White Mountains Community College Hosts Green Technologies Event
Katharine Eneguess, President of White Mountains Community CollegeIt's been quite a year here in New Hampshire. We started off, shortly after the calendar turned to 2008, with the First-in-the-Nation New Hampshire Presidential Primary. We had multiple chances to see the candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. Come January 2009 many North Country voters will be able to say, whether the next president is Senator Obama or Senator McCain, "I met the president of the United States."
It's been quite a year for the whole country, also, as we all have been whiplashed by the roller coaster ride in the energy and financial markets. The present crisis in the credit market has pushed last spring's run-up of heating oil and gasoline prices to the back pages, but we here in northern New Hampshire know that even though those prices have come down as of late, they can just as easily go back up again. Winter is just around the corner, and every time the mercury dips below freezing and we turn the thermostat up we will be reminded, once again, that we are at the mercy of the international markets when it comes to the price of home heating oil.
At White Mountains Community College we realize that while we can't do much to solve the world's credit problems, we can do our own small part to inform the public on alternative ways to produce energy, energy which in turn could help heat our homes. On Saturday, October 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., we will host "The Greening of the North Country," a half-day event that will include a panel discussion on geothermal, solar, wind, and biomass technologies. After the panel discussion there will be a biomass demonstration. The event will take place at our Berlin campus at 2020 Riverside Drive, with registration from 8:30 to 9 a.m. For more information call 752-1113.
In 2006 New Hampshire's Governor John Lynch championed the goal for the state to be getting 25 percent of its energy from renewable, clean energy sources by 2025. The 25 x 25 Action Plan: Charting America's Energy Future is a national effort. Countrywide, the implementation of the plan is expected to generate $700 billion in new economic activity each year, creating over four million new jobs and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by one billion tons.
In New Hampshire the effort is headed up by the NH Office of Energy and Planning.
We can't predict what the stock market will do, nor can we tell you with any certainty who the next president will be, and what programs he, with the help of Congress, will put in place. We can tell you with a great degree of certainty that energy will always be a part of our future, as it is an enormous part of our present.
Without energy to heat our homes, warm our meals, power our cars and trucks, we have no economy. Join us on October 25 and come see some of the green technologies that will keep the North Country’s motor going now, and in the future.
Back to News List10/18/2008
© White Mountains Community College. 2020 Riverside Drive, Berlin, NH 03570. Tel: (800)445-4525 or (603)752-1113.