{"id":2369,"date":"2010-06-25T15:37:48","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=2369"},"modified":"2010-06-25T15:37:48","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:37:48","slug":"clean-energy-pioneers-building-a-stronger-western-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2010\/06\/25\/clean-energy-pioneers-building-a-stronger-western-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean Energy Pioneers: Building a Stronger Western Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post was written by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edf.org\/page.cfm?tagID=11744\">Dan Grossman<\/a>, Rocky Mountain Regional Director and Senior Counsel to the Land Conservation and Wildlife Program at the Environmental Defense Fund.<\/p>\n<p>Westerners are pioneering a new frontier of economic opportunity through homegrown clean energy solutions. The <a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/\">Clean Energy Pioneers website<\/a> chronicles the people, businesses and communities across the intermountain West who are laying the foundation for the nation\u2019s clean energy economy.<\/p>\n<p>A new publication out this week, <a href=\"http:\/\/edf.org\/documents\/11164_CEP_6.27.10.pdf\">Clean Energy Pioneers: Building a Stronger Western Economy [PDF]<\/a>, compiles some of these stories. Here are just a few:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Montana, <a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=56602\">farmer Bob Quinn has helped increase installed wind energy capacity<\/a> from 1 MW in 2003 to 370 MW in 2009.<\/li>\n<li>A <a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=43105\">local energy efficiency consulting company in Salt Lake City<\/a> is creating jobs and saving its clients hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.<\/li>\n<li>Geothermal power companies have at least <a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=45785\">2,100 MW of geothermal energy in development<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=45785\"> in Nevada<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Through simple retrofits, <a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=53917\">residents of the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota are saving over $1 million annually<\/a> on their electricity bills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The release of these inspiring stories coincides with the Western Governors\u2019 Association annual meeting this weekend, where the governors will be gathering to celebrate \u201c100 Years of Common Ground\u201d in working together to protect the region\u2019s natural resources.<\/p>\n<p>Not only will clean energy conserve our natural resources and improve our air quality, it will also boost our local economies and strengthen our energy security.\u00a0 According to Rich O\u2019Connell, Director of the Logan County, Colo. Economic Development Corp and one of the pioneers quoted in the report, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=41148\">Wind energy generates income for families<\/a> and it grows the tax base to build roads, bridges, schools and social services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The West is investing in its future by establishing <a href=\"http:\/\/cleanenergypioneers.org\/page.cfm?tagID=43094\">clean energy education and training programs<\/a> at community colleges to help create the workforce of tomorrow.\u00a0 New Mexico and Colorado are each home to over a half dozen of such educational centers.<\/p>\n<p>As Tyson Ramseier, a pioneer featured in the report who will graduate in May 2011 from the Wind Energy Technician program at Colorado\u2019s Northeastern Junior College, so cogently put it,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c[Renewable energy] will not only improve the economy by generating cleaner and cheaper electricity, but it also provides jobs as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clean Energy Pioneers:\u00a0 Building a Stronger Western Economy complements the Clean Energy Pioneers multimedia project documented by the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Western Resource Advocates and Environmental Defense Fund.<\/p>\n<p>Download <a href=\"http:\/\/edf.org\/documents\/11164_CEP_6.27.10.pdf\">Clean Energy Pioneers: Building a Stronger Western Economy<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/edf.org\/documents\/11164_CEP_6.27.10.pdf\"> [PDF]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post was written by Dan Grossman, Rocky Mountain Regional Director and Senior Counsel to the Land Conservation and Wildlife Program at the Environmental Defense Fund. Westerners are pioneering a new frontier of economic opportunity through homegrown clean energy solutions. The Clean Energy Pioneers website chronicles the people, businesses and communities across the intermountain West &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,307,20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greenhouse-gas-emissions","category-jobs","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clean Energy Pioneers: Building a Stronger Western Economy - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2010\/06\/25\/clean-energy-pioneers-building-a-stronger-western-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clean Energy Pioneers: Building a Stronger Western Economy - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post was written by Dan Grossman, Rocky Mountain Regional Director and Senior Counsel to the Land Conservation and Wildlife Program at the Environmental Defense Fund. Westerners are pioneering a new frontier of economic opportunity through homegrown clean energy solutions. 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