Conserving Energy in a Conservative Town

July 4, 2024 12:06 PM

The Morris Model Morris, Minnesota is a rural town of about 5,200 in the western part of the state. TFG had a 22% advantage in the county in the 2020 presidential election. But starting with a solar-powered municipal liquor store, a parthership of academic, civic, and governmental agencies has brought renewable energy and waste management to the town. Over 100 projects were brainstormed, and about half of those have been implemented.

The project won over the people by promoting these methods as a way to increase independence, save (and make) money, and reduce waste.

Now thirteen other similar Minnesota towns are at various stages of adopting the Morris Model, and the partnership is sharing their knowledge with any other interested communities (WSJ article, free link)

posted by Kibbutz (4 comments total)

A tantalizing glimpse into a world in which we just kept building small colleges all over to meet the needs of communities where they are.
posted by McBearclaw at 12:59 PM on July 4 [9 favorites]

Small towns in Minnesota hold so many stories: the ball of twine, yes, but also cultural clubs where the descendants of immigrants still speak Norwegian, or a lake so deep that a crashed WWII plane has never been recovered. What a cool place.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:53 PM on July 4 [3 favorites]

Morris is a happening place! In all of sterns county there are only two stoplights and they're both in Morris. The U of M Morris campus has always been the campus with the most smart hippies so it's not all that surprising despite the rest of the town being rural.

My wife grew up there so I've spent a fair bit of time there, including getting married and having our reception at The Old Number 1 (surprisingly nice!). I highly recommend breakfast at Don's cafe too. Good basic breakfast so cheap it's basically free.

I just hope the success of this project helps turn the town a little more blue.
posted by VTX at 7:20 PM on July 4 [9 favorites]

Good for them. I once had an opportunity to work at U of M Morris. I asked the professor who was showing me around about diversity in town. He said “Well … we have four different kinds of Lutheran churches”.
posted by TheShadowKnows at 6:25 AM on July 6