. This IS a defense of the subject of Energy, its importance to the guest experience, and its impact on the integrity of Epcot.

With Ellen and Bill joking around for the last 20 years, this might seem like and odd thing to say, but Energy could easily be considered the most important of Epcot’s concepts. For without it communications, transportation, space exploration, ecology, and even creativity simply would not exist and if removed, the purpose of Epcot would continue its slip into irrelevance.

Succinctly, this is not “just a theme park ride” as some might believe. For as Marty Sklar once wrote, “Walt Disney did not go to Florida just to build another “theme park” or even a destination resort. He had something far more important in mind.“ For as fun as The Magic Kingdom is, its escapism must be balanced with Epcot’s original philosophy “that with Imagination, Commitment, and Dedication We Can Create a New Tomorrow.” Put simply, The Magic Kingdom exists to escape one’s problems while Epcot exists to solve them. As of 2017, the solution to providing sustainable energy resources has yet to be found, but an exchange of ideas presented in a highly dynamic attraction that has the potential of impacting the behavior and consumption habits of well over 10 million visitors a year might be our best chance for achieving nothing less than energy independence on an individual level.

This is the reason Epcot exists in the first place. This is the reason Walt Disney World was created at all — to bring “Joy […] Inspiration and New Knowledge” to all those that enter it. And at its center, EPCOT where real “human achievements are celebrated” through “concepts of the future that promises new and exciting benefits for all.“

Unfortunately, these ideals are in real jeopardy. And this is no game, for we have all witnessed the pervasive effects Post-Modernism has had on science as empirical facts themselves have come under increasing attack. And although this by no means suggests that the Universe of Energy would comprehensively solve this problem, it is with upmost certainty that it will not help matters if its theme is removed.

There is a great deal of discussion about what guests WANT, but very little about what they actually NEED. And in a park with a high-speed car ride and a space-themed attraction so intense that out of necessity provides a watered-down version both literally a couple hundred meters away, its very hard to believe that anyone over the age of 15 actually wants another long wait, short ride based on a group of galactic misfits. One that will surely anger Epcot’s strongest supporters and alienate large sections of the public, who due to age or health issues, cannot or will not participate. Nor is it fiscally responsible to remove an existing attraction only to replace it with a substantially more expensive one with an obviously lower occupancy.

With a massive two-acre structure, one of the most unique ride systems in existence, two gigantic film formats, a formerly impressive finale, and a once fascinating kinetic pre-show, not to mention an extremely high capacity, it is extraordinarily possible that a seriously impressive new presentation about Energy could be created. One that entertains the public, that informs them about all the amazing new solutions coming just over the horizon and inspires them to create their own energy bridge to the future — with the goal of giving people an uplifting message of hope for a clean, sustainable world.

But all of these possibilities will go away, and Epcot’s integrity will suffer a severe and potentially deadly blow if the true guardians of tomorrow will not standup for its still attainable aspirations for a better future. For if Epcot loses Energy, and in light of all that it has lost and all the inconsistencies it has suffered, then honestly, why does Epcot even exist at all?

Save Time — Save Money — Save Face — SAVE ENERGY



