Notes on La Crosse Clean Energy Coalition

[from Bill]

The third gathering of the La Crosse Clean Energy Coalition was on Thursday, March 29, in the basement of the Ho-Chunk Building. We had a fine presentation by Anne Morse, from Winona, who shared with us some of the promises and bumps in the road of their group that, in short order, will begin constrution of a 2.0 megawatt wind turbine. Our own task group on wind energy was educated and inspired; perhaps serious deliberations will begin locally about La Crosse's own possibilities for wind energy generation.

The downside of the meeting was the absence of several of our key players, which slows the progress of deliberations for a few of our task groups. The task groups that met: fluorescent light bulbs, green building construction, home energy conservation, wind energy, and political affairs. Read more below.

Glen Jenkins will spearhead the group's efforts to author an "action agenda." This will be a pamphlet to inform the public about future directions that a regional plan for clean energy could take.

Kudos to Barb Frank, who has done the ground work for organizing the visit of Mary Rehwald to our community. Mary, a long time member of Ashland's City Council, has been instrumental in her city's "eco-municipality" work. La Crosse's City Council recently took first step in that same direction.

So mark the dates: Mary will speak at the Reinhart Building of Viterbo University on Tuesday, April 17, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. and again from 7 to 9 p. m. and at Viterbo's Murphy Center on Wednesday, 18 April at 9:00 a.m.

Keep the calendar out: mark the date of our next CEC meeting: Thursday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m. in the basement of the Ho-Chunk Building. The first half of the meeting will feature Guy Wolf, who will educate us about the grave perils awaiting the Midwest (and the world) as energy and agricultural resources here are redirected toward the production of ethanol. There are better alternatives! As usual, the second half of the meeting will be dedicated to the meetings of the separate task groups.

New members are always welcome. Email Bill or call him at 785-2031 for more info.