Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2005)
Living: CASL recently received $5,000 from an Ansari X-Prize winner Continued from page 1 firm commitment from the University were important. “They have a lot of organization, a lot of talent. It’s apparent they are a re ally important group,” Thallon said. CASL Co-Director James Hiebert said any space that could be allocated would allow the group to move for ward, even if slower than planned. “It would help us to have a space to put things; a central office, a place to meet,” Hiebert said. He added that the group could work on portable projects until a permanent house is allocated. University Registrar Herb Chereck said he was supportive of the project and hoped it would lead to the A&AA school receiving “green” certification. “I think a certificate is a very viable option,” Chereck said. “It’s practical; it’s timely. I think it has an awful lot of potential.” University Planning Associate and Space Analyst Cathy Soutar said a house wasn’t available but offered the group a meeting place in a University building behind Rennie’s Landing. Thallon and Collet agreed to look at the space to see whether it would meet the group’s needs temporarily. “It’s not a place to meet our mis sion’s goals,” Collet said. “But it is a huge step in the journey. ” Collet said the space would allow the group members to stop working out of their backpacks and create physical projects. Members say the process of finding a home for CASL has been a long one. “There originally had been a meeting that said we should have a house by last spring,” Collet said. “Then it became last summer.” The group received a letter of sup port from Vice President of Institution al Affairs Dan Williams two-and-a-half years ago. Jan Oliver, associate vice president for Institutional Affairs, said she was involved in the process of allocating a house to the group until last year. She said the biggest obstacle to overcome has been getting through proper zoning channels. “The project is waiting for the East Campus Development Plan,” Oliver said. Oliver said the University and the City of Eugene are making plans to re zone portions of the East Campus neighborhood, where the intended house will be located. Until these changes can be made, she said any house they receive would be tempo rary and all parties involved want to avoid that situation. Collet said University officials have apologized to the group for be ing “naive” about the planning process. He said he would rather wait and make sure the house will be permanent. He said campus housing has several houses it in tends to release to the University in the near future, and he is hopeful something will happen then. “We wanted to make sure the house would last for a long time, not be torn down for dorms,” Collet said. He said the University agreed to give CASL the house in livable condition, free of lead paint and asbestos. Collet said the majority of fund ing for the project would come from workshop fees and support from the business community. “We’ll try to have CASL as an or ganization cover the costs of the events,” Collet said. CASL recently received a $5,000 prize from Burt Rutan, one of the designers of Space ShipOne, which launched the first civilian-designed spacecraft to reach space, winning the coveted $20-mil lion Ansari X-Prize. Collet said the group will use the money to build its model of a pedal-powered portable generator. sheldontraver@ daily emerald, com Energy: Wind prices have remained constant since 1999, according to EWEB Continued from page 1 have an energy crisis debate; you have a war in Iraq and other political insta bility in the Middle East, all of which are issues that are connected, even though we don’t always connect the dots,” he said. “Students understand that, and there’s an opportunity to di versify our energy portfolio so we are less reliant on dirty sources such as coal, gas and oil.” TUrbines used to generate wind power can have an “adverse im pact” on birds, according to the EWEB Web site. Mital said many other colleges have already begun using wind energy. “The U of O is seen as an environ mental leader by students across the nation, and we need to live up to that challenge,” he said. EWEB spokesman John Mitchell said most EWEB customers 1 who buy wind power do so for ideological reasons. “I think the customers sign up for EWEB wind power because they want to make a statement about how they use their energy and what impact that has on the environment,” he said. Mitchell said customers pay a little more for wind power because some of the price is used to pay off EWEB’s $13 million investment in the Foote Creek Rim I power facility in southeastern Wyoming over the next 20 years. “They’re contributing to something real,” he said. Mital said University members in vestigated three energy providers, in cluding EWEB. Although some of the packages offered by the other compa nies included geo-thermal and other renewable sources of energy, he said they were primarily interested in wind energy. “In the end, we went with EWEB because we have a long-standing rela tionship with them and what we really wanted was wind energy,” he said. Mitchell emphasized that the price of wind power has declined in com parison to standard owner rates, which he said have risen four times since 1999 while wind prices have remained constant. “If you use enough power,... wind power might be cheaper over certain amounts of usage because of rate sta bility,” he said. “It’s more competitive ly priced these days.” He said EWEB is investigating other “green tag” sources of energy; the board’s priority is to sell out its wind power capabilities. Mitchell said most power generated in the Northwest comes from hydro electric power, which has some “envi ronmental issues” involving fish habitat and populations. “A large portion of the energy al ready used throughout the northwest is already renewable,” he said. He said EWEB buys a small portion of its supply from the power market, which includes natural gas sources. “The more wind power we use, the less of that natural gas power market generation we have to buy,” he said. The measure is the latest incarna tion of a study and outreach program conducted last year by the Environ mental Studies Program. The project included studying the types of energy used by the University, how energy is used and how it can be conserved and diversified, Mital said. “One of the recommendations that came out of the project was to power the EMU with 100 percent wind, so this is the follow-up,” he said. Erickson said EMU Board members met with University Provost John Moseley last term, who said he would support raising the fee if students demonstrated interest. Moseley could not be reached for comment. A telephone survey of 195 students conducted in April and May 2004 as part of the project showed that 94 per cent of students interviewed support ed wind energy, while 77 percent sup ported it even if it costs more. About 61 percent said they supported raising student fees to pay for it. Mital acknowledged that voter turnout in primary elections is historically low. “In and of itself, it’s not an adequate measure of students’ support to just take it to the ballots, but it’s the best we have,” he said. 1 parkerhowell@ daily emerald, com UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON HHMHMMMMMMHIMMINMNMNMMIIIMtfaNHHNaaMMHMaiiaillllilllillH www.summer.washington.edu ow to spend your summer zgistration starts April 18. UW SUMMER QUARTER NOT WHAT YOU’D EXPECT “Only UW students take summer classes at the UW.” The University of Washington in Seattle welcomes all students from other colleges in the summer. And with over 2,000 * summer courses, you’ll likely catch whatever it is you happen to be fishing for.
