We expect to get our YouTubes from yesterday's Renewable Energy Forum later today; we've been districted by the spy bill debate in the Senate.
Meanwhile, those interested in talk of energy independence can read about the summit in the Worthington Globe article Addressing renewables at the state level. Reporter Julie Buntjer quotes Walz extensively. However, Walz left most of the talking at the meeting to the experts like Dan Juhl and Mike Bull. Juhl says:
Juhl said Minnesota needs to do all it can to keep energy dollars from leaving the state.
“We export billions of dollars out of this state in energy resources every year,” Juhl said. “We have no gas, we have no oil, we have no coal, we have very little hydro, but we have a lot of wind. This is something we can really leverage into long-term economic viability for rural Minnesota.”
C-BED (Community-Based Energy Development) legislation was first approved in Minnesota in 2005. Each year since, there have been some tweaks as the state gears up to implement its plans.
“This is our chance of a lifetime,” Juhl said. “Wind energy can be to us what the tractor is to farming. It’s really an opportunity for us to do something and keep long-term economic viability in our communities and add a new cash crop to our basket.”
We suspect we'll have to wait awhile for vintage wind turbine swaps that will match vintage tractor jamborees, but you never know.
Mike Bull noted the coming shift in scale by the state:
“Rather than utility-scale projects that we’ve been working on, now we’re looking at homeowners, businesses and farms to get capital assistance for single-site and neighborhood-based renewable energy projects,” Bull said. “We’re looking on a smaller scale to capture some of the renewable resources we have.”
One of the problems flood-stricken people in Southeastern Minnesota have had in using some of the "hands-up" offered by FEMA was the lack Firm hired to develop county hazardous mitigation plan. Editor Charlie Warner notes the efforts by Walz, Klobuchar, Coleman and Pawlenty to speed up the process are noted:
Houston County is working to have a hazardous mitigation plan in place ASAP to help bring much-needed flood relief assistance for the area. Last month numerous news reports indicated businesses in Houston and Fillmore counties would not be eligible for certain FEMA grants and low interest loans because the counties did not have a hazardous mitigation plan in place.
In January U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, along with First District Congressman Tim Walz, urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to waive a paperwork requirement that could otherwise cause serious delays in the delivery of much-needed flood disaster assistance for the area. The following week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a similar plea to FEMA.
In letters presented to FEMA’s Administrator R. David Paulison, the three members of Congress and Minnesota’s Governor asked for a waiver of the federal requirement that local communities must first submit a “local hazard mitigation plan” before receiving funds under the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
Five of the flood-damaged counties in southeastern Minnesota do not have approved plans. The counties affected are: Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted and Wabasha. . . .
Managing Editor Daniel McGonigle remembers Matthew Kahler, killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in Soldier from Granite Falls had touched many lives, including mine. While editor of the Granite Falls newspaper, McGonigle had met Kahler at a send-off party in the fallen soldier's home town.
Over at the Post Bulletin's blog Political Party, Washington bureau reporter Ed Felker looks at John Kline's assignment to help explain the NRCC's fundraising irregularities [emphasis ours]:
. . .With Democrats taking the majority in 2006 and a number of Republicans leaving the House rather than run this fall, the NRCC has had problems raising money -- which means Republicans hoping to win back seats lost in 2006, including Mankato Rep. Tim Walz's seat in the 1st Congressional District, may be left to fend for themselves.
Now comes word that the NRCC has called the FBI to investigate, at the least, "irregularities" in its accounting. NRCC Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., joined Kline last Thursday to brief the Republican caucus behind closed doors. Kline is declining comment for now, and there is no indication yet that he is somehow involved or affected, but it can't be a situation he relishes with the fall elections looming. Kline will face the winner of the DFL endorsement contest between Dan Powers of Burnsville and Steve Sarvi of Watertown.
We doubt that Powers will present much of a challenge to Sarvi, so we look to seeing a Kline-Sarvi ballot in November.
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