The Pentagon has set quite a goal - by 2025, 25% of the U.S. military’s energy will come from renewable sources (RedOrbit). The skyrocketing price of oil, as well as the casualties it takes to get that oil to where it’s needed, were two major motivating factors.
Some interesting statistics: The Defense Department alone accounts for 1.5 percent of U.S. energy consumption. Every time the price of oil goes up $10 a barrel, it costs the Department of Defense $1.3 billion a year.
More on the Vestas decision to build a new blade manufacturing plant in Colorado (with 1,350 jobs) (NAWindpower).
Interested in who is getting the federal dollars for rural renewable energy dollars? Check out the most recent listing on who received the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) funds (formerly 9006 funds), at farmenergy.org - click here.
To those Kansas communities out there trying to put up wind turbines - note the $596,789 award to install a large wind turbine in Story City, IA.
Evangelicals fracturing over creation care (Center for American Progress). The latest dispute came over whether the Evangelical Environmental Network would be allowed to participate in a conference run by the National Religious Broadcasters Association. Quotable:
The Evangelical Environmental Network is more than 15 years old, but only in the past two years has its cause become a central topic of evangelical debate. It received a major boost in 2006 when 86 evangelical leaders signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative, which suggested the fight against global warming deserved a place on the evangelical agenda alongside the battle to ban abortion.
The Climate Initiative sparked a hostile backlash from the religious right. Radio personality James Dobson of Focus on the Family bitterly denounced the Climate Initiative’s backers, even joining with the Family Research Counsel’s Tony Perkins and 23 other leaders to demand that one of its main architects be fired from his position at the National Association of Evangelicals. The late Reverend Jerry Falwell even described global warming advocacy as “Satan’s attempt to redirect the church’s primary focus.”
Today, however, Dobson and his allies seem to be on the defensive. The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents some 30 million members, has identified “creation care” as one of its top five priorities. The Reverend Pat Robertson has reversed his opposition to global warming measures, even appearing in advertisements for the “We Can Solve the Climate Crisis” campaign.
But the fight over environmentalism is far from over. Recently, Dobson, Perkins, and other old-guard leaders launched a group called “We Get It,” which purports to be a Christian environmental organization. In actuality, its declaration of principles denies scientific consensus on global warming and opposes environmental measures because it claims they will hurt the poor.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
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