ILSR’s Vice President, David Morris, was interviewed on WCCO’s "Good Question" segment that asked why diesel fuel is more expnsive than gas. Segment aired April 10, 2008.… Read More
Regulations coming into force in April and May 2008 will bring a wealth of energy and environmental information to homebuyers in the United Kingdom. Potential buyers will get an Energy Performance Certificate and a mandatory comparison of the new home to the requirements contained in the UK’s Code for Sustainable Homes as part of home information packets (HIPs) prior to purchasing the home.
For Immediate Release PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: 612-276-3456 NEW REPORT ARGUES FOR A RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY THAT PUTS RURAL COMMUNITIES FIRST Minneapolis, MN—(September 8, 2008). The next 20 years could generate as much as $1 trillion in new renewable energy investment in rural America. But as a new Ford Foundation-sponsored study by the Institute for Local … Read More
Updating a pathbreaking 2003 report, ILSR’s March 2008 report, Driving Our Way to Energy Independence, describes how commercially available technologies today could transform our petroleum powered transportation system into one powered by electricity and biofuels. Provisions in the recently passed Energy Act could accelerate that transformation.… Read More
For years, chain retailers have exploited a loophole present in the tax laws of about half the states to escape paying billions of dollars in state income taxes. Efforts to close these loopholes have faced an uphill struggle, but the momentum may finally be shifting, thanks to research that has exposed the extent of the problem and its primary corporate beneficiaries, as well as new activism by independent business owners, who are breaking rank with powerful business groups to call for tax fairness.… Read More
Minneapolis, Minn.– (March 5, 2008). The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) congratulates the 25 Vermont towns that have voted to join the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network. These rural towns have rejected dependency on outside providers in order to build the infrastructure they need.
At least nine of the towns were unanimous in their support of the publicly owned fiber network. Many of the other towns still registered over 90% support for the measure.
Too many cities in California are stuck with slow (or no) broadband access. As the United States continues to dip in international broadband rankings, individual communities have a choice: build their own broadband network or hope someone else does it for them.
Broadbandmay be comparatively new, but these difficult questions of infrastructure have been with us for far longer. One hundred years ago, communities were told electricity was too complicated for municipal meddling and they should wait for private companies to electrify them. Thousands of communities realized that a community cannot wait for essential infrastructure. They accepted responsibility for their future and wired their towns. How little has changed since then.
The success of the Powell Mercantile has inspired at least half a dozen other towns in Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada—all too small and remote to interest national or regional chains—to open their own department stores. The concept is now spreading to the much more populous Northeast, where local residents are seeking community-focused alternatives to big-box retailers.… Read More
Sales of gift card are soaring, but most of the spending on gift cards is flowing to chain retailers. A growing number of independent retailers are offering their own giftcards now too, but the key to shifting a substantial share of this activity to the local economy may lie in developing gift cards that work at many local businesses, rather than just one. … Read More
