Keith Barfield sent me this video last week. It comes from a News6Tulsa report on Keith and Mark McConville’s drive from Los Angeles to Chicago in a car powered only by compressed natural gas. Keith said it’s one of his favorite videos yet. The guys finished up their trip and are in town this week meeting up with Rep. Bachus about their project. I’m trying to line up some of their time to stop by AGA so we can talk with them and get some pictures of that beautiful car (man, Bruce and Chris are going to be upset they missed that).
Look for that later in the week but in the meantime you can watch the News6Tulsa video below to wet your whistle. You can also read last month’s post about Keith and Mark on our blog or read about the whole trip at route66goatgas.com.
Another great story about a natural gas utility doing great work in their community. This time it’s NW Natural. The small city of Vernonia, Oregon was hit in December 2007 with a 500-year flood of historic proportions. This would have been bad enough in itself but the city was still recovering from a similar flood that occurred in 1996 that decimated the region.
The flooding from Rock Creek and the Nehalem River left much of the city’s public infrastructure and property damaged or destroyed. Half of the district’s 2,200 homes suffered damage, 800 of which were substantially damaged. More than 100 homes were deemed to be beyond repair. The elementary school, middle school and high school were left uninhabitable after five feet of water poured into the buildings.
But instead of giving up, the people of Vernonia devised a plan to rebuild those schools that are so essential to every community. They call this plan the CATALYST plan.
The plans diverse group of community leaders selected a site and developed the master plan for the new campus. In November 2009, the community approved a $13 million bond – the down payment toward the $37 million price tag to rebuild three schools. NW Natural has already stepped up with a significant contribution and is encouraging others to do the same.
You can get the full scoop over at Oregon Solutions but here are some details on the plans for the schools.
Carefully located in a central, accessible and safe location high above the flood plain;
Built for current classroom capacity and at least 30 years of projected population growth;
The first LEED Platinum-certified public K-12 building in the country which will lower operating costs considerably in the long term;
Designed with “green” environmental features and indoor/outdoor spaces that provide powerful learning opportunities and curricula that link to emerging Oregon economic opportunities;
A unique-to-Oregon integrated K-12 model; and
A case study in investing in schools as a means to stimulate rural economic development and recovery.
Here’s a video snippet on the project. If you’re working on this, let us know in the comments.
Have you been wondering what the impending increase in the dividend tax rate – a whopping 164% for some people – means to you? Watch this informative discussion from leading financial media site Morningstar, to learn more.
One of our members, Atmos Energy, has an excellent safety section on their website. The section contains video and information around natural gas safety including home safety, pipeline safety, public education programs, and dig safety programs.
These safety sections are very valuable and packed with information. We get a lot of questions about “why does natural gas smell so bad.” The Atmos Energy video below (which is also available in Spanish) will tell you that natural gas is actually odorless and that “natural gas smell” is added as a safety feature.
Here are some more tips from the home safety program section of the website:
Alert others and leave the area immediately.
Leave open any doors you pass through to help ventilate the area, but don’t take time to open windows.
Do not operate any electrical switches or equipment, including telephones and flashlights.
Call the local gas company from a telephone outside the area. Our associates are available to assist you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Remain away from the area until the gas company declares the area safe.
There’s actually a lot more there. Take a look and leave us a comment below if you know any other great safety resources.
