Skip to main content
Like
Create new Glog
previous
next
Email share
52 views | 0 likes | 0 reposts
Obama calls for new era of energy exploration President Barack Obama delivers remarks at Trinity Structural Towers in Newton, Iowa, Wednesday, April 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) NEWTON, Iowa -- President Barack Obama, standing Wednesday in the shell of a once-giant Maytag appliance factory that now houses a wind energy company, declared that a new era of energy exploration in America would be a crucial to leading the nation out of an economic crisis. With pieces of wind turbine towers as a backdrop, Obama touted the small manufacturing firm as a success and as a step toward reducing the United States' reliance on polluting fuels. But as the president on Earth Day set a goal for wind to generate as much as 20 percent of the U.S. electricity demand by 2030, legislation to make that a reality faced a challenge back in Washington in the Democratic-led Congress. The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy, Obama said in a state that launched him on the road to the White House with a surprise upset over one-time rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. America can be that nation. America must be that nation. And while we seek new forms of fuel to power our homes and cars and businesses, we will rely on the same ingenuity - the same American spirit - that has always been a part of our American story." It's an American spirit, though, that has been damped with economic downturn and financial crisis. The president left Washington for a few hours Wednesday to visit this small Iowa town, which took a huge economic hit when Maytag Corp. shut its doors in 2007. The Maytag plant employed some 4,000 in a town of 16,000 residents in jobs that paid about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. In its place is Trinity Structural Towers, a 90-person manufacturing firm that makes parts of wind turbines the president hopes to expand on land and at sea through the government's first plan to harness ocean currents to produce energy. Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy, Obama said. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy. In Washington, the president's plan to increase alternative energy sources and create environmentally friendly jobs hit some snags despite Obama's fellow Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reinforced Obama's message in testimony to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday. The administration's draft bill is designed to help stem the pollution blamed for climate change by capping greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the nation's reliance on fossil fuels. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by mid-century. The White House wants to see movement on the legislation by Memorial Day. To help that along, aides said the president plans to personally make his case that the costs of dealing with climate change can be reduced dramatically by adopting programs that will spur energy efficiency and wider use of non-fossil energy such as wind, solar and biofuels. In Newton, Obama proclaimed that once-shuttered factories are whirring back to life, although the facility he toured is a shadow of what it replaced here about 30 miles east of Des Moines. Today this facility is alive again with new industry, Obama said, while noting that this community continues to struggle and not everyone has been so fortunate as to be rehired. Trinity now employs about 90 people - hardly the replacement Newton so desperately needs. We'll never have another Maytag, said Paul Bell, a Newton police officer who also serves in the state legislature. Maybe we shouldn't have had a company here that the majority of people worked for. We put all of our eggs in one basket." Recognizing the challenges remaining in Newton and scores of towns like it coast-to-coast, Obama quickly added: Obviously things aren't exactly the same as they were with Maytag. With the same root in realism, Obama acknowledged the United States' energy policy will not change instantly, given the country's reliance on oil and natural gas. But the bulk of our efforts must focus on unleashing a new, clean-energy economy that will begin to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, will cut our carbon pollution by about 80 percent by 2050 and create millions of new jobs right here in America, right here in Newton, he said. But it won't come quickly. The United States imports almost 4.9 billion barrels of oil and refined products annually. That is raw energy that cannot be replaced, one windmill at a time. Instead, Obama urged bold thinking - and spending - to address climate change and energy supplies. So on this Earth Day, it is time for us to lay a new foundation for economic growth by beginning a new era of energy exploration in America," he said to applause. Obama also pushed personal responsibility, calling on every American to replace one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent. The president also said the leaders of the world's major economies will meet next week to discuss the energy crisis. In Landover, Md., on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing that $300 million in federal stimulus money will go to cities and towns to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles. Associated Press writer Brian Westley in Landover, Md., contributed to this report.
WALLA WALLA — More than 300 students, faculty and staff from Walla Walla University, Whitman College and Walla Walla Community College are cleaning, planting and building today, as part of a communitywide show of support for Earth Day, which is Wednesday. “I didn’t really know what I am getting into ...” said Whitman College student Brigitte Meyer, 19, who will be planting trees, “... but I really wanted to do that. I am kind of excited.” Meyer and five other Whitman College students started their Earth Day volunteering Saturday at Walla Walla Public Library, as the students showed children what they could make with recycled items. “They are learning to be creative and that they can recycle material to make projects and have fun,” said science major Kayla Chory, 19. The most popular item was a rocket made from plastic beverage bottles, paper tubes, plastic Easter eggs and scrap paper. Other items included a chick made from a yogurt container and a bear called Tacky made out of a plastic bottle and CD with a bear drawn on it by Madeline, 5. “I think everything is essentially up to interpretation,” joked Isabel Hong, 20, whose job it was to come up with new things for the kids to make from the bottles, coffee filters, Styrofoam, Easter eggs, scrap paper, CDs and a hot glue gun (which the children were not allowed to use). She had just finished a new creation, making a boat out of an old box, Popsicle stick and paper sail. Twenty-five Earth Day projects will take place today. Among the projects are clean up and maintenance work at Pioneer Park, Blue Mountain Humane Society and local streams.
A hand in tomorrow's shade Blue Ridge students planted a tree and took home seedlings in celebration of the city's Arbor Day. By MARIA P. GONZALEZ WALLA WALLA -- Fifth-graders at Blue Ridge Elementary school crowded around a trailer topped with several bags of earth. Each student walked away holding a styrofoam cup with a red maple seedling protruding from its nest of dirt. Blue Ridge students used gold shoves to secure a city-donated tree in its new home. U-B photo by Jeff Horner Simone Tuilaepa, 11, held in one hand Airbo the Super Tree, and in the other Rootie, the nicknames she had assigned her young trees. Moments earlier, the students had each gotten a turn placing dirt along the base of a new sapling taking root in the playground of their school. City and School District leaders turned out at Blue Ridge on Wednesday afternoon to officially mark the city's 2009 Arbor Day. Mayor Dan Johnson read the proclamation, and City Council members Barbara Clark and Shane Laib were among those in attendance. While the school's fifth-graders helped with the ceremony, the rest of the school's students got to watch. Most of them sat on the ground, surrounding the grassy area where the school's new tree was planted. They watched attentively as their principal spoke, followed by the mayor and John Christy, member of the city's Parks, Recreation and Urban Forestry Advisory Board. Christy spoke to the students on the significance of planting a tree, and helping preserve the presence of trees in the city. How many 7-year-olds do we have here he asked the Blue Ridge students. Several hands rose. I am! one boy exclaimed. Christy shared a story of when he was a 7-year-old Cub Scout in 1957, and helped plant a tree outside a hospital in San Diego. That tree is still there today, Christy said, describing the tree, now 25-feet high, that he helped plant in his youth. He explained to the students how the tree they were planting would be different in five years, much like they would be different, and even more different in 10 years. Fifth-grade students then presented hand-painted posters welcoming their guests, recognizing Arbor Day and celebrating the beauty of the world. Blue Ridge Elementary School fifth-grader Jamie McDavid named a red maple ''Bob'' at the Arbor Day tree planting celebration at Blue Ridge. U-B photo by Jeff Horner The students wrapped up their presentation with an homage to trees and nature. In the chorus, they chanted together: Oaks, Pines, Cypress too, doing the arborist boogaloo! They then took turns grabbing shovels and placing dirt along the base of the recently planted tree, which sits on a grassy plot near the school's entrance into the playground area. The school received a green vase zelkova, a Japanese tree similar to an elm, Christy said. Students were then encouraged to take the red maple seedlings home to plant in their yards. They're pretty fast growing, and have nice foliage in the fall, said David Stevenson, an advisory board member who helped hand out trees to the students. As she welcomed her school's guests and kicked off the day's ceremony, Principal Connie Taylor-Randal read from a favorite poem, advice from a Tree, by Ilan Shamir. The poem offered sound advice, like remember your roots, and enjoy the view. Blue Ridge and the city also worked together two years ago to mark Arbor Day, and planted another tree in the playground on that day. Taylor-Randall said the partnership offers several benefits to the school's children. Not only does it involve the students in a community-wide event, but it teaches them the value of botany, science and nature. Through the presentation, the students got to learn about giving a speech and a public presentation. On Saturday, another Arbor Day celebration will be held at Blue Ridge from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Working with the city's Rotary Club, about 45 families plan to participate and help plant additional trees at the school. The events are part of a great reforestation effort in the city, with residents encouraged to plant trees at home. Maria P. Gonzalez can be reached at mariagonzalez@wwub.com or 525-3300, ext. 317. On Saturday, another Arbor Day celebration will be held at Blue Ridge ... Working with the city's Rotary Club, about 45 families plan to participate and help plant additional trees at the school.
NASCAR goes green with hybrid pace car By JIM UTTER http://www.charlotte.com/ CONCORD, N.C. Until recently, about the only thing green about NASCAR was Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s paint scheme. Tuesday, a day before Earth Day, Toyota and Lowe's Motor Speedway unveiled something else green - an environmentally friendly Toyota Camry Hybrid that will serve as the pace car for the May 24 Coca-Cola 600. In a sport that still races cars with carburetor engines and only moved to unleaded fuel in 2008, why a hybrid? We see it as a demonstration of performance, said Ed Laukes, Toyota's corporate manager of motorsports marketing. The fact we can take a car literally anyone can buy down at their local Toyota dealer and go out and pass the performance characteristics required by NASCAR, we think that is pretty exciting." To be approved as a pace car, the Camry Hybrid had to pass a NASCAR-mandated performance test. To run at Lowe's, a pace car is required to reach speeds close to 100 mph from a stand-by position near the exit of pit road to the time it reaches the exit of Turn 2 - a distance of about a quarter of a mile. A Ford Fusion Hybrid paced the green flag in last season's Sprint Cup Series finale at Homestead, Fla., but wasn't used after that because it didn't meet the performance standards. The Toyota Hybrid will be the first to be used throughout a race and will be used at five more races this season -the October race at Charlotte, at Infineon Raceway, Chicagoland Speedway, Watkins Glen, N.Y., and the October race at Martinsville, Va. Denny Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup series, was on hand Tuesday, giving demonstration rides. Could he imagine NASCAR adopting a hybrid racing vehicle? I know as a fan, when I used to sit in the stands, how exciting it was to hear the engines roar, he said. At the start of the engines, the ground kind of shakes. You're just not going to get that from a hybrid. "It's quiet and smooth." And green.
Earth Day
I got my articles from http://www.seattlepi.com http://www.tri-cityherald.com Talen helped me with the looks of my page.
