Green Training in South Dakota Cuts Energy Cost in Half

Posted: 21-May-2010

Contacts:
Bob Gough, Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, gough.bob@gmail.com
John Nielsen, Western Resource Advocates, (303) 444-1188 or jnielsen@westernresources.org
Dan Grossman, Environmental Defense Fund, (303) 887-8206 or dgrossman@edf.org

May 21, 2010 PINE RIDGE RESERVATION, SD – The power of the sun is being harnessed to warm-up the homes of tribal members throughout the Dakota plains and bring much-needed heat and jobs to tribal reservations. Henry Red Cloud of Lakota Solar Enterprise manufactures and installs residential solar heaters, and he has established a school to train other tribe members to do the same.

"If I was living a couple hundred years ago, I'd be doing the same thing – bringing resources back to the family, only now I'm doing it in the 21st Century," Henry Red Cloud said.

Lakota Solar has installed about 500 residential solar heaters and, working with other tribes to make the equipment, has created 72 jobs in North Dakota and South Dakota.

"Henry Red Cloud and Lakota Solar are harnessing the power of the sun to heat homes and create jobs," said Dan Grossman, Regional Director of Environmental Defense's Rocky Mountain Office.

In addition to renewable energy, green construction will be another growing sector among tribes, according to Bob Gough, Secretary for the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy in South Dakota. "The tribes have a desperate need for housing," he said. "The Council funds projects to help students learn to make homes of hay bales, which have twice the energy efficiency of a typical suburban house."

Red Cloud also formed the Renewable Energy Center to train young people to work with clean energy systems, providing economic opportunity for a new generation. Further south, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico is receiving federal funding to prepare students for jobs in the renewable energy sector, and plans to provide certificate programs this fall.

Today, Clean Energy Pioneers, a multi-media project of Western Resource Advocates and Environmental Defense Fund, is featuring Henry Red Cloud's work to bring renewables and economic opportunity to the tribes of the Dakotas.

To learn more about Henry Red Cloud's renewable energy work, as well as the work of others who are using free enterprise to generate clean, renewable energy, please visit http://www.cleanenergypioneers.org.

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Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.

Western Resource Advocates, protects the West's land, air, and water, recognizing that success can only come from working collaboratively with other conservation groups, hunters and fishermen, ranchers, American Indians, and all those who seek a sustainable future for this remarkable part of the country. Visit www.westernresourceadvocates.org.