Currently there is a 3E educational vacuum in Minnesota. There is a tremendous need to engender awareness and
set the stage for restoring Minnesota's leadership in the development of
indigenous renewable energy, energy efficiency improvement and conservation
as major efforts to protect our environment, reduce our economic dependence
and vulnerability on imported fuels and create jobs.
A number of educational initiatives have been taken in the past in
Minnesota to address this shortfall in public awareness. One such program
was started about twenty-one years ago at the Red Wing Technical Vocational
Institute. Unfortunately it was closed about four years later. Later the
only comprehensive energy education program in the state, the Energy
Management Program at Moorhead State University run by its Director, Dr.
Hameed Nezhad and his staff was canceled. And more recently a wind energy
technology training program, initiated at Southwest Technical College,
Jackson in the Fall of 1994 in support of the wind energy development
taking place along the Buffalo Ridge, was suspended just four years after
the program was started. Even though two of these programs were strictly
technical and did not address comprehensive 3E awareness specifically, yet,
that these precious educational resources have been lost in Minnesota is a
tragedy. The whole task of 3E awareness education has fallen by default
onto the shoulders of a few dedicated science teachers in some of our
schools who include this in their curricula, not because they have to, but
because they have a personal conviction to do so.
The CREED Project was conceived and is being established to provide high quality 3E education for our people. When fully implemented the CREED Project will provide a means of delivery of the concepts contained in the U.C.S. Report, "Powering the Midwest", to the people of our state. The Minnesota Science Museum's "Green Street" project began this task. CREED envisions a continuation of this job in an outdoor as well as indoor environment. An educated citizenry will provide a powerful incentive for industrial executives to be socially and environmentally conscious, and the development of renewables together with energy device and systems efficiency improvement will also provide economic incentives for them and at the same time decrease our economic dependence on out of state sources of energy and create hundreds of new jobs in these industries. We are already beginning to see this "win-win" scenario develop with the wind farms along the Buffalo Ridge and elsewhere and with the production of ethanol from corn for use as an oxygenate in fuels and as the main component of E85 fuel.
The close correlations which exists between the way in which we use energy and its concomitant effects on the environment and the economy is largely misunderstood by or unknown to the general public or if it is, it is ignored. Consequently, many measures which could be taken by people to improve our physical environment, lessen the future catastrophic effects of "greenhouse warming", "acid rain", "ozone layer depletion", landfill problems, air and water pollution and their deleterious effects on human health and the economy are just not being taken. This "credibility gap" is a consequence of the lack of comprehensive 3E educational programs in the State and Nation.
Thus the major focus of the CREED Project is education. Our goal is to
engender public awareness of the close correlations which exists between
the three Es; i.e. the way in which we extract, convert and use energy and
its concomitant effects on the physical environment (air, water and soil)
in which we live, and its impacts on economic development and prosperity in
our State. The huge credibility gap which currently exists in our country
with respect to 3E correlations was most dramatically seen four years ago
(and several times since) when the Federal Congress' attempted to repeal
the gasoline tax at a time when the U.S. was importing more crude oil than
ever before (now over 58%), and most of it from the Middle East, in order
to satisfy the fuel demands of a new cadre of gas guzzling sports cars and
utility vehicles. Not only is this the largest contributor to our
international balance of payments deficit, but it also makes our country
unacceptably vulnerable; externally to the whims of nations with agendas
quite different from our own and internally to the ever increasing burdens
of greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants spewed into our atmosphere and
discharged into our waters.
As educators we are acutely aware that the best and most effective learning
process is a "hands on" participatory one. Consequently the CREED Project
will ultimately have as a major component of its educational mission, a
whole range of working demonstrations and displays of the interrelationship
between energy supply, conversion and use, and how these actually impact
upon our environment and contribute to our balance of payments and
employment situations. Specifically these demonstrations and displays will
emphasize Minnesota's own indigenous resources- her renewable energy
potential and the expertise of her people. Besides our rich resources in
wind, biomass and solar, our people have by necessity (harsh climate) and
ingenuity led the nation in energy conservation techniques and energy
device efficiency improvements. To educate the genera
l public with respect to the latter will also be part of our mission.
The nature of the CREED Project is such that a suitable site for the erection of renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation demonstrations, in addition to buildings for classrooms, conferences, workshops, a library and archive, and administration, will be needed. Such a site could presumably be found almost anywhere in the State. However there are certain advantages in finding a site near the center of gravity of the State's population, and a place already in use by the general public for recreation. A possible site which satisfies both these criteria, as well as having had an historical connection to renewable energy, is the Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park (CRDRP). It is envisaged that after the establishment of the central site, traveling displays would be prepared for educational presentations, and workshops throughout the State.
The Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park comprises a total area of 610 acres, 470 within Coon Rapids on the Anoka County side of the Mississippi River and 140 within Brooklyn Park on the Hennepin County side. The dam at the site was built in 1913-14 and went into service to support the generation of hydroelectricity in 1914. It was operated by Northern States Power Company (NSP) until 1966, when for economic reasons, based on the commissioning of the Sherco coal fired plant at Becker, hydroelectric power generation was discontinued. In December 1969, ownership of the dam and associated real estate was transferred to the Suburban Hennepin Regional Park District (SHRPD) for the purpose of establishing a further public park in their system. In 1987 Anoka County's Department of Parks and Recreation (ACDPR) acquired and opened further land downstream from the dam on their side of the river. On the basis of a joint agreement SHRPD and ACDPR today own and operate the park and its two visitor centers. Total visitors to the park have recently averaged about 80,000 annually. This number is expected to increase significantly now that the dam repairs are completed , the new pedestrian walkway/bikeway is open and the level of the reservoir behind the dam is back to its original level in Summer. Many of these visitors will be drawn from the 825,000 (about half in the Twin Cities metro area) school children currently enrolled in Minnesota.
CREED is hopeful that the two Park Board Commissions will include the ideas outlined above into their long range plans for the Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park (CRDRP).
We are happy to report that the first demonstration of renewable energy
use, that of E85 fuel from Minnesota grown corn, to power a small utility
vehicle, has now been placed at the park together with a mobile kiosk
display to describe its operation. It is owned and operated by ACDPR and
can be seen at the CRDRP's East Visitor Center during park operating hours.