(Marquette, Michigan) – Business owners, clergy and homeowners from across northern Michigan were given numerous tips on reducing their utility bills during the 2007 Earth Keeper Energy Summit including the latest on an upcoming vote in the state legislature that would send wind-generated electricity to all residents.

About 100 people attended the day-long conference on Wednesday June 13, 2007 in Marquete, Michigan sponsored by the Superior Watershed Partnership in cooperation with the Cedar Tree Institute. The Marquette-based non-profits founded the Earth Keeper Initiative in 2004.

Most of those attending said they plan to join nearly 500 northern Michigan businesses, churches, temples and homes that recently began cutting energy costs and are expected to save millions of dollars in power and water costs over the next three years as part of the new Earth Keeper conservation project, according to Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership in Marquette.

The Earth Keeper Initiative has numerous ongoing environmental projects including the annual Earth Day clean sweeps across northern Michigan that have collected about 370 tons of household hazardous waste for recycling or proper disposal. The Earth Keepers have 140 participating churches/temples and a volunteer army of over 400 people.

“We are taking all the energy of the Earth Keepers across the Upper Peninsula and we are focusing that energy on energy conservation and climate change because that is where it all starts,” Lindquist told participants

Two senior members of the Sharon Lutheran Church council in Bessemer drove the three hours to Marquette to attend the energy summit to take home ideas on reducing water and power bills in the 75-year-old church while protecting the planet.

“We need an energy audit – we’ve looked for a long time for someone who does this and we haven’t found anyone,” said Arline Waurio of Bessemer, who also plans to have an energy audit of an 80-acre family farm that she manages. “I am on a limited budget – however I can save energy I will do it.”

Retired teacher Betsy Slabaugh of Bessemer said “just conserving the earth’s resources is so important – I have an awareness about saving the earth’s resources and I try to pass that on to everybody.”

Four churches and one parish house in the western U.P. spend about $50,000 a year on energy, a bill the pastor wants to reduce.

“I believe it’s very important for our congregations to take a leading role in the whole awareness of environmental issues and consequences,” said Pastor Francis Strong, a pastor at Christ Lutheran Parish – a group of four churches in Ironwood. “I am looking for ways for our churches to save money by being more efficient.”

The one-year-old Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper Student Team spread the word about the energy summit around campus and that attracted several current and former students.

“I am into alternative energies and I am interested in how people are using their alternative energies in the Upper Peninsula,” said Birmingham, MI native Jennifer Riley, 23, who recently graduated from Northern Michigan University with a major in environmental conservation.

“We use so much energy with the way we live, and with global warming – it’s terrible – and informing the public is the first step,” said Riley who took classes in solar and wind power.

One of the most popular exhibits demonstrated various types of energy saving lightbulbs. The first 35 people at the conference were given compact florescent lightbulbs.

Participants heard from several groups that do no-cost and low-cost energy audits including Michigan Interfaith Power and Light.

“Dollars saved on energy” can be spent on humanitarian projects or prevent important programs from being cut.

Energy conservation saves money “that can be directed for feeding the hungry, paying just salaries and advancing your mission,” said Father Charles Morris, director of Michigan Interfaith Power and Light.

The energy audits can have a big impact on the strained budgets of some of Michigan’s oldest and biggest churches.

Congregations in inner cities, and rural areas, inhabit the oldest and most energy inefficient buildings yet they serve the areas of greatest human need and have the fewest resources coming in – it’s a triple whammy,” said Rev. Morris, who has wind turbines that power part of the St. Elizabeth Catholic Church and solar water heaters at his home in Wyandotte, MI

Schools, government buildings, and businesses can save energy and money by watching “the more mundane things” and using preventative maintenance check lists.

“Some of the best things you can do is just keeping system operating efficiently – the savings really multiply fast when you just keep things operating up to snuff – like keeping thermostats set right keep boilers tuned up,” said Kevin Cook of Rebuild Michigan.

The president of an Upper Peninsula company in a wind power partnership encouraged participants to ask their legislators to support the Michigan Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).

“The (RPS) would require utilities across Michigan to buy power and diversify the way we make and use power in this country – 23 states already have that law and Michigan does not,” said Rich VanderVeen, president of Mackinaw Power.

“This bill would give the authority to the Michigan Public Service Commission to require the utilities to move forward” on wind power and level the playing field for independent power producers, VanderVeen said.

The Michigan House Energy Committee is expected to vote on the RPS next Wednesday (June 20, 2007) and go before the entire House by the Fourth of July, followed by senate action, VanderVeen said.

“I hope one of the outcomes of this energy summit is a united voice to Michigan legislators to support renewable energy,” said VanderVeen, adding northern Michigan lawmakers understand wind power would have a “social, ecological and financial benefit to Marquette and the Upper Peninsula.

VanderVeen said the Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO) has been supportive of wind energy but the idea has met resistance from the Detroit Edison and Consumers Energy power companies.

“The incumbent utilities in the lower Peninsula have opposed this – they don’t like competition – they want to run the show themselves,” said VanderVeen, although his company currently has a “pilot project” with Consumers Energy “that’s not a very good deal for the independent power producers.”

The Mackinac City Wind Farm is owned by a partnership and has two wind turbines that have been operating since December 2001 that have “put out more than 15 million kilowatt hours” in electricity, VanderVeen said. “The wind turbines have operated 98 percent of the time.”

Michigan’s only other wind turbine is owned by Traverse City Light and Power, he said.

VanderVeen would like to see the three wind turbines in Michigan increased to 2,500 high-tech wind turbines built in areas that are windy and close to the power grid.

“The power goes right on the grid, so everyone in Michigan gets a little bit of that,” through an agreement with Consumer’s Energy and the International Grid Company,” VanderVeen said.

“We are putting out good clean power with no emissions,” VanderVeen said.

“The U.S. Department of Energy thinks we could put out as much as 5,000 megawatts of wind power and that would be enough for 250,000 homes and it would offset three tons of coal per home,” VanderVeen said.

Participants heard details about a federally funded program in Michigan that provides tips and resources on energy conservation for new construction projects, energy assessments for homeowners and valuable help for low-income residents.

“We received a grant to replace 115 furnaces in Michigan,” said T.J. Brown, project coordinator for Northern Options in Marquette, one of eight non-profit energy demonstration centers across Michigan that receive federal funds through the state.

“This is the third year of the program and in the U.P. we have 30 furnaces that are being replaced – we get our referrals through the Salvation Army, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and community action agencies,” Brown said, adding they give no-charge workshops on weather-proofing, energy conservation, and other topics to schools, churches and civic clubs.

The bishops/leaders of nine faith traditions signed the Earth Keeper Covenant in 2004 pledging to actively protect the environment and reach out to American Indian tribes.

“This conference today is like a flower that has bloomed out of years of work,” said Rev. Jon Magnuson, executive director of the Cedar Tree Institute and Earth Keeper Initiative co-founder. “We feel something very, very important is happening and we are a part of it.”

The Earth Keeper team has at least two members from each of nine faith traditions (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha’i, Jewish, and Zen Buddhist). The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community is a sponsor of the annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep.

For more information contact the Superior Watershed Partnership at 906-228-6095 (or Earth Keeper volunteer media advisor Greg Peterson at 906-475-5068).

The Superior Watershed Partnership
http://www.superiorwatersheds.org

The Cedar Tree Institute:
http://www.cedartreeinstitute.com/

The Lake Superior Interfaith Communication Network:
http://www.lakesuperiorinterfaith.com/

Earth Keeper TV:
http://earthkeepers.blip.tv/

Earth Keeper Energy Summit related websites:

The Michigan Interfaith Power and Light
http://www.miipl.org/

Great Waters
http://www.greatwaters.net/

Wind Power website- Michigan projects
http://www.awea.org/projects/michigan.html

Mackinaw Power
http://www.mackinawpower.com

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