by jboullion | Mar 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
A letter to the editor of the Vernon Broadcaster by Todd Ossman:
Thanks for covering the E3 Coalition’s work with Viola and other communities to help southwest Wisconsin achieve energy independence.
In addition to the $65,000 planning grant we were awarded, we have applied for more than $1.1 million in efficiency upgrades and renewable energy projects for seven communities in the region, including Viroqua. This EECBG award should be made public within days or weeks and our prospects are very encouraging.
What “energy independence” means, in this case, is getting 25 percent of our electricity, heating and transportation fuels from renewable sources by 2025. That may seem idealistic, but it’s an achievable goal. More importantly, each step towards that goal reduces our energy costs, which means more resources stay with our families and in our communities.
The state Office of Energy Independence grant allows us to start down that road. We’ve already begun collecting data on communities’ current energy and fuel use. Then we can determine which energy efficiency measures allow us to meet all our needs while reducing our electricity and fuel use. The last step in our energy planning process will be to explore potential sources of renewable, home-grown power. Each step along the implementation path from efficiency to biomass or solar power generation spells more local jobs and income.
It’s true that having an energy independence plan will help Viola and other Driftless Region communities secure other stimulus funding, but that’s not the only—or even the main—benefit. We’re building a stronger and self-sufficient local energy economy that will serve the Driftless Region for decades to come.
by jboullion | Mar 9, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Anna Austin in Biomass Magazine:
Wisconsin biomass advocates are requesting active support from the public to secure the passage of Gov. Jim Doyle’s Clean Energy Jobs Act (SB450 and AB649), which was introduced in early January.
The bill, which largely endorses biomass energy, will increase the use of renewable energy, energy efficiency and cleaner fuels in Wisconsin. “The legislation provides multiple benefits for biomass energy systems and for the first time, introduces measures to encourage the most efficient use of biomass in heating and cogeneration,” said Peter Taglia, staff scientist for the environmental advocacy organization Clean Wisconsin. The provision is part of an enhanced renewable portfolio standard (RPS), he added, which would credit biomass thermal applications from cogeneration and biogas injected into the natural gas pipeline, providing additional opportunities for farms to install anaerobic digesters at locations where the cost to install electric generators or transmission isn’t feasible. The section also proposes allowing utilities to count the heat produced from biomass cogeneration toward the RPS, and improves the calculations used to determine the energy produced from biomass cofiring and biomass cogeneration facilities, according to Taglia.
Wisconsin’s current RPS targets the increase of renewable energy in the state to 10 percent by 2010 and the proposed bill would expand the RPS to 25 percent by 2020. In addition, all state agencies would use biomass to provide 25 percent of their energy use by 2025.
Among provisions that would benefit the production of local biomass resources is a Biomass Crop Reserve Program, which would award contracts to farmers to plant native perennial plants to sell for bioenergy production. Taglia said this program would help solve the “chicken-and-egg problem” of jump-starting the homegrown fuels market, and make Wisconsin more competitive to receive funding through the USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program.
by jboullion | Mar 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Richard Mial in the La Crosse Tribune:
On a map of northern Canada, Fort McMurray marks where the highway ends. But it’s the starting point for much of the fuel that runs vehicles in the Coulee Region.
The sands of north Alberta — not the Middle East — provide most of the petroleum that becomes gasoline sold in the La Crosse area.
A pipeline channels that Canadian crude to the Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend Refinery in Rosemount, Minn.
La Crosse-based Kwik Trip is among its primary customers. A fleet of 110 tanker trucks ferries gasoline and diesel fuel 24 hours a day from the refinery to the company’s 363 convenience stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
The Tribune traced petroleum’s path from the forests of Canada to the pumps.
It’s a route that keeps the region from relying on crude oil from overseas. But it also has raised questions about the environmental costs, both to Canada and Wisconsin.
Oil sands
Alberta’s oil sands region yields about half of the petroleum converted into local gasoline. Production averages about 1.5 million barrels a day, and that’s expected to go up to 1.8 million by 2012, according to estimates by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The mixture of sand and thick, tar-like bitumen is mined from the earth with huge shovels, many of them Wisconsin-made.
Large amounts of water are used to separate the oil from the sand — about two to three gallons of water for every barrel of oil, said Don Thompson, president of the Oil Sands Developers Group. Natural gas-fired power plants provide the electricity needed for the energy-intensive process.
Large-scale oil sands mining in the Fort McMurray area dates back to the late 1960s through the Great Canadian Oil Sands, now known as Suncor Energy Inc., said Thompson, a former oil company executive who now lives in Calgary.
Another company, Syncrude, began mining the oil sands in the late 1970s, Thompson said in a telephone interview.
But oil sand production remained limited until the price of a barrel of oil rose enough to justify the expense of oil sand mining, and the quality of technology improved, Thompson said.
Now, about 208 square miles of northern Alberta have been cleared for mines, tailing ponds and “upgraders,” plants that provide some refining before the oil is sent by pipeline to the United States and elsewhere.
A story in National Geographic Magazine includes dramatic photos of tar sands mining.
by jboullion | Mar 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
From the newsletter of the People’s Food Co-op:
People’s Food Co-op and its partners, the Bluff Country Co-op in Winona, MN, and the Viroqua Food Co-op, are pleased to announce the 4th annual request for proposals for the Coulee Region Cooperative Community Fund Grant. This grant fund was established in 2003 by the People’s Food Co-op with a mission to provide supplemental or project-specific funding to local nonprofit organizations that have missions consistent with the goals of our co-ops.
Priority is given to grant requests for educational projects, development projects and events that have a focus on, but are not necessarily limited to, food and food systems, nutrition, health and well-being, sustainable agriculture, cooperative education and social change.
Applications should be received by Thursday, April 15, 2010, at 5 p.m.
Applications can be submitted electronically to liz@bluff.coop
or mailed to: CRCCF Grant Committee, c/o Bluff Country Co-op
121 W 2nd Street
Winona, MN, 55987
The grant committee will complete its review by the end of May and awardees will be contacted. Application forms, directions and more information about the CRCCF can be found at the web site (www.bluff.coop). Questions can be directed to Liz Haywood, General Manager, at 507.452.1815, or liz@bluff.coop.
Past recipients of the CRCCF awards have included Coulee Children’s Center, the Cornucopia Institute, Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, La Crescent-Hokah Community Gardens, the Women’s Resource Center of Winona, Riverway Learning Community and Houston Community Gardens.
by jboullion | Mar 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
Excerpts of a letter from PSC Chair Eric Callisto to the special legislative committees on clean energy jobs:
February 19, 2010
Assembly Special Committee on Clean Energy Jobs
Wisconsin State Assembly
Madison, WI 53702
Dear Committee Members:
I am writing in response to a letter dated February 9,2010 from Representatives Huebsch, Montgomery, and Gunderson requesting a Commission analysis of the expected costs to utilities and ratepayers of meeting a 25% by 2025 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) as proposed in the Clean Energy Jobs Act. As I have testified to both the Assembly and Senate Select Committees, the electric utility sector policies in the proposed legislation – namely, the enhanced RPS and energy efficiency provisions – represent sound energy policy for Wisconsin. The Commission’s analysis shows that if we continue with business as usual, if we decide to do nothing, we are taking on great financial risk in a changing world, and our ratepayers will be leaving substantial dollars on the table.
. . . [W]hat follows is a summary of preliminary PSC cost modeling of the RPS and energy efficiency components of the CEJA. PSC staff modeled the costs of the RPS and energy efficiency policies together, because the RPS requirements are expressed as a percentage of retail electricity sales. It would be unrealistic to estimate the costs of the RPS requirements in the proposed legislation while ignoring that the same legislation seeks to reduce the growth in demand for electricity. The two policies are inherently connected.
The modeling shows that in every case in which GHGs are monetized (i.e., there is a compliance cost associated with emitting GHGs), the cost of the CEJA is less than the cost of the status quo over the long run. That is, we will in all likelihood be spending more on electricity in the long run if we don’t act now and enact enhanced renewable portfolio standards and take more aggressive action on energy efficiency. . . . (emphasis in original letter)
