Tag Archives: Ecological Wisdom

Sen. Haar: Nebraska utilities should embrace EPA plan

News,

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

On June 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, proposed a plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants.

This ambitious plan presents a great opportunity for the state of Nebraska. Under the plan, all states have to reach a goal of reducing carbon pollution, however they are given the flexibility to find the best ways to reach their goal. Nebraska has a unique opportunity because our state is the only state with public power and we have one of the nation’s best-rated wind resources.

Read more.

Community Discussion on Energy in Stanton June 17

Events,

From Ben Gotschall, Energy Director at BOLD Nebraska:

Nebraska has the potential to be a national leader in renewable energy.

With the recent EPA announcement that Nebraska must reduce its carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2030, clean energy is becoming more important to our state’s economy. People all across Nebraska are eager to learn more and share their own ideas about how to build new energy sources that will keep our land, air, and water clean while strengthening our state’s economy.

Come join Bold Nebraska and the Center for Rural Affairs for a community energy discussion:

Tuesday, June 17, 2014, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The Uptown Brewery
801 10th Street, Stanton, Nebraska

Heavy appetizers provided!

Please RSVP and let us know if you plan to come, so we’ll know how much food to order. RSVP to Virginia Meyer at the Center for Rural Affairs, virginiam@cfra.org or 402-687-2103 ext. 1014.

Topics will include energy generation in Nebraska, renewable energy, local and community-owned energy projects, and much more. Bring a friend and your ideas about how to move Nebraska forward on energy.

See you in Stanton,

Ben Gotschall
Energy Director, Bold Nebraska

Cutting carbon: less expensive than we are led to believe

News,

From Paul Krugman at the New York Times:

Next week the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new rules designed to limit global warming. Although we don’t know the details yet, anti-environmental groups are already predicting vast costs and economic doom. Don’t believe them. Everything we know suggests that we can achieve large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions at little cost to the economy.

Just ask the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Read the full story.

NY Times: Jane Kleeb vs. the Keystone Pipeline

News,

From the New York Times:

Terry Van Housen had a question. What he wanted to know from the 30 or so other Nebraska farmers and ranchers gathered in February at the York Community Center was this: What do you do with 10,000 dead cows?

That was the number of cattle Van Housen figured could be at risk if the Obama administration permitted the proposed 1,700-mile XL leg of the Keystone pipeline to cut across their state. Bulldozers would dig a trench not far from Van Housen’s feedlot, completing the final phase of the Keystone project and streamlining the current flow of oil from the bitumen mines of Northern Alberta toward refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. If the pipe were to leak, Van Housen said, his cattle could die.

Read the full story.

Green Drinks in Omaha May 28

Events,

Please join our growing numbers next Wednesday for Green Drinks, back at our old haunt. And as always, please pass the word to others who might be interested in attending!

Omaha Green Drinks: 5:30 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, May 28, 2014

(Typically the fourth Wednesday of every odd month: January, March, May, July, September, November.)

Whole Foods Market Omaha, 10020 Regency Circle, Omaha (education room near the restaurant seating, across from coffee bar).

Anyone working on environmental issues (green business, architecture, design, clean energy, natural resources, and more) or studying them is welcome to attend. Enjoy conversation,  make contacts, have a few drinks (alcohol or non-alcohol), and take in some green inspiration. First time? Just go up to someone and say, “Are you green?” And you’ll be made welcome.

There is a a send-only email circulation list; to get on it, send an email to GDsubscribe@p2ric.org with subject heading “Green Drinks NE”

Green Drinks Facebook Group

Facebook Event Listing

#NOKXL Events in Nebraska May 17

Action Alerts,

From Bold Nebraska:

1. Hands Around the Spirit Camp: Join the Cowboy and Indian Alliance — including Aldo Seoane and Oyate Wahacanka Woecun (“Shielding the People”), and Bold Nebraska — at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Spirit Camp erected to protest Keystone XL. We’ll join hands and do a circle dance to show our unity and to protect sacred water and lands from KXL.

2. Hands Around the Barn: Join us at the “Build Our Energy” barn, a renewable energy-powered structure built by volunteers on land directly in the path of Keystone XL. We’ll join hands and encircle the barn to show we mean to protect our investment in clean, renewable energy against a foreign tarsands export pipeline.

3. Hands Across the Bridge: Join us at the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, which spans the Missouri River in downtown Omaha, NE. We’ll stand side-by-side and join hands for a photo, to show Pres. Obama and Congress that we stand strong together against the Keystone XL tarsands export pipeline, and together call for a transition from dirty fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.

An Open Letter to the Senate on KXL

News,

From BOLD Nebraska:

As the Senate once again prepares to take a vote on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, Nebraska voices will remind Senators that states’ rights are at stake, and that a vote for Keystone XL is a vote to disregard Nebraska’s legal process.

Nebraska rancher Randy (“Stand With Randy”) Thompson penned an open letter to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, April 30. Thompson has been a key rural voice against Keystone XL — he was arrested along with others in a civil disobedience action at the White House protesting Keystone XL in 2013, and is one of the three landowner plaintiffs in Thompson v. Heineman, the lawsuit that successfully challenged the constitutionality of the KXL routing process in Nebraska, leaving TransCanada with no legal route or eminent domain power.

Read the letter.

Rice & Beans Potluck Dinner for Nebraskans for Peace

Events,

Join fellow Greens for the annual Rice & Beans Potluck in support of Nebraskans for Peace:

Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 6:00 p.m
Countryside Community Church, 8787 Pacific Street
(Memorial Hall: Enter the western door facing Pacific Street and follow the signs inside to the downstairs dining room.)

(Rice & drinks provided. A free-will collection will be taken — but it is free to attend. Just bring a food dish to share.)

John Pollack will deliver his keynote address, “Global Warming: The Third Degree Burn.”

John Pollack obtained his M.S. in meteorology from University of Wisconsin in 1976 and came to Omaha in 1978 to be a forecaster for the National Weather Service. He retired from forecasting in 2009, but he continues his interest in weather and climate change. He also remains active in other peace and justice issues, and is currently involved in the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Special Recognition for Courageous Anti-War Work will go toJerry Ebner and Mark and Marie Kenney.

RSVPs are requested so we know how much rice to cook. Call 402-453-0776 or e-mail NFPOmaha@NebraskansforPeace.org with “RSVP Rice & Beans” in the subject line.

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, in Omaha

Events,

Join fellow Greens in a discussion with Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org:

Thursday, May 1, 2014 at 6:00 p.m.
Countryside Community Church, 8787 Pacific Street

Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.”

A former staff writer for The New Yorker, he writes frequently a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern.

Bill’s talk will describe the current state of global warming through an explanation of the basic math and science of climate change. He will give updates on the movement, working to end our reliance on fossil fuel energy and create a world powered by renewable sources. Bill will join us via Skype in an effort to practice what he preaches, leaving a smaller carbon footprint. Rev. Eric Elnes, Ph. D. will give a brief introduction and facilitate the discussion.

Cowboys, Indians unite in opposition to KXL

News,

From the Omaha World-Herald:

The cowboys sported western hats and the Indians wore traditional feather headdresses as the sound of drumbeats and the smell of wood smoke filled the air Tuesday on the National Mall.

The band of protesters erected a large tepee among seven smaller ones already in place and vowed to defend their “sacred land” and “sacred water” against the Keystone XL pipeline.

It was the start of a weeklong series of themed demonstrations by the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, a group that represents landowners and tribal representatives opposed to the controversial pipeline.

Read more from the World-Herald.

Follow the weeklong protest at rejectandprotect.org