Phoenix Renewable Energy Breaks Ground for Its New Facility in Camden

Camden Mayor Chris Claybaker said Phoenix Renewable Energy is the first big real opportunity the city has had in the last ten years.

Mike Ross said Phoenix will provide a domestic fuel source for electric plants and an environmentally friendly alternative to coal.

Over four hundred people attended the event, including U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, Congressman Mike Ross, Ecological Conservation Organization, Audubon Arkansas, Repower America, and Sierra Club.

Senator Pryor addressed the audience.

Senator Pryor talked about the need for more clean energy jobs in Arkansas.

Sam Anderson, CEO, Phoenix Renewable Energy, said that Europe's cap and trade made his business possible, and that the business community should be more positive about cap and trade.

Anderson credited the Obama administration's stimulus plan for making his business a practical idea.

The audience included several people with clean energy T-shirts and green jobs hard hats.

Green shovels to break the ground for Phoenix's new carbon-neutral facility.

Anderson, Pryor, Ross, Claybaker, and other officials break the ground.

The new facility will occupy the former site of International Paper plant that closed almost a decade ago.

Bill Saunders, a Sierra Club member, shakes hands with Sam Anderson, CEO, Phoenix Renewable Energy.

Ken Smith, Executive Director, Audubon Arkansas, shakes hands with a clean energy supporter.

The plant is expected to open within 16 to 20 months. It will employ up to 60 people and creat 450 jobs in timber, transportation, and other industries that would serve the plant.

Phoenix Renewable Energy has taken the first step in creating a greener South Arkansas. On Thursday, August 13, the company broke ground on a brand new 44 acre renewable energy plant in Camden, Arkansas. The event included 400 local business owners, citizens of Camden, and state and local officials.  On hand for the event were Sam Anderson, CEO, Phoenix Renewable Energy, Camden Mayor Chris Claybacker, U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, and Representative Mike Ross. Audubon Arkansas, Ecological Conservation Organization, Repower America, and Sierra Club attended the event as well.

A $180 million wood pellet plant will occupy the site of the former International Paper mill. The pellets produced by the facility will be shipped to Europe, where cap and trade forces the countries to burn pellets instead of coal to generate electricity.

The plant is expected to open within sixteen to twenty months. It will employ up to 60 people and create 450 jobs in timber, transportation and other industries that would serve the plant.

Anderson credited two things for the plant becoming a practical idea: changes in Washington, D.C., and cap and trade.

“I believe if it were not for the Obama administration’s stimulus plan (and) concept of a new economy, the business we’re about to engage in would not be possible,” he said.

Anderson said that Europe’s cap and trade made his business possible, and that the business community should be more positive about cap and trade.

Pryor praised Phoenix for creating clean energy jobs in south Arkansas. In his speech, Pryor recognized the need for creating more green jobs in Arkansas and pointed to the “Clean Energy” signs held by several audience members.

Stephen Walker, Phoenix director of development, said the plant will be carbon dioxide neutral, with the trees serving as an offset because of the CO2 they absorb before they are harvested. The plant will use wood pulp to make the pellets and slashwood, waste ordinarily left behind when trees are harvested, to help fuel the plant. Extra electricity generated at the plant will be sent into the electric grid.

The company plans to build four identical plants elsewhere in Arkansas.

Guest Post: Eddy Moore – Help YOU with Energy Efficiency Bill HB 1903!

Representative Joan Cash of Jonesboro is our hero.  Working closely with Representative Kathy Webb of Little Rock, she has introduced the most significant clean energy legislation in Arkansas in many years, HB 1903, the Energy Efficiency Performance Standards Act.

We need folks to contact their state House members urging support for HB 1903 before Friday, March 20th.  (To find your House member, visit http://www.arkansas.gov/house/reps.php). The bill will be opposed by energy companies, so it is important that you contact your legislators as soon as possible!

The bill would require Arkansas electric and gas companies to help people conserve 1% of the state’s energy per year.  For instance,  gas and electric companies would provide  rebates and incentives to fix your home or business or to buy energy-efficient appliances so that you use dramatically less energy.  Over 20 or 30 years, these changes will add up to a major difference that will avoid many millions of dollars in future power plants.  Energy efficiency improvements are the least expensive, most effective way to provide power, reduce pollution, and avoid global warming.

The bill also creates more jobs than any other energy solution.  It will coordinate with new job-creation funds provided in President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, leveraging more job creation, over a longer period, in Arkansas.  It will save over $2 for every $1 invested in home weatherization, business lighting retrofits, air conditioner upgrades, and the like.

That is why most people in the U.S. already live in a state with an energy efficiency standard.  Unfortunately, Arkansas is behind the curve, even though electricity usage here is double the usage in some other states.

This week we will see if our state representatives decide to put us on a cleaner, more job-creating, less-polluting path.  Please contact your legislators this week and urge them to support HB 1903!

Guest Post: Angela Wisely – Tell the President to Work Harder for Clean Energy & Green Jobs!

The Arkansas C-Campaign has a sign-on letter for organizations of all types to sign (see below). The letter applauds President Barak Obama for his work thus far on cap and trade legislation and encourages the President and our entire government to work even harder toward clean energy and green jobs.  The organizations that sign will be presented to Congress and listed in an online ad in Politico, a D.C. publication.  You can check out the Politico’s site at www.politico.com.  The Arkansas C-Campaign is still looking for signers.  If your organization is interested in free PR and a chance to message directly to our nation’s leaders, please contact Angela Wisely, Outreach Coordinator, Audubon Arkansas, at awisely@audubon.org or (501)244-2229.

The deadline is Wednesday, March 18, 2009.

[Date]

Dear President Obama:

We applaud your commitment to make global warming and clean energy top priorities in 2009.  We look forward to working with you to adopt bold goals to repower, refuel, and rebuild America; to announce a plan early in 2009 to reach these goals; and to utilize the economic recovery package and federal budget and to get us started.

From the big cities of the coasts to the industrial heartland to our rural communities, the slumping economy is taking its toll in shuttered businesses, disappearing jobs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and an increased sense of anxiety about our collective future.  To revive the American dream, we need to rebuild our economy on a sound foundation – one that ends our dependence on oil, puts people back to work, contributes to long-term prosperity, rebuilds our communities, and addresses global warming.  The one path to achieve all of these goals is to take the lead on global warming by moving to a clean energy future.

America is up to the challenge.  We have the technology, the tools, and the know-how to use energy more wisely and to obtain our energy from clean, renewable sources.  Clean energy will create new jobs, protect consumers from skyrocketing fossil fuel costs, and drive billions of dollars in capital investment into our economy—even as we save the planet. What’s more, clean energy can be produced right here at home, freeing us from foreign sources of energy and creating new jobs in all sectors of the nation’s economy – including many jobs that can never be outsourced.

Americans are already beginning to see the benefits of clean energy in their local economies. Laid-off workers in the nation’s “Rust Belt” are getting back to work building wind turbines and solar cells; farmers in the Midwest are supplementing their incomes with royalties from wind farms; residents of economically distressed inner cities are learning how to install solar panels and weatherize homes for greater energy efficiency.  Every part of the country has the opportunity to benefit from a transition to a new energy future.

But to turn this trickle of green jobs into a torrent of new economic opportunities, we need to act boldly – and fast.  The key to moving to clean energy is enactment of a strong measure that caps global warming pollution, requires polluters to reduce and pay for their pollution, and drives massive new investments in clean energy technologies.  We can:

• Move to 100% clean electricity from sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and sustainable biomass.  Achieving this goal won’t happen overnight, but America has vast, untapped clean energy resources.  For instance, the wind blowing over just five U.S. states – North Dakota , South Dakota , Kansas , Montana and Texas – could produce enough electricity to power the entire United States .  To harness these clean sources of energy, we need an aggressive national renewable electricity standard, strong national energy efficiency standards, and the right policies, public investments, and infrastructure to deliver clean energy to America in an environmentally-responsible manner.
• Cut our dependence on oil in half. America can use oil far more efficiently, shift to low-carbon fuels, and transition some of our travel to more affordable and sustainable transportation choices.  To get started, we need to significantly increase the fuel economy of our cars and trucks, create new incentives for plug-in electric vehicles, and adopt a federal low-carbon fuel standard that will bolster rural economies and cut global warming emissions.  We also must make major new investments in infrastructure, rail transportation, and public transit to provide Americans with more affordable and sustainable transportation choices.
• Create 5 million new clean energy jobs. Our country should make major new investments in infrastructure and technology to put Americans back to work.  Central to this effort is a plan to retrofit millions of buildings and homes in the United States , which will save consumers and businesses money and create new jobs.  We can help fund this investment by putting science-based limits on global warming pollution and requiring polluters to reduce and pay for their pollution.  Investment in clean energy and energy efficiency will speed our economic recovery and create millions of new jobs here at home in every part of the country.
• Reduce total U.S. global warming pollution by at least 80 percent. The latest climate science indicates that the United States must reduce emissions of global warming pollutants quickly and dramatically if we hope to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.  America must take decisive action now by putting science-based limits on global warming pollution and requiring polluters to reduce and pay for their pollution.  This also will enable the United States to play a leadership role in achieving a global commitment to strong action.

Today, we have the opportunity to turn in a new direction and achieve a new economic and energy future for America .  It will take vision and commitment from all sectors of American society.  But it is up to you to provide the leadership to repower, refuel, and rebuild America.

We hope to work with you to adopt the goals described above, to announce a plan early in 2009 to reach these goals, and to utilize the economic recovery package and federal budget to get us started.

Sincerely,

[Organization Name]

Go Green & Opt Out of the System!

One of the reasons why I like to cook from scratch is so that I don’t support companies that I disagree with unknowingly. Did you know that Phillip Morris owns Kraft Foods? I don’t care what other people do. If you choose to smoke, fine with me. Just don’t smoke around me. If you buy Kraft Foods products, go for it. But I choose not to support Kraft Foods because I don’t like smoking. I have no need for its products anyway. I make almost everything from scratch. 

Recently I added Barnes & Noble to the list of companies I refuse to support. Why? Because Barnes & Noble sponsors The Rush Limbaugh Show. The same show that has been broadcasting “Barack the Magic Negro” song since this past June. I find the song and any talk radio show that finds humor in airing the song to be racist. And I refuse to support any business that sponsors such shows. Barnes & Noble has responded to the public outcry, defending its sponsorship by saying it makes no political judgment about the books it carries, and it extends the same stance to the radio programs that it sponsors. “As we carry both conservative and liberal authors, we are on programs that reach both audience,” says Suzanne Peterson, Barnes & Noble’s Customer Relations Advocate. Now since when did all conservatives become racists? I dated a Republican for 4 years, and he and I were in an interracial relationship. Maybe I was asleep during the relationship. Besides, is racism a political issue? I thought it was an ethical issue. Perhaps I didn’t get the memo that conservatives have officially incorporated racism as part of their political platform. 

I don’t care how others feel about Barnes & Noble, but I sure won’t be supporting it anymore. I rarely go there anyway. I borrow books from the library, and if I can’t find a copy of the book I want at the library, I buy it used or request it from PaperBackSwap. By going green, I’ve opted out of the system that includes companies like Barnes & Noble and Phillip Morris. Oh, I’ve also opted out of Wal-Mart, Tyson, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and The Gap. Quite frankly, I don’t miss a thing!

Every dollar you spend affects the world you live in, so spend it wisely. Go green and opt out of the system!

Wanna Save Money on Gas?

John McCain made fun of Barack Obama for suggesting that Americans inflate their tires. Well, unless you have a beer heiress as your wife, I recommend taking up on Obama’s advice because it improves your gas mileage and saves some cash. Eddy and I have a compact car that gets great gas mileage. When we drove to DC, we got 401 miles out of our first tank of gas. When we stopped to refuel, we paid $0.75 to inflate our tires. Guess what…we got 461 miles out of the second tank. We got 60 more miles from the same 14.5-gallon tank of gas, just by inflating our tires. 

Wanna save money on gas? Inflate, baby, inflate!

Vote, Baby, Vote!