The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal corporation, entered into a 20-year contract with Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC last week. The company will purchase up to 115 megawatts of renewable energy from the Pioneer Prairie Wind Farm, located in Howard and Mitchell counties in northeastern Iowa.

Generation is expected to begin this fall, subject to applicable environmental requirements and firm transmission arrangements being secured. The contracts are a result of a request for proposals TVA issued in December 2008.

Horizon, owned by EDP Renováveis S.A., operates more than 20 wind farms across the U.S. that produce more than 2,800 megawatts of power. The company operates three wind farms in Iowa.

TVA provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia — an area of 80,000 square miles with a population of 9 million. The company makes no profits and receives no taxpayer money. It is funded by sales of electricity to its customers, and electricity prices in TVA’s service territory are below the national average.

But it’s not just about the gloom and doom; the picture also details things people can change in their everyday lives to protect the environment and better the world.

The award-winning film is being shown free of charge at:

Billy Joe’s Picture Show
  1701 25th St.
  West Des Moines

at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 17.  Free refreshments are also provided at the event.

For more information, call Andrew Snow in Des Moines: 515.244.1194 x209
email him at: asnow@iowaglobalwarming.org,
Mike Carberry in Iowa City: 319.338.8820
email him at mcarberry@iowaglobalwarming.org
and visit the group’s Web site: http://www.iowagloba…

Here is a preview of the film:

One part of his approach calls for the establishment of a new commission within the Department of Public Safety that would focus on green designs in building codes and enforcing efficient building codes. By working with building code commissioners, Culver hopes “to adopt a statewide energy efficiency or ratings system for, not just state office buildings, but residential, commercial, and industrial as well.”

He also will ask the Iowa Utilities Board to “set the goal of saving or reducing the amount of energy we use on an annual basis of 1.5 percent though energy conservation and efficiency steps.” He gave examples of using more efficient light bulbs, weatherizing buildings and homes, and turning off computers not in use.Culver reiterated his goal of increasing the state’s renewable energy usage from the current 7.5 percent to 25 percent by 2025. He previously set this goal in last month’s condition of the state address.

He said he will work with state Sens. Rob Hogg and Joe Bolkcom and state Reps. Nathan Reichert, Janet Petersen and Bob Kressig to pass renewable energy legislation this year.

During the call with reporters, Culver mentioned wind, solar, biomass, and biofuel energy sources and noted that the focus of the governors’ conference was entitled “Securing a Clean Energy Future: A Call to Action.”

If I continue to need so much energy and supporting infrastructure, a large part of my horizon might look something like this:

4.5 Earths; that was my score in a “serious” on-line game called “Consumer Consequences.”Joellen Easton produced the game for American Public Media (APM).  She said “serious” games like this one help APM “learn how people are dealing with things related to consumption.” 

Easton believes that storytelling is important in multimedia games like this one.  Interactive landscapes and choosing an avatar involve players with storytelling aspects of the game.  That and the “customization of your world” help her audience more easily identify with some of the ideas in the game.

Data collected from the game’s audience will help guide APM’s coverage for a November series called “Consumed,” but it will also help make decisions on reporting in the future.

The Kendeda Sustainability Fund of the Tides Foundation provides funding for APM’s sustainability coverage and the game.

The game was developed in partnership with Redefining Progress, a self-described “sustainability think tank,” which made an earlier version called the “Ecological Footprint Quiz.”

APM updated some of the numbers and added sections to entice players to its game.  To play the game, visit: Consumer Consequences.

Both the quiz and graphical game are designed to help consumers understand how their own ecological legacy can be changed.

A player’s score is determined by such things as use of public transportation, size of home, shopping habits and food consumption.  These factors can determine the impact your body has on the rest of the world.

The game has good graphics, only average audio, but is actually fairly dense and layered with many levels of interactivity.

Let’s start with the graphics.  First, you must create an avatar which has a specific appearance and serves as a player’s identity badge.

If you’ve ever wanted to look like a combination of Teddy Roosevelt and Whoopi Goldberg, now is your chance.  You can choose lots of different funky hairstyles, hats, clothing and eye wear for your avatar.  Choose wisely, your face is that way for the whole game.  Other answers you can go back and change, but your hair might always be a little bit Liberace, Barbra Streisand or Mr. T.

The other graphics appear as the game progresses.  For example, if you approve of lobbying efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, you’ll see some wind farms or nuclear power plants pop up on the horizon.  Trains and bus stops will creep into your neighborhood if you use public transportation. 

Game tip: Choosing the size and setting of your home is an important consideration for energy efficiency.

The background murals that slide in as you play are the ones to watch.  Try viewing on a big screen (Real life tip: LCD screens use less power.) because there are some nice little touches that will be transforming the world you inhabit. 

Shopping malls, recycling bins, wind farms, nuclear power (Oops, did I pick that nuke-ya-lar reactor? Delete! Delete!!!), and construction sites will pass before your eyes like a view out the window of your SUV.  Hmmm, better make that a view out of a train or bus window, right?

The audio-scape has its merits.  The sounds are interactive and have changing elements.  Your car might rev the engine when you answer your transportation questions; cash registers ring up your shopping preferences — Ka-ching! 

As for the navigation and actual play of the game, there are myriad directions from which to choose.  Your choices predict a different neighborhood or landscape: one with a “Super Huge Mart” store, parking lot and bulldozed construction sites; another area might have refineries and a superhighway along a river, and eventually you may see solar panels and wind farms fill your screen.

Each answer you make elicits a factoid about that area.  Our state, Iowa, ranks very well in wind-energy production.  Currently we are doing better at producing energy from wind power than other states that have a higher potential for wind energy.  Another state, Hawaii, pays very high prices for energy because it is all imported.

At the very end, the game poses some questions on U.S. energy policy that will change your score and your landscape again, so stay with it.

My favorite part was comparing how I did with other people, including specific radio personalities.  I did about the same as Krista Tippett of “Speaking of Faith.”

You can compare your score with the average responses from people of different political parties, ages, income and education levels, gender and state of residence.

The game really got me thinking.  One thing, how much energy did my computer just use to play a “serious” game?  How many people will change their eating habits to reduce their footprint?  And just how fun was a so-called “serious” environmental game? 

What’s the best score? 

4.5 Earths, my score, seems to indicate that I am using an extra three and a half Earths.  I’m going to try to reduce my score a little at a time, until I get to the best score, the one that we should all strive for: one Earth.

After all, it’s the only one we’ve got and 1.0 Earths should be enough for each of us.

The area under review contains the property of Merle Bell whose family has farmed the same 40 acres for over a century.

Carole Yates of the Cedar Prairie Group of the Sierra Club said, “It was clear that this annexation was not in the public interest.”  Sierra Club organizer Mark Kresowik added, “This is the beginning of the end for LS Power in Iowa.”

New Jersey-based LS Power is the company behind the coal plant project, called Elk Run Energy Station.

The Sierra Club and Mt. Vernon non-profit law firm Plains Justice filed briefs against the proposal.

Video of Plains Justice lawyer Carrie La Seur available below the fold.
In this video, Carrie La Seur of Plains Justice, talks about some of the reasons she gave up practicing law at a private firm and started doing environmental justice work.

She spoke in front of about 500 people gathered at a Sept. 9 rally on Merle Bell’s farm.

The third annual exposition featured presentations and exhibits about sustainable living, green design, energy conservation and renewable energy.

Another featured Expo speaker, Billy Parish, is an award-winning founder of the Climate Campaign.  He dropped out of Yale University to lead the millennial generation in what he calls the “next great social movement in this country.”

Parish said during his talk that, by using wind power only, Iowa has the potential to produce up to 5 percent of the nation’s electricity needs and that North Dakota was currently providing only 55 megawatts (MW) of the 410,000 MW it could potentially generate through wind powered turbines. 

Here’s Billy Parish:

Watch a video interview with Hunter Lovins and part of her presentation below the fold.Hunter Lovins co-founded the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), in 1982, but left 20 years later.  She is the president and founder of Natural Capitalism Inc.and the recent co-author of the book “Natural Capitalism,” with Paul Hawken.  Their philosophy of natural capitalism champions sustainability, innovation and green technology for corporations and governments.

In the video below she talks about carbon exchanging.  The University of Iowa is participating in a carbon exchange through the Chicago Carbon Climate Exchange, which Lovins says is “an organization of companies, nonprofits, universities, cities, counties, states [who are] trading carbon in a country where there’s no law that says you have to … they create a carbon financial instrument which they can sell to people.”

In this interview, she also gives a summary of her presentation, which focused on what she calls the “drivers of change” in the world.

Part of Lovins’ feature presentation in Macbride Hall can be seen below.  This video includes her slam on corn ethanol.  She said she supports ethanol plant-building, however, because it will lead to cellulosic innovations that she predicts will be much more sustainable.

Another Energy Expo organized by I-Renew will be held this Saturday and Sunday at the Solon High School in Solon, Ia.