by jboullion | Aug 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
An article in the West Coulee News:
Get Sustainable of Trempealeau County has released the 2009 edition of its local food brochure for Trempealeau County and outlying regions.
Get Sustainable, which was founded in 2007, is a diverse group of concerned western Wisconsin citizens who meet to discuss what to do in their communities to highlight the need for sustainable living. This food guide is one project which came out of this collaboration.
Eating local means seeking out food grown and raised as close as possible to where one lives. Buying local food also means eating foods that are seasonally available and unique to the region.
The Get Sustainable booklet contains tips on eating wisely, Web sites to explore, and includes Wisconsin and Minnesota community-supported agriculture sites, area farms, orchards and farmers’ markets.
For more information about the food guide or Get Sustainable, contact Mary Graziano at (608) 582-2975 or getsustainablewi @gmail.com.
by jboullion | Aug 10, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Mike Ivey in The Capital Times:
The experts continue to debate the pros and cons of the “Cash for Clunkers” rebate program, but Wisconsin car buyers have already given it a big thumbs-up.
Wisconsin is 10th in the amount of cash requested from the program based on figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation released this week.
Of the nearly $775 million in clunker cash requests so far, more than $24 million came from Wisconsin. Michigan, California and Ohio were the top three states.
The U.S. Senate has approved another $2 billion for the program, which was initially funded with $1 billion.
Officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System Act, the measure provides up to $4,500 in taxpayer subsidy for those who trade in an old vehicle for a more efficient model. To qualify, the old car needs to get 18 miles per gallon or less while the new one must get at least 22 mpg.
by jboullion | Aug 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in The Capital Times:
Wisconsin is closer than ever to gaining the high-speed rail service that is needed to put this state on the regional and national transportation map.
In fact, the likelihood that a Chicago-Twin Cities route will make stops across the state is now so real that communities are fighting to be on it.
It was long thought that the service would go from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison to La Crosse and then across the Mississippi River and up toward Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The “phase one” connector between Madison and Milwaukee is still on target — despite the efforts of the anti-rail naysayers to try to slow things down. All that is needed is for the project to get a piece of $8 billion in stimulus money that is being made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — a prospect that seems entirely possible now that Midwestern governors are uniting to push for the plan.
But there is suddenly a debate about whether the service will go through La Crosse or Eau Claire.
A final version of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Connections 2030 plan, which identifies the design, construction and operation of the Madison-Twin Cities corridor, now suggests that the choice of which Wisconsin city will get the service is open to question.
The WisDOT plan refers to the La Crosse and Eau Claire routes as “project alternatives … to be determined during environmental and engineering studies.”
That introduces an uncertainty to the process, which is to some extent understandable.
The return of real rail service to Wisconsin is an exciting prospect, especially as gas prices spike. And cities have every right to compete for the service.
But our sense is that Bob Fisher, a member of the Wisconsin Association of Rail Passengers, is right when he says that La Crosse’s claim is well settled. The city already has Amtrak service. It’s rail infrastructure is in place and there’s strong local support for the project.
by jboullion | Aug 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article posted on Envrionmental Leader:
When it comes to investing in energy efficiency, hospitals and health care facilities should not sit on the sidelines, because some of the low-hanging fruits offer savings that pay for themselves in as little as two to three years. . . .
Gundersen Lutheran, in La Crosse, Wis., last year conducted an audit to look for quick fixes, said Jerry Arndt, Senior Vice President of Business Services.
“The most responsible thing you can do is reduce the amount of energy you need,” Arndt said. “So we looked in-house for improvements before we looked at renewables.”
Jeff Rich, Executive Director of Gundersen Lutheran, said the best time to do an audit is on the weekend.
“We found all sorts of things that were on or running that didn’t need to be running,” Rich said. “We had 300 exhaust fans around the building, many of which can be turned off for 12 hours a day. But they were running all the time.”
As another area of improvement, the audit found that 60 percent of the hospital’s energy went toward producing steam. So the hospital replaced and repaired steam traps to improve efficiency.
The hospital also applied for grants to replace light bulbs, a move that helps achieve $280,000 in annualized saving. Grants were provided by Focus on Energy, a Wisconsin government effort, through utilities.
by jboullion | Aug 3, 2009 | Uncategorized
From Carol Gruba:
Prairie winds were in full force when a Next Step Wisconsin group visited the Montfort Wind farm on July 25. Carol Gruba gathered the fourteen wind watchers who hailed from Dodgeville, Chicago, UW Madison, The Natural Step Monona, MATC Madison, and the Madison Area Permaculture Guild.
The enthusiastic wind tourists peppered their guide Carol Anderson with questions about the wind plant, and Carol readily answered. She owns the land that is underneath 4 of the GE turbines owned by NextEra, and she has compiled information and photographs on the wind farm since its construction. She hosts about 55 tours a year for elementary, high school, college, and community groups. Carol told the Next Step Wisconsin group that the wind installation was the largest wind farm in the U.S. upon its commission in summer of 2001.
Other facts about the wind farm include:
*Montfort Wind Farm turbines begin to generate electricity at a wind speed of 8.9 mph and their computer-monitored blades ensure they safely cease operation at 56 mph
*Each 1.5 mW turbine generates enough electricity to power 350 homes
*The 20 wind turbines operate optimally at a speed of 26.8 mph.
*6 land owners lease land to NextEra for the 20 wind farm turbines
Carol Anderson rotates her family’s 550 acre Montfort-area farm through soybeans and corn with the help of her brother. She is a retired Cornell professor of human development and former Associate Director of Cornell’s Cooperative Extension.
To register your interest in future green road trips or find more information on the trip’s sponsor, The Next Step Wisconsin, visit
thenextstepwisconsin.wordpress.com
