Students advocate wind energy

While the reason for signing a petition supporting alternative energy sources may seem obvious, for freshman letters and sciences major Orville Saunders, it was a little unusual:

"I want to end the war in Iraq," he said.

Saunders was one of more than 137 students to sign a MaryPIRG and UMD for Clean Energy petition to urge Sen. Ben Cardin to advocate for stricter, clean-energy standards in Congress and Gov. Martin O'Malley to continue research on wind energy. A key feature would include putting up wind turbines off of Maryland's coast.

Saunders, who said he thinks the war in Iraq began for a variety of reasons including the desire to secure an oil supply, said that the United States is too dependent on fossil fuels.

"I would like it if we had the ability to depend on ourselves for energy," Saunders said.
UMD for Clean Energy has set its sights on influencing green policies on a national stage, members said. The group hopes Cardin will champion the American Clean Energy and Security Act — a bill that aims to create thousands of green jobs, and implement energy-efficiency standards and new building codes. Recently, a version narrowly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is currently facing challenges in the Senate, so the group hopes to showcase voters' support for stricter environmental standards.

Matt Dernoga, a Diamondback columnist and the campaign coordinator for Clean Energy, said they had been hosting informational tables with MaryPIRG to pass the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, and that it made sense to share resources.

"Last semester we worked together to pass the Greenhouse Gas Reductions Act, so we established a good relationship," Dernoga said.   

The two groups created an eye-catching petition — supporters signed their names on strips of paper that were attached to pinwheels, symbolizing wind turbines.

"We thought it looked cool and sent a strong message in support of wind energy," said Brian Lentz, the global warming solutions coordinator for MaryPIRG.

Heyfa Khenissi, a senior geology major, signed her name although she said that there were better alternatives for creating renewable energy than by installing wind turbines.

"Wind helixes don't require wind direction to generate energy," Khenissi said. "It would be better to implement wind helixes, which are smaller and can fit in urban areas, as opposed to wind mills which require large spaces and a wind direction."

cetrone at umdbk dot com