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UNITY, Maine — A Maine
college that used solar panels on one of its buildings after they were
removed from the White House nearly two decades ago wants to auction them
off, officials said Thursday.
Unity College
will remove the worn-out panels and may offer them online to the highest
bidder to raise funds for some of its programs, or perhaps at a live
auction, spokesman Mark Tardif said. The panels
may come down before next week´s election.
But because the panels are historically significant, the central Maine
environmental and outdoors studies college wants to find out first
whether it´s legally authorized to auction
them, or if they must be returned to the government, said Tardif.
The 32 panels were put on the presidential mansion during a period
that the country was reeling from the effects of an Arab oil embargo.
After calling for a nationwide campaign to conserve energy, President
Jimmy Carter ordered the panels erected in 1979 to set an example for the
country, according to the White House Historical Association.
The solar heating panels were installed on the roof of the West Wing,
but removed during Ronald Reagan´s presidency
in 1986, after the energy crisis and worries about dependence on foreign
oil had subsided.
The panels were being stored in a government warehouse in Franconia,
Va., when a Unity
College official heard about
them and asked that they be released to the school. College development
officer Peter Marbach picked them up from the
warehouse and drove them in an old school bus owned by Unity back to Maine.
Tardif said the environmental activist group
Greenpeace also asked for the panels so they
could be used on a homeless shelter, but the White House refused after
the government questioned the group´s
incorporation papers.
Most of the former White House solar panels were installed at Unity in
1992. Used to reheat water used in the 495-student school´s
dining hall, they became a curiosity for visitors at the college, which
practices the kinds of conservation it teaches.
Promotional materials sent to prospective students, for example, are
not only printed on recycled paper, but also produced with wind-generated
power, Tardif said.
Unity received a note from Carter after the panels were reinstalled
there saying he was glad they had found a new home. The college still has
a large framed photo of the former president at a ceremony marking the
installation of the panels at the White House.
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