The Green Bike Tour 2004
www.greenbike.org www.windonwheels.org
Iowa Contact: Mike Owen, Iowa Policy Project, (319)
643-3628, ipp@Lcom.net
Minnesota Contact: Cathy Kennedy (952) 944-6559,
cathy@cathrynkennedy.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, FRIDAY, SEPT. 17, 2004
Day 5: Communities Learn as Wheels, Blades Turn
NORTHFIELD, Minn. (Sept. 17, 2004) Riders
on the Green Bike Tour are helping to educate both students and community
leaders in the advantages of developing clean, renewable energy.
At a high school Friday morning in Northfield and a town meeting the night
before, participants in the four-state Midwest bicycle ride to promote
renewables found willing audiences before heading off to meet with
students in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
About 40 people showed for the Town Square gathering in Northfield, with
candidates for the state Legislature, mayor, county supervisor and city
council attending the 90-minute meeting.
"They all spoke well about the potential for renewable energy in the
community's future," said Niel Ritchie, director of the Minnesota-based
League of Rural Voters, who pointed to a notable wind project in the
community. "Carleton College has just finished a 1.65-megawatt wind
turbine project. It's big."
The League of Rural Voters and the Iowa Policy Project are co-sponsoring
the ride, which ends Saturday at the Fighting Bob Fest at Baraboo,
Wisconsin. A team of riders has visited renewable energy projects in South
Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin on the tour - with three riders
using bicycles equipped with solar panels to power them up hills.
The Carleton project will be dedicated Sept. 25. (For more information,
see the Carleton website <http://webapps.acs.carleton.edu/news/?content=content&module=&id=63797>.)
Ritchie said the town meeting became a free exchange of ideas, and that
community leaders liked the idea of moving toward a switch to biodiesel
fuel for city buses.
On Friday morning, the group took questions from a group of about 40
students in a high-school environmental studies class.
"The kids had great questions. One of the teachers was very good about
integrating this into his physics class," said David Osterberg, executive
director of the Iowa Policy Project.
The riders' schedule for the rest of the day included a ride to LaCrosse,
Wisconsin, to meet with students in the LaCrosse Green Bike program and
bicycle from the University of Wisconson-La Crosse football stadium to
Viterbo University.
"We're interested in these young people's efforts to make a difference in
their community's dependence on the automobile," Ritchie said.
On Saturday, Osterberg will participate in a panel discussion about
environmental issues at the Fighting Bob Fest.
The public can keep track of the Green Bikers during the tour through
stories and photos that will be updated daily on a website,
www.greenbike.org <http://www.greenbike.org>.
# # # # #
Editors, News Directors Note: We will
provide updates on the web at http://www.greenbike.org.
Download the PDF version of this press
release.
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