Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2011)
Developer of new wind turbine says technology could be breakthrough Professor of energy economics also says global warming is unproven Bessie Wetzell Newspaper L.brary University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 By David Sykes A professor at East ern Oregon University, who is also the director o f a company developing a new type of wind energy turbine, told the Heppner Chamber HEPPNER 5(K azette imes VOL. 130 NO. 22 12 Pages Wednesday, June 1,2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Heppner High School baseball team loses out in state semi finals to Portland Christian 11-2 HHS baseball team (left to right): back-coach Jim Kindle, Ryan Bennett, Brett Harrison, Ian Murray, Jared Hedman, Justin Gutierrez, Daimon Walker, Cody Orr, Eric Chick, coach Scott Coe; front-Cameron Day, Justin Pranger, Shane Smith, Austin Holmes, Drew Brannon, Willie Gentry, Alex Fuentes. versus Portland Christian. T h e H e p p n e r They lost 11-2. roe, 16-13 to advance to the High School baseball team The boys won their semifinals. played in the semi-finals at May 27 game against Mon- home on Tuesday, May 31, HHS graduation June 4 The Heppner High School graduation ceremo nies will take place on Sat urday, June 4, beginning at 2 p.m. in the high school gym. B a c c a la u re a te services are planned for Wednesday, June 1, at 6 p.m. at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Heppner. The HHS junior/ senior breakfast will be held on Thursday, June 2, at 7 a.m. HHS s e n io r s ’ photos are featured in this week’s Gazette-Times. Bellamy fundraiser to be held at Bucknum’s A fundraiser for Travis Bellamy will be held at Bucknum ’s Tavern in Heppner on June 4. Live entertainment for the event will include Simplistic, Matt Borden, The Dakota Brown Band and “ Dog B ite” Harris. The music will continue all night; other features include beer specials and a raffle. Raffle items are still needed; anyone interested in donating an item can drop it off at Bucknum’s. There will be a $5 cover charge for the eve ning. The cover charge and raffle money will go to help Travis Bellamy with medical and other expenses following his car accident last month. Throw that boot The Celebrate Heppner version of the Welly Toss will begin with team competition at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 10. The toss will be at its usual location on West Wil low Street between Murray’s and the Artisan Village. Merchants and agencies are forming teams, and the com petition will be hard fought or, in this case, thrown. The team championship throw off will oc cur at 2 p.m. Prizes will then be awarded and the winning team's name will be added to the Welly Toss Boot Award on display at City Hall. Individual competition for kids, teens and adults begins at noon and will continue until 1:30 p.m. Two changes in individ ual competition are also debuting on the June 10. Adult and teen The Golden Boot prizes will be awarded based on length of the contestant’s throw. For example, an adult female throw ing 50 feet or more will win a prize. Also, kids aged two to six will throw at the same location but further down the street. Each child will win a prize. Boots were flying during the St. Pat’s competi tion, and the coordinators decided it would be safer if the younger kids were a bit removed from flying leather. Forms have been distributed to merchants and agencies to register their players. The deadline to turn in forms is June 8. Teams may schedule a specific time to compete by calling Shirlee at 541-676-5554. Farmers market to begin season An organizational meeting for the upcoming Willow Creek Farmers Market’s fourth season has been planned for Thursday, June 9, at Heppner City Hall. The market begins Friday, June 24, at the Hep pner City Park and will continue on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. through October 7. “All interested crafters, green thumbs and other like-minded people” are invited to attend. Agenda items will include location, day, times and other related topics. Ideas are welcome. Anyone who would like to showcase their musi cal talents at the farmer's market is invited to just show up at the market during scheduled hours. Wyden to hold Heppner town hall U.S. Senator Ron Wyden will host his annual town hall meeting in Morrow County on June 3. The town hall meeting will be held at Heppner City Hall at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 3. This will be Wyden’s 592nd statewide town hall. of Commerce last week that his company’s new device is so revolutionary it could be placed on top of a city building to produce elec tricity from the wind. Pete Diffenderfer, Ph.D., said the new turbine is more efficient at produc ing electricity from wind than the giant-turbines going up around the country, and could be a breakthrough in the way America produces power. Diffenderfer also has studied data and reports and has concluded that global warming has not been proven. “I am stating an opinion, but that opinion is based on fact. And global warming is not a fact,” Dif fenderfer said. He said about one half of the testing stations that monitor global tem peratures have been “com promised,” or are not giving accurate readings because they have been placed near buildings and other man made, built-up areas, and these stations are giving off false high readings. He said the United States govern ment should not be forcing people to use alternative energies based on faulty global warming science. “I don’t think our carbon footprint is what people say it is. There is not a consensus among scientists. We have had ferociously cold winters in North America and people will tell you that it came from global warming. What sense does that make? “There has always been climate change and we do need to move off of non-renewable energy, but we need to do it in a way that makes sense,” D if fenderfer said. “We are 85 percent dependent on fossil fuels and we can’t just walk away from that.” He said the US does not have a long-range energy policy, and “We desperately need one.” Diffenderfer, who is also a director of Zephyr International, Inc., a wind energy research and devel opment company based in The Dalles, said energy is the most important element driving the economy. “The quality o f life of Americans is going down. It is getting worse,” he said. He related how he has four children and owns an SUV. “It cost me $58 to fill half the tank. We are hurting. Energy is getting so expensive, our quality of life is going down and we are throwing people lone graduation is June 3 Pete Diffenderfer, Ph.D. and associate professor of business at Eastern Oregon University told the Heppner Chamber of Commerce last week that the country is in desperate need of a long-range energy policy. -Photo by David Sykes under the bus,” he said. “The government wants to push us into other energy sources. We are like lem mings running off the cliff and hoping we don’t hit the bottom.” He said the gov ernment’s efforts to force people to use alternative energy and devices like flo- rescent light bulbs were just tactics and not an overall strategy. “I w ould like to change the paradigm and have one based on fact.” He said the country has huge amounts of energy avail able right within our own borders, which means there is no reason we need to im port oil from non-reliable sources in other countries. “ How many w ars have been fought over natural resources?” he points out. Diffenderfer also said our energy policy must make sense economically. “Our country is $14 tril lion in debt and we can’t keep piling on the debt. This great country is go ing to collapse, and we need to use the energy we have so our quality of life doesn’t plunge,” he says. He added that there are only five countries in the world that are not “underwater” financially. Back to his new impulse wind turbine, Dif fenderfer said it could be as small as a large swamp cooler and could be placed on top of a building to pro vide power for that home or office. He said current wind projects are 30 percent paid for by the government; the technology he is working on would be market driven and not require subsidies to Pay for il- He said Zephyr, in which he became in volved as an investor four years ago, is currently look ing for a larger company to buy them out, a company large enough to market and sell the product effectively. He did not have pictures of the prototype turbine, as he said the information is still proprietary. Diffenderfer also said the grid system to de liver electricity is so large now that it loses about 20 to 30 percent of the power sent over it. With large wind towers, more grid is being built to carry the electricity. However, with his turbine, each building could have its own unit, reducing the amount of grid necessary. In response to a question, he did acknowledge that stor age is currently a problem that will eventually have to be solved for any type of wind-generating system to work. He described the turbine as having a flywheel and rotor that will spin, as well as an exhaust port. He said that it will handle increases in wind speed and wind gusts better than the traditional large turbines. “ When the wind speed doubles, you will get eight times the power from this,” he said. “Traditional wind mills have been around for 1,000 years and the gain in energy output has been m arginal,” D iffenderfer said. “ Besides that, they (large towers) will not last for more than 20 years. We hope to get wind energy to the point where it does not need to be subsidized by the government.” WCCC to hold junior golf clinic Willow Creek Country Club in Heppner will hold a junior golf clinic June 13,14 and 15 and June 20, 22 and 23. The golf clinic is open to any student aged seven to 16. The beginners’ clinics will be from 2 to 3 p.m. June 13, 14 and 15, and from 9 to 10 a.m. June 20, 22 and 23. Intermediate clinics will be held June 13,14 and 15 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and June 20,22 and 23 from 10:30 a.m. till noon. The golf clinics cost $25, payable to Willow Creek Country Club. Interested participants are asked to register early. Registration forms available at WCCC, or contact Greg Grant a't 541-676-5257 for details. T he lo n e H igh School com m encem ent ceremonies will be held on Friday, June 3, at 7 p.m. in the high school gym. The b accalau re ate service is planned for Wednesday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the lone Community Church. The IHS seniors’ The men of St. William’s and St. Patrick’s Cat] photos are featured in the lie Churches will hold their monthly First Friday meeting Gazette-Times graduation on June 3 at 6:45 a.m. at the parish office in Heppner. Mass page in this week’s news will follow at 7:30 a.m. All men are welcome to attend. paper. 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