The creation of the EcoGrove I Wind Farm was precipitated by the State of Illinois adopting a Renewable Energy Standard that required the state to generate at least 25 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2025. Cleaner air, using an abundant and renewable energy source, and providing various community benefits make wind farm development likely to continue, at least until more Americans change our energy-intensive ways.  From my perspective, however, energy independence is more about breaking free from our fossil fuel addictions to coal, natural gas and oil rather than simply securing domestic sources of energy that are polluting and/or add more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The $200 million EcoGrove I Wind Farm is owned and operated by the sustainability-focused business Acciona Energy North America; its parent company is Acciona S.A., headquartered in Spain. EcoEnergy LLC and The Morse Group managed various aspects of the planning, mapping, permitting, engineering and interconnections for the project.

The EcoGrove 1 Project comprises 67 turbines spread across about eight thousand acres to create a 100 megawatt (MW) wind farm capable of powering over 25,000 homes. Thirty of the 67 Acciona turbines were manufactured in West Branch, Iowa, with the rest coming from Spain. The energy produced is sold to ComEd (Exelon Corporation) which then directs the energy where needed. An additional two phases are planned.

“The upper Midwest has tremendous wind energy potential and EcoGrove is one great step toward harnessing that potential.” said Kimberly L. Smith, Vice President Construction and O&M Services, Acciona Energy North America.

Below are of the few of the benefits in more detail, though our group was blown away by their sleek design of the blades and the way they towered over the emerging cornfields in early summer.

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Not only has the University of Illinois, Urbana outpaced its goal to reduce energy consumption by 10% by the 2010 fiscal year, they’re expecting to save $5 million dollars in energy costs to boot!

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The Tower Grove Farmers’ Market and Bazaar in St. Louis is not only a community center piece, but a regional one. And the group is candidly joining a nation-wide line of community-minded organizations who are in economic straits and need support.

Understanding that there are many worthy groups asking for assistance these days, the one that organizes the Tower Grove market is asking, in particular, for those who already value what it creates in the St. Louis region — shoppers and friends who stop by, even just twice a season — to consider stepping forward. The support can be monetary or otherwise.

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It pains me to have to put more horrifying news about St. Louis out to the world. If anyone not from St. Louis, my home city, thinks anything of this historic, blues-music thrumming, Gateway Arch-boasting, Stan Musial-loving, Mississippi River-guarding city, it’s likely about the city’s position in the annual “most dangerous city” rankings.

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With all the fuss over the Senate seat and the Tribune Company’s editorial board and the five-year investigation that’s been going on and Rod’s wife’s potty mouth…I decided to check in on Blago’s environmental record.

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Tampa Bay Online reports that the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington is selling $5 hand-crafted Christmas ornaments made from … wait for it … reindeer droppings. Yes, reindeer droppings. Of course, the zoo’s found a more appealing name for the creations: “magical reindeer gem ornaments.”

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I think it’s time for a little humor in these final two weeks before an important election.  And so I’m writing an election story about a dead goldfish named Princess Nudelman. The news however, is not being seen as humorous to some, who fear the mistake might be a sign of election fraud. The mailing has generated a number of complaints from residents throughout the state.

“I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process,” said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has noticed problems with almost 1,000 voter registrations this year.

Beth Nudelman, Democrat and owner of the dead fish, said that Princess may have found herself on some sort of mailing list after the family put her name down when applying for a second phone line.

“There was no fraud involved,” said Nudelman. “This person is a dead fish.”

It is thought that the registration materials were sent by the “Women’s Voices, Women Vote” project.  This not-for-profit group encourages single women to vote, and purchased the list of names from a vendor.

From this one mailing, 63,500 people returned their voter applications. In order to validate identities, the mailing asked for a social security number and a driver’s license number.

It doesn’t seem to me anything worth getting all riled up about.  If someone is truly interested in getting people out to vote, they’ll probably come up with a better tactic than luring in the dead pets of Greater Chicago.

Source: msnbc

Photo:  Wikimedia Commons

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the new store took five years to develop, thanks to a slew of special engineering and site use requirements. Among the challenges: building the facility 25 feet over Metra’s train tracks to provide bridge access for local residents.

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In a 390-25 vote, the House approved a measure on Tuesday that will increase protection of the Great Lakes region. It will prohibit any new diversions of the water to other places, and require states that border the lakes to adhere to new conservation standards.

Together, the five Great Lakes account for 20 percent of the world’s supply of fresh surface water.

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The plan will add Mayor Daley to about 800 US mayors who have adopted the Kyoto global warming protocols. Chicago’s new plan will build upon measured already in place and under way in the city, in an attempt to make Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the US.

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Teachers now have until Friday, Sept. 19, to apply for the C3 Student Club program.

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The fund would pay for efforts to prevent and control invasive species entering the lakes, clean up polluted sediments and help pay for sewer system repairs throughout the area. The program would also create a Great Lakes coordinator position in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Funding for Obama’s Great Lakes plan would come from reversing some existing tax cuts and incentives for oil companies.

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GPA calls Ultra Green Film an “eco-friendly substrate” that not only doesn’t require trees, but doesn’t need water or bleach to make either. Instead, the paper is limestone-based, made of mineral powders bound together with small amounts of high-density polyethylene and a non-toxic resin.

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Victory gardens continue to spring up in and around the City as food prices continue to rise and food sustainability becomes more of an issue. This Civic Center venture found its funding through various organizations including Slow Food Nation, CMG Landscape Architecture, City Slicker Farms, The Presidio Native Plant Nursery, Alemany Farms, Friends of the Urban Forest, Ploughshares Nursery, Urban Permaculture Guild, Coevolution Institute and many others.

Our salad bowl spins with the thought of the many crops being grown Amaranth, Snap Bean, Pole Bean, Dry Bean, Broccoli Raab, Ground Cherry, Chicory, Chinese Cabbage, Collards, Cowpea, Cress, Leeks, Okra, Bunching Onion, as well as Calendula, May Flowers, Sunflowers and many others. Being realists, we thought that in this City that how will these crops survive with all the pesky homeless and veggie thieves but the city provides on-site security to guard against theft.

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This post was originally published on Wednesday, June 25, 2008.

The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this month (and thanks to Treehugger for the update) that Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley announced on a summer reading program with a green focus, named “Read Green, Live Green” program.

The program, which will run until the beginning of August, includes, according to the Tribune, a series of discussion groups aimed at celebrating nature and the threats against it. The program will be offering books, reading tours and performances for adults and children on environmental issues including climate change, energy and farming.

Children and adults will be able to explore the environment with a good read during the summer at any of the 79 Chicago Public Library branches.

Participating children will read, report on books of their choosing and have fun with green programs and projects. Children will receive a sticker for their book log for each book read, win book prizes and earn a Read Green, Live Green t-shirt by reading lots of books!The list of events for children can be found here - http://www.chipublib.org/dir_documents/SRP08_Kidsa.pdf.

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Whatever the cause (and there’s good reason to blame all three to some degree), most so-called experts these days aren’t expecting oil prices to drop anytime soon. In fact, Newsweek this week features a sobering article titled, “The Coming Energy Wars,” that predicts we’ll soon see oil prices top $200 a barrel. When that happens, the authors warn, we can expect everything about our daily lives to change.

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The Great Lakes Water Resources Compact aims to protect the water rights of the eight states bordering the lakes: Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Michigan’s approval of the agreement brings the number of states signed on so far to five: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and New York.

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It’s disturbing that you could face fines for doing something that’s both a money-saver and good for the environment. Still, I thought it might help any would-be biodiesel home-brewers out there to know where to find more information about the laws that might apply to you. Here are a few sites I discovered that might come in handy:

Alternative Fuels & Advanced Vehicles Data Center: This page on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Website gives a state-by-state summary of incentives and laws affecting homemade biodiesel, other alternative fuels and alternative fuel-powered vehicles.

The California Center for Sustainable Energy: According to this site, “The first 400 gallons of home-made biodiesel is exempt from federal taxation and anything afer 400 gallons is subject to normal federal tax rates.” The center also advises home biodiesel-brewers to check with their state to see if state fuel taxes apply to them. You’ll also find lots of good links here on home biodiesel production, equipment suppliers and biodiesel fueling locations in the U.S.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: While this site doesn’t specifically address biodiesel tax policies, it does feature a large number of informative publications about biodiesel production, handling, use, quality, stability, compatibility, emissions and fleet evaluations.

Other sites with lots of information about all aspects of biodiesel include the National Biodiesel Board and its companion marketplace site, AllThingsBiodiesel.com, the National Biodiesel Foundation, an article on “Greasoline” at the Journal of Young Investigators and, of course, Wikipedia (here and here).

Image credit: Mejidori at Wikimedia Commons, released into public domain.

Shortly after last week’s primaries, Obama stated:

I think the way we have run this war in Iraq has lessened our ability to move our allies. It has led us to ignore the critical needs for us to focus on a sound energy policy in this country. It has left us unable to lead on critical global issues like global warming. And it has led us to neglect what ultimately is the most important thing to keeping America safe, and that is having an economy that is the envy of the world and that gives us the resources and the power to project ourselves around the world.

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