11/30/15

Kelley talks Solarize South Dakota

Dakota Midday really is the only locally-produced program on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio worth listening to.

A taped broadcast of Charles Michael Ray's interview with Don Kelley can be heard here.

Former teevee host Ted Koppel has been an NPR contributor for decades and to pump his new book he sat for an interview on The Diane Rehm Show. Koppel is convinced that an inevitable cyber attack on the US could take down the grid for days, even months causing food shortages and mayhem.

Renewable energy strengthens communities in Indian Country.
The Interior Department has sent out $195 million in offers to landowners on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota. The $3.4 billion Cobell settlement provided $1.9 billion for Indian landowners who want to sell (pdf) their fractionated interests. DOI will pay "fair market value" as required by the Indian Land Consolidation Act. Participation is entirely voluntary. Any land that is acquired will be returned to tribes. [Indianz]
Ice storms routinely knock out electric power on reservations sometimes resulting in lost lives.
A college on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation will receive about $1 million in federal funding for a $2 million renewable energy project. The grant will be used to help install 636 kilowatts of solar power at five buildings at Sitting Bull College. Officials say the project should decrease short-term energy costs by 20 percent, saving about $74,000 a year. Standing Rock is one of 11 tribal communities slated to split up nearly $6 million in federal money for clean energy projects. The 3,600-square-mile reservation straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. [Associated Press]
Microgrid technologies are destined to enhance tribal sovereignty and free communities from monopolistic utilities.

No comments: