Racine County Compost Co-Op Green Racine Farmers Markert

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=188183415768 Is the facebook group location.

THe idea is since The CAA of Racine and Kenosha County have no clue on how to get work done but love to have meeting to have meeting to plan idea that need more meetings.
I thought if this was going to happen it be up to me and other locals not government or NGO's are not going to do it. IMHO the goals that CAA about food networks can not be met with the silliness.

So that means I got to do it. Had one false start that I blame the Town of Mt. Pleasant for, either The town leadership is dumb (Organic crops cause run off) or My guy in Racine got to them to refuse my idea. Thank God that I was able to find a farmer in another area who believes in what I am trying to do. So at this time I have an acre for the composting pile and a few hundred squre yards for a truck garden.
So after the land is tilled we will be planing crops to over winter mostly Garlic. Will also use lots of dung on my truck garden area, best of all the truck garden is very close to good running water.
The crops grown in the Truck Garden will be sold at a Farmers Market that I will form to be located I hope at the school near my home or an area near a group of churches. The Market will run on Sundays.

We can do this

PSA for Garden of Eating

Here a short PSA I did for the Garden of Eating in Racine

Back and bad.

I am back with my tail beween my legs. WordPress hates me.
So I thought I would restart this Blog and hook it to my Google site page http://sites.google.com/site/greenracineproject/home/links
So I hope to do a better job in keeping this updated. To help that along I fully plan to use the full power of Goggle.
The focus will be the same I think Green Teck Urban Gardening politics of that.
Note my writting sucks. You have been warned.

Billions in Economic Growth via Wind Power Why not in Racine WI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 29, 2008

Contact: Christine Real de Azua (202) 383-2508

OVER 600 INDUSTRY LEADERS SEE POTENTIAL FOR NEW JOBS,
BILLIONS IN ECONOMIC GROWTH IN WIND POWER SUPPLY CHAIN

AWEA Holds Supply Chain Workshop in Des Moines, April 29-30

Representatives from a diverse range of industries, including foundries, tooling companies, gearbox manufacturers, railroads and other transportation providers, electronics manufacturers and metal fabricators, as well as state economic development officers, will gather at the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) Wind Power Supply Chain Workshop in Des Moines, Iowa, April 29-30.

Drawing attention to Iowa as a growing hub for wind power-related job creation, the Iowa Department of Economic Development is co-sponsoring the workshop.

“I'm honored to welcome AWEA to our state,” said Iowa Governor Chet Culver (D). “It is our responsibility to tap clean, renewable energy resources to spur investment and create new, green-collar jobs in Iowa. Communities across Iowa that have experienced real economic challenges, like Keokuk, Fort Madison and Newton, have recently seen a new rebirth by tapping into our booming wind industry. While each of these cities is in the process of adding hundreds of new wind-generation manufacturing jobs, this is only the beginning of what is possible.”

“Wind energy has not only helped power many parts of Iowa, but it has provided millions of dollars in economic activity to struggling communities,” added Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). “Wind is an affordable and inexhaustible source of domestically produced energy. We must do everything possible to capture and grow this renewable source of energy all the way up the supply chain."

AWEA expects about 600 attendees, making the workshop the trade group’s largest ever as well as the first aimed at expanding the industry’s “supply chain,” or range of component suppliers.

“The U.S. wind power industry is a bright spot in our economy,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. “Every megawatt of installed wind power creates employment in manufacturing, construction and operations as well as jobs in advertising, office support, environmental assessment and other related professions. America’s vast wind resources have barely been tapped, and we have only just begun to see wind’s potential to generate broad economic growth.”

Encouraged by the stability of the federal production tax credit (PTC), U.S. wind industry manufacturing has surged from a very small base in 2005 to more than 100 facilities in 2007.

In 2005, the average wind turbine contained less than 30% American-made components. Today, domestically manufactured content is approaching 50%. (A wind turbine is composed of some 8,000 components, ranging from towers and blades to gearboxes, generators, castings, ball bearings, and electronic components.) New facilities were opened or announced last year in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. These facilities are expected to create more than 6,000 permanent, well-paying jobs. Many of the fastest-growing wind industry suppliers in the U.S. are slated to attend the workshop this week.

“While the wind industry’s strong growth is encouraging, the PTC is in danger of lapsing at the end of this year,” said Swisher. “It is vitally important for Congress and the President to quickly extend the PTC—the primary U.S. incentive for wind power—as part of a long-term policy for renewable energy to foster investment in wind installations, manufacturing capacity and thousands of new jobs.”

At the workshop, industry leaders will discuss the need to ramp up U.S.-based manufacturing and state incentives that encourage such investments as well as projections for growth—which will be determined largely by whether the U.S. government puts in place a strong, supportive, stable policy for renewable energy, starting with a quick extension of the PTC.

For more information, contact Christine Real de Azua, crealdeazua@awea.org.

________________________________

Racine needs to move on this!

From The Cleavland Business News

Akron - The nation's No. 2 wind turbine manufacturer spent most of this week in the state looking for parts makers.

California-based Clipper Windpower's search culminated Thursday at a luncheon at the University of Akron attended by about 50 Ohio companies with the know-how to turn out the myriad precision parts that go into the behemoth turbines.

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Read more of The Plain Dealer's energy coverage.

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"If we can find suppliers we can partner with, we'll do it," Todd Windeknecht, Clipper' s strategic commodity leader, told a crowd of about 80 at the Martin University Center on the UA campus. "We are looking for long-term agreements, at least five years."

Clipper built its first wind turbine in 2005, six in 2006 and 125 this year. It has already taken orders through 2011, said Windeknecht, describing the rate of increase as "vertical."

The company has built a turbine works in Iowa, where the requirement that utilities generate a portion of their power from renewable sources like wind has created a boom in wind farms. The turbine works employs 350. "We are hiring 30 to 40 people a week," Windeknecht said.

The industry is facing critical shortages in gears, bearings, towers and turbine blades, he said. Clipper on its own already has contracts with about a dozen Ohio firms. Windeknecht and two colleagues spent most of Thursday afternoon in one-on-one interviews with interested parts makers.

The event was the brainchild of the Cleveland-based WIRE-Net, a manufacturing advocacy organization that has created the Great Lakes Wind Network to help companies such as Clipper, General Electric and a bevy of foreign turbine makers see what Ohio has to offer.

Ed Weston, director of the network, said U.S. wind turbine production is expected to grow by 913 percent over the next four years.

The market potential for turbine supply chain companies has been estimated at $22 billion, he said.

Weston also invited Ohio Department of Development experts on wind and other renewable energies to the conference. The department has about $1 million to assist renewable energy development, and the staffers were meeting privately with interested companies.

Gov. Ted Strickland's electricity reform bill includes a provision that the state's utilities, by 2025, generate at least 25 percent of the power they sell here from renewable and other advanced technologies - a strategy he hopes will land an assembly plant in the state and generate thousands of new jobs, not only in turbine assembly but in the supply chain.

Utilities oppose or only marginally support the governor's bill. After six weeks of hearings, the Senate amended the bill in a way that wind advocates argue means wind farms will not be built here.

The Ohio House leadership expects to spend the entire winter considering the bill.

Wind powered City

ROCK PORT - It wasn't a ribbon cutting ceremony, it wasn't a ground breaking-- it was all about throwing a switch.

Welcome to Rock Port on Thursday, where the temperature was 44 degrees and the wind was blowing like crazy.

"What's interesting is my husband is in the oil business but that's alright, we're thrilled to have wind energy here. As Americans we need to get more independent," Rock Port resident Kim Bunton said.

"It's a big deal," Project Director Eric Chamberlain said. "It's a big deal for renewable energy and it's a big deal to be energy independent."

Chamberlain was born and raised in Rock Port.

"What we're celebrating is that the wind farm in Rock Port can produce more energy each year than what this community uses, and that has never been done before," Chamberlain said.

And that's why everyone showed up. From the celebration and speeches downtown to the city's power plant, the guy who made it all happen explained what it is all about.

"What we're showing here is the city is producing 2 megawatts more than they need, so in essence, this meter is running backwards," Chamberlain said.

That doesn't mean free electricity.

"I assume it will be lower because we're going to eliminate the transmission charges incurred," Rock Port Mayor Jo Stevens said.

So by putting these 250-foot tall turbines up on the hilltops...

"We live on a dead-end road and we've had more traffic the past year," wind farm landowner Mick Lewis said.

Lewis owns the property here, and he knows other Missouri farmers are watching.

"What's my message? Check out the people you're working with and do your research," Lewis said. "What I felt comfortable with was John Deere; I'll call it the big gun behind this."

Lewis said he also felt comfortable with Tom Carnahan, president of the Wind Capital Group.

"We have a nice windy day. I drove around, all the turbines were spinning and it just feels good," Carnahan said.

Coming from a political family, Carnahan can talk from a soap-box.

"The No. 1 thing we need to have is a national policy that says we encourage renewable energy," Carnahan said. "Right now we have a hodge podge policy. What we do consistently is help the oil and coal companies."

So who would have thought!

"Thanks for coming all the way from Columbia," Stevens said.

Rock Port only has a population of 1,316 but last week they threw the switch as America's first ever community completely powered by the wind.

"With wind you need a windy area. Fortunately for northwest Missouri, the bulk of it is here, but there are other places where this can be done, " Carnahan said.

Yes, northwest Missouri is windier than central Missouri. It takes winds of up to 9-miles per hour to get those blades spinning. Rock Port is now powered by four wind turbines. In all, 79 turbines are operational in northwest Missouri.

An Idea for Racine?

Green Racine Blog Talk Raido show!

Green Racine BTR show #2 will be on at 11:00 AM today at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Green-Racine/2008/02/09/Green-Racine-2 please check out the show and give me your feedback.
Today I will talk about Bio-Diesel Wind Power in The State of Wisconsin and the NIMBY attack on Wind Power.
I am still looking for a host for the CATV show.

Thanks

Green Racine

PS
Expect lots of great news on this page during the weekend.

Electric cars in Racine WI

From the Racine Post 2/2/08

Neighborhood Electric Cars...

This just came in from Aldermen Greg Helding and Aron Wisneski. This is in response to our article on the state approving Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, but them being illegal in Racine. Here's the release:
Racine’s streets may soon be buzzing with zero emissions electric vehicles, if two Racine Alderman have their way. Aldermen Aron Wisneski and Greg Helding are working on an ordinance to allow the operation of “Neighborhood Electric Vehicles” in the City of Racine.Wisconsin’s DOT recently approved the vehicles for state licensing, but did not mandate that they be allowed on city streets – leaving the decision up to local officials. “People in Racine are being squeezed by high gas prices,” said Alderman Aron Wisneski. “City government shouldn’t stand in the way of this market-driven solution to that problem.”Specifically designed for localized use, these cars produce zero emissions because they are 100% electric. The car’s batteries provide only enough power to reach a top speed of 25MPH and a maximum range of 35 miles with a single charge. Despite these limitations, they are gaining in popularity because they are affordable. With a retail price under $15,000 and an estimated annual fuel cost of just $200, they make for a very low cost second car. “These vehicles are perfect for people who do all of their driving in town,” said Alderman Greg Helding. “They are inexpensive, clean, and quiet. I can’t think of a reason we would not want to allow them.”The Aldermen submitted a request to the city council asking for an ordinance to be drafted that would allow the operation of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. The request will be introduced at their February 5, 2008, meeting. “At that point, we will refer it to a committee so we can study the proposal and get feedback from city departments, including Pubic Works and the Police,” said Wisneski. “This is the first step, but we would like to see the ordinance adopted sometime this spring.” If the ordinance is adopted, Racine will join about 35 other Wisconsin communities that allow the vehicles, including Green Bay, LaCrosse, Eau Claire, and Beloit.