Note: As requested I have added the 'Iowa topics' list to this email. Anyone already subscribed to this email as well as the topics list please let me know so I don't fill your box with duplicate mail.
Compressed clips list today due to the Mayor's Energy Forum. Hope to have a lot of great news for you next week.
IA Energy/Environment/Politics News for Friday, June 15
Ames Tribune: Of interest - front page advertising electric cars for sale
http://www.amestrib.com, http://www.amescars.com
Burlington Hawk Eye: 'Politics trumps science' - red vs. blue science?
http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/Goodman_6_15
Council Bluffs Nonpareil Opinion: 'Fueling the Fire' - energy bill, ethanol,CAFE
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=18481648&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=553867&rfi=8
Des Moines Register: 'DMs energy initiative gains national interest' - below
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070615/NEWS/706150303/1028/JS09
Des Moines Register: 'Visiting leaders to hear how DM saves energy' - below
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070615/NEWS/706150370/1001/NEWS
Des Moines Register: E85 station promotion next Thursday - $1.85
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070615/BUSINESS/70615014/1001
Iowa City Press-Citizen: 'Be Earth-friendly, garden using nature as guide'
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070610/FEATURES05/706100308/1002
Quad Cities Online: 'The flicks are green at environmental film fest'
http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=342520
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Washington Post(AP): 'Doubt over climate change forecasts'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061500907.html
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DM's energy initiative gains national interest
June 15, 2007
The Des Moines Energy Futures Conference today and Saturday is generating an avalanche of interest in Iowa and around the country as Mayor Frank Cownie lends his leadership to an energy initiative that has national implications.
While Congress launches its Energy Independence Day next month, Des Moines intends to show how every day can be Energy Independence Day. Anticipated outcomes from the Saturday working conference include a renewable energy master plan for 2008 that has buy-in from all energy use sectors, and a sustainability curriculum for schools that can be applied K-12 nationwide.
Speaking before a gathering of 300 mayors and civic leaders in Washington, D.C., last week, Cownie described the event as a turning point for cities.
"Mayors can take the lead in providing energy security for the nation, because in the end, homeland security is really hometown security," he said.
The Energy Futures Conference organized by Alexia Parks of www.votelink.com is working in collaboration with city of Des Moines staff and a growing team of volunteers.
At the working conference, participants will be asked to act "as if" they have only one year to make a rapid transition to a renewable energy future.
Ten keynote speakers will each get a brief moment in the spotlight. Tonight's program begins with a mayor's reception at the State Historic Building sponsored by the Sierra Club's Cool Cities program. Doors open to the public at 7 p.m.
Lt. Gov. Patty Judge will provide the welcoming address, and Cownie will be the emcee. Speakers will include Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, chairwoman of PlainsJustice.org; John B. Askew, EPA regional administrator and a sixth-generation family farmer; Roya Stanley, former chief of the Iowa Energy Bureau now with the Technology Assistance Center at National Renewable Energy Labs in Golden, Colo.; Iowa's Green Builders Guild and Jason Hartke from the Green Building Council in Washington, D.C.; and Dr. Tim Borich, ISU associate dean/associate professor/director to communities.
The evening will close with an "energy burst" as five statewide organizations will be given three minutes each to describe "Implementation Strategies: Who is doing what and how it is working."
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Visiting leaders to hear how D.M. saves energy
BY PERRY BEEMAN AND MELISSA WALKER
REGISTER STAFF WRITERS
June 15, 2007
Dozens of Iowa city leaders will converge on Des Moines today to find out how Des Moines saved $150,000 by switching to new stoplights, and how people in an "eco-village" in Fairfield grow their own food year-round.
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie will preside over a two-day Energy Futures Conference, something of a prelude to a 10-city eco-efficiency tour planned by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Cownie said he expects the event to be attended by representatives of between 25 and 100 Iowa cities. The officials will work on plans for a "sustainability curriculum" for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and plans for things cities, businessess and homeowners can do to save energy.
"We want to look at how we can change so city governments can lead by example," Cownie said Thursday.
For example, Des Moines saved $150,000 by switching to more energy-efficient stoplights, and also converted to hybrid cars for some of its fleet. The parks department installed native grasses in many parks, saving on mowing expenses and using the grasses to help cut runoff pollution.
The city also wants to join with residents, Trees Forever and neighborhood groups to plant 100,000 trees, which help sweep heat-trapping carbon from the atmosphere.
Cownie spoke to 300 mayors and civic leaders in Washington, D.C., last week, urging them to take on the global warming issue locally. "Mayors can take the lead in providing energy security for the nation, because, in the end, homeland security is really hometown security," he said.
Lonnie Gamble, a professor in the Maharishi University of Management's Sustainable Living program, will attend the Des Moines event to talk about efforts he has made to power his house with solar panels and wind. He'll also discuss how producing energy with wind turbines helps local economies.
Gamble has appliances, high-speed Internet and other technology that operate on energy supplied by alternative sources, rather than by coal or nuclear power, Iowa's top power sources.
Gamble hasn't paid an electric bill in 15 years - his house isn't connected to electric lines. He catches rainwater off his roof to store for future use and pays $50 a year for gas to heat his 500-square-foot house. He grows food year-round in a greenhouse.
"We have regular washing machines and dishwashers, and all of it runs on solar panels and wind power," he said. "I'm coming over there to tell people it's possible."
Gamble has helped create Abundance Ecovillage, a five- house subdivision in Fairfield where houses are powered by solar and wind on site, rain water is the only water used, cold air is pumped up from underground tunnels to cool houses, and residents plant edible landscaping and eat from their gardens every day.
"It's not like we suffer. Our showers are just as hot, and our beers are just as cold," Gamble said.
Reporter Perry Beeman can be reached at (515) 284-8538 or [log in to unmask]
Andrew Snow
Regional Representative
Sierra Club
603.361.0218
[log in to unmask]
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