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
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