Next Stop: Slovenia

The Green Bike Tour rides again Thursday, October 16th, this time in the European nation of Slovenia.

This is the sixth year since 1999 in which David Osterberg, executive director of the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project, has led renewable energy enthusiasts on two-wheelers to illustrate the benefits and potential of sustainable energy technology.

As in past tours — which included a widely publicized foray through northern Europe in 2002 and other efforts in the Midwestern United States — bicyclists will visit renewable energy facilities, this time in a region of Slovenia just beyond the Italian border.

“This is the second Green Bike Tour that visited Europe,” Osterberg said. “Slovenia is not among the leaders in renewable energy in the European Union and bringing attention to the renewable resources available here may help push the government to be more aggressive. My students are excited about making a statement for clean energy that helps contain global warming.”

Joining Osterberg on the tour will be students and professors from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Nova Gorica in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

“We are happy to have our students participate in promoting renewable energy in Slovenia,” said Mladen Franko, head of the School of Environmental Sciences. “Students everywhere must realize that global warming is a threat to their future. They must take some action and also involve the general public to contain this world problem.”

Osterberg, a clinical associate professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Iowa, is on a temporary teaching assignment this month at the school. Professor Franko has organized the Thursday tour to cover about 15 miles of that region of Slovenia, including a hydroelectric dam north of Slokan on the Soca River. Riders also will meet with representatives of GOLEA-Goriska, a Local Energy Agency, which promotes renewable energy sources and systems as well as wind energy.

A professor at the university, Romina Rodela, was excited about the potential for the tour.

“I have studied policy making here and in England,” Rodela said. “When citizens get interested in an issue, politicians and policy makers do as well. The Green Bike Tour might spark interest in sustainable power here in Slovenia because students are involved.”

For more information about past Green Bike Tour events, visit , or the Iowa Policy Project website .

The Green Bike Tour 2008 is sponsored by the Iowa Policy Project, the University of Iowa’s Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, and the Fred & Charlotte Hubbell Foundation.

Route for Saturday's Ride is Set

If you are interested in riding with us on September 22, 2007 please contact Kristi Lohmeier at 319.338.0773 or klohmeier@iowapolicyproject.org. Here is the route:

From Hawkeye Community College to UNI’s Center on Environmental and Energy Education:
- Leave Hawkeye Community College on Hess Rd Trail
- Travel west on Shalius Rd
- Join the Shalius Rd Trail
- At the intersection of Shaulius Rd, Sergeant Rd and Cedar Prairie Trail take the Cedar Prairie Trail, which winds around the Cedar Valley Youth Soccer Complex and follows Hwy 58 past the Green Hill Trail.
- Travel west on University Ave at the intersection of College and University on UNI’s campus.

From CEEE to Finchford:
- Take the Hudson Rd Trail in front of the UNI Dome
- Ride north to the 12th St Trail
- There head west to Union Rd (T75).
- At Union Rd (T75) head north to Winslow Rd,
- Take Winslow Rd west into Finchford
Water and snack break in Finchford

From Finchford to Shellrock:
- Take C55 north out of town
- Take W. Marquis Rd
- Follow W Marquis Rd as it changes to 280th St
- 280th St turns right
- Go north on T63
- At Butler Center Rd (C45) head northeast to the Shellrock Kwikstar
Water and snack break in Shellrock

From Shellrock to Waverly:
- Take T63 out of town
- Turn east on C33 past Isle of the Saints
- Go south into town using T77 which turns into 12th St in Waverly
- In Waverly take 5th Ave NW east
- Take 1st St NW to Waverly Light & Power

- Then continue on 1st NW to Wartburg College

Ride with Us on September 22, 2007!

Plans are being made for a ride on September 22, 2007. Our route for this Green Bike Tour will cover the Cedar Falls and Waterloo area, with visits to UNI’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education, Waverly Light & Power, Wartburg College and Hawkeye Community College.

We encourage students from Hawkeye Commnity College, the University of Northern Iowa, and Wartburg, as well as any other interested folks to ride with us!

Here's the schedule:
*8 am: Kickoff at Hawkeye Community College
Presentations
*10 am: Arrive at UNI Center for Energy and Environmental Education
Speakers will discuss the potential for more renewable energy on the UNI campus; global warming; and wind power in Iowa.
*Afternoon: Arrive at Waverly Light & Power
Discussion of WLP's activities.
*2 pm: Arrive at Wartburg College
Report on new community wind turbine; rally for renewable energy.

We will post more information as our plans develop.

Tour's Final Day a Success

Bob Campagna, a photographer from Mount Vernon, IA has thought about going on every Green Bike Tour since the first in 1999. The final day of the 2006 tour was the first day he arranged to come with us. He and Tom Cook and I met near the Sixth Street power plant in Cedar Rapids and rode a few blocks to Coe College. Since we were early for the rally we went to the nearby Brewed Awakenings coffee shop for some good coffee. Teresa Galluzzo joined us just as the event got started in front of the library.

About 20 people attended the Coe event. My friend Roger Johansen brought his class and told me he was going to use the activism inherent in our Tour for class discussion. Professor Susan Wolverton talked about what Coe does to reduce commuting to campus. Cedar Rapids Councilman Tom Podzimek spoke about the many things, such as bike paths, that cities and individuals can do to confront global warming. Congressional candidate Dave Loebsack and State Representative Rob Hogg, candidate for State Senate, both spoke. After the rally and an interview for Podzimek with KGAN television, he led us through city streets to the Gazette for a photo opportunity and then on through the city bikeway to small roads south of the city.

The day was beautiful and the roads were free of cars. We arrived without incident onto the bikeway system in Iowa City, met Joan Cook and State Senator Joe Bolkcom in City Park and made a grand entrance from the Iowa Memorial Union bridge into the conference of Engineers for a Sustainable World. The conference plenary was being held outside behind the Union and the Green Bikers, all in yellow shirts, biked over the footbridge crossing the Iowa River to the applause of the crowd. Tom Cook and David Osterberg were scheduled to speak at the conference and show the video that Tom produced of our visits to various campuses in the Midwest. Before the outdoor crowd broke up we were able to say once more, global warming is real, renewable energy and efficiency are answers to this huge problem and if it is done correctly, local people in the Midwest make money doing good things for their environment.

Tour's Day Seven Included Stops at Ames and Grinnell

Jim Cooper has been on every single Green Bike Tour. He and his wife, Jeri Neal, organized the Ames stop, which included visits to the Iowa State University campus and the Ames Resource Recovery Plant. We gathered at Jim and Jeri’s, picked up Teresa Galluzzo of the Iowa Policy Project at Brookside Park and arrived ahead of schedule at the Free Speech Spot on campus. Jim Popkin, a city councilman, and Irv Klaas, who is running for city council, both rode with us. Ed Fallon, recent Democratic candidate for Iowa governor, and Kristin Fallon, who teaches harp, made up the rest of the biking group.

Jerry DeWitt, who leads the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, spoke first with a focus on the Center’s work, including research on the energy required to bring Iowans the food we eat. “Food miles,” which is on the Center’s website, calculates how far food, especially that which could be grown in Iowa, travels and how much energy is required. Professor Raj Raman talked about work ISU is doing on bio-fuels. Teresa Shiflett, a member of Engineers for a Sustainable World, talked about her project in Uganda to use biogass from animal waste for home cooking. Another student, Andy Heggenstaller, talked about how producing green energy reduces the impact on local ecosystems. Council candidate Irv Klaas used the opportunity to describe how he would incorporate advocacy for renewable energy and energy efficiency into his work on the council. David explained the purpose of the Green Bike Tour and Tom talked about the solar-powered electric assist bicycle as a means of commuting in an energy appropriate way.

The bikers, now a dozen or more, rode through downtown Ames to the Resource Recovery Plant. Plant manager John Pohlman described the process, which separates waste and sends part of the stream to be co-fired with coal in the municipal utilities power plant. Councilman Jim Popkin pointed out the renewable energy sources the city of Ames is considering to reduce the amount of coal used in electricity production by their municipally-owned utility. With information on alternatives to coal, the bikers returned through downtown.

The next stop was Grinnell. Bill Menner, does economic development for the county, and Rich Dana, who heads an Alliant Energy sponsored effort to reduce energy use in Grinnell, met us at the head of a city bike path. The local newspaper took pictures as the riders took off for downtown. The first stop was the Saint’s Rest Coffee shop, where Jeff the proprietor served up free lattes. We were joined by our oldest rider, John Marwan, who rode with us to the Grinnell campus.

We met students including Emily Stiever, who is organizing students to pressure the Grinnell trustees to install a wind turbine near campus. Tom interviewed her on the tape we are preparing to present to our workshop at the Engineers for a Sustainable World conference on Thursday. David will be returning to Grinnell next Monday to appear at a meeting Emily is arranging to get students ready for the board meeting on Thursday.

On Day Six We Travled from Oakland to Oakland

The Nebraska Renewable Energy Association cares how that state produces renewable energy. They want it done locally and owned locally. Deb Ward, the organization’s director pulled together a number of local people who are either working to train local students on renewable energy or produce it themselves. One local farmer actually brought a trailer-mounted crusher/extruder that could produce oil from soybeans or sunflowers. The oil is then used to produce bio-diesel in a farm scale bio-diesel machine made by Flying F Bio-fuels near Iowa City. That machine coupled with his India-produced crusher/extruder would be all a farmer would need to make his own fuel. Jason Barelman, Director of Career Services at nearby Wayne State University described a new internship program for students designed to train the experts who will populate the local renewable industry and offset the brain drain from the communities in the part of Nebraska.

Oakland, Nebraska is on the eastern side of the state, close to the Missouri River. Oakland, Iowa is just 100 miles south and east of the other Oakland. Our visit there was put together by Shirley Fredriksen, the coordinator of Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D). RC&Ds are not-for-profit organizations dedicated to using local resources to expand economic development in a sustainable way. The board is local and each coordinator is an employee of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Aside from the coordinator’s salary and a bit more, like any other non profit, Golden Hills survives on grants and can go as far as the board allows.

The Golden Hills board got “way out of their comfort zone” to agree to build a green building as their headquarters in Oakland. The 3,600 square foot structure uses about $200 of energy per month. The cost of the building was about $350,000 making the cost per square foot similar to conventional buildings that would require much more energy. When we did Tom Cook’s seminar from the building, Duane McFadden, a Cass County Supervisor and RC&D board member described the energy efficient building design to the students listening back in Iowa City. Other energy experts also spoke to the class. Ed Woolsey, a renewable energy consultant who has been on every Green Bike Tour back to 1999, talked about working in the state legislature to pass laws that encourage locally owned renewable energy systems. Senator Hubert Houser who works closely with Golden Hills is one of the recognized leaders in the legislature on renewable energy. He spoke about the challenges of overcoming partisanship to get legislation passed. Renewable energy is an issue that can easily cross party lines. Senator Houser, a Republican, has worked closely with Democratic Senator Joe Bolkcom, a veteran Green Biker who was with us on the opening day ride this year.

Shirley Fredriksen described the many programs at Golden Hills RC&D and David Osterberg showed the PowerPoint slide show that Tom Cook had pulled together from the previous days of the tour. This was the second time Tom’s seminar was produced remotely with Elluminate Live software during a green bike tour. The previous time we had been a coffee house in Storm Lake in 2004. In both cases students heard from the state’s experts on renewable energy development.

Tour's Fifth Day Traveled from Sioux Falls to Sioux City

Mary Jo Stueve from Clean Water Action is a great organizer. She and Nathan Peterson of the National Environmental Trust (NET) put together an event in downtown Sioux Falls next to a recently completed LEED designation building. Stacey McMahan of Koch-Hazard architects who designed the building was standing outside in the very center of the city as the Green Bike Team arrived. The press conference took place immediately and was covered by three TV stations and the Argus Leader newspaper.

Clean Water Action is fighting a new coal fired power plant planned for north of the city. NET emphasizes renewable energy policy and the adoption of a requirement that South Dakota electric companies get a percentage of their power from renewablesources. The Green Bikers repeated their message and pointed out that South Dakota has about 1/20 of Iowa’s installed wind capacity. (Actually, the exact number is 1/19^th --44 MW for SD and 836 for IA.) South Dakota has a far larger wind Iowa and Minnesota have superior renewable energy policy. If state policy promotes coal, the world gets more warming gasses and economic development advantages support large multi-state companies rather than local entrepreneurs. Since the press coverage was so extensive, we hope the message goes far and wide in South Dakota.

The Green Bike Team drove the 75 miles from Sioux Falls to Sioux City and pulled into Briar Cliff University to a reception of students who were changing classes. Sister Shirley Fineran who teaches at Briar Cliff had arranged for Sioux City’s Environmental Services administrator Aaron Craft to speak about what the city was doing to reduce energy and become more environmentally responsible. A student and Professor Jim Redhmen, a friend of mine also spoke about environmental stewardship. The last speaker was State Senator Steve Warnstadt who described legislation designed to enhance green economic development in the state. The campus rally was covered by the local NBC TV affiliate as well as the Sioux City Journal.

Jim Redhmen and I biked from the hilltop toward the neighboring college at Morningside. Patrick McKinlay who teaches Morningside had pulled together a number of students for an outdoor program. Another professor described a new recycling program on campus. Senator Steve Warnstadt attended this college meeting as well.

Day Four Highlighted Good Policy in Granite Falls and Lake Benton

State Representative Aaron Peterson met us at our motel and led us to the bike trail going south out of Montevideo. We joined the organizers from Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) based in the Mankato. Duane Ninneman and Patrick Moore had arranged for a number of bikers to join us. Seven of us left the city but another rider joined where the trail ended and we switched to the highway. Later, three students from Minnesota State University at Marshall, strong riders all, caught us just as we entered Granite Falls. The ride along the Minnesota River on a beautiful Sunday morning was the best ride we have had on the Tour.

CURE’s rally attracted more than 40 people and was covered by the local paper and the TV station from Alexandria. It consisted of addresses by politicians from all levels of government. Mark Dahl was running for county commissioner on the platform of completing the bike trail all the way between the two cities. The Mayor of Granite Falls, Dave Smiglewski, endorsed Mark at the event and described his own enthusiasm to add trails to enhance his town and the beautiful area along the Minnesota River. Smiglewski described his own fight to keep a defunct coal power plant from being converted to burn PCBs.

Aaron Peterson and Representative Lyle Koenen and Senator Gary Kubly from the neighboring legislative district all spoke about renewable energy production as an economic development boon to the region. Aaron has made his name in Saint Paul by supporting strong environmental issues. The Green Bikers made their same points that global warming is real, that local efforts of the sort sponsored by CURE and good legislation at the state level can confront global warming and produce local green development.

Our second Sunday event was a stop at the farm and wind turbine of Jim Nichols. Jim was Minnesota’s Commissioner of Agriculture and a former legislator who passed legislation to encourage bio-fuels and wind energy. He has also invested in the industry and two years ago put a wind turbine on his farm. The 1.5 megawatt NEG-Micon machine is twice the size of the turbines in the big General Electric wind farm that stretches along Buffalo Ridge a mile or two from Jim’s farm. He has had a lot to do with creating the renewable energy industry grow in his state.

Jim met us on the gravel road just off U.S. Highway 14 and led us up to the turbine. He spoke for an hour about what it takes to maintain and own a turbine, about the present state of the renewable energy industry in the Midwest and what should occur to build a renewable future. “Iowa needs 10,000 wind turbines and so does Minnesota”, was Jim’s view of the immediate future. Those amounts would bring Iowa’s density of turbines to a bit more than Denmark had in 2002.

Day Three Included Stops at Two Minnesota Colleges in Mankato and St. Peter

Our Holiday Inn in Mankato was in the newly restored old part of Mankato. We drove to Minnesota State University, Mankato and found Timothy Rose Media Relations Director of Fresh Energy who had come from Minneapolis. He directed us to the meeting spot where students from the U’s environmental club were waiting with a sign welcoming the Green Bike Tour.

Lou Schwartzkopf, a professor of physics, was our contact at Mankato. Lou and a few of his students were joined by a van load of students and professors from Gustavus Alolphus. Katy Wartell, a county commissioner and fervent environmentalist, also joined the group. We all took a tour of Bruce Jones’ automotive engineering technology department, a multi room facility festooned with student built vehicles which had entered various competitions to demonstrate energy efficiency or new technologies. They had done a lot of work with E-85 ethanol. Bruce has placed so many students in various companies that he can always get prototypes and components that new students can use to build new concept cars. A bill passed by the recently concluded legislative session in Saint Paul designated Bruce’s department as the first public university in Minnesota to work on plug-in hybrid technology. As yet there is no money for the project, only the designation.

Chuck Niederriter another physics professor who was part of the Gustavus Adolphus contingent led several of his students including, Jeremy Jaspers, of the Mankato State green organization and the rest of the Green Bikers on a route that took a bike trail along the Minnesota River and then moved onto small roads into Saint Peter. We made a stop at Kosota Prairie along the way and arrived in about two hours. Our hosts at GA took us to the student union for some food before the environmental festival they had planned at Linnaeus Arboretum.

State Representative Ruth Johnson, Jeff Jeremiason and Tom Cook and David all spoke at the outdoor presentation attended by about thirty people. The group was interviewed by the Mankato newspaper and by an independent film maker. Dan Treiman and several of his fellow GA students had created displays on energy conservation and renewable energy on campus.

Jeff Jeremiason and Chuck Niederriter spoke about the GA wind turbine project which is going forward despite the cool reception from their local municipal utility. It is possible the college could put up two large turbines and cover a very large portion of the school’s electricity needs. Nearby Carlton and St. Olaf colleges already have turbines and Luther seems ready to build their turbine soon. All are demonstrating their commitment to confronting global warming with 21^st century technology.

Tour's Second Day Part of Worldwide Car Free Day in LaCrosse and Emphasized Solar Power in Austin

The Tour got off to a great start this morning, by taking part in La Crosse's Car Free Day events. La Crosse is just one community observing Car Free Day 2006, see the World CarFree Network’s website for more information.

Despite rainy weather, we were joined by many folks in La Crosse interested in using less energy to get from here to there. In fact, they have started their own "Green Bike" program. The Campus Progressives partnered with the La Crosse Policy Department in 2004 to gather bicycles that would otherwise be sent to the junk yard, fix them up, paint them bright green, and make them available for free around campus and the community. However, a student who came along with the Green Bike Tour, Chris Voight, noted that too many bikes were being trashed and that volunteers were tired of continuing to repair the same bike. The new plan is the Blue Bike Program where anyone can put down a deposit to keep a bike for a month or four years and then get the deposit back or leave it as a donation. More than 250 bikes were given out and another 200 used as parts in the program. The waiting list for people who still want a bike is 78.

Today’s great event in La Crosse highlighted this program as well as other things happening on campus to reduce global warming.

For the second event of the day, we arrived in Austin, Minnesota on time and even a little early. We parked at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center where the second event of the day was to be held. We met Niel Ritchie, Director of the League of Rural Voters, there and he laid out the plan for our stop in Austin. The Tour is down to just three riders, Joan Cook, Tom Cook and David Osterberg. We rode from the Nature Center on a trail that crossed Interstate 90 on a small bridge to the downtown whole food store, Good Earth Natural Foods, which has almost 900 watts of solar panels. Caron Jagodzinski, owner of the store, met us and gave us a check to support the new solar program at the Hormel Nature Center.

Next we biked to the Hormel Nature Center where director Larry Dolphin described his partnership with Austin Municipal Utilities. Kelly Lady from the Utility and State Representative Jeanne Poppe both spoke at a press conference attended by two television and two print media outlets. We left the Nature Center to drive to Mankato for the night.