by jboullion | Apr 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article in the Chicago Tribune:
MADISON, Wis.— A poll of Wisconsin residents finds strong support for increasing the use of wind energy, even if doing so would raise electricity bills several dollars per month.
The Wisconsin Public Radio poll was released Friday. It shows that 77 percent of respondents want to see the state invest more in wind energy. Reasons included decreasing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil and helping the environment.
A majority, 69 percent, wouldn’t mind eight to 10 wind-energy machines being placed closed to where they live, and 79 percent favor placing the machines offshore in Lake Michigan.
Click here for poll results.
by jboullion | Apr 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article article by Casandra Colson in the Jackson County Chronicle:
Living “green” always has been a way of life for Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast owners Chris and Sherry Hardie.
“That type of lifestyle was automatic,” Sherry said. “It wasn’t anything we strived for — it was the way we were raised.”
The Hardies, who each grew up on a dairy farm, now make sure Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast guests get a taste of what it’s like to live sustainable lifestyles during their stays at the couple’s rural Taylor getaway destination.
Brambleberry was named one of Wisconsin’s Eco-Elegant B&Bs by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism last year, and it’s also one of the state’s certified Travel Green destinations since 2008.
Travel Green Wisconsin businesses need to score at least 30 points in the certification process to receive the designation. Branbleberry scored 71.
“That’s a really good score and shows their support for sustainability,” said Shelly Allness, Travel Green Wisconsin program manager.
The Hardies were chosen to have the fifth-top eco-elegant inn, largely because of their commitment to growing and using homegrown produce for guest meals. They make homemade blackberry wine, use fresh herbs, serve homegrown pork and eggs and also make and serve homemade maple syrup.
by jboullion | Apr 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Dan Piller in the Des Moines (Iowa) Register:
Beginning next month, motorists on Iowa highways will notice more of those huge trucks – which can be as long as 180 feet and weigh almost 400,000 pounds – hauling turbine parts as Iowa’s wind industry goes through another growth spurt.
MidAmerican Energy of Des Moines will begin construction of a 593-megawatt wind farm, which will include 193 turbines in Adair County alone.
“Wind turbine units can have up to nine loads apiece,” said Phoumine Baccum, who administers oversize truck permits for the Iowa Department of Transportation. “The blades come in three pieces, each a separate load, the towers are usually three separate loads, and there are separate loads for the hub and the nacelle and for other equipment.”
Brad Kohlwes’ family trucking company in Des Moines hauls for wind farms. “This is a real boost for the trucking industry and for Iowa’s economy,” he said. “I just wish we didn’t have to pay more than $4 for diesel like we do.”
Trucks loaded with turbine parts get about 4 miles per gallon, he said.
by jboullion | Apr 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
From a commentary by Steve Hiniker, executive director of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget has more than enough pain to go around. Schools get hit with more than $800 million in cuts over the next two years. Recycling programs are not funded. Health care for seniors and the poor are slashed. Local road aids are cut. Some transit systems may not survive the proposed reductions. State revenue sharing is going down, putting more pressure at the local level to cover the costs of cuts to state aids – and without raising property taxes.
It’s called austerity.
Unless you happen to be a road builder.
Then this budget is called a bonanza.
While other programs are cut, highway expansion projects totaling more than $400 million get the green light. Highway expansion raids the general fund of more than $140 million, crushing any arguments that “highway users pay for the costs of roads.” In fact, the general fund and property taxes will pay about half of roadway costs in the future. So-called user fees are soon to be eclipsed by decidedly nonuser fees.
When you look at the increase in highway spending, it is also important to pay attention to where the money goes. Local road aids are cut, meaning that even though there is more money going for major highway expansion, there is less money for local units of government to fix those bone-jarring potholes that crop up every spring. Maintenance dollars for highways are down as well.
Walker has said that the highway expansion is needed for our economic recovery. The governor is putting a lot of faith – and capital – in having superhighways be the cornerstone of the state’s economic recovery. After all, he could have put the money in building better communities with better schools as a basis of economic development.
All of this seems bizarre when you consider that we are driving less than ever. We are in the fifth year of a steady decline in miles driven by each Wisconsin resident. The numbers of miles driven will likely decline even more as the cost of gas continues to climb above $4 a gallon. In fact, it is because we are driving less that the governor is proposing to raid the general fund for highways.
As people drive fewer miles with more fuel-efficient vehicles, they use less gas and the amount collected in gas taxes decreases. So in order to expand highways, non-transportation fund dollars need to be raised. This is why Walker is pushing transit aids out of the transportation fund and is raiding everything from general fund dollars to the environmental fund to pay for bigger roads.
But if people are driving less, why expand highways?
by jboullion | Apr 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
From a story on WEAU-TV, Eau Claire:
RED WING, Minn. (AP) — Under the forested bluffs of southeastern Minnesota lies an increasingly sought-after resource. It’s called “frac sand.” And it’s prized by the energy industry, which uses it to extract gas and oil from underground rock in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Minnesota Public Radio reports an increasing number of companies are eying Minnesota for the sand, prized for its perfectly round, hard and chemically inert grains. One energy company recently purchased land near Red Wing for sand mining, sparking opposition from residents and environmentalists.
From an article in the Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul:
The fracking process pumps a mixture of frac sand, water and chemicals into underground rock formations to break up the stone and release oil and natural gas. It allows affordable access to fossil fuel supplies that once were too expensive to tap.
But it’s been a contentious issue in some states that have fracking operations. Critics argue that chemicals used in fracking may be contaminating water supplies.
by jboullion | Apr 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Frm an article by Ron Seely in the Wisconsin State Journal:
A small wood burner helps fire the boiler
to heat the Barron, Wiscosnin schools.
From smoking piles of wood chips in the countryside to dust on kitchen counters in Cassville, the difficulties posed by the conversion of the E.J. Stoneman Electrical Station in Grant County to burn wood instead of coal have challenged both village residents and plant engineers.
But the adventures and misadventures of the conversion stand as an informative and cautionary tale of what may lie ahead as Wisconsin and the rest of the country struggle to find alternative renewable fuels to help wean us from dirtier, nonrenewable combustibles such as coal.
Even so, Rich Nelson, plant manager, is more convinced than ever that the plant, one of just a few in the country that burn only wood, represents a future that will see much less dependence on nonrenewable fuels. After all, he said, it makes perfect sense to be turning demolished buildings in Milwaukee into power for more than 28,000 homes in the Cassville area.
“If we weren’t here,” Nelson said, “then all that construction material would be going into a landfill.”
The 60-year-old power plant, which rises next to the Mississippi River, was converted last year by Michigan’s DTE Energies, which has owned the plant since 2008. Its two boilers are now heated by wood rather than coal, a process known in the trade as “repowering.”
The transition has had its rough spots. Nearby residents have complained about problems such as ash on their window sills and kitchen counters, and wood chip piles stored in quarries that spontaneously combust and fill scenic valleys with blue haze.
“It’s frustrating sometimes,” Nelson said. “I think the expectation was that we’d push a button and then everybody’s feet would be up on their desks and we’d be making power.”
