“Green Energy” in St. Paul

Anders J. Rydaker District Energy Americans are hearing the term “renewable energy” more and more as we face escalating fossil fuel prices and fuel supply shortages. On the national level, President Bush outlined an Advanced Energy Initiative in his State of the Union Address, with the goal of replacing more …

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A Calendar of Energy Saving Tips

Terry Webster Office of Energy Security, MN Department of Commerce Summer Keep cool and save with a ceiling fan. But turn the fan off when leaving the room. A ceiling fan only cools people, not the room. Use window fans properly. Place them on the cool side of the house …

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A Quick Guide to Lighting Options for Your Home

Neely Crane-Smith Center for Energy and Environment Incandescent Light Bulbs: These old-school bulbs work through the principal of incandescence — or producing light through heat. The electricity heats a filament (that little wire in the middle of the bulb) to such a temperature that it produces visible light. Incandescent bulbs are very …

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Air Pollution and Our Health

Mark Sulzbach Minnesota Pollution Control Agency When most people think of unhealthy air, they think of a stifling, summer day, plagued by high ozone levels and a thick layer of smog over the Twin Cities. However, Minnesota’s worst recorded air alert occurred during the winter of 2005, and ozone was …

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Community Energy Services

Kyle Boehm Center for Energy and Environment Learn how to reduce your energy use and save money! The City of Minneapolis has partnered with the Center for Energy and Environment, CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy to offer more Minneapolis homeowners Community Energy Services, a full service residential energy program. Community …

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Confronting Electric Racism

Lea Foushee Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM) Hazardous waste, garbage incinerators and dumps have routinely been located on reservations and in communities of Color. Indigenous Peoples have experienced environmental racism for more than 500 years. Today, nuclear racism has become a most pernicious form of environmental racism. The nuclear …

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Diversifying Minnesota’s Clean Energy Future with Biogas

Amanda Bilek Great Plains Institute Minnesota is blessed with an abundance of renewable energy resources to provide a clean energy future for our state. An often overlooked renewable energy resource is biogas. Biogas holds tremendous potential to help meet our future energy needs. As a versatile and constant energy resource, …

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Energy Saving 101

Do It Green! Minnesota Fluorescent Light Bulbs To light up a dark room, replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lights not only improve the quality of light, but also burn cooler and provide more light per watt of energy than incandescent bulbs. Instead of comparing the …

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Energy Transition

Philipp Muessig Twin Cities Energy Transition Working Group Huge energy price increases. Tight oil supplies. Climate change. Energy conservation. Major investments in renewable energy. To many people, it looks like the world is in the midst of an energy transition. What is driving this transition, where are we going, and …

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Factors of Cooling

Bob Alf Construction Bob Alf Construction When cooling a house, it is helpful to first understand the science of heating and cooling. Here are some variables that affect the heating and cooling of our homes during the summer months: Air Movement: Air moving into the house can bring in warmer …

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Finding and Sealing Air Leaks in Your Home

Mary Morse Neighborhood Energy Connection (NEC) A home is like a tent, where the parts of the exterior shell “walls, windows, doors, siding, foundation, and roofing” are designed to protect against the elements. By and large these construction features are very effective against cold, heat, wind, and moisture. There’s a …

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Fossil Fuels: What Everyone Should Know

Mark Snyder Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance I attended a presentation recently titled, “The Love of Fossil Fuels: The Root of All Evil?” While the title was partly a clever play on the age-old phrase, “Money is the root of all evil,” it also had some element of truth on …

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Getting Started with Green Building and Remodeling

Michael Anschel Otogawa-Anschel Design + Build The key to successful green building lies in two things: planning and communication. One of the big challenges in green construction and design is sorting through the vast ocean of information including all of the facts, fictions, and applications. Location, climate and building type …

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Global Warming Solutions for Minnesota

J. Drake Hamilton Science Policy Director, Fresh Energy Global warming is one of the most serious threats to our environment, our health, and our economy. The earth’s climate is changing rapidly, and these changes are driven in large part by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. A thickening …

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Green Laundry Tips

Britt Carlson Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Use cold water to wash. 90 percent of the energy used by a washer is for heating water. Wash only when dirty. Most pants and some shirts can be worn two to three times before washing. Line dry clothes year round. A large drying …

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Greener Design and Remodeling

Michael Anschel Otogawa-Anschel Design + Build If you are reading this article, you may already know the importance of considering our planet’s resources when designing our homes. Determining the most sustainable solutions is a real challenge. Should you invest in solar panels? Should you buy the carpet with the Green …

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Healthy Schools Projects

Linda Countryman Minnesota Pollution Control Agency – Prevention & Assistance Division Three Minnesota schools reduce pollution and save energy and money. Houston Public Schools in southeastern Minnesota, Pine Point Elementary on the White Earth Reservation, and Hutchinson High School took part in a recently finished pilot project to develop a …

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Heating and Cooling Buyer’s Guide

Mark Snyder Do It Green! Minnesota Whether you are burning natural gas to run a furnace or boiler or using electricity from coal-fired electric utilities to run your air conditioner, for many homeowners, heating and cooling our homes is our single largest contribution to global warming, making up about 30% …

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How Can You Become Carbon Neutral?

Sara Grochowski Do It Green! Minnesota For most of us, it is impossible to live life without using energy. However, the carbon dioxide generated daily, whether by driving or turning on lights, adds up quickly and contributes to global warming. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately four metric …

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Hydrogen Economy: Visualizing the Future

Corey Brinkema e4 Partners, Inc. What if hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, could power everything from automobiles and trucks to homes and office buildings with little or no toxic or greenhouse gas emissions? Welcome to the dream of the “hydrogen economy.” Does it seem like fantasy? For …

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Invest in a Cleaner, Healthier Future: Upgrading Your Home’s Energy Efficiency

John F. Neville The SEA Group If you have the resources and are going to stay in your home for a while, you may want to invest some time and money in upgrading your home to improve its energy efficiency. Over time, investments in energy conservation return big dividends in …

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Making Your Dishwasher an Earth-Friendly Tool

Jeannie Piekos Bag-E-Wash You do not have to feel guilty about using a dishwasher. Many studies have proven that dishwashers are much more cost-effective and energy-efficient than washing dishes by hand.* Maximize your dishwasher’s environmental effectiveness with these helpful tips: Run your dishwasher when it is completely full. Do not …

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Minneapolis Residents Tackle Climate Change

Beth Bennett Center for Energy and Environment In 2007, the city of Minneapolis became the first city in the country to fund small grants for its residents to prevent climate change. The grants garnered tremendous success; Minneapolis residents pledged to prevent over 8.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually …

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Minnesota GreenStar to Take Center Stage

Michael Anschel & Corey Brinkema Green Remodeling Group & Green Institute This has been a great year of progress in Minnesota’s efforts to become a national leader in preserving and restoring our environment. From the landmark legislation in addressing climate change and developing sustainable energy resources to the growth of …

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Minnesota Wind Energy: One Size Does Not Fit All

Windustry Like rich farmland and beautiful lakes, wind is a natural resource in Minnesota and is harvested as a renewable energy source in many areas of the state. Over the past ten years, the wind industry has grown throughout Minnesota, boosting rural economic development and diversifying energy fuel resources. Minnesota’s …

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Opting for Wind Power

Don Vasatka, The School of Environmental Studies Wind power has always been present in the background of alternative energy resources – an available source of energy but one which is not used to its fullest potential because of its high costs. With increasing fuel prices and more efficient technology, the …

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Park Rapids Wind Energy Project Provides Clean Energy and Education

Mao Lee and Kathleen McCarthy Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) The Park Rapids Area Century School in Minnesota knows the importance of saving energy, producing clean, renewable energy, educating the community and raising the next generation of young leaders — grades K–8, specifically. In 2007, the school received funding from CERTs and …

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Phantom Load

Neely Crane-Smith Center for Energy and Environment Would you fix a leaky faucet? Did you know that you have electronics in your home leaking electricity—electricity that you pay for—24 hours a day, 7 days a week? The power drain is called “phantom load,” and it is a big problem with …

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Pollution-free Heating and Cooling: Geothermal Heat Pumps

Mark Snyder Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance What is Geothermal? Many people, when they hear the word “geothermal”, think of those old plants that were built out in Western states to generate electricity using underground reservoirs of hot water or steam. Known as “direct-use” systems, they trade off dependence on …

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Reckmeyer vs. Rivers: A Family Energy Challenge

Neely Crane-Smith Center for Energy and Environment Looking for inspiration to save energy in your home? Two Minnesota families have taken it to the next level with a three-year competition happening amidst new jobs, new babies and new challenges. It all started in 2007, when Tim Reckmeyer mentioned to coworker …

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Reduce the Energy Costs of Home Appliances

Mary Morse Neighborhood Energy Connection Rein in the cost and environmental impact of common household appliances with the following tips: Identify your biggest energy wasters Households spend more money on heating and cooling than any other energy expenditure. Before investing in a new furnace or air conditioner, tame these costs …

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Shades of Green: Healthy Basement Renovations

Erin Barnes-Driscoll Green Buildings Team—Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Basements are notorious for being damp, dark, inhospitable places—the antithesis of what we like to associate with green and healthy living. As a rule, the basements in older homes were not designed to be functional living spaces. Yet for many of us, …

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Solar Energy History

Jan Hubbard Minnesota Renewable Energy Society “We travel through time on a cyclical path often returning to where we came.” Black Elk (1863-1950), a Lakota holy man, explained the symbolic power of the circle for his people in the book Tipi: Home of the Nomadic Buffalo Hunters (2007): “You have …

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Solar Works for Minnesota

Dawn Erlandson Communications Consultant, Solar America Cities — Minneapolis and St. Paul Solar energy can provide electricity, hot water or space heating depending upon the technology used. According to the Minnesota Office of Energy Security, Minnesota is home to approximately 400 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems as of July 2010. It is estimated …

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Spiritual Progress: Congregations Going Green

By Sean Gosiewski & Wanda Copeland Congregations Caring for Creation (C3) Congregations Caring for Creation (C3) is an interfaith network of more than 80 congregations that are making the active care of Creation integral to spiritual life and social justice in their congregation. C3/MNIPL is the Minnesota chapter of a …

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Summer Cooling Without Air Conditioning

Bob Alf Construction Using window fans the wrong way can make a room warmer. Learn how to get the most out of low-cost and natural methods for cooling your home. The cooling technology that has brought us air conditioning (AC) has arguably brought much needed comfort to the sick and …

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Tar Sands Oil: Where Minnesota Gasses Up

Michael Noble Fresh Energy Ever wonder where your gasoline comes from? If you live in Minnesota, your gasoline mostly comes from unconventional oil sources like tar sands. These vast Canadian reserves of oil-soaked sands lie under 100 feet of virgin boreal forest in Alberta’s Athabasca River basin. Oil companies and …

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The Future of Energy is Conservation

Mary Morse Neighborhood Energy Connection Americans have been on a century-long energy spending spree. From automobiles to architecture, as long as energy costs have stayed affordable relative to our incomes, neither wastefulness nor environmental implications figured into our buying and building decisions. But with skyrocketing energy costs, people are beginning …

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The Reality of Carbon Offsets

Eli Effinger-Weintraub Do It Green! Carbon offsetting is a method of counteracting the environmental impacts of carbon emissions by investing in carbon-reduction efforts. While reducing your fossil fuel consumption should be your first focus, individuals can purchase carbon offsets for air travel, cruises, big events, cross-country road trips, or everyday …

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The Transition to Energy Efficient Living

Sara Grochowski Do It Green! Minnesota Since the advent of the industrial revolution, worldwide energy consumption has been growing steadily. With the decreasing availability of current non-renewable energy sources, we are moving towards an energy transition to renewable energy options. There are arguments for and against the many energy sources …

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Tips on Working with Your Landlord to Green Your Apartment

Amy Pickett and Chad Skally Skally Management Too often when we talk about living green, we focus on homeowners rather than renters. At Skally Management, a family-owned and -operated real estate management company in St. Paul, we’re changing that concept by finding innovative ways to practice Eco-Management: sustainable, responsible real …

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Top Energy Actions

Beth Bennett Center for Energy and Environment With so many options to reduce your energy use, which actions are best for you and your family? Go to the Minnesota Energy Challenge, mnenergychallenge.org, to see how much money and how many pounds of carbon dioxide emissions you save with simple, hassle-free …

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Urban Renewal with Renewables

Diana Mckeown Metro CERT Coordinator, The Green Institute How does an urban community connect to renewable energy? This article explores options for urban dwellers who want to support and create renewable energy that they can use at home, for their cars, and in their neighborhoods. Windy Cities? Wind turbines have …

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What You Should Know About Energy Efficient Lighting

John Gilkeson Prevention and Assistance Division, MN Pollution Control Agency More and more, people are asking if they should purchase and use energy-efficient lighting in their homes. The answer is definitely “YES,” because doing so will save money, reduce electrical consumption, contribute to energy conservation and reduce the environmental impacts …

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Your Home’s Building Envelope

Sara Grochowski Do It Green! Minnesota; Original content by Bob Alf Construction Improving your home’s building envelope is a worthwhile investment as it will save time, money, and energy. Four components of a building envelope ensure maximum control of heat and moisture. The Four Components: Weather Barrier: a building’s outer …

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Your Window on Energy Savings

Bob Alf Construction Better windows can save money, brighten your mood, and freshen your air, but beware OF the advice of a window salesperson or your neighbor. Windows are a hot topic, especially now that the US government is offering a sizable tax credit for home energy improvements.1 Yet the …

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