10A - Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.com
ENERGY
From Page 1A
Michigan, which supports the
renewable energy bills in the state
Legislature, said job opportunities
would only become available after
Michigan actually passes the legis-
lation.
"We're looking at places like
Illinois and Wisconsin that have
started to pursue renewable ener-
gy strongly, and they've already
started to see those job benefits,"
she said. "But our options are
more forward-looking because we
haven't made that strong commit-
ment yet.",
A study released by the Blue
Green Alliance - a joint effort
between the United Steelworkers
and the Sierra Club that focuses on
global warming, creating. environ-
mental jobs and reducing toxins -
said renewable energy fields could
offer almost 35,000 new jobs for
the state alone. Wind energy would
provide 24,350 jobs, according to
the study,
The study said bio-energy from
plant and animal material, includ-
ing crops for fuel, could offer 2,281
new jobs while geothermal energy,
which uses heat from the earth,
could offer about 1,500 new jobs.
Solar energy could create 6,644
new jobs.
But considering its long winters
and reputation for cloudy days, the
outlook on solar energy in Michi-
gan is bleak.
Lauer said solar energy isn't
cost effective because "the sun just
doesn't shine enough here."
But GregKeoleian, co-director of
the Ceoter for Sustainable Systems
in the School of Natural Resources
and Environment, said Michigan
has potential to use solar energy.
"East of Detroit, the solar radia-
tion is about 3.8 kilowatt hours per
meter per day, and just for compar-
ison, Phoenix gets 5.7," he said. "So
in terms of solar energy, it's not as
low as people might think."
In 2003, SNRE installed a 30-
kilowatt solar panel on the roof the
Dana Building.
Keoleian said the energy output
for solar panels depends on the
weather and time of day.
"Our building load for Dana is
about 142 kilowatts, and right now
the output is 3.8 kilowatts," he
said.
The percentage of the building's
energy generated by the solar panel
varies, he said. In the past it has
been as high as 34 percent.
Keoleian said the greatest chal-
lenge for solar energy is the cost. ,
Energy from sources like power
plants costs about 10 cents an hour,
wind generation costs about 12
cents an hour and solar energy runs
about 20 to 45 cents an hour.
According to a report in the sci-
ence magazine Wired, Germany,
which has fewer sunny days than
Michigan, has increased its solar
energy output fourfold since 1999.
Korpalski said Germany's suc-
cess with solar panels should be a
call to action for Michigan.
"People are saying, 'How do we
know solar panels will work? It's
not even that sunny.' But we can
point to a place like Germany and
say that it's a very viable option for
energy in Michigan," she said.
Rackham student Keri Dick,
who does research in the Center
for Sustainable Systems, Michigan
could take advantage of the solar
panels that operate best during
cloudy days.
"There's energy coming through
even if there are clouds," she said.
"The sun is still shining on the
Earth."
Dick said there's no telling what
type of impact the plan could have
on the state's job market.
ABSTINENCE
From Page 1A
affiliated.
- An organization at Princeton
University, called the Anscombe
Society, is similar to TLR in its
viewpoints and activities. On
Valentine's Day, the group put
an advertisement in the school's
newspaper, listing the group's
reasons for promoting chastity.
The group's success at Princeton
inspired an offshoot at Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology.
Chinyere Neale, a health
educator with the University
of Michigan's Health Services,
said she has found that high
school students are more likely
to make abstinence pledges than
college students because they're
told more frequently told not to
have sex.
While the group welcomes both
males and females, TLR's mes-
sage is mostly directed toward
women. In, addition to viewing
ahstinence as an "empowering"
act for women, the grouip says
there are emotional benefits to
waiting to have sex until mar-
riage.
LSA junior Amanda Grigg, an
executive board member of the
campus feminist group F-Word,
said there should be a cam-
pus abstinence group, but that
it shouldn't mislead students
- something Grigg accuses TLR
of doing.
"(Fredell) tried to suggest that
it was a means for empowering
women. If your goal is to attract
men, that's not empowering," she
said.
Grigg said she disagreed with
the way the organization por-
trayed safe sex as "unhealthy
and dirty." She cited a forum
the group is hosting this month
called "Smart Sex:'Finding Life-
Long Love in a Hook-up World."
"Instead of emphasizing the
neutral benefits of abstinence, it's
emphasizing the bad things about
sex," she said.
LSA senior Ashley Wynne, a
member of Campus Crusade for
Christ, said she thinks a group
promoting abstinence would
serve campus well by provid-
ing an "intellectual perspective"
about saving oneself for mar-
riage.
There might not be one on
campus already,she said, because
students from the Midwest, a
region thought to be more reli-
gious than the East Coast, are
tired of hearing about the nega-
tive consequences of premarital
sex.
Wynne, who's been in a com-
mitted relationship for more
than a year, said she abstains
from sex in order to follow the
first two of the Ten Command-
ments, which instruct believers
to put God before other objects
of worship and to not make false
idols.
"Sex could easily become an
idol," she said. "It's about loving
God and showing your love for
him by living your life in the way
he tells you to."
Neale said some students
choose to remain abstinent for
religious reasons like Wynne, but
others wait for different reasons.
"A lot of students aren't ready
to be sexually active and it's not
necessarily for religious or moral
reasons," she said.
Bush running out of time to fix economy
WASHINGTON (AP) - The most
sweeping overhaul of the nation's
financial system in seven decades
has at least one thing going for it. It
is occurring in the midst of a crisis,
which often is the only thing that
prompts Congress to act.
But the administration also
has some timing factors working
against it - namely that President
Bush has 10 months left in office,
making it easier for the powerful
forces arrayed against the plan to
simply run out the clock..
Even with time running out,
Treasury Secretary Henry Paul-
son can't be blamed for a lack of
ambition in putting forward his
218-page blueprint on Monday.
The plan would create three super
agencies with power over the
financial industry, abolishing a
patchwork of overlapping jurisdic-
tions that were created in response
to the biggest financial crisis of the
last century, the 1929 stock market
crash and Great Depression.
The crisis this time around is a
severe credit crunch that has been
roiling markets since last August,
resulting in billions of dollars in
losses atsome of the nation'sbiggest
financial firms. The crisis claimed
its biggest victim last month with
the forced sale of Bear Stearns, the
nation's fifth-largest investment
bank.
The crisis on Wall Street is also
hitting Main Streets across the
country with the threat that 2 mil-
lion households could lose their
homes to a rising tide of mortgage
defaults, further lengthening an
already severe housing slump that
has depressed home prices and
sales.
In this atmosphere, some finan-
cial industry officials are worried
that there could be a rush to leg-
islate - much like what was seen
in response to the last financial
crisis on Wall Street when a wave
of accounting scandals at Enron
and other big corporations pushed
Congress to swiftly pass the Sar-
banes-Oxley Act in 2002, tight-
ening up on corporate accounting
rules.
In the view of many business
executives, Congress in its haste
to pass Sarbanes-Oxley included
provisions that made U.S. compa-
nies less competitive in the global
economy.
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