On the May 2 ballot for AUSA Senate elections there will, for the first time, be an initiative included that will ask students if they approve the school spending extra money to buy wind energy.

This bill was proposed by the Clean Energy group at the University of Denver. This bill is the fruition of a year and a half worth of work by the group with the administration to bring clean energy onto campus.

“They want to know students are supportive of a fee increase to support wind power,” said Jamie Grim, one of the group members. “The only way the administration will support us is if we do an education effort.”

The education effort will start on May 2 when they will be holding a barbeque on the lawn that will feature information and a performance by the band Kinnetix composed of DU graduates. The group wants to show the student body why starting to use wind energy is important.

“Wind energy reduces the amount of pollution because it reduces the amount of coal being burned,” said Grim. “Because coal is a finite resource and if we don’t start using renewable energy sources we will have problems when we are forced to in the future.”

In order to pay for the higher costs of wind energy the student fees would have to be increased somewhat. That is what the bill is asking, if students support a fee increase in order to pay for DU using wind energy.

DU is one of the last large universities in the state to start using it. University of Colorado – Boulder started using it two years ago and Colorado State University started using it last year. Colorado College just voted on it and it will be implemented next year.

In order to get the bill on the ballot, the group had to get 500 student signatures.