By Megan Smith
How many times have you wandered through a community garden and noticed its beautiful smells, creative architecture, stunning colors and abundant produce? Each garden is a wonderful and productive part of our metro area. This summer, one thing that became clear to me is the central importance in the Twin Cities of the land itself, the land on which community gardens are planted and more and more of our food is raised. Without the land, community gardens and urban farms would not be there for us to enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rick Fuentes, senior media relations specialist, Fresh Energy

Last week, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy CEO Dick Kelly asked Congress to raise his taxes – specifically, his carbon taxes. In a statement that may sound the Paul Revere-like alarm for climate and energy policy, Kelly thinks the U.S. Senate chickened out of a climate bill. They backed off and “started calling it ‘cap and tax,’” Kelly told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Kelly is head of a multistate utility that has increasingly moved away from coal power and spent millions to retrofit some of its plants to cleaner-burning natural gas.  Kelly is joined in his attitude by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Rogers has also stated that the “growing consensus in the electric utility industry” is to “act now.” Rogers points to private capital that’s waiting for a predictable regulatory landscape to set the stage for investment into clean energy. Read the rest of this entry »

Longtime Minnesota conservation advocate Chuck Dayton has just returned from a summer kayak trip in Greenland.

His observations should cause concern.  Chuck says, “Global warming is real in Greenland. You can hear it.  You can see the shrinking glaciers, and the melt-water atop the massive ice cap, and you know that as it melts the seas will rise, with disastrous consequence.”  To read more about his adventure, click here.

For me, this has turned out to be the Summer of the Humble Expert. While conducting interviews for various articles and podcasts the past few months, I’ve run into a couple of examples of people who are tops in their perspective scientific fields—one environmental, one agricultural—but who found they had a lot to learn from farmers. Their willingness to make “I don’t know” part of their vocabulary has opened up the kinds of two-way conversations that are critical to creating truly sustainable land use. Read the rest of this entry »

By Erin Stojan Ruccolo, senior policy associate, Fresh Energy

Great Lakes states are predominantly served by coal generation, the impacts of which are well-documented. Mercury advisories are in place across much of the Great Lakes, and global warming may cause other serious problems, including increasing water temperature in the lakes and decreasing water levels, impacting wildlife, fisheries, water quality and the associate tourism and shipping activities that rely on these attributes.

Wind generation on the Great Lakes could be part of the solution. Indeed, the Great Lakes is estimated to have 250 gigawatts (GW) of wind potential, enough to power 75 million homes. About 160 GW of that power is located in areas 30 meters in depth or less, where current technologies could most easily be implemented. Read the rest of this entry »

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, August 26, 2010

“May her memory save us from all pettiness, all unworthy ambition, all narrowness of vision, all mean and sordid aims… so may there be none in us, as she fought ever, without malice and without hatred, so may we fight.”

- The plaque in the Capitol Rotunda memorializing Mrs. Andreas Ueland, 1860-1927

Read the rest of this entry »

When any meteorologist speaks out on climate change, vigorous comment is sure to follow.  In fact, when any public figure addresses the topic, reaction is swift.  Conservation Minnesota recently posed a series of climate change questions to well-known forecaster Paul Douglas, and e-mail criticism and praise rushed in.  Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve posted a new story to our Clean Energy Jobs website! This is the latest addition to our ongoing project that features Minnesotans whose jobs contribute to the Clean Energy Economy.

Wyatt Bruce – Outland Renewable Energy

When Wyatt Bruce helped his college football team win a championship title as a defensive end during his freshman year, a career in wind energy was not on his mind. But after seriously injuring his left knee, he took six months off to recover before changing schools and pursuing a new concentration that led to an opportunity that changed his life: He interviewed for a job with Outland Renewable Energy, a firm focused on wind farm development, ownership and maintenance in rural communities. Read the rest of this entry »

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, August 13, 2010

“You go tell your boss that I’ve got a loaded .30-.30 Winchester sitting in the corner of this cabin, and the next person in a uniform who steps on my dock is going to get blown into the lake.”

- Benny Ambrose, April 3, 1963*

In the early 1960s as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northeastern Minnesota took its next major step toward a wilderness designation, Dorothy Molter and Benny Ambrose found themselves at the center of a brewing storm.  A faction of local citizens unhappy with the federal intrusion and land use restrictions elevated Molter and Ambrose to folk hero status.  Neither of them looked for this battle with the federal government, nor were they looking for the notoriety.  They just wanted to live out their years in the wilderness they loved.

Read the rest of this entry »

In June the USDA released a proposed rule to bolster  the ability of the federal government  to protect farmers against abuses by corporate meatpackers—in other words, inject a little free-market mentality into an industry that’s been just the opposite for far too long. The public has until Nov. 22 to comment on the proposal. But August is turning out to be the month when people in Minnesota and across the nation have a genuine chance to make their voice heard on this critical issue. Read the rest of this entry »