AERO has always been about solutions. One of the most frequently asked questions we get here at the AERO office is "Yes, but what can I do?" The short reply is to Keep It Local, whether you are growing your own food or supporting local organic growers at Farmer's Markets, paying attention to your consumption of goods and energy, or supporting 'locally-grown" green energy production. In May 2007 the AERO Energy Task Force released our "Repowering Montana- A Blueprint for Homegrown Energy Self-Reliance." At this website you'll find a variety of useful information to help you become better informed. For instance, check out the Reading Room, the KUFM editorials, or the Links to other resources. You can also find out how to find your local Farmer's Market, check out AERO's Abundant Montana online, calculate your Carbon Footprint, and much more.
We hope you find AERO a useful ally in 2007.
MSU Organic Farmer Research Survey
Montana State University faculty are currently conducting organic farming research as part of a
three-year USDA grant. By filling out this survey, you will help directly shape the direction of future
organic farming research in Montana.
To find out more about the survey, and to participate, enter here...
Find a Farmer's Market Near You
Click here for Farmer's Markets throughout Montana.
Carbon Footprint
Your carbon footprint is the amount of land it takes to support your lifestyle. The average American uses about 24 acres of land to support him or herself. Worldwide, there are 4.5 acres of biologically productive land per person.
Energy Saving Tips
Abundant Montana
AERO's Directory to sustainably grown Montana food is now available online. Let us know what you think. Please contact us if you have any feedback.
Grow Montana
To maximize our capacity in the policy arena, AERO is a founding member of Grow Montana, a broad-based coalition working to promote community economic development policies that support sustainable Montana-owned food production, processing, and distribution, and that improve all of our citizens' access to Montana foods.
To find out more about Grow Montana, enter here.Energy-related PDF Documents
Montana Greenhouse Gas Project. Draft Dec. 1999
Doing More With Less: Green Paper on Energy Efficiency. European Commission 2005.
Winning the Oil Endgame. Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security. Amory Lovins et al.
Minnesota Climate Change Action Plan: A Framework for Climate Action. February 2003.
Articles
Coal Made the Headlines, but the Real Story of the Energy Summit Was the Cost-effectiveness of Renewable Energy
By Wilbur Wood
For The Billings Outpost, Oct. 27, 2005
Coal filled the headlines of Montana newspapers last week during the Governor’s Energy Summit -- officially called “The Montana Symposium: Energy Future of the West” -- but the real news was how much brighter our future will be when we turn our attention away from coal toward energy conservation and renewable energy.
The symposium went on for two days, October 18-19, on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman -- 740 registered participants (not counting the press), 27 “breakout sessions” punctuated by panels and speeches -- but the coal headlines around the state during those two days did not emerge solely from the Energy Symposium. Read more...>
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Mineral Development and Economic Development
T. M. Power
KUFM / KGPR Public radio commentary
Coal development in Montana is back on the political agenda, as it has been, off and on since the 1960s. This time it is not Republicans and coal moguls who are pushing coal development as Montana's economic salvation. It is Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer. That has led to a testy exchange between Schweitzer and some environmental leaders, including Jim Jensen, about whether Schweitzer is simply pursuing Judy Martz's industrial lapdog strategy. Read more...
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Continuing to mine is a foolish idea
Ron Erickson, Missoula
The Missoulian argues for an increase in coal mining in Montana with the idea that the coal should be converted to various synthetic fuels ("Thar's diesel in that thar coal," Missoulian, July 31).
That's not a new idea - the Judge administration looked at the same thing in the late '70s, and I remember a visit to a coal gasification pilot plant in Scotland in 1976 where Rosebud seam coal was being tested as feedstock. But it's a silly idea if you are interested at all in the fate of the planet. Read more...
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De' Coal Baby
by George Ochenski
Sucked in again by the Otter Creek Coal Tracts
Half a century ago, long before political correctness expunged racial dialect from popular literature, parents would read their children Uncle Remus stories. The fictional Uncle Remus, an old Southern black man, told the tales of Brer Rabbit, in which the clever bunny escaped numerous disasters by using his wits. One of those tales, "De' Tarbaby," related how Brer Rabbit became stuck in a "baby" made of tar. First the rabbit hit him with one hand, which stuck fast in the tar, then the other, with the same result. Finally, Brer Rabbit kicked with both feet, which stuck him inextricably to de' Tarbaby, where he helplessly awaited his certain doom. Read more...
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The Northwest's Rush to Coal, Part 1:
NW Energy Coalition
Background
While Northwest utilities have made some newsworthy investments in renewable energy lately, many utilities’ long-range or integrated-resource plans project them turning increasingly to a much more traditional means of power generation: coal.
Together, the region’s six major investor-owned utilities are considering purchasing more than 2,000 average megawatts of new coal generation for their customers in the next decade. Together, these plans add up to about 2,000 average megawatts, which would bring to nearly 10,000 average megawatts (including all of PacifiCorp’s service territory) the amount of coal-derived electricity in the resource mix of utilities serving Northwest consumers.
The extraction and burning of coal, however, raise myriad human health and environmental issues, along with the crucial question of whether coal can help assure an abundant supply of affordable electricity for the people of the Northwest.
Answering that question requires careful consideration of climate change. The Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington says global warming could lead to a nearly 60-percent loss of Northwest snow pack in 50 years, fundamentally altering the natural-resource cycle that sustains this region. Less snow spoils the ski industry in winter, then results in reduced spring and summer river flow for agriculture, fishing and, central to this discussion, summer hydropower production.
The vast majority of the scientific community identifies human production of greenhouse gases as the principal cause of climate change. The primary human contribution is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels in automobiles and power plants. Coal plants, even “clean” coal plants, emit more carbon dioxide emissions. Read more...
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The Northwest's rush to coal, Part 2:
'Clean' coal controversy
NW Energy Coalition
Background
Most current and proposed electricity-generating coal plants in the United States employ traditional technology involving the burning of pulverized coal. Besides relatively low-priced power, these plants generate tremendous amounts of health-threatening toxins and climate-changing carbon dioxide.
Controls can be installed to reduce many of these pollutants. However, even the most modern pulverized coal plants still produce thousands of tons per year of carbon monoxide (headaches, heart disease), sulfur dioxide (acid rain) and nitrogen oxides (smog). They use hundreds of millions of gallons of water and, critically, emit more CO2 per kilowatt-hour than any other kind of electricity generation.
Promoters of "clean coal" technology claim to have that problem licked. If toxins can be virtually eliminated and if additional global warming can be averted through capture and storage of CO2, they ask, why not use an abundant and primarily domestic resource to meet growing power needs?
Why not, indeed, asks the Bush administration, which has included another $2 billion or clean-coal technology development in the latest energy bill. Why not, indeed, wonder several respected environmental leaders, rightfully concerned about the devastating effects of traditional plants. And why not, indeed, urge developers who have recently proposed siting three clean coal plants in Idaho and Washington state.
But is clean coal really an appropriate resource choice for the Northwest? This issue of The Transformer examines the promise and current reality of clean coal technology, specifically integrated gasification combined cycle coal plants. Read more...
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Wind Energy - Widely Dispersed or a Few Lucky Winners?
By Wilbur Wood For The Billings Outpost - Nov. 17, 2005
The wind cooperated on Friday, Nov. 11, and spun the blades of 12 wind generators at the Hutterite Colony near Martinsdale, in the upper Musselshell River Valley.
About a hundred people were there, off and on through the day, for a windpower workshop at the Colony.
One of those 12 generators -- all 65 kilowatt machines -- is owned by the Colony. It handles one-fourth of the electrical needs of this 125-person community, said the Colony¹s Peter Wipf, and it saved $6000 in its first year of operation and probably will save $9000 in electrical bills from NorthWestern Energy this second year. Read more...