20 most recent entries:
High School Senior Holds Green Jobs House Party (Jul 31 2008 21:48 GMT)
Download Video High school senior Lily Andrews wants to improve the environment and the economy, so she and her friends gathered to write letters to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to ask him to create green jobs. Want to learn more about green jobs? Check out this video and contact Joshua Low at 612.659.9124 x 311.
MPCA criticizes ?cargo sweeping? in Great Lakes (Jul 29 2008 14:19 GMT)
Interesting comments from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on the practice of washing coal and other residue off freighters into the Great Lakes. “Minnesota solid waste rules prohibit the disposal of solid waste into waters of the state of Minnesota, including Lake Superior,” said Paul Eger, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, in a [...]
Science Debate 2008: 14 questions the candidates should answer about science and America?s future (Jul 29 2008 13:35 GMT)
By J. Drake Hamilton, science policy director, Fresh Energy Is America losing its competitive edge in science, medicine, engineering, and energy? According to a June 2008 poll conducted on behalf of Scientists and Engineers for America, 85 percent of Americans want Presidential candidates to debate science issues. Voters want public policy decisions to be based on [...]
In a climate of change, it?s not all proportional (Jul 28 2008 19:28 GMT)
By Daryl Sager, energy justice program associate, Fresh Energy Last Thursday, the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative and Redefining Progress released a report entitled ?A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and a Just Climate Policy for the U.S.? The report highlights the fact that African Americans are disproportionately affected by climate change and [...
Cargill?s Wand Waving (Jul 27 2008 18:27 GMT)
It may be July, but the Star Tribune gave some of the biggest agribusiness firms around a nice Valentines on July 21. On the opinion page, the newspaper’s editorial board lauded firms like Cargill and CHS for using all the tools at their disposal to “feed the world.”
Pushing Industrial Ag with a Biased Grants Program (Jul 18 2008 23:31 GMT)
You can pass into law the greatest policy in the world, but in the end its success depends on good implementation. Exhibit A: When the “Livestock Investment Grants Program” was passed during the last legislative session, it showed that at least on paper Minnesota was serious about helping farmers of all types who need a [...
A Day in the Field (Jul 18 2008 18:46 GMT)
By Rachel Wilf, MEP Civic Engagement Project Intern On June 13th I traveled in a minivan for four and a half hours through the rolling hills of northern Minnesota. The destination? The White Earth Pow Wow in White Earth, MN. The goal of the MEP field team? Register 40 voters for the upcoming election.
Transit: from cheapest to cheaper? (Jul 17 2008 18:47 GMT)
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 [...]
Is it Practical to Plug into the Prairie? (Jul 11 2008 23:48 GMT)
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?
Lessons to be learned from the roughrider state (Jul 10 2008 20:25 GMT)
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. I?m here for the Prairie Climate [...]
The Numbers That Ate Main Street (Jul 03 2008 19:58 GMT)
Next week Ken Meter will be in western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, telling the story of how feeding the raw commodity maw has drained our Main Streets of their lifeblood while decimating the rural landscape socially and environmentally. Meter’s story stars numbers, charts, graphs and trend-lines?not exactly the stuff of summer blockbusters. But believe [...
Teaming up under 1Sky (Jul 02 2008 20:07 GMT)
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 [...]
Is your favorite lake polluted? (Jul 02 2008 16:41 GMT)
Conservation Minnesota’s new website Check My Lake continues to shine a light on the state of Minnesota’s water quality. Conservation Minnesota board member Kristen Eggerling was recently interviewed by KARE-11 about the site and what an important tool it is for families before they enjoy Minnesota’s lakes and beaches.
Really not ?a total crock? (Jun 23 2008 20:24 GMT)
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 [...
The Farm Bill: Now Comes the Hard Part (Jun 20 2008 23:34 GMT)
Now that the 2008 Farm Bill is officially law, it’s important to make sure all that work sustainable ag groups like LSP put into some of the legislation’s key components does not go to waste. Talk is cheap in Congress ? implementation out here on real farms is what gets things done.
Global warming policy milestone, and looking ahead? (Jun 19 2008 19:44 GMT)
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 [...]
Farm Beginnings Up North (Jun 13 2008 23:44 GMT)
On a sunny (remember sun?) spring afternoon a few weeks ago, Karola and Rick Dalen were giving me a tour of their Northern Harvest Farm near the northeast Minnesota community of Wrenshall when they stopped in front of a large bunker-like structure with earth piled up on three sides. It turns out that this 80 [...]
Everyone wants to be like Minnesota (Jun 13 2008 21:33 GMT)
You know what they say about imitation and flattery. In 2007, Minnesota led the effort to provide uniform protection for new or expanding water usage within the Great Lakes basin, by being the first state in the region to endorse the Great Lakes Compact. Great Lakes states Illinois, New York, Indiana, and Wisconsin followed our lead. [...]
Minnesota beach monitoring report (Jun 12 2008 19:27 GMT)
Conservation Minnesota has launched a new web page dedicated to reporting the condition of the state?s beaches just in time for summer beach going season. State law does not require swimming beaches to be regularly tested ? or posted when there is pollution ? but some counties, districts, and cities choose to do so.
Roller coaster ride at the PUC (Jun 12 2008 19:13 GMT)
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. And if they creak a little when you take a sharp corner, so much the better. That added sound effect just makes me doubt my faith in the professionals who run those contraptions a [...
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