Boot and Raleigh

We woke up early this morning to drive from Richmond to Raleigh, N.C. to meet with alums and members of the state legislature. We’d like to send a shout out to Senator Bob Atwater, Representative Lucy Allen, and Dartmouth Alums Betsy Booth, Zach Chang, and Sally Davis for helping to organize this event. Unfortunately, because of an emergency meeting of Congress, we were unable to present to the members of the house environmental committee, but we were able to meet outside instead. Senator Atwater opened with a speech on what North Carolina should do to support biodiesel and other renewable energy, saying that they have the agricultural heritage and leadership role in the south that puts them in an ideal position to set the standard for biofuel use. We hope that, through his and others’ efforts, North Carolina will indeed become leaders in renewable fuels. We also met with Senator Stan Bingham, who has achieved notoriety of late for protesting the disproportionately high road tax put on his biodiesel car and for cussing on NPR.

Afterwards, we went over to the NC Division of Water Quality Environmental Science Section and watched Nate and Merritt nerd out pretty hard over some preserved fish and bugs. We also learned a lot about what North Carolina does to monitor and maintain water quality throughout the state. Nate got hot and bothered again over the impressive data set on stream biota and toxicology for the past 25 years. Actually, it’s pretty unbelievable, they know the stream macroinvertebrate communities well enough that they can say with 88% accuracy what insects should be in what streams, without having reference sites.

The group was then treated to a delicious barbecue dinner by alums. Kate and Hayley got in touch with their inner hippie, running in to dinner wreathed in garlands of flowers and singing, “We found a meadow! And flowers! And bunnies!” Everyone had a great time with the alums, with conversation topics ranging from the Dartmouth trustee election to mountain lions to local art (hi Hayley!).

- nate

Resident engineer Lucas explains the inner workings of the engine to Senator Atwater

Fact of the Day: By June 1, 2008, all North Carolina school buses will be required to run on at least B20 fuel (a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% diesel fuel).