The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Now Appearing on Local Stages: Willie Nelson and Austin Biofuels

BY DANIEL MOTTOLA

Willie fuels up his tour bus with his own "BioWillie" fuel, a soy-based diesel.
photo by Paul Galland

Austin music icon Willie Nelson has entered the alternative-fuels arena, with the introduction last week of his new partnership, Willie Nelson Biodiesel (aka "BioWillie"), which plans to market the soy-based fuel at truck stops and convenience stores statewide and beyond. Country music's grandaddy of progressivism, a longtime champion of American agriculture, said he hopes his efforts will "put five million farmers back on the land growing fuel and keep us from having to start wars for oil." But the interest in alternative fuels is more than just a...

Full story:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-01-28/pols_feature6.html

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Side Bar Links

Illinois Renewable Energy Association site

---------------
The AWEA's annual expo:
Global WINDPOWER 2004
McCormick Place
Chicago, Illinois, USA
March 28-31, 2004

I was there...
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Dan Stafford - Publisher
Click on this pic to e-mail Dan.
WE WELCOME ENERGY STORY SUBMISSIONS!
Please note the E-mail link by the title of the webpage. Comments, stories, and article submissions are welcome. Any accepted submission entitles the submitter to a link on the Journal page included at the bottom of their submitted entry when published to the journal. The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal makes no claim as to the accuracy of submitted material. The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal neither endorses nor opposes opinions expressed in submitted material. Submitter must provide name, city, and state or country. The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal imples no promise to publish all submissions. Adult content will definitely NOT be published. Submitted material will be screened and appropriate entries published at the owner's discretion.

Safe, healthy, good for the economy, good for the environment, good for farmers, good for you, and just downright good produce:

State-by-state directory of farmers' markets

I strongly encourage those seriously interested in learning about the technology, players, politics, and issues of Wind Energy to spend time browsing the American Wind Energy Association website. They are the premier industry trade organization and have extensive resources available.
(www.awea.org)

Alpha Solar
Clean energy generation systems for off-grid living and environmental impact reduction.

The Great Lakes Information Network:

*PING*

The Distributed Resources & Green Power weBlog by Bruce Irving

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine,
P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit your question at www.emagazine.com;
or e-mail Earth Talk at earthtalk@emagazine.com.

OTEC News weBlog: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

The Green Ocean Project: Using solar energy to distill water for agriculture.

Other weBlogs by Daniel Stafford:

The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

*Spell Book*

Affirmation Station

Remembering Mom

Save Hotel Baker

Uncle Harold's Farm

The First Church of Healing The Earth

The Empty Hand

Why I Publish This Blog:

"One thing that many people do not realize is that states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,
and Michigan are sitting on a gold mine of wind energy potential. Or, more properly, next to the mine.
The Great Lakes are probably the area in the USA with the third largest inland wind energy potential.
Think of just the nickname for Chicago. "The Windy City". Milwaukee is even windier, I can tell you.
Why? Because they sit on the edge of a great flat area where there is both a land-water temperature
differential, and a large flat expanse of water that is comparably shallow.
Oilrigs certainly operate in deeper waters. And you won't have to construct transmission lines all the
way from the plains of Montana to put it to use.

The Great Lakes area has an opportunity to get the jump on wind energy's future, if that fact is
recognized and exploited. Wind energy means jobs for construction and maintenance workers, thousands
of them. Wind energy means leasing rights and extra money for family farmers struggling to make it on
agriculture alone. In most cases farmers can grow crops right up to the base of a windmill. The land
footprint has a small impact on total farm acreage. Wind energy also means freedom from fluctuating
fuel prices. Wind is free. The cost of a barrel of polluting oil can be raised or lowered drastically
based on fears or political whims. The potential gains are enormous. We've all seen the flow of good
manufacturing jobs out of the area. Well, they can't tell the wind to blow in another country so it's
more "convenient" or cheaper to produce. The wind is perfectly happy to whip up opportunities for us
right around here. Most of all, because we here in the Great Lakes region have the potential to have
a huge positive impact on U.S. energy industry emissions' contribution to global warming."