Natural Step Community Circles begin March 1

Natural Step Community Circles
Join in the Conversation!

We are really excited about what we've come up with - a study circle consisting of 5 sessions that hones in on the important concepts of sustainability and brings in local examples rather than spending too much time learning about what happened in Sweden! The next circle begins on March 1st. Circles are limited to 12 people each, so register today!
Use the following link to find out more about Community Circles and to register.

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=pbkvxteab&oeidk=a07e3fbwlxa8d6f1a09

ECOS sets monthly meting, March 3, Menasha Public Library

The Thursday, March 3rd gathering of ECOS-FV will focus on a group discussion that is open to all in the community.
Place: Menasha Public Library
Room: Company E Room, Lower Level
Time: 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Free and Open to the Public

Proposed Agenda
1) Discuss community response to Earth Week Communication effort and follow-up on details activities - Kathy
a) How/where to distribute flyers and posters
b) Tabling support details at Restore event - Roger
c) Other activities we might wish to participate in?
2) Discuss Food Panel topics and what actions we might entertain – Sadie
3) Status report on Home Energy Challenge in community - Larry
4) Topics for future programming or activities – All
a) Continue with food and gardening topics? Other groups to partner with? Food Co-op Presentation (Joy)?
b) Potential timing around ground water issues presentation/panel?
c) VHBA Fall presentation Timing? ( we will need to check with them to see)
5) Other items?

Appleton bus service in jeopardy if budget-repair bill is passed

From an article by Larry Sandler in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The Appleton-area bus system could shut down by the end of May if the Legislature approves a budget-repair bill that slices public employees' collective bargaining rights, Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna warned Wednesday.

Reducing bargaining rights for transit workers would lead the federal government to cut off $46.6 million in aid to Wisconsin bus systems, including $2.5 million to Valley Transit, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau and the Wisconsin Urban and Rural Transit Association.

The impact on bus systems would vary, depending on their structure and the timing of their labor contracts and federal grants.

The Assembly on Wednesday tabled an amendment to exempt transit workers from the union changes.

Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair legislation would boost pension and health care contributions for most state and local government and school district employees and prohibit their unions from bargaining on anything except wages. Police officers, firefighters, deputy sheriffs and state troopers would be exempt from those changes.

Federal law, however, requires transit workers' bargaining rights to remain intact to receive federal transit aid. The bill would not affect bargaining rights or federal aid at the Milwaukee County Transit System and most suburban bus systems because they are operated by private companies.

But the bill would affect other bus systems run by public employees, the fiscal bureau and the transit association say. Valley Transit - which carries about 1 million riders a year to work, school and elsewhere - could be the first to fall because of its complex funding structure, Hanna said.

Valley Transit funds its $7.8 million annual budget from six municipalities, four towns, three counties, the state and federal governments and passenger fares, but "the funding is so intertwined that when you pull out a major piece of it, the whole thing starts to fall apart," Hanna said.

Committee sets March 1 for vote on suspension of wind siting rule

From the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA):

The Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) has now scheduled a special meeting on March 1st to consider suspending the PSC128 Wind Siting rule that our industry worked on in 2009-2010 that are scheduled to take effect on March 1st. If the JCRAR suspends the PSC128 rule, before it otherwise would take effect that same day, we will be back where we started two years ago on wind siting reform in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin windpower means Wisconsin jobs!

To enlarge, click this ad which appeared in Sunday's Milwuakee Journal Sentinel:

Anaerobic digesters valuable for odor control

From an article by Nathan Phelps in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

Small farms hope to afford manure converters

A decade ago, anaerobic digesters were somewhat of a novelty on Wisconsin dairy farms.

Use of the systems that convert methane gas from manure to electrical power has increased in recent years in the state and nationally. With an average installation cost of $1.5 million, however, most farms have been unable to adopt the technology.

But some in the ag sector are looking at ways digestion can be brought to smaller operations.

Charles Gould, a Michigan State University Extension educator in nutrient management, said he's optimistic the industry someday will be able to deliver a cost-effective digester to farms with herds around 125 cows — the bulk of the nation's dairy farms.

"There are farms that have small digesters, but there are very few of them," he said. "The goal for the small farmer isn't going to be to produce electricity for the grid. If they're going to produce electricity, it's going to be for their own use."

Gould said he sees an untapped market for smaller digesters.

Smaller farmers "want the benefits of odor control. They want the option of bedding. They want the potential to produce electricity," he said. "They want all the advantages the big boys have, but they're not willing to pay the price.

"They must be affordable, and they must be manageable."

The discussion was part of the two-day Midwest Manure Summit at Lambeau Field in Green Bay this week that drew several hundred attendees, including farmers and businesses in the ag sector.

Compost Tea Workshop

February 22nd 2011 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM (Snow Date is February 23rd) Appleton, Wisconsin
Cost: $150.00 ($40.00 for Fox Valley Students)

Location: Fox Valley Technical College

1825 N. Bluemound Drive

Appleton, WI 54912

Workshop includes instruction on:

• Logistics in producing compost tea
• Making high quality compost
• Handling/application of compost tea
• Detailed discussion on biology
• Soil Foodweb methodology

Attendees will gain valuable knowledge of:

• Plant and soil relationship dynamics
• Nutrient cycling and sequestration
• Reduction of pesticides and fertilizers
• Brewing and application equipment
• Value of direct microscopy

See link for all details and for registration: http://www.compostwerks.com

Vickerman to speak at "Small Wind in Your Community" in Oshkosh

RENEW Executive Director Michael Vickerman will speak at Small Wind in Your Community a workshop for elected officials/decision-makers (plan commissioners, board/council members, etc.) as well as the planning/zoning community in Oshkosh, March 25.

If you are an elected official/decision-maker (plan commissioner, board/council member, etc.) or opart of the planning/zoning community, get more information by droppping an email to vjohnson@eastcentralrpc.org.

Fond du Lac County says wind farms support agriculture and local businesses

From a letter to the Legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules from Fond du Lac County in support of PSC proposed wind siting rules, not the rules proposed by Gov. Scot Walker:

Utility scale wind farms in Wisconsin have meant a lot to local
businesses. Farmers that want to continue working their farmland have additional income to support their operations. Land rental payments for turbine sites bring farmers $5,000 each year for each turbine site. Farmers invest these dollars, $829,900 in 2010, into growing crops or their dairy herds. One of our local contractors, Michels Corporation of Brownsville, Wisconsin, has been the prime contractor in several utility scale wind farms. Michels was the prime contractor and paid living wages to just over 200 employees in the Fond du Lac/Dodge County area during the construction of the Forward Energy Center and the Blue Sky/Green Filed wind farm. Michels was also part of the construction team for both Butler Ridge and Glacial Ridge projects elsewhere in Wisconsin. Michels has been in discussions with 4 other wind developers each with 100 MV projects around Wisconsin.

'Green' job market continues to experience growth

From an article by Sarah Kloepping in the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter:

MANITOWOC — Richard Larson, president of Manitowoc-based GreenSky Energetics Inc., said the industry for energy-efficiency products is growing and will continue to do so.

"The future holds higher energy costs, and might I be so bold to say you'd have to be stupid to not look at these devices, because they will definitely lower your energy costs," he said.

Larson said GreenSky, which installs solar heating systems throughout the state, does not anticipate hiring more employees in the near future, but he thinks the industry as a whole will continue to expand.

"GreenSky is not anticipating hiring more, and it's because there are more contractors now that are installing them," he said. "So, there is more competition. I think overall the industry is going to hire more. It's a win-win all the way across the board. There are no losers in this green-energy job sector scenario."

Promising future
Jenny Heinzen, wind energy technology instructor at Lakeshore Technical College, said she has witnessed many students get jobs out of school in both "small wind," which includes residential, small business and farm projects, and "big wind," or utility-scale projects.

"Three graduates are working on large wind farms in Wisconsin, and a few are working on large wind farms in other states," she said. "Additionally, at least six are employed in small wind and working in Wisconsin.

Fond du Lac County, host of 168 wind turbines, supports PSC siting rules

Testimony of Sam Tobias
Director of Planning and Parks
Fond du Lac County

Before the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules
February 9, 2011

(starts at 3:45:30 pm on Wisconsin Eye)

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today -- chairs and committee members as well.

I’ve been with Fond du Lac County for 25 years in a couple of different roles but at this point I’m with the county planning and parks director. You have to know just a bit about Fond du Lac County to understand where I’m coming from and what’s been happening in Fond du Lac. In our county we do not have county zoning, every town in our county, all 21, each has their own individual zoning ordinance. They administer their zoning ordinances. At times, with wind siting issues especially, they depend heavily on their attorney, and they all pretty much use the same attorney. They’ve come up with pretty much the model that’s being used in the PSC rule. And it’s worked very well, and that’s my point here today is we’ve been a test-bed so to speak in Fond du Lac.

The program has worked in Fond du Lac County. Why do I say that? The six town boards in Fond du Lac County that are the six towns that are host to wind turbine projects are all still in place. If this were truly a monumental issue, and truly had widespread health effects, and hazards, nature hazards, those types of things, I don’t think those six town boards would be in place today, but they are.

We’re home to three major utility scale wind turbine projects -- 168 turbines, 268 MW of electricity capacity. Again, the towns, the 8,000 to almost 9,000 town residents, that are involved in these facilities. We don’t have 8,000 to 9,000 people here today protesting against the rules. There are people with concerns, but it’s not the majority by any stretch of the imagination.

Town government took the lead, as I said previously. In permitting, in regulating wind farms in Fond du Lac County and I think they’ve done a very great job. Again, our setbacks are very similar in our towns as to what’s in our state rule. Utility-scale wind farm in Wisconsin mean a lot to local businesses -- from the sandwich supply lunch truck, that comes out to construction sites, to Michels Corporation in Brownsville that’s got 200 people that have been involved in developing wind projects in our county and elsewhere around the state. By their estimations, there are probably four projects out there that are being discussed and are in the works, 100 MW or more each, so there’s projects queued up that need some predictability in outcome, and that’s what this rule does.

I’ll go back to creating a level playing field. This is the same kind of thing that the Wisconsin Realtors Association asked for in ’99 and 2000 – the Wisconsin Smart Growth law. I’m a planner so I supported them in those efforts and that was a big thing that they really wanted. They wanted a level playing field. And I think in this situation, the same rule applies, the same situation applies. Let’s provide a level playing field. We’re not going to have turbines in every corner of the state of Wisconsin. These companies are going to go where the resource is. The resource is fairly limited in our area. . . .

Committee takes no steps to ban wind turbines

RENEW Wisconsin submitted the following statement at the public hearing of the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules on wind siting rules (PSC 128).

Governor Walker and legislative leaders reportedly will seek a change in the rule when the governor appoints a new chair of the three-person Public Service Commission when Commissioner Mark Meyer's term expires March 1. With no legislative action, PSC 128 will become effective on March 1, 2011, and will remain in effect until changed by the PSC.

Good morning, my name is Michael Vickerman. I am here to represent RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy and education organization based in Madison. Incorporated in 1991, RENEW acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives. We have over 300 total members, and more than 60 businesses around the state, including Biogas Direct (Prairie du Sac), Bleu Mont Dairy (Mount Horeb), Bubbling Springs Solar (Menomonie), Crave Brothers Farm (Waterloo), Convergence Energy (Lake Geneva), Emerging Energies (Hubertus), Energy Concepts (Hudson), Full Circle Farm (Seymour), Full Spectrum Solar (Madison), GDH, Inc. (Chilton), H&H Solar (Madison), Kettle View Renewable Energy (Random Lake), Michels Wind Energy (Brownsville), North American Hydro (Neshkoro), Northwind Renewable Energy LLC (Stevens Point), Pieper Power (Milwaukee), Organic Valley (LaFarge), Quantum Dairy (Weyauwega), Renewegy (Oshkosh), and Seventh Generation Energy Systems (Madison).

On behalf of all our members that have an interest in wind generation, RENEW Wisconsin took the lead in bringing together diverse groups and companies and forging a broad and bipartisan coalition to support legislation establishing statewide permitting standards for all wind generators in the state of Wisconsin. The fruit of that labor, 2009 Act 40, was signed into law in September 2009.

I am here today to encourage this Committee to take no action on the PSC 128 rule that is scheduled to take effect on March 1st. The Commission's rule is a good-faith compromise that balances the state's interest in promoting a preferred energy resource with the interests of neighboring landowners.

The PSC rule will provide wind energy developers with regulatory certainty -- a clearly defined set of requirements which they must comply with in order to obtain a permit. Such stability and clarity in the wind permitting arena has been absent from Wisconsin for the last 13 years, which, more than any other reason, explains why Wisconsin utilities own more wind generating capacity in Iowa and Minnesota (329 MW) than they do in Wisconsin (235 MW).

I would like this committee to consider the following points:

Scientists see no basis for turbine 'infrasound' health problems

From an article by Jim Dulzo on the Web site of Michigan Land Use Institute:

. . . when they could not find an independent organization willing to underwrite such a study, they paid for it themselves. AWEA [American Wind Energy Association] and CanWEA [Canada Wind Energy Associaiton] assembled eight scientists and doctors to survey the available scientific literature on the known health effects of living near wind turbines.

Collectively, the eight have strong research or clinical experience in public health, otolaryngology, noise-induced hearing loss, balance and hearing disorders, clinical medicine, audiology, infrasound acoustics, industrial sound pathology, wind and turbine physics, and turbine sound measurement and siting.

Their review of 140 different studies and papers issued in 2009, largely from Europe, where wind farms are common and located quite close to residential areas, is called Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects; An Expert Panel Review.

The panel points out that the environment and our bodies are awash in infrasound, much of it naturally occurring. It finds Dr. Pierpont’s list of maladies too poorly characterized to be medically useful. It finds a markedly stronger correlation between subjects’ claimed turbine syndrome symptoms and their initial attitudes toward turbines than between their symptoms and their level of exposure to turbine sounds.

Windpower opponents quickly attacked the industry funded findings as biased, something that Mike Klepinger, who formerly worked at Michigan State University Extension Service, where he wrote the agency’s wind turbine siting guidelines, says is not surprising.

“Of course, whenever you invite industry into a panel, the whole panel becomes suspect,” Mr. Klepinger said in an interview with Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. “They say, ‘It couldn’t possibly be operating scientifically.’ But you look at the who’s who on the [panel] list, and you kind of have to give the industry an A-plus for trying to make the panel objective.”

Their three major conclusions:

•  “There is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.
• “The ground-borne vibrations from wind turbines are too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans.
• “The sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique. There is no reason to believe, based on the levels and frequencies of the sounds and the panel’s experience with sound exposures in occupational settings, that sounds from wind turbines could plausibly have direct adverse health consequences.”

Fox Valley groups actively work for new jobs, starting wth wind energy companies

From an article by Larry Avila in the Appleton Post Crescent:

Bringing jobs to a region is like bringing a harvest to market.

Before that can happen, a field must be prepared, seeds planted, and crops tended to grow and mature into a bumper crop.

The same approach is taken by economic development groups, which are under constant pressure to recruit innovative companies to the region to provide high-paying jobs that support families well into the future.

It's these same groups that also are under the gun to convince existing Fox Valley employers to expand as well as keep those in operation from moving elsewhere.

"What we're really trying to do is leverage all the regional resources and use what we have to create what constitutes a healthy economy," said Jerry Murphy, executive director of The New North Inc., an economic development organization representing an 18-county region of northeastern Wisconsin.

Murphy said New North's goal is to encourage business investment, which is a key ingredient for job creation.

"In order for jobs to be created, there has to be someone making an investment," he said. "So the kinds of things we're trying to do really are designed not only to encourage it, but accelerate it."

One New North initiative is Wisconsin Wind Works. With the nation seeking alternative energy sources, New North evaluated the resources of northeastern Wisconsin and compiled a list of companies that could produce components for electricity generating wind turbines.

Its research not only found companies that could make all of the parts and components, but businesses that also could install and maintain the massive turbines.

The regional program has since blossomed to an online statewide directory, which features more than 280 businesses that can serve the wind power-generating industry in an assortment of capacities.

Gov. Walker's office to keep pushing new wind turbine rules

From a story on WTAQ, Madison:

MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - Governor Scott Walker’s office says it will keep trying to limit the locating of new wind energy farms in Wisconsin – even though his own Republicans in the Legislature are not going along with it for now.

Spokesman Cullen Werwie says Walker will try to get the state Public Service Commission to adopt his proposal. That’s after Republican legislative leaders said they wanted more time to review the impact.

Walker wants wind turbines to be at least 1,800 feet away from neighboring homes, instead of the current 1,250 feet. The Wisconsin Realtors Association pushed for the change.

Walker said it would help property owners who say the turbines cause too much noise and flickering light. But the wind energy industry says it would be the most restrictive setback in the nation – and they’re calling it a de-facto ban on new wind energy projects.

The group Renew Wisconsin says it could put up to $1.8 billion worth of future wind projects in jeopardy. And Denise Bode of the American Wind Energy Association said it would make a mockery of Walker’s claim that Wisconsin is “open for business.”

Walker wind-siting rule change would kill Kewaunee-Manitowoc county project

From an article by James Briggs in The Daily Reporter:

As Gov. Scott Walker invites Illinois companies to “escape to Wisconsin,” an Illinois nonprofit organization is predicting a mass exodus of wind energy business from the Badger state.

Part of Walker’s proposed special session agenda includes a new regulation that would require wind turbines be set back 1,800 feet from the nearest property line. That would supersede a rule, set to take effect this year, requiring a setback of just 1,250 feet.

“I would assume every company with plans in Wisconsin is leery,” said Kevin Borgia, executive director of the Illinois Wind Energy Association. “That proposal would more or less shut down the state to wind development.

“That’s not something I think Gov. Walker wants to promote — or perhaps it is.”

If it is, Borgia said, companies building wind farms in Wisconsin should consider increasing their business in Illinois. It’s a plea similar to Walker’s efforts to lure Illinois companies to Wisconsin in the wake of higher taxes passed in the Illinois Legislature.

Wind energy company leaders say the southerly migration could happen.

“We’re already more active in Illinois than we are in Wisconsin because of the current regulatory climate,” said Michael Arndt, director of central development for Oregon-based Element Power Ltd.

Walker, though, is responding to concerns of homeowners that their property value could be reduced by proximity to wind farms, spokesman Cullen Werwie said.

“If enacted,” Werwie said, “this legislation will protect private property rights for all Wisconsin citizens.”

But the legislation also would mark the end of Element Power’s business in Wisconsin, Arndt said.

The company is planning to build a 200-megawatt wind project in the northeast part of the state [Town of Carlton, Kewaunee County; Towns of Michicot, Twin Creeks, and Two Rivers, Manitowoc County]. Arndt would not say how much the company has spent on the project, but he said Element Power would have to abandon the project if the 1,800-foot setback requirement takes effect.

“There would be no way to viably build a utility-scale wind farm in Wisconsin,” he said. “If the regulatory climate is significantly more reasonable in neighboring states, we’ll invest dollars where those dollars are welcome.”

Conservation Voters respond to Walker's State of the State speech

Madison – Kerry Schumann, Executive Director of Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters issued the following statement in response to Governor Walker’s State of the State address:

We couldn’t agree more with Governor Walker’s goal of leaving an even better Wisconsin to our children and grandchildren. As the nation as a whole has discovered, the key to accomplishing that goal lies in fully participating in the clean energy economy. Governor Walker’s failure to mention this opportunity paired with his actions in recent weeks speaks volumes.

In his short time as Governor, Governor Walker has introduced legislation to eliminate Wisconsin’s $400 million wind industry, rejected $800 million in mass transit funding (sending jobs to Illinois in the process), and prevented a coal power plant from transitioning to a plant run on homegrown, Wisconsin biofuels.

This week, understandably, we are taking a lot of advice from Vince Lombardi. Wisconsin would do well to remember this one, “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

It’s time Wisconsin quit treating the clean energy economy as an impossibility. Instead, we must commit - with a “singleness of focus” - to creating the kinds of jobs that will sustain ours and future generations.

###

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to electing conservation leaders to the state legislature and encouraging lawmakers to champion conservation policies that effectively protect Wisconsin’s public health and natural resources. More information can be found at http://conservationvoters.org.

Local Foods: Why choose them, how to find them.

A discussion about Local Foods at ECOS February 3 meeting:

Local Foods: Why choose them, how to find them.

What: Panel of local farmers and local food enthusiasts will provide resources for finding locally grown, in-season food. There will be a Q & A session as well, so bring your questions!!

Where: Menasha Public Library, Downstairs meeting room

When: Thursday February 3rd 6:30pm – 8 pm

Panel Members

• Sadie Schroeder - Local Food Activist
• Pamela Herrling - Nutrition Educator
• Jodi Leslie - Oakridge Farms, Neenah
• Tracy Vinz - Olden Produce, Ripon
• Armando Llanas - Tenderland Beef
• Susan Richardson - Community Garden Partnership