By Linda Taylor, clean energy director, Fresh Energy

So far in 2010, some big things have happened in the area of energy efficiency. It bears repeating time and again: the cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy we don’t use. Improving energy efficiency in our daily lives–meaning doing lots more with less energy–is 70 percent cheaper than generating new energy. The efficiency highlights so far in 2010… (more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – February 19, 2010

“There is Governor Ames himself.” 

These were the words whispered in a low husky voice from one of four horse riders wearing long white cattle dusters as they rode across the bridge into Northfield, Minnesota, on what would become a fateful day in September of 1876.  Unfortunately for the would-be bank robbers, the words were overheard by Adelbert Ames as he walked past the riders on well-bred horses as he was leaving town from a meeting at the First National Bank. 

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By Kate Ellis, senior policy associate, Fresh Energy

Earlier this month, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released the findings of a report they commissioned on the job impacts of a federal renewable electricity standard (RES).  The “Jobs Impact of a National Renewable Electricity Standard” study, conducted by independent, third-party researchers at Navigant Consulting, Inc., found that a 25 percent by 2025 national RES would result in 274,000 more renewable energy jobs over business as usual. (more…)

By Elena Velkov, media center coordinator, Fresh Energy

If you’ve been keeping up with Fresh Energy’s Transportations Connections Department, you’ve probably heard about its push for a state Complete Streets policy. The measure aims to make streets safer and more accessible through various planning measures. This includes sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and shoulders. But as far as understanding how exactly these road changes would equal improved safety and a cleaner environment, it’s a little bit difficult to get from point A to point B–no transportation pun intended. I didn’t have a clear understanding of it, myself, until I actually saw it last week. (more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – The Pre-Session Version

“There is a basic law of nuclear waste often overlooked – all waste remains where it is first put.”
 
- Richard Wilson Riley, Then Governor of South Carolina, 1982*
 
This little bit of southern frankness from South Carolina happened to find its way into Minnesota history when it was quoted by administrative law judge Allen W. Klien in his opinion advising the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to reject Northern States Power’s (NSP, now Xcel Energy) petition to store nuclear waste at the Prairie Island nuclear plant in April 1992.  One of NSP’s central arguments was that storage outside of Prairie Island would only be temporary.  It appears that former Governor Riley’s “Law of Nuclear Waste” was truer than the predictions of the high-priced experts hired by NSP who claimed back in the 1992 at the administrative hearings that the waste would be removed by 2010.

By the way, it is still there and still causing problems. 

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By Erin Stojan Ruccolo, senior policy associate, Fresh Energy

A new report finds that Twin Cities building owners could save up to $10 million a year by implementing day shift cleaning. The report, “Clean Sweep: How a New Approach to Cleaning Buildings in the Twin Cities Can Protect Our Health and the Environment While Securing Jobs and Saving Money,” was released today by the Blue Green Alliance and SEIU Local 26. It finds that a day shift cleaning transition could save 4-8 percent in office building energy costs, and adopting green cleaning practices–which encourages the use of less toxic cleaning products–would protect the health of janitorial and office workers in commercial office buildings. (more…)

By Alison Lindburg, global warming solutions coordinator, Fresh Energy

The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) is speaking out in strong support of national energy and climate legislation. Keith Dittrich, chairman of the board of the ACGA, spoke January 15 in Chicago. A corn and soybean farmer from Nebraska, Dittrich addressed cap and trade policy as an opportunity to “save our productive environment.” (more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – The Pre-Session Version

“Even Mr. Schwartz, the expert sponsored by NSP, conceded that 2010 was optimistic”
       Allen W. Klien
       April 10, 1992

Allen W. Klien was the Minnesota Administrator Law Judge appointed in 1992 to collect evidence and provide an opinion to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as to whether Northern States Power Company (NSP, now known as Xcel) was allowed to store spent nuclear rods in dry casks outside its Prairie Island nuclear power plant.  The Prairie Island power plant is located just outside of the city of Red Wing on an island at the mouth of the Cannon River that had been used for centuries by the Dakota Indians as a village.  The first accounts by white explorers of this village go all the way back to Father Hennepin.

It’s what happened on this island in the early 1990s though that set the stage for one of the most dramatic political battles in Minnesota state history. (more…)

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – The Pre-Session Version

Most Minnesotans think the nuclear debate in Minnesota began with the 1994 battle dealing with the storage of nuclear waste in dry casks at Prairie Island just outside of Red Wing. The essential result of that debate was the compromise allowing limited storage of nuclear waste in exchange for a moratorium on the construction of new facilities in the state.

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Want to learn more about the climate talks happening in Copenhagen, December 7-18?

Watch videos, read tweets and blogs, and look at photos of the events, all from Midwesterners in Denmark this month.

Check out the Will Steger Foundation’s website and RE-AMP’s collection of information.