By Elena Velkov, media relations coordinator, Fresh Energy

Metro area residents who use transit on a regular basis can see increased ridership with their own eyes. More people frequent the bus stops, bodies pack the buses during rush hour, and the crowds sometimes force people to stand. When I was one of a dozen people standing on the bus ride home last week, I asked my co-worker and fellow transit rider what happened. She put it well, saying, “Four dollar gas happened.” (more…)

When Ron Bowen planted his first prairie for a landowner over three decades ago, the client’s motivation was pretty clear. “The main question was, ‘Is it pretty?’ It was an ornamental prairie,” recalls Bowen, the founder and owner of Minnesota-based Prairie Restorations, Inc. But Bowen knew the benefits of prairie ecosystems were more than skin deep. They provide wildlife habitat, build soil, help keep contaminants out of water, fix nitrogen and, as it’s become clear in recent years, trap carbon. If people were willing to get a prairie system established on their land because it gussied up the landscape, so be it. All the hidden benefits would come along for the ride. But an ecosystem’s good looks can only take it so far in a world where competing interests for land are increasing sharply. To evolve beyond an odd planting here and there to a major part of the landscape, it has to earn its own way economically. That’s why Bowen and other prairie enthusiasts are pleased to see in recent years a keen interest in “functional restoration”— establishment of prairies to provide numerous services to society, including things like stabilization of lakeshores or hunting habitat for pheasants. And they are even more excited by the latest task prairies are being asked to perform: serve as a source of biomass energy. (more…)

By Diana Calla, communications intern, Fresh Energy

As a native and lifelong resident of New England, my summer with Fresh Energy marks my first foray into the Midwest. Thus, you can imagine the novelty of my experience, and to some extent, culture shock, as I write today in Bismarck, North Dakota. (more…)

By Kate Ellis, 1Sky Minnesota organizer, Fresh Energy

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes…and environmental groups too, it seems! My best, non-scientific estimation is that Minnesota has over 200 groups that are in some way doing their part to fight for the environment. Whether it is clean water issues, faith responsibility, energy, gardening, wildlife, or any of the other myriad groups involved in environmental protection, we in Minnesota have perfected the art of organizing for the environment. (more…)

By Michael Noble, executive director, Fresh Energy

If the vice chairman of a major American corporation told reporters that global warming is “a total crock of shit,” you might write him off as a dangerous, anti-environmental lunatic. If he said that advocating for higher efficiency mileage standards is “like trying to address the obesity problem in this country by forcing clothing manufacturers to sell smaller, tighter sizes,” you would know he represented an auto company. (more…)

By Erin Stojan Ruccolo, program coordinator, Fresh Energy

Twenty years ago this week, NASA climate scientist James Hansen testified to Congress about the human causes of global warming. Grist, the environmental news blog (“a beacon in the smog”), is writing a three-part series to commemorate this milestone in global warming policy (the third part will be released tomorrow on Grist.org). (more…)

By Rick Fuentes, senior media relations specialist, Fresh Energy

I’ve always liked roller coasters. Especially the ones with big drops or loop-d-loops. (more…)

Blogger Maria Surma Manka (Maria Energia to her readers) was invited by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) to cover their WINDPOWER 2008 conference in Houston during the first week of June.

By Carin Skoog, global warming solutions coordinator, Fresh Energy

Despite attempts by opposition to stall meaningful discussion of America’s Climate Security Act (S. 3036) sponsored by Senators Warner (R-VA), Lieberman (I-CT), and Boxer (D-CA), the U.S. Senate is making history this week with the first bipartisan climate bill to receive serious attention by Congress. (more…)

By Daryl Sager, energy justice program associate, Fresh Energy

With the installation of its first solar panel on May 22, the Little Earth of United Tribes housing complex in Minneapolis marked the beginning of its new renewable energy future. (more…)