Colton Uses Stimulus to Build Energy Independence

Visitors survey the renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades to the Colton City East Shop.

It's the patriotic thing to do!

Twelve solar panels. Two wind turbines. It's not Sarnia or Buffalo Ridge. But those twelve panels and two turbines are enough to make Colton, South Dakota, the first energy-independent municipality in our fair state.

Mayor Erik Miller and Colton city staff hosted a ribbon-cutting yesterday afternoon to officially kick off their Energy Independent Community Initiative. Mayor Miller explained to a packed meeting room in the Taopi Hall that Colton has used American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars (you know, that nasty, useless stimulus money) to install enough solar and wind power production capacity to run city hall and the east and west city shops without grid power. Colton also used the money to weatherize the buildings, with new doors, windows, and insulation. Mayor Miller says their EIC Initiative has allowed the city to double its working shop space with no increase—and possibly a decrease—in energy cost.

Ken Hitzeman cuts the ceremonial ribbon for Colton's Energy-Independent Community Initiative.

Mayor Miller did not take credit for this forward-looking energy project. The "spark" behind the whole project is local resident Ken Hitzeman. The mayor said Hitzeman, a local renewable energy expert, brought up the idea of putting Colton on the map with wind turbines—"whirlybirds"—and other energy-producing and energy-saving projects. Hitzeman's passion for the project, said Miller, came from a simple commitment to the idea of energy self-sufficiency. Hitzeman is driven by the dread of seeing American energy dollars go overseas and buy even one bullet that might kill one American soldier. For his patriotic commitment to making energy here in small-town South Dakota, Mayor Miller made Hitzeman blush, just a little, by declaring yesterday "Ken Hitzeman Day" in Colton.

Eletrical equipment turning wind and solar power into usable juice in the Colton City East Shop:

1. wind-solar hybrid converter
2. excess power sink
3. inverter
4. smart meter
5. battery pack
   

City officials took time to show us the nuts and bolts at the "East Shop" next to the Taopi Hall. The small wind turbine sits atop an old windmill tower which used to support a town emergency. How's that for recycling? (A city employee also mentioned his dad once towed that tower, upright, a couple blocks across town to its current location.) Three solar panels lie on the south side of the roof. Inside, a converter combines the wind and solar power for use. Excess power is stored in four batteries. The battery pack in the East Shop can hold two hours of power. They should last fifteen years, with a replacement cost of about $2000.

To extend the life of the batteries, a controller shuts off the wind turbine when the batteries are fully charged and doesn't switch it back on unless the batteries have been drained to 50%. The controller also shuts off the turbine if the wind exceeds 65 miles per hour. When the batteries run out, power switches automatically to the grid with just the barest flicker of the lights.

East Shop smart meter shows zero power input from the grid. That's a zero we like!

A smart meter shows exactly how much power the system is producing and how much additional power the system is drawing from Sioux Valley Electric. Yesterday's grid power intake reading, with the wind turbine quiet and only the three solar panels juicing the shop: 0.0 kW. Ah, self-reliance....

Colton's EIC Initiative is bigger than just energy self-sufficiency for three city buildings. Ken Hitzeman is helping organize a community task force to promote conservation and recycling in Colton. That citizen group will also look for ways to promote energy self-sufficiency for Colton businesses and residents. The EIC Task Force will storm up some ideas at its first organizational meeting on October 19 (7 p.m., Daybreak Express in Colton). They will also start a dialogue about local energy independence on a new Facebook page, which they plan to launch in the coming weeks.

Mayor Miller may be new to Facebook—he said he just learned it for this project, and there were plenty of chuckles from city employees when the mayor asked at the press conference if the shop staff had all updated their Facebook status. But he already gets that the Web and blogs can support real conversation and exchange of ideas both within a community and with communities around the state.

State Senator Scott Heidepriem congratualtes Colton on its pioneering energy-independence initiative

And Colton's EIC Initiative will generate lots of conversation. Gubernatorial candidate and fellow Minnehaha County resident Scott Heidepriem was among the dignitaries who stopped by to congratulate Colton on the EIC Initiative. He noted that Colton will now face the challenge of being a pioneer in energy independence. Pioneers charge forward and solve problems, and then, said Heidepriem, they have to field all the calls and questions from other communities who will want to follow their lead.

Colton's EIC Initiative is a truly visionary, groundbreaking project. Colton's green innovation isn't just about saving the planet (though they're helping!). Colton is showing communities much bigger than itself that we can build the infrastructure now to produce our own power and build energy security at home.

West Shop solar panels and wind turbine

City Hall solar panels

East Shop solar panels and wind turbine

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Update 10:40 CDT: See more coverage of Colton's push for energy independence on KDLT.

Chester HarvesTable Event Promotes Local Foods... at $45/Seat

I want to get excited about the HarvesTable local foods event taking place on Sunday, July 25, in Chester. According to Elisa Sand's report in last night's MDL, chef John Gilbertson (known hereabouts for his successful work at the erstwhile Tailfeathers Restaurant up Oldham-way a few years back) will whip up a feast from locally grown food from Chester farmer Linda Krsnak, Arlington baker Joan Williams, and Humboldt livestock grower Jared Hansich. There will also be walleye. Yum!

But then I check the price tag: $45.

Yes, Chef Gilbertson is one of the best on the prairie. Yes, you get a six-course meal. Yes, it promotes local foods and a sustainable, self-sufficient economy.

But $45 is not a price for the masses.

Now comparable local farm feasts sponsored by Outstanding in the Field, the national tour on which Krsnak and her partners are basing their HarvesTable event, cost $180 a ticket. So relatively speaking, the Chester event is a bargain.

There's all sorts of business sense in marketing one's product to the market segment with the most disposable income. If you can make a living by marketing your product to folks who can pay twice or three times as much for a product than working folks can afford for basic substitute products, then by all means, sell, sell, sell!

But I don't want local foods to be a niche market. I want to sell my neighbors on the idea that South Dakota can be more self-sufficient, that we can turn more farm production away from corn syrup and ethanol and back to things that are good for people to eat. I want to convince them that local foods are good for our tummies and the local economy

When I see the $45 ticket price for HarvesTable, I get the same sinking feeling as when I visit the Co-op Natural Foods in Sioux Falls: love the products, want to buy them all the time, would go broke if I did. So would most of my neighbors.

It frustrates me not to have the money to put all of my principles into practice. The HarvesTable folks share my principles. They want to promote real family farming and local economy. I'm sure they can find enough consumers who can afford $180 for a family meal and a great rural experience.

Unfortunately, the other 97% of us will still have to settle for the specials at Hy-Vee.

Food Rules: Garden Guru Explains Need for Labels and Regulation

Political discussion erupted last Friday at the South Dakota Magazine Editor's Notebook. Bernie Hunhoff mentioned "brouhaha" over the new labeling rules for homemade food at farmers markets, and he got brouhaha in the comment section. Commenters went ape over "ridiculous rules" and "government growth" and "nitpicking."

Fortunately, committed gardener and local foods booster Rebecca Terk was available to discuss the issue in depth. In the comments at SDM and on her Flying Tomato Farms blog, she showed that the new rules are not some simple black-and-white issue for hot-button rhetoric about big government. Rather, House Bill 1222 is the product of conscientious and cooperative effort among producers, Dakota Rural Action, and state officials to find the proper balance between protecting consumers and promoting local commerce. Terk makes clear that local commerce can't run on the selfish "we should do whatever we want" fantasies of the armchair libertarians among us.

Saying that farmers markets should be entirely unregulated is kind of like saying that the little cafes in small towns should be unregulated–they’re only serving regulars, after all–everybody knows them.

But we all know that the little guys (and gals) in rural South Dakota have been a long time at the brink of drying up and blowing away–especially as our farms continue to swallow each other up and our rural populations continue to dwindle.

If we have an insular attitude about how we’re only going to do business with people we know–we’re only going to serve our “regulars,” we’re not going to grow–sustainably or otherwise–and we’re continually sitting on that ever-finer line between making it and not.

We need to be willing to step up and take responsibility for the safety of our products if we want to market to a broader audience. If you want to barter your homemade cheese for your neighbor’s homemade jelly, fine. If you want to walk out into the marketplace and sell to the public, that’s a different thing [Rebecca Terk, "In Defense of 1222," Flying Tomato Farms, 2010.07.02].

Commerce is about community. It requires responsibilities and clear rules. When government establishes clear rules, as South Dakota's Legislature is doing with HB 1222, it removes uncertainty from the marketplace and encourages businesses to invest and produce and sell, sell, sell. (Hmmm... just like how big utilities and other industries would create a green-jobs boom if the Senate would quit dinking around and pass climate change and energy security legislation!)

Montrose Shows Potential for Local Food Renaissance

Regional neighbor Joe Bartmann sees hope for his hometown of Montrose and similar small burgs in feeding the world. No, not that nutty industrial monoculture model where corporate drones in giant machines produce government-subsidized commodities to load unto ships, ship overseas, glut foreign markets, and drive their independent local farmers off the land just like ours. Bartmann sees his Montrose neighbors producing real food for real people right here in South Dakota. On a trip to the Montrose suburbs, Bartmann finds goose, veggies, beef, and honey produced in his immediate neighborhood.

Maybe we can be the Hardwick, VT of South Dakota one day (read “How Food Saved a Town“). Local Foods is the real deal (just ask Mike), and it’s a serious opportunity for us in small towns–to feed surrounding communities, to live healthier lives, and to re-connect with this land and it’s [sic] bounty in new-old sacred ways [Joe Bartmann, "Montrose, South Dakota: Local Foods Mecca," bartblog, 2010.06.27].

The strongest, most lasting economic development we can generate is business owned and operated by local people, using locally available resources to produce locally consumable goods and services. Local foods don't require expensive government subsidies to attract fickle investors who have no interest in South Dakota beyond the hope of exploiting our tax and labor laws and inflating their profits. Local foods don't depend on far-flung buyers and suppliers. Local foods keep the dollar cycle entirely in South Dakota.

And best of all, local foods make more local families and producers the captains of their own destiny, making their living on the land they love.

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Update 11:00 CDT: Editor and legislator Bernie Hunhoff notes that the growth of the local foods movement depends in part on the government regulations that promote or throttle it. Hunhoff cites the upcoming labeling rules for farmers market vendors to be discussed at a Legislative Rules Committee meeting next month. These rules arise from the really important HB 1222, which Hunhoff and his Pierre associates enacted into law this year.

Perhaps related to another of this morning's posts: is there something funny going on when our Legislature works to ensure that proper labeling and safety regulations are maintained for South Dakota-made food but votes to strip all federal regulation from South Dakota-made firearms? I feel a guns-or-butter argument coming on....

Local Agripreneurship: Building Community and Capital?

Somewhat related to my Tuesday post on local entrepreneurship, a post from Rebeccas Terk of Flying Tomato Farms discusses local food, "agripreneurship," and Ben Hewitt's new book The Town That Food Saved. The book focuses on Hardwick, Vermont, population 3200, working-class, low wages, high unemployment. hardwick has seen a surge in local agriculture businesses, operations making their living producing food for the local market.

Hewitt calls the new (most thirty-something) businesses owners “agrepreneurs”–they’re not your typical back-to-the land types who are just looking for a little farmstead and a modest living–they’re in it to make money.

But they’re also in it to “make a difference”–in terms of their community and their sustainable mission. The question Hewitt raises, which is what really makes this book different than others in the genre, is whether the locals will get on board with that difference and that mission.

Hewitt balances the book by talking to a number of Hardwick-area residents who see local food as a means for a much more radical shift in the consumer-and-capital-driven model that the world has moved to, and those discussions are, to me, what constitutes the real heart of this book–is local food about community and supporting our neighbors, or is it about making money and providing jobs–and shipping some of that high-end product (that many locals may not be able to afford) to not-so-local markets?

Or is it both? [Rebecca Terk, "Local Food Lit: The Town That Food Saved," Flying Tomato Farms, 2010.04.14]

Local agripreneurship isn't a gold mine; Terk notes that many of Hardwick's food start-ups are still strugglign to get out of debt and post profits. But they are taking a swing at independent economic development, based on their own sweat and resources. That's something all of us with the prairie pioneer spirit can respect.
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HB 1222: Farmers Markets Get Green Thumbs Up from House Commerce

Rebecca Terk of Flying Tomato Farms notes that the South Dakota House Commerce Committee gave unanimous approval yesterday to HB 1222, the Home-Processed Foods Bill, which makes life better for folks who sell and buy local foods.

Dakota Rural Action and the state Department of Health worked together to craft this bill to clarify the rules and help farmers markets stay in business. HB 1222 is good legislation, good for local food, local entrepreneurship, and local self-sufficiency. Legislators, keep the momentum going on this bill and get it to the Governor's desk!

HB 1222: Farmers Market Bill Promotes Pickles, Pie, and Sales Tax Revenue

Rebecca Terk of Flying Tomato Farms explains why House Bill 1222 is a hugely important bill for farmers markets, entrepreneurship, and local sales tax revenues. Go read!

HB 1222 does two simple things. First, it removes the requirement that local entrepreneurs selling fruits and vegetables or homemade baked or canned goods obtain a license to do business. A decision last summer by the South Dakota Department of Health to start enforcing this hundred-dollar license requirement drove a number of farmers market vendors out of business.

But HB 1222 isn't anarcho-capitalism. It's other main provisions impose clear, reasonable safety requirements on vendors. Vendors need to get third-party verification that their canning process is clean. They then need to attach to each product a label with standard information—product name, ingredients, producer name and contact info, production date, and a disclaimer saying, basically, "I'm homemade! Watch your allergies."

Avid gardener and local foods maven Terk notes that HB 1222 is exactly what vendors want. It's also similar to "pickle laws" that every surrounding state has to support farmers markets (why is South Dakota always playing catch-up?).

House Bill 1222 is a good bill. It's about local food, local business, and local self-sufficiency. It will help Madisonites meet their yearning for more local grocery selection for at least a couple months each year.

Our Rep. Mitch Fargen (D-8/Flandreau) is on the House Commerce Committee, which gets first crack at this bill. Call Fargen and his fellow committee members, urge them to give this farmers market bill a big "Do Pass!"

New Local Foods Website for South Dakota

It's hard to imagine green when all I can see out my rattling window is white and grey. But Mike Knudson puts some spring in my green step with the announcement that Buy Fresh Buy Local South Dakota has a new website. Mmm... local food! (And best of all, Mr. Mercer, the farmers markets still pay sales tax!)

Buy Fresh Buy Local's upcoming events: a screening of Food Inc. at SDSU on Feb. 2 and a farmers market seminar in Rapid City on Feb. 5. Time to start those seeds... of local food revolution!

What Can Green Do for You? Find out at Renewable Energy Workshops This Weekend!

Update 16:04 CST: Postponed! With the nasty ice and snow coming this weekend, organizers have decided to wait for another weekend to ask our speakers and interested audiences to brave the highways and talk about our energy future. (See? Environmental activists are perfectly reasonable! ;-) ) When we reschedule, Madville Times readers will be nearly the first to know!

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The South Dakota Legislature is responding favorably to the Public Utilities Commission's Small Renewable Energy Initiative. Perfect timing for a series of renewable energy discussions taking place this weekend here in East River. Dakota Rural Action, Plains Justice, and the Center for Rural Affairs are hosting three public fora on how South Dakota can increase local ownership of renewable energy.

Note: these programs aren't just some eco-green singalong about saving the planet. As more communities (and our PUC) are realizing, renewable energy is about the green we all agree is good: money for local economies. As scheduled speaker Duane Ninneman says, "University studies have shown that local ownership of wind energy provides several times the economic benefits to local communities that outside corporate ownership does."

Want to learn more about how your community can take more control of its energy and economic future? Pick a program and come participate!

• Brookings: Friday, January 22, 6 p.m. Rotunda A on the SDSU campus. Speakers:
  
  • Duane Ninneman, Sage Research and Consulting
    
  • Paul Blackburn, Plains Justice
    
  • Pat Spears, Intertribal Council on Utility Policy
    
• Sioux Falls: Saturday, January 23, 1 p.m., Oak View Library, 3700 E. 3rd Street. Speakers:
  
  • Robert Byrnes, Nebraska Renewable Energy Systems
    
  • Paul Blackburn, Plains Justice
    
• Yankton: Saturday, January 23, 6 p.m., G.A.R. Hall Art Gallery, 508 Douglas.
  Speakers:
  
  • Robert Byrnes, Nebraska Renewable Energy Systems
    
  • Paul Blackburn, Plains Justice

I'm part of the committee that has organized these programs (and three more coming later this winter!). I'm excited that more people around South Dakota will have the chance to have conversations with these experts and with each other about the eco-green and econ-green benefits renewable energy can have at the local level.

Proposed Crow Creek Plant Would Turn Local Garbage to Energy

Peter Harriman reports in that Sioux Falls paper that the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is working on a deal to turn trash into treasure—i.e., energy. EcoTech Fuels, a division of Victory Circle Fuels, wants to build a $39-million plant to convert landfill waste into Torqazine®, a fuel you can burn straight in a flex-fuel car or add to ethanol and gasoline for higher octane.

We should note that Victory Circle Fuels was proposing a similar plan to Grand Forks, North Dakota, back in October 2008. A local reporter expressed some skepticism (which reporters are paid to do). My morning Googling hasn't turned up any news of follow-through on that project. The only active projects I see on EcoTech Fuels' website are three plants by sister company PPE converting animal waste into methanol and bio-diesel. (Two of the three get waste from Smithfield Foods operations in Utah and Texas.) The Crow Creek proposal may thus be the North Dakota project moved south.

If the project is feasible, it appears to offer some benefits for the tribe and the surrounding region. The EcoFuels folks see natural synergy with nearby ethanol producers. Their plant would take 100 tons of waste out of landfills each day—that's about 25% of the permitted annual capacity of the nearby Tri-County Landfill outside Pukwana. EcoTech Fuels tells the tribe they'd get 40 permanent jobs and 10% of the profits.

10% of the profits—that last part sounds all right. I wonder: has Hyperion offered Elk Point and Union County any sort of profit-sharing in its proposed oil refinery?

Harriman takes time to check with Ed Cable, Union County opponent of Hyperion's oil refinery. Cable says he likes the sound of EcoTech Fuels' project. And if EcoTech's tech is all they say it is, I'm inclined to agree. Extracting and transporting tar sands oil for Hyperion increases environmental harm; hauling garbage to the EcoTech plant instead of our landfills reduces environmental harm. Instead of importing a hazardous substance, the EcoTech system creates a market for an untapped resource we have right here in South Dakota.

The Grand Forks situation does make me wonder about EcoTech's ability to follow through and produce. But their affiliated companies at least have some track record in producing alternative fuel, unlike Hyperion's non-existent oil-refining record. Let's hope this project pans out!

Wind Notes: More Local Power, More Green Jobs... and No More Coal

Watching the wind whip across the prairie, how can you not think about using some of that power for good? Here are some weekend readings on wind power:

• Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural discusses “Lessons & Concepts for Advancing Community Wind,” a new report from Minnesota Project. Community wind challenges the corporate wind farm paradigm and promotes the kind of local self-sufficiency that would do our pioneer predecessors proud.
• I've mentioned that wind power can create twice as many jobs as a similar investment in fossil-fuel power. Among those green jobs—some hard-core granola jobs for rock climbers who put their rope skills to use patching turbine blades.
• Community wind power could bring some much needed jobs and autonomy to the Rosebud and other tribal communities. It would also help tribes meet the goals of the Mystic Lake Declaration, a statement issued by "nearly 400 Native leaders, scholars, elders, tribal college students and scientists" at the second indigenous people's Climate Change Workshop last month in Prior Lake, Minnesota. The Mystic Lake Declaration calls for an immediate moratorium on oil, gas, coal, and uranium exploration, with the aim of eliminating all fossil fuels and nuclear power.
  

I-29 Economic Corridor Study Sends $118K Down the Road; Next Time Hire Locally!

As the I-29 Economic Corridor study gets going, I can already predict one conclusion: South Dakota communities are far too eager to send their money right down I-29 and out of the state to pay for research they could do themselves. We're paying Rural Technology Strategies Inc. of North Carolina $117,500 to study our economic prospects. I'm sure the folks from RTS Inc. will buy a few sandwiches when they drive through to collect their data, but wouldn't we get more bang from the buck if we hired locally for projects like this?

Ah, but who's smart enough to crunch all those darned numbers?

How about our high school students?

The Miner County Cash Flow Study has been the most successful effort to support local buying in Miner County, SD to date. The study involved high school students surveying county residents about their spending habits and then sharing the results with the public in an effort to help community members understand their impact on the local economy [Mike Knutson, "What Do Your Local Businesses Think?" Reimagine Rural, 2009.12.18].

Knutson also points to a local economic survey in Ames, Iowa, that their Chamber is conducting with volunteers from the local young professionals group. Projects like these are a great way to kill two economic development birds with one stone, getting useful data and engaging young people. Help your students feel like stakeholders, and there's that much more chance they'll stick around to fuel the economic development you're after.

Thank Family Farmers Michelle and Barack for Vegetarian State Dinner

As the Thank a Farmer® marketing campaign gets play on the usual industrial ag propaganda sites, I notice no grateful mention of the efforts of new urban farmers Michelle and Barack Obama, who've been returning land to productivity in a tough Washington DC neighborhood. The Obamas' microfarm has been feeding schoolkids and sparking a surge in interest in gardening and the kind of do-it-yourself spirit that would make our forebears proud.

And now, the Obamas' arugula is helping promote world peace. Michelle's garden greens were on the menu at the first White House vegetarian state dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister and respecter of cows Manmohan Singh. The menu included arugula and herbs from the South Lawn, as well as pears poached in honey from the White House beehive. (But no whirled peas... just chick peas. More glittering state dinner details at Obama Foodorama.) As the New York Times reports, the dinner was a lovely outdoor affair emphasizing some of the Obamas' "favorite themes, including bipartisanship, diversity and a focus on healthy meals."

Healthy meals. Vegetarian menu. Somewhere the Farm Bureau propaganda machine is revving up to belch some more smoke.

Thank you, small farmers and gardeners, for working for health and local self-sufficiency.

Sun-Worshipping Son Worshippers: St. John's Monks Bring Solar to Prairie

I've been so busy focusing on wind power (you're thinking, what do you expect from a windy guy like Cory?) that I've ignored another potential boon for alternative energy in South Dakota: solar power.

But don't take my word for it: talk to the brothers at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota. They're doing the Lord's work by building the biggest experimental solar farm in the upper Midwest. By the end of November, the abbey will have installed 1820 solar panels on 3.9 acres next to their campus. The panels will use a tracking system that turns them toward the sun, boosting juice by 15%. The system will generate 575,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, the equivalent of the power used by 65 homes.

Put that in local perspective: we could cover the old beanfield in the middle of which our house sits with similar panels and generate power for every house on the west side of Lake Herman.

Now sure, we have our cloudy spells, just like we have our calm spells when wind turbines won't spin. But South Dakota's weather is a lot like Minnesota's—if I'm reading this map right, South Dakota actually has better solar potential than Minnesota, and the monks in Collegeville are making a go of solar. This fact sheet provided by St. John's Abbey says solar power is a great fit for our neck of the continent:

• Minnesota (and thus South Dakota) has better solar resource available than Germany, yet Germany leads the U.S. in solar energy production.
  
• Solar power depends on electronics, and electronics run better in cooler weather.
  

Cooler weather—know any place with weather like that?

Nathan Franzen of Westwood Renewables, the Eden Prairie outfit helping the brothers get some sun, makes the sale for you shadowy skeptics:

Franzen said most people don't think Minnesota is a good area for solar energy technology, but it actually is.

"The main reason for that is that solar works more efficiently in cooler temperatures," said Franzen. "So if you take this solar system and put it in New Mexico, on the same sunny day, it will actually produce more in Minnesota because of the cooler temperatures than it will on a hot day in New Mexico" [Ambar Espinoza, "St. John's Abbey Gets Upper Midwest's Largest Solar Farm," Minnesota Public Radio, 2009.10.07].

Xcel Energy, the same folks greening the Metrodome with wind power, is supporting this solar project with a $2-million Renewable Development Fund grant.

And why are the Benedictine brothers so committed to getting their solar freak on?

The Benedictine tradition at Saint John's Abbey advocates a strong commitment to good stewardship of its resources. Incorporating solar energy to the campus's energy sources is the first major step in the Abbey's initiative to broaden and strengthen the monastic community's commitment to green energy-and to education.

Just two years ago, under then-president Br. Dietrich Reinhart, Saint John's University was a charter signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment in 2007, which directs Saint John's to the ultimate goal of carbon neutrality as part of an ongoing commitment to good stewardship.

Saint John's Abbey and Saint John's University see themselves as responsible for the campus's natural environment and seek to take a leadership role in educational activities to promote environmental awareness, global thinking, and collaboration on the local level ["Saint John's Abbey Goes Solar! Construction on Solar Photovoltaic Project to begin in October 2009"].

Even conservatives can recognize that this kind of environmentalism isn't a secular humanist plot to destroy America. Local solar power, right alongside wind and other alternatives, is good Christian thinking: making the best use of the resources we have and doing good for the community.

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p.s.: President Obama is announcing $3.4 billion in grants to promote smart-grid technology... exactly the kind of tech that will make distributed solar and wind generation more useful.

pp.s.: Not that you need any more reasons than local self-sufficiency and ending dependence on fossil fuels to say, "Go monks, go solar!" but you know that story fueled by Drudge and the new Freakonomics book that the last ten years have brought a cooling trend, meaning action on climate change is just silly? An independent statistical analysis finds that claim bogus. "The last 10 years are the warmest 10-year period of the modern record," said NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt. "Even if you analyze the trend during that 10 years, the trend is actually positive, which means warming" [Seth Boronstein, "Analysis Rejects 'Global Cooling' Claims," AP via MPR.org, 2009.10.26].

Self-Reliance thru Distributed Electricity Generation: Yes South Dakota Can!

I work, just a little, for the South Dakota Resources Coalition. I put together their mostly monthly newsletter. But this isn't a paid post: I just think everyone might be interested in the program SDRC is presenting in conjunction with their annual meeting Saturday in Brookings:

John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance will speak on the topic of community renewable energy. Farrell thinks like I do: he says that instead of making massive, expensive investments in transmission infrastructure to send South Dakota wind power far away to big cities, we ought to focus on building distributed generation capacity to power our own communities.

Distributed generation: like local wind turbines.

Farrell has studied the potential for American energy self-reliance. He finds that South Dakota is one of 32 states that could produce all of its own electricity. And in a state that prides itself on pioneer spirit and self-reliance, that's the sort of goal we should all be able to get behind.

Farrell speaks Saturday, October 31, 1 p.m., at the Brookings Public Library. Following his presentation will be a panel discussion on energy self-reliance, as well as a presentation by David Staub of Sisseton on what he learned about distributed renewable energy during his electric rail tour of Western Europe. After the presentations, the SDRC will hold its annual meeting.

Rock Port Missouri: 125% Wind Power... from John Deere

Rod Goeman and I have suggested that Madison and Lake County might do well to build a local wind power system. Winona County, Minnesota, has done it; why can't we?

Cost might be one reason. Mayor Hexom has said municipal wind would cost 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 3.1 cents for juice from WAPA. Sextuple your electric bill? Not an easy sell.

But the mayor's math apparently doesn't hold water in Missouri. Visit Rock Port, in the northwest tip of Missouri. See that big windmill on their webpage? The city has four of them, built in cooperation with John Deere, pumping out up to 125% of the city's power needs.

Yes, John Deere. Can energy get any greener than that?

Now this isn't municipal wind: Wind Capital Group of St. Louis put this project together, and was able to make the Loess Hills project in Rock Port affordable by building it at the same time as its nearby 24-turbine Cow Branch wind farm. But thanks to a little foresight and hustle, the 1300 residents of Rock Port now get much of their electricity from right where they live. Local generation saves them at least $60,000 a year in wheeling fees, the fees the city would pay for electricity lost over transmission lines from more remote sources.

It is perhaps worth noting that Wind Capital Group is run by Tom Carnahan, youngest son of a former governor and a former senator. He quit his surely lucrative law practice in 2005 to get into the wind industry. His mom gave him a Don Quixote statue when he started his wind business, but he has no regrets about tilting at these windmills. He's a Missouri boy through and through, and he is driven by a desire to serve rural Missouri in a way that other developers didn't have the guts and foresight to do.

Who will be the courageous South Dakota investor who will learn from Rock Port, Missouri, and help our own small towns become energy independent? If Rock Port can do it, so can Madison, and Flandreau, and Hartford, and all our neighbors. Someone get on the horn to John Deere, and let's make some power!

p.s.: I'm not the only one who thinks clean/green energy technology may be the next economic boom.

pp.s.: Don't just dream big: dream huge: maybe green energy can bring peace to Israel and Palestine.

Celebrate Real Independence, Cuban-Style: Grow Your Own Food

Here in the American technotopia, "Green Revolution" usually refers to the great advances in irrigation, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and genetic engineering that have increased crop yields and provided enough food to sustain populations Malthus and other pessimists would have thought impossible.

But what if we didn't have all the oil and other high-energy inputs of modern industrial agriculture? We'd be Cuba, where "Green Revolution" means local self-sufficiency, growing food in urban organic community gardens:



Cuba had to adopt this agriculture model out of necessity: the Soviet Union collapsed, oil and foreign cash dried up, and Cubans needed to eat. Now small-scale ag is producing 60% of Cuba's food and 70% of the island's vegetables and herbs. Let's hope we Americanos don't have to wait for the oil to run out to realize the value of local ag and the 100-mile diet.

Happy Fourth of July! Now pass the salad....

Cosmic Hippie Convergence in Madison

Motongator Joe brings his "hillbilly testosterone outlaw" country music festival to town, and what do we get? More hippies.

Friday night, we go to town for dinner at the Second Street Diner (located about eight blocks south of Second Street on Washington Avenue). We pull in, spring the child from her crash seat, and mosey in for burgers. On the way, we notice... serendipity!
Here's the Heidelberger chariot of progressive fire...

...and next to us, by sheer coincidence, another local sustainability advocate!

Two "Buy Fresh Buy Local South Dakota" stickers in the same place in Lake County! What are the chances? Perhaps better than you think!

I considered barging into the diner saloon-shootout style and calling out, "Which one of you dadburned pinkos is flying all that democratic-socialist greenie bushwa on the back o' yer truck?" and then walking up to say howdy and shake hands. That seemed a bit overly dramatic, so we just enjoyed a quiet dinner.

But to our fellow travelers from Clay County, thanks for dropping by town! Keep the faith!

And now if we can just convince Shari to try the 100-Mile Menu at the diner. The market is there, Shari!

Get Your Tortillas... from Spearfish!

My wife and I toot the local economy self-sufficiency horn every chance we get. Instead of casting our lot with big corporate service industries who extract our labor and leave us with nothing but meager paychecks and a smaller entrepreneurial class (yes, I'm talkin' to you, call-center boosters), we should focus on promoting small businesses that produce goods and services that they sell to their neighbors right here in South Dakota.

Mitch McKie of Spearfish is doing something like that. His company, Dan Diego Tortillas, makes tortillas for an expanding market of 60+ stores and restaurants. He tells KELO that he sells only to independent "mom-and-pop" operations. He cooperates with other small business owners to share ideas and promote the rural communities where his product sells. And for now, he's keeping his sales radius to 300 miles.

The business model must be working: In business now for less than two years, McKie is buying new equipment to double his production capacity. He's also been recognized as a Dakota Rising Fellow by the South Dakota Rural Enterprise Institute.

Keep up the good work, Mitch... and keep it local!

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Another score for local economy: Robbinsdale Radical's brother Evan runs the Blue Heron Bakery in Olympia, Washington. He's just made a switch to more locally produced flour to get away from a business model that relies on the big carbon footprint of long-distance transportation. I'd order some bread from Evan to celebrate... but that would defeat the point, wouldn't it? :-)

New South Dakota Local Foods Directory Hits Shelves

Get yourself some home-cooking... or at least some neighborhood cooking! Dakota Rural Action has just put out the mighty second edition of its South Dakota Local Foods Directory. Toss out that salsa from New York City; get some real South Dakota chow in your system.

Pickings are still slim in Lake County, with only two local producers listed:

• Gaylen's Popcorn from Wentworth (we eat it here during all family showings of leftist propaganda from Netflix)
• Carper Sweetcorn and Produce from Rutland (we hippies can't live on popcorn alone)

...but don't forget the farmers market starting in July. We anticipate some more vendors this year, as the recession may inspire more folks to plant the back 40 (40 square feet, that is) to tomatoes, cukes, and other goodies to supplement the income or at least cut the grocery bill.

And my random yummy pick: if you pay the Flying Tomato Farms a visit, you might also want to swing by Vermillion's R-Pizza: dough and sauce made from scratch, local produce used as often as the season allows... that sounds good!