It seems even entertainers can’t escape the momentum behind the growing renewable and alternative energy movement. Singer-songwriter Tracy Lyons is launching her ‘Mercury Rising Tour,’ a tour that will highlight alternative and clean energy technologies. Her tour will also operate on biodiesel.

Singer-songwriter, veteran environmental activist and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) advocate Tracy Lyons launches her 2007-2008 Mercury Rising Tour on October 25 with a concert at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Lyons’ vision for the tour is to draw additional attention to the issues of global warming, alternative/clean energy solutions and the negative effects that pollution has on our health. A longtime spokesperson for clean and sustainable energy technologies, Tracy Lyons’ call to action regarding environmentalism first came through health issues that she personally experienced related to toxicity poisoning from heavy metals including mercury and lead.

The Eco-Stage for Tracy Lyons’ Mercury Rising Tour will be powered off the grid by environmentally-friendly bio-diesel and will feature a state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell. As well, information will be provided on the latest clean energy technologies and education about critical initiatives driving environmental action. The tour’s carbon footprint will be offset by the purchase of carbon credits for anything that can’t be accomplished directly using clean energy technologies.

The United States will host the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference March 4-6, 2008.

The conference, which has been held previously in Bonn and Beijing, is an opportunity for government, private sector, and non-governmental leaders to jointly address the goal of advancing renewable energy.

Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky hosted stakeholders in the renewable energy industry last week to announce the conference and discuss their goals.

“This conference will play a key role in addressing energy security and climate change,” she said. “WIREC will also provide a platform to promote strategies for the development and rapid adoption of renewable energy systems worldwide,” Dobriansky says.

USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development Tom Dorr also attended the WIREC kickoff to talk about USDA’s involvement in the conference. “It is important in this discussion to remember that renewable energy is in large part rural energy—ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel and biomass technology all rely primarily on farm and forest resources, and wind because of its siting requirements is also largely a rural resource,” said Dorr.

Weather-related problems that have caused damage to refineries in the Midwest have highlighted the need to diversify our nation’s transportation fuel needs. This issue is not only important for consumers who are feeling the pinch at the gas pump, but also for our country’s overall energy security.

This edition of “Fill up, Feel Good” discusses ethanol’s benefits in terms of energy security and the environment, featuring comments from a Midwest fuel supplier, the organizer of a national summit on energy security and climate change, and a world-renowned explorer and environmentalist.

The “Fill up, Feel Good” podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link)
or you can listen to it by clicking here (5:30 MP3 File):

The Fill Up, Feel Good theme music is “Tribute to Joe Satriani” by Alan Renkl, thanks to the Podsafe Music Network.

“Fill up, Feel Good” is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed three Executive Orders Friday initiating Florida’s energy policy. The signing ceremony concluded the Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Global Climate Change held in Miami this week.

According to the governor’s press office, the Executive Orders carry out Governor Crist’s commitment to reducing Florida’s greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiency. As a result, Florida will pursue renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy, as well as alternative energy such as ethanol and hydrogen.

Governor Crist said, “During the next few months, Florida’s Action Team on Energy and Climate Change will develop further recommendations for our state’s long-term climate-friendly efforts.”

Among the provisions in the orders, any purchased state vehicles should be fuel efficient and use ethanol and biodiesel fuels when available. Florida will also adopt the California motor vehicle emission standards, pending approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waiver.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Crist at the Summit in hosting a roundtable discussion among chief executive officers of business corporations and non-government organizations and also as the luncheon keynote speaker.

The 2nd Annual National Summit on Energy Security is taking place today at the National Press Club in Washington DC, presented by 2020 Vision.

This year’s summit has the theme of “National Security and America’s Addiction to Carbon: Solutions to Oil Dependence and Climate Change” and features Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), among many other distinguished speakers.

The event kicked off this morning with a presentation of the first annual Energy Security Leadership Award to Sen. Richard Lugar.

The day will wrap up with a reception for and presentation by Arctic explorer Will Steger. Mr. Steger has recently finished a four month journey across the Canadian Arctic’s Baffin Island to experience and document how the Inuit culture is coping with global warming. He will present photos and information about this trip, as well as three upcoming trips, at a special VIP reception.

The event has been organized by 2020 Vision, which was formed in 1986 to promote global security and protect the environment. I spoke with executive director Tom Collina about the summit.

Listen to that interview here:

The agenda for the Ethanol Summit changed at the last minute and just 24 hours before the event, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Andy Karsner, announced he would attend. Andy said ethanol is a key part of the solution to combating global warming. He said ethanol isn’t the silver bullet, but rather part of the silver buck shot. For Andy, it’ll take a number of committed strategies to establish a more green America. It wasn’t all business for the Assistant Secretary though. Andy strapped on an official Ethanol flame-repellent suit and hopped into the hot seat of a replica Ethanol car.

Fortunately, the longest presentation at the Ethanol Summit was one of the most interesting. Will Steger narrated a slide show of his various expeditions across frozen ice lands in Antarctica, the North Pole and the Greenland ice cap. He spoke of temperatures 30 degrees below freezing with 30 mile an hour winds. But, amidst all that freezing cold Will said he witnessed evidence that suggests the reality of global warming. Will said significant climate changes are causing large remnants of ice from the last ice age to break up and begin to melt. He said one ice shelf took him 21 days to cross and in 2002 the entire shelf disintegrated in just a matter of four weeks, and another ice shelf was completely gone a night after he crossed it. Will said these are real affects of global warming - a global warming he says the human population is contributing to and altering. For Will, the diminishing summer sea ice suggests the earth is experiencing what he calls “unnatural climate changes.” I stopped Will just after the summit for a personal interview and asked him why, exactly, these examples are evidence of something more than a cyclical climate change:

Global Warming 101, a three month expedition across Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle, has completed its mission.

The purpose of the expedition, which was sponsored in part by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) and Fagen, Inc., was to draw attention to the effects global climate change is having on native Inuit population in some of the coldest areas of the world - the first to see the impacts of the warming of the earth.

EPIC executive director Tom Slunecka and Fagen president Ron Fagen both traveled to the small remote fishing and hunting community of Iqaluit for the conclusion of the expedition.

“Most people wouldn’t think that there’s a connection between biofuels and the Arctic circle,” Slunecka said. “But as we’ve discovered, ethanol’s ability to reduce harmful gases that contribute to global warming is dramatic, and there’s no more dramatic place to see it than to go to the North Pole.”

Slunecka says world-renowned explorer Will Steger talked with the Inuit people to find out about the changes they have been seeing. “The elders in the tribes have seen a large change in insects, birds and plant life now being introduced in the region,” he said. “With the warming climate, they are very concerned about new diseases being introduced that will ultimately affect everyone who lives in the region.”

Listen to an interview with Tom here:

Will Steger is now half way through the Global Warming 101 Expedition across the Arctic. As Steger and his team continue their journey, they are seeing drastic changes in the landscape.

Recently, the team passed through the Pangnirtung Pass. This area has often been known as “the land where ice never melts,” but over the last 40 years the overhanging glaciers have been disappearing or becoming significantly smaller due to melting.

The area of Pangnirtung also relies on the sea ice for its livelihood, because the ice allows the people to hunt for seals and fish. Nearly 80 percent of their food comes from hunting and fishing. Due to the thinner and breaking sea ice, the people of Pangnirtung have had to change their lifestyle. This has greatly disrupted the culture that has been carried down through generations.

Steger notes that the ethanol industry, through the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, is an important sponsor of the expedition. “It is important to focus on the solutions that are currently available, and EPIC is helping with that solution by spreading the word about ethanol,” said Steger. “It’s essential to lower our carbon emissions to help save areas like Pangnirtung.”

During a White House press briefing on Monday with European leaders, President Bush commented on his goals for renewable fuels and the current research in producing ethanol from sources other than corn in response to a foreign journalist’s question about global environmental concerns:

I have said we’ll have a mandatory fuel standard, not a voluntary fuel standard, but a mandatory fuel standard that will reduce our uses of gasoline by 20 percent over a 10-year period of time. We believe that ethanol and biodiesel, the spread of ethanol and biodiesel are — the goal of spreading ethanol and biodiesel is achievable, that’s what we believe. And we’re spending a lot of money to achieve that goal.

Now you talk about helping alleviate poverty in the developing world — wouldn’t it be wonderful if the developing world could grow crops that would enable them to power their automobiles, so they wouldn’t have to be dependent on foreign oil, either. And that’s the message I took down to South America, with Lula, and to Central America. For example, sugar cane is the most — you’re learning about ethanol here, but sugar cane is the most efficient way to make ethanol. It turns out in Central America there is a lot of land and opportunity to continue to produce cane, which means that the Central American countries could be eventually net exporters of energy. So we’ve got a lot of common ground and a lot of area to work on.