1/16/09 Making Renewable Energy Work

Making Renewable Energy Work. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. The upcoming Harvesting Clean Energy Conference in Billings, Montana is an opportunity for you to learn more about generating clean, renewable energy. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer says our ancestors really started with renewable energy. SCHWEITZER: Now they came there to grow wheat but you couldn't grow all 320 acres of wheat, you had to grow your own horsepower so they grew 10 or 20 acres of oats to feed the horses to plow the land, to plant the wheat, to harvest the wheat and haul it to the railhead. Late  not much later in the 20's, all of those farms had wind chargers and they were producing their own electricity and they had batteries in the basement of their houses and they were completely electrified and they were running those farms with clean green energy. Governor Schweitzer said that now the grandchildren of those enterprising people are asking whether they can do it again and he says that the state has really stepped up to the plate. SCHWEITZER: Well Montana is actually taking the lead. We were one of the first states to pass the renewable portfolio standard in 2005 we got the Legislature to agree that by the year 2015, 15% of the electricity that we consume in Montana will come from renewables. We have passed renewable bills that once there's enough biofuels produced in Montana that we have a standard of what percent of our gasoline will be from biofuels. A lot of people see major corporations involved in the clean energy fight not realizing that they can do a lot of good on a personal level. SCHWEITZER: The little guys are going to be the do-ers and the big guys are going to be the talkers. The little guy is actually going to be the one that actually produces the electricity with wind power and uses it in his own irrigation pumps or uses it in his dairy barn. The little guy is the one who is going to carve out 50 or 100 acres of a biofuels crop on his farm in a rotation and produces his own biodiesel to use in his own tractors. Governor Schweitzer says the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference is a great place to share ideas. SCHWEITZER: To bring together the best minds in the region from Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana to talk about clean energy production. We'll be in Billings from January 25th to 27th and we have a group of really visionary leaders in producing clean and green energy that will be presenting new ideas and frankly in many cases it will be the little guy that brings all of these ideas that come from their own farms, from their own enterprises and we share these ideas because the leadership comes from the do-ers, not the talkers. For additional information on clean energy and the upcoming Harvesting Clean Energy Conference, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org