Congressman Walz is interviewed in the KTTC-TV report on laid-off TRW workers getting assistance because their jobs are heading to Mexico. The news begins after the short ad:
One of the things we've noticed about the energy debate in Southern Minnesota is that while some insist that renewable energy sources are years away from making a significant contribution to America's energy portfolio, the real work of creating that future is already underway.
Today's read-around the district reinforces that sense. The Fairmont Sentinel reports Firm plans $120M energy plant:
The largest energy company in Europe wants to make Fairmont a model for the Midwest by investing $120 million to $130 million in a biomass energy plant here.
If everything proceeds according to plan, Fairmont Energy Center will be operating in May 2011. The plant will be owned by Veolia Energy. Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency will buy the electricity produced by burning the biomass. SMMPA sells wholesale electricity to 18 non-profit municipal members, including Fairmont.
Steam, a natural leftover at the plant, potentially could be sold to local industries at a cheaper price than natural gas.
Of course, there's much to do in the meantime.
First, Veolia needs to secure the fuel. Biomass burned at Fairmont Energy Center would come from a variety of sources, including refuse-derived fuel, secondary wood waste and agricultural waste from crops such as alfalfa and soybeans - but not raw garbage. Refuse-derived fuel is processed trash, such as papers and plastics, that would be dried, condensed and shipped into Fairmont by semi trailers or rail cars.
We will follow this project with interest.
There's a much smaller scale project underway in Southeastern Minnesota. The Chatfield News Record reports Eagle Bluff awarded grant for clean energy project. The learning center hopes to achieve a carbon-neutral footprint; they'll be studying the use of prairie grass biomass in the center's combined heat and power (CHP) system.
Those who object--like Brian Davis--to government nutrition programs in the Farm Bill often suggest that private sector nonprofits can pick up the slack.We think that's right-wing pie-in-the-sky.
In today's Albert Lea Tribune, we learn Donations to Salvation Army are down:
The Albert Lea Salvation Army has begun to feel the effects of tough economic times.
Capt. Jim Brickson said the local Salvation Army is receiving about half of the donations at its thrift store as it did last year, and in the last few months users of the food pantry have increased by 75 percent, he said.
Just last month, the Salvation Army gave away between 9,000 and 10,000 pounds of food, and it is averaging serving between 180 and 190 families a month. That’s all during a decrease in food donations, he said.
Regardless of your politics, please remember food shelves and school supply drives, and give what you can. We recently went through our closets and gave whatever we didn't regularly wear to a local thrift store.
The editorial board of the Albert Lea paper asks, Have you compared Edwards to McCain? Actually, we think it's more helpful to look at McCain and Obama's policy positions.
The editor of the Dodge County Independent did a little research into funding for Traumatic Brain Injury research:
Spending
At first when I read where the government is going to invest $300 million to study stress and trauma from traumatic brain injury, I thought to myself, "another big government waste". There are to be 171 research projects of which not only traumatic brain injury in our troops will be studied, but civilians as well.
Before casting any immediate judgment of government waste at its best, I read further into the article. I followed up by doing further research on the Internet and came to realize how much of a problem TBI is, especially for veterans.
Each year TBI leaves 235,000 individuals hospitalized and 50,000 dead. Long term care can be very costly, making the $300 million study look like a drop in the bucket. More than 300,000 members of our troops are estimated to have suffered from post traumatic brain injury or depression. That adds up to a little over $900 for each soldier to conduct the studies. Now all of a sudden the $300 million does not seem so wasteful. . ..
Read the rest at the Independent's website. Congressman Walz has been a champion for securing funding for TBI.
A wag of the finger to Secretary of State Rice: the most entertaining thing about the latest Pravda report on the First, Party Changers May Bring Surprises on Election Day , is the supposed party-switcher.
If Bernie McGuire actually switched parties, he did it about the same time Brian Davis switched careers in the early 1980s. Perhaps McGuire was a DFLer longer than eight months, which is the duration of Davis's post-college career as an engineer in the power industry.
As of 2006, McGuire was a member of the executive board of the Nicollet County Republican Party. How funny that the State Department's staff writer, who formerly lived in the Rochester area, wasn't able to google that one.
Dick Day's campaign website is back. So far as we can tell, Day is what he says he is.
FYI : Some people like to invest in socially conscious funds.
Juhl Wind Development (which is an Over the Counter stock Symbol : JUHL) is helping communities around the country get power through locally owned wind energy cooperatives. The company has been involved in Minnesota projects and is expanding into Nebraska.
Francesca Rheannon recently wrote an article entitled "It Takes a Village to Raise a Turbine : Making the Case for Community-owned Windpower". Walz's legislation is mentioned.
Ollie Ox replies: Yep--we'd posted about the article. Interesting stuff.
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | August 15, 2008 at 06:50 AM