Progressive Breakfast: Fight Back for Energy Independence Over Corporate Profits

MORNING MESSAGE

Lois Gibbs

Fight Back for Energy Independence Over Corporate Profits

‘Homeland Security – No more wars over oil!’ That’s what we were promised a decade ago. Today America is there, with over 100 years of natural gas reserves. So why aren’t we celebrating? It was a lie. Not one corporate CEO or their friends in elected office ever intended to keep energy resources stockpiled for America’s future. That's why the oil and gas industry pushes hard, stomps on people, steals the land and destroys our environment to build pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals to boost their profits.

United States of Mean

Texas GOP lawmaker calls ICE on protesters, threatens to shoot colleague in the head. NPR:  “By the end of the state legislative session in Texas on Monday, the Capitol had devolved into scuffles and grave accusations. A Democratic lawmaker had accused his GOP colleague of threatening to “put a bullet” in another lawmaker’s head… Protesters from around the state descended on the Legislature, first watching Monday’s session in silence then gradually growing louder. The demonstrators, many of whom were Latino and dressed in red, shouted slogans from the second-floor viewing area, eventually interrupting the proceedings below… GOP state Rep. Matt Rinaldi says he called Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the protesters, several of whom carried signs proclaiming ‘I am illegal and here to stay.'”

Trump to decide if US leaves Paris climate accord this week. CNN: “The heat is on: President Trump says he will decide this week whether to stick with the landmark Paris climate accord. If Trump bails on the agreement, which has been signed by 195 countries, he will do so over the objections of hundreds of major U.S. businesses… Trump has called climate change a ‘hoax’ and blasted the Paris agreement as a ‘bad deal.’

Investigation of Russia influence turns to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. NYT: “The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was looking for a direct line to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — a search that in mid-December found him in a room with a Russian banker whose financial institution was deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence, and remains under sanction by the United States. Federal and congressional investigators are now examining what exactly Mr. Kushner and the Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov, wanted from each other.”

The Home of the Brave

‘Brave and selfless’ Oregon stabbing victims hailed as heroes for standing up to racist rants. WaPo: “They had tried to intervene, police said, after another passenger began “ranting and raving” and shouting anti-Muslim insults at two young women. That’s when the ranting passenger turned his anger toward those who sought to calm him down. He fatally stabbed two men and seriously injured a third, police said, before fleeing the train on foot.”

One hundred eighth-graders refuse to be photographed with Ryan. Common Dreams:  “One hundred eighth grade students refused to be photographed with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan during a field trip to the nation’s capital because they “didn’t want to be associated with a person who puts his party before his country,” as one student put it. According to reporting, roughly half of the 200 students who traveled from South Orange Middle School in New Jersey protested the photo-op on Thursday, watching instead from a parking lot across the street.”

Tax Time?

Democrats Should Propose an Actual ‘Middle Class’ Tax Cut. New York Magazine:“Democrats have every reason to make taxes one of their signature issues. Voters want the tax code to be simpler and fairer — which is to say, they want the middle class to pay less, the rich to pay more, and for everyone to spend less time on government-mandated paperwork. Republicans cannot deliver these goods because they are beholden to interest groups that oppose them. The libertarian billionaires who shield the GOP from popular rebuke demand tribute. And those billionaires — along with tax-services companies — have an investment in keeping Americans confused and overwhelmed at tax time.”

Are Dems Winning…

Why Populism Is the Pragmatic Way Forward for Democrats. Alternet: “…two relatively minor elections in the Northeast provided further confirmation that populism is the pragmatic way forward for Democrats. The first was in New York’s Long Island, where Christine Pellegrino, a progressive and Bernie Sanders delegate at last year’s Democratic National Convention, was elected to the New York State Assembly…. The second… took place in New Hampshire, where Edie DesMarais became the first Democrat to win a state House seat in Wolfeboro, a longtime Republican stronghold in the rural swing state. ‘This successful effort is the first crack in the Republican majority, and the initial sign of Democratic energy translating into electoral victory in the aftermath of the 2016 election,’ declared the New Hampshire branch of the Democratic Party.”

…or Losing?

Wake up, Liberals: There will be no 2018 ‘Blue Wave.” Salon: “We received a message from the future this week, directed to the outraged liberals of the so-called anti-Trump resistance. It was delivered by an unlikely intermediary, Greg Gianforte, the Republican who won a special election on Thursday and will soon take his seat in Congress as Montana’s lone representative… If you found yourself ashen-faced and dismayed on Friday morning, because you really believed the Montana election would bring a sign of hope and mark the beginning of a return to sanity in American politics, then the message encoded in Gianforte’s victory is for you.”

More from OurFuture.org:

Trump Budget Makes America Land of No Opportunity. Leo Gerard: “A few hundred billion cut here, a few hundred billion slashed there, and the Trump budget proposal adds up to real crushed opportunity. The spending plan slices a pound of flesh from everyone, well, everyone who isn’t a millionaire or billionaire. Each incision is painful. But what’s worse is the collective result: the annihilation of opportunity. The rich can buy opportunity. The rest cannot. What was always special about America was its guarantee of opportunity to everyone.”

New NAFTA Must Put People and Planet First. Tobita Chow: “Any renegotiation of trade agreements must include replacing the ISDS corporate court system, which tilts the playing field in favor of multinational capital, with new, strong standards that will protect workers and the environment in every country.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more »

RSN: "America is Back"

Galindez writes: "The vice president said that North America is now the epicenter of energy production in the world and will be energy-independent by 2020 or possibly 2018."

Vice President Joe Biden. (photo: Scott Galindez/RSN)

Joe Biden: "America is Back"

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

14 February 15

t was billed as an official Office of the Vice President event, not a campaign event. The vice president was greeted at the airport by the Republican governor Terry Branstad. The Dallas Republican Party sent out a press release thanking Joe Biden for coming to Iowa and pointing out how long it has been since Hillary Clinton has visited the Hawkeye State. Umm, she has a 40-point lead, so why would she start campaigning a year before the caucus?

 

Drake University students and other Iowans started lining up at 7 a.m. for a chance to see the man who is a heartbeat away from being president of the United States. They braved frigid temperatures for hours before being allowed into the Sheslow Auditorium on the campus of Drake University, the site of past presidential election debates. Over 800 people packed the auditorium.

 

This was the Democrats’ first 2015 salvo into the 2016 presidential election. Joe Biden came to Iowa to frame the economic debate, to serve notice that the administration’s policies have put America on the right path and the Republicans’ threats to change course would send the country in the wrong direction. From health care to jobs and financial reform, the VP claimed success:

In 2009, when the president and I were sworn into office, the middle class was in dire straits. On the day we were sworn in, we had already lost 800,000 jobs, just that month. Over the next few months we continued to lose 700,000 jobs a month. People were losing their homes. If they didn’t lose their homes, they lost the equity in their homes, they lost what is the only real source of wealth for middle class families, that equity ... The truth of the matter is pensions, life savings, dreams of hard working Americans were wiped out by the Great Recession … but thanks to the great determination of your parents and many Americans, we have gone from a genuine crisis to a recovery and to the prefaces of a resurgence, re-establishing the middle class’s place in America. Just last November we added over 400,000 jobs; nearly a million jobs the last three months.

“America is back,” proclaimed Biden. “America is leading the world again.” The vice president went on to argue that Democrats should run on the Obama/Biden record.

 

“It wasn’t that long ago that many in my own party were saying our plan didn’t work and distanced themselves from our policies. I think that would be a terrible mistake. In my view, those seeking to the lead the nation should seek to protect and defend, and yes, run on what we have done, own what we have done, and be judged on what we have done. Some say that would be a third term for the president. I think it would be sticking to what works,” said Biden.

 

The vice president said that North America is now the epicenter of energy production in the world and will be energy-independent by 2020 or possibly 2018. Biden said that the United States alone has more oil and gas rigs pumping than the rest of the world combined. When I first heard him say that, I wondered if that could be true. It is – the United States has 55% of the world’s oil and gas rigs.

 

According to oilprice.com, “Global drilling for oil and gas is dominated by North America, in particular the USA. In January 1995 there were 737 oil and gas rigs drilling in the USA, 42% of the world total. By October 2011 this figure had grown to 2010 rigs, 55% of the world total.” Drill baby drill? We have been drilling more than the rest of the world combined for a long time already. Market Watch reports that North America will become a net energy exporter by 2020.

 

Of course, the bad news is we are destroying the environment to get there. Fracking is what is producing the increase in oil production. But Biden also trumpeted the administration’s gains in renewable energy. He said that our use of renewable energy has doubled in the last six years, and that we have tripled electricity production from wind, solar, and geothermal.

 

The gains in energy production have lowered our costs to the point where companies are now “in-sourcing.” Natural gas prices in the United States are three times cheaper than in Europe, five times cheaper than in Asia. Biden said the result is that companies are coming home. The global management firm A.T. Kearney did its annual survey of the world’s leading industrialists and they said, by the largest margin ever, the United States is the best market to invest in.

 

We all know things are going well for the wealthy again. But it is at the expense of the environment, and wages for the middle class and poor are not on the rise.

 

But Joe Biden has a point: clearly the country is better off than it was six years ago. The last two Democrats to hold the White House left the country better off economically than their predecessors.

 

The Republicans are running on foreign policy and “speeding up” economic growth. That theme itself acknowledges that the economy is growing. While they blame the administration for ISIS, it was the Bush administration that broke Iraq.

 

The problem I see with the Democrats’ running on the Obama/Biden record is that the “recovery” is not being felt by many Americans. Unemployment is down, but the new jobs are not as good as the old jobs. Many Americans are still not ready to say things are better off for them than they were six years ago. But that is changing.

 

Biden acknowledged that more has to be done for the middle class and the poor. He said we have the greatest concentration of wealth in the United States since the twenties. Biden said productivity is up, yet wages have not risen for a decade. He said that in the past if your company grew and made a profit, everyone shared the wealth – not just the shareholders.

 

He also defended the bailout of the banks and the auto industry, and the efficacy of the stimulus package. He reminded the crowd that the banks paid back every penny with interest and that 92% of economists believe the stimulus prevented a much worse economic crisis.

 

Biden spoke for 90 minutes and stuck mostly to the economy, but he did slip in his foreign policy experience and touted his role in the administration for getting things done. He compared himself to Little Mikey in the Life cereal commercials. He mentioned that President Obama had put “Sheriff Joe” in charge of the TARP money.

 

While it wasn’t billed as a campaign speech, Biden was clearly testing the waters. He told reporters that he will decide by the end of the summer if he will run for president.

 

For the question and answer portion of the event, Biden left the stage and walked back and forth ...

 

He took only three questions, but gave very long, wide-ranging answers. When he was asked about immigration reform, we learned that Biden has met almost every world leader, clearly a hint that he is prepared to be president. He became most animated when talking about how it makes no sense to send people back to a country they were not even raised in. He pointed out that five-year-olds couldn’t prevent their parents from bringing them across the border. He also said that one of things that make America work is immigration.

 

When asked what needs to be done to get more people to vote, Biden answered that we have to get the money out of politics. He told the crowd that he supports public financing of campaigns. He also pointed out that 92 senators voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including Strom Thurmond, and that the Supreme Court was wrong to strike down some of its key provisions. He blasted Republicans for passing restrictions on voter access.

 

All in all, I was left with the impression that the former senator from Delaware still wants to be the president of the United States.

 

Biden closed with his rephrasing of a famous quote from Plato: “One problem with good people not getting involved in politics is they end up being governed by people worse than themselves.”

 

One student in the crowd, Mark Reiter, was impressed with Biden’s “intentional candor” and asked the vice president if he would be back for the caucus. He said Biden flashed him a big smile and said “maybe.”

---

Scott Galindez co-founded Truthout and will be reporting on the presidential election from Iowa throughout 2015.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

 

 

 

You can rally....

'round the leaders of failed fiscal policies, the ones who echo the words of the well-funded Climate Deniers, or you can embrace policies that will leave the world a better place.

From: 350.org shared 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling's photo.

‎100%

Click LIKE to thank Iceland for being a renewable energy leader!

 

IT CAN BE DONE!

 Iceland produces 100% of its electricity through renewable resources. Sure, not all of us are sitting on top of a geothermal hotspot, but every nation has its own abundant resources.

BTW, Icelanders did not bail out their bankers who had overleveraged their balance sheets and had, as Paul Krugman wrote, "in effect hijacked (the country) by a combination of free-market ideology and crony capitalism.....the benefits of the financial bubble went overwhelmingly to a small minority at the top of the income distribution." Well, the top bankers were arrested and sentenced to jail, while the banks were broken up and capital controls put in place. Lo and behold, Iceland's economy is on the mend.

You decide whether there is a connection between energy and economy, or whether it's merely a coincidence.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/iceland-a-100-renewables-example-in-the-modern-era-56428?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=iceland-a-100-renewables-example-in-the-modern-era-56428

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/the-icelandic-post-crisis-miracle/
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/key-lesson-from-iceland-crisis-let-banks-fail.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/world/europe/icelands-economy-is-mending-amid-europes-malaise.html

Image credit: Earth - The Operator's Manual
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Green Jobs

The email reply below is from Senator John Kerry in response to an email I sent to him.
Folks, Clean Energy is the only future we have.
Global Warming is the greatest single threat we face.

Thank you for contacting me about clean energy. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this issue.

Today we are presented with an economic opportunity of extraordinary proportions. The current energy economy is a $6 trillion market with 4 billion users – and the fastest growing segment of that is green energy – projected at $2.3 trillion in 2020. Yet as of today, by not making any different policy decisions, most of this investment will be in Asia, and not here in the United States.

I am proud to say that Massachusetts is leading the way in the transition to a clean energy economy. Through a range of policies including a renewable electricity standard (RES), energy efficient building codes, and incentives for consumers to purchase fuel efficient vehicles, Massachusetts is on track to meet the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target of any state and create as many as 48,000 jobs in Massachusetts by 2020. It is now time for the federal government to follow our lead.

Now is the moment for America to build our new energy future – and, in doing so, create millions of steady, higher paying jobs at every level of the economy. Make no mistake - jobs that produce energy in America are jobs that stay in America. The amount of work to be done here is impressive and will be the work of many lifetimes. It must begin now.

That is why I am committed to promoting investment in clean energy jobs and industries, reducing costs through energy efficiency, freeing the United States from dependence on foreign oil, and promoting clean energy by retooling the infrastructure and workforce of the United States. I cosponsored legislation in the last Congress which requires utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable energy sources by 2025. By creating a national RES, this legislation would incentivize a range of renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower. I also understand the importance of nuclear energy to our clean energy portfolio and I included support for nuclear energy in the American Power Act, comprehensive energy and climate legislation that Senator Lieberman and I worked on in the last Congress.

I believe Congress must come together to meet the defining test of our future. Please be assured that I will fight for responsible policies to ensure that America is a stronger, more powerful leader in the new energy economy.

Thank you again for contacting me about this issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me again about this or any other issue of importance to you.

Reinventing Fire

Together, we can do it!

The US needs to lead the world.

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Tweeting for a #Brightenergyfuture
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Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era offers market-based, actionable solutions integrating transportation, buildings, industry, and electricity. Built on Rocky Mountain Institute's 30 years of research and collaboration in all four sectors, Reinventing Fire maps pathways for running a 158%-bigger U.S. economy in 2050 but needing no oil, no coal, no nuclear energy, one-third less natural gas, and no new inventions. This would cost $5 trillion less than business-as-usual—in addition to the value of avoiding fossil fuels' huge but uncounted external costs.

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Completion of Largest Solar Facility in New England

WMECo Celebrates Completion of Largest Solar Facility in New England
2.3 MW Indian Orchard facility is the Company's second large-scale project

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Dec. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECo) today celebrates completion of its second large-scale solar energy facility in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield. The facility features 8,200 solar panels and produces 2.3 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

WMECo officials joined local and state officials in celebrating the transformation of the former foundry site into a clean, renewable energy facility. The Indian Orchard facility joins WMECo's Silver Lake Solar facility in Pittsfield as one of the largest in the Northeast region and is the largest in New England.

"WMECo continues to demonstrate that large-scale solar can be developed and delivered in a cost-effective manner for our customers," said Peter J. Clarke WMECo president and chief operating officer. "These projects represent significant progress toward meeting the Commonwealth's renewable energy goals and diversifying the region's energy supply with non-carbon-emitting fossil fuels," Clarke said.

"I'm very pleased to be here with Peter Clarke and other WMECo officials today to make this great announcement," stated Mayor Domenic J. Sarno. "This continues to build on my Administration's vision for green economic development. Seven months ago we were standing on a remediated brownfield site. Today, this site is now a tax-generating property and is home to the largest renewable energy facility in New England. I appreciate WMECo's continued collaboration with the City of Springfield," added Mayor Sarno.

The project brought nearly $12M of new construction to the region and is will contribute $400,000 of annual property tax revenue to the City of Springfield. Springfield is one of the two Gateway Communities in WMECo's service territory and is home to approximately 65,000 WMECo customers.

"Investments in renewable energy cut long-term energy costs, create local jobs and bring us closer to meeting our statewide clean energy goals," said Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. "We have 67 megawatts of solar energy installed statewide--equal to the amount of electricity used by 10,600 households annually--and this project builds on this accomplishment by keeping this economic opportunity here in the Commonwealth."

The Commonwealth has a goal to install 250 MW of solar generation by 2017. Under the landmark Green Communities Act (GCA), each Massachusetts electric utility may own up to 50 MW of solar, subject to approval by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU).

Western Massachusetts Electric Company, a Northeast Utilities company /quotes/zigman/236013/quotes/nls/nu NU -0.11% , serves approximately 200,000 customers in 59 communities throughout western Massachusetts and is committed to the environment, economic development and the health of the communities it serves. For more information about WMECo, visit our Web site at www.wmeco.com . Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE Western Massachusetts Electric Company

Here Comes the Sun

Paul Krugman got this one right --

Here Comes the Sun
Op-Ed Columnist
By PAUL KRUGMAN


For decades the story of technology has been dominated, in the popular mind and to a large extent in reality, by computing and the things you can do with it. Moore’s Law — in which the price of computing power falls roughly 50 percent every 18 months — has powered an ever-expanding range of applications, from faxes to Facebook.

Our mastery of the material world, on the other hand, has advanced much more slowly. The sources of energy, the way we move stuff around, are much the same as they were a generation ago.

But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That’s right, solar power.

If that surprises you, if you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives.

Speaking of propaganda: Before I get to solar, let’s talk briefly about hydraulic fracturing, a k a fracking.

Fracking — injecting high-pressure fluid into rocks deep underground, inducing the release of fossil fuels — is an impressive technology. But it’s also a technology that imposes large costs on the public. We know that it produces toxic (and radioactive) wastewater that contaminates drinking water; there is reason to suspect, despite industry denials, that it also contaminates groundwater; and the heavy trucking required for fracking inflicts major damage on roads.

Economics 101 tells us that an industry imposing large costs on third parties should be required to “internalize” those costs — that is, to pay for the damage it inflicts, treating that damage as a cost of production. Fracking might still be worth doing given those costs. But no industry should be held harmless from its impacts on the environment and the nation’s infrastructure.

Yet what the industry and its defenders demand is, of course, precisely that it be let off the hook for the damage it causes. Why? Because we need that energy! For example, the industry-backed organization energyfromshale.org declares that “there are only two sides in the debate: those who want our oil and natural resources developed in a safe and responsible way; and those who don’t want our oil and natural gas resources developed at all.”

So it’s worth pointing out that special treatment for fracking makes a mockery of free-market principles. Pro-fracking politicians claim to be against subsidies, yet letting an industry impose costs without paying compensation is in effect a huge subsidy. They say they oppose having the government “pick winners,” yet they demand special treatment for this industry precisely because they claim it will be a winner.

And now for something completely different: the success story you haven’t heard about.

These days, mention solar power and you’ll probably hear cries of “Solyndra!” Republicans have tried to make the failed solar panel company both a symbol of government waste — although claims of a major scandal are nonsense — and a stick with which to beat renewable energy.

But Solyndra’s failure was actually caused by technological success: the price of solar panels is dropping fast, and Solyndra couldn’t keep up with the competition. In fact, progress in solar panels has been so dramatic and sustained that, as a blog post at Scientific American put it, “there’s now frequent talk of a ‘Moore’s law’ in solar energy,” with prices adjusted for inflation falling around 7 percent a year.

This has already led to rapid growth in solar installations, but even more change may be just around the corner. If the downward trend continues — and if anything it seems to be accelerating — we’re just a few years from the point at which electricity from solar panels becomes cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal.

And if we priced coal-fired power right, taking into account the huge health and other costs it imposes, it’s likely that we would already have passed that tipping point.

But will our political system delay the energy transformation now within reach?

Let’s face it: a large part of our political class, including essentially the entire G.O.P., is deeply invested in an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels, and actively hostile to alternatives. This political class will do everything it can to ensure subsidies for the extraction and use of fossil fuels, directly with taxpayers’ money and indirectly by letting the industry off the hook for environmental costs, while ridiculing technologies like solar.

So what you need to know is that nothing you hear from these people is true. Fracking is not a dream come true; solar is now cost-effective. Here comes the sun, if we’re willing to let it in.

Solar Could Save Money, Power Half of New York City's Peak Demand

The article below caught my eye and offers interesting insights:


Solar Could Save Money, Power Half of New York City's Peak Demand
By John Farrell

The City University of New York (CUNY) released a solar map of New York City last week, allowing building owners in the city to determine the amount of solar power their roof could host. The cumulative impact is enormous, with city rooftops capable of providing half the city's peak power, and 14% of its annual electricity consumption.

The city should immediately maximize solar power development to save millions in electricity costs.

At $3.50 per Watt installed, and with the federal 30% investment tax credit (ITC), solar power in New York City can provide electricity at 16 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a full 4 cents lower than the average residential electricity price (as reported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's PV Watts program).

$6 Billion Giveaway

Energy common sense

The rest of the world moves forward while the U.S. remains hostage to dirty energy, and folks like Koch.

Working together for a cleaner energy future, energy security and fostering policies that make sense for the future makes great sense.



From ENN --

Denmark Boasts a 100% Renewable Energy Community

Denmark, like, Germany, her neighbor to the south, is a country that takes renewable energy seriously. The wind energy industry alone in Denmark is booming with companies like Vestas and Siemens Wind Power both having production facilities and bases of operation on Danish soil. Denmark's own wind based energy also grows exponentially each year leaving many optimistic that the nation might be one of the few who can achieve 100% renewable energy in the next several decades. However, wind based renewable energy is not the only kind of clean energy the country has going for it. In one location, Denmark has proven that wind and hydrogen can be king when it comes to being green.

Called the Lolland Hydrogen Community, the project began in the middle of 2007 as a way of taking the excess wind energy produced by the island community and putting it to use. Since they were generating an impressive fifty percent more wind energy than was needed, they set about finding a way to convert that excess wind into hydrogen for use in powering the island and acting as way to demonstrate to Europe the viability of hydrogen as a renewable energy source
.

The way the project began was with the installation of a Fuel Cell Combined Heat and Power plant that took the wind energy that was being produced in excess and using it to power an electrolyser that worked to separate the oxygen and hydrogen molecules that comprised water. Once the hydrogen is separated it is stored in pressure tanks and it is then used to power fuel cells that provide the community with electricity.

Although powering the community’s power grid with the hydrogen fuel cells proved to be a success the Lolland Hydrogen Community knew they could take the renewable energy a step forward. To achieve this end, the researchers on the community developed smaller hydrogen fuel cells that could be placed in a home and act similar to a boiler in order to provide heating, air, and energy.

Article continues: http://blog.cleantechies.com/2010/12/29/denmark-boasts-100-renewable-energy-community/

Jetson Green

Since it seems the Reactionary Party would make their Dirty Energy policy a campaign issue, Jetson Green offers great ideas and insight about energy usage and alternatives and is available with a free subscription. Their site is worth an exploration.

Racing Against Time: A Bright Future
By Preston Koerner

This article is a contribution to Honda’s “Racing Against Time” thought leadership series.*

Recently, I was approached by Honda to tackle the topic of "peak oil" in relation to the normal conversation on Jetson Green. This site is devoted to green building innovation, and you may be thinking the subject of peak oil -- specifically, the idea that oil is a finite resource -- is a little tangential.

But it's not. In fact, oil is used to make all sorts of products and to power residential and commercial buildings. Honda's invitation has given me an opportunity to brainstorm on the subject and, after some contemplation, I believe there are six ways the building, design, and construction industry can eliminate the use of oil entirely.

#1: Ultra Conservation at the Outset
Recently, Bill McDonough said, "efficiency will not save us" and "being less bad is not being good." There's a point in these bold statements, regardless of whether you believe incremental effort is helpful or mandatory for environmental progress. So I want to be clear. When I say "ultra conservation," I'm not saying we should seek greater efficiencies. I'm saying we should use extreme conservation as a path toward eliminating the use of a resource entirely.

Perhaps the Passive House standard illustrates my point. Generally, a Passive House is extremely airtight and ultra efficient. These cutting-edge homes are primarily heated by warmth from people, equipment, and solar gain. In other words, a Passive House is designed and built to nearly eliminate heating and cooling equipment. A house that doesn't need an active HVAC system is a house that doesn't use energy and won't need oil.

#2: Bridging the Gap with Technology

Ultra conservation, however, shouldn't require that people stop moving, working, and doing. Lifestyles may change, but a spartan living will not create the kind of movement that would eliminate the use of oil. After ultra conservation, we can and should tap renewable resources -- sun, wind, earth -- with available and reasonably priced technology.

Technology such as solar panels, small wind turbines, and geothermal systems all present viable opportunities to power the built environment with something other that oil (or replacement fossil fuels). Indeed, energy producing buildings can sell extra power to the grid or use that energy to power the next generation of vehicles.

#3: Controlling Transportation Energy Intensity

Even if a building is a net non user of energy or produces energy, it's important to examine the environmental impact associated with the location or siting of the structure. The transportation energy intensity of a building, which is the amount of energy expended in getting people to and from a building, can't be ignored. This is where a lot of oil is consumed through vehicles.

Commuting to the average office building accounts for roughly 30% more energy use than the building uses itself, according to Environmental Building News. For the average new office building, commuting accounts for more than twice the energy used by the building itself. For this reason, folks scrutinize density and proximity, so that people can access work and services without traveling large distances.

Building users should think through their choice of where to live and work, if possible. Why not live within five or 10 minutes of your office, church, and services? The closer you are, the more likely you will be to walk, ride a bike, or use mass transportation -- eliminating the need for oil-based energy.

#4: Sourcing Local Materials Properly


Similarly, materials used by a building's occupants or incorporated into a building are transported only by the use of energy. Though some forms of transportation are more efficient than others, it's impossible to ignore the amount of energy used in hauling materials around the world.

This concept, localism, if you will, regularly surfaces with the discussion of bamboo from China, natural stone surfaces from Italy, or FSC certified wood from some remote country.

LEED certification, for example, rewards projects that use "regional" materials that have been extracted, processed, and manufactured within a 500 miles radius. This is good and where possible, the radius should be shortened. Nevertheless, we should recognize that a large amount of oil is burned getting materials around, so steps can be taken to entirely avoid this environmental impact entirely.

#5: Sourcing Natural Non-Petroleum Materials

Materials are also made with petroleum in some cases. Asphalt, plastics, some forms of insulation, etc. An asphalt surface may be durable, but is there an equally durable surface made with a natural material? Spray foam may provide a tight seal and ultra-efficient envelope, but is there a soy-based alternative or something else that can be substituted?

May I suggest an effort toward naturalism. Petroleum is sourced from the earth, but it's not the kind of natural material we need in our products, furniture, or homes. We need natural materials that don't have toxins and harmful volatile organic compounds in them. We need materials that are not full of oil. A movement that rewards natural materials is necessary to extricate oil from all materials.

#6: Function Like the Natural World

In nature, animals don't take and burn oil to build, move, or live. Janine Benyus, a pioneer and leader in the biomimicry movement, explains: "The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone," according to the Biomimicry Institute.

This is the premise and the promise of biomimicry, which is the science and art of emulating nature's best biological ideas to solve human problems. AskNature, an open source project and website, is one place where "bio-inspired breakthroughs can be born." For example, by studying photosynthesis, maybe we can find better ways to absorb sunlight and convert it to usable energy.

Nature is full of ideas, yet it is our responsibility to learn them. I believe this is an area that can and should be instructive going forward as we look for inspiration to avoid using oil.

The Future is Bright

Oil pervades all aspects of the built environment. However, the world is changing. The smartest innovators are working on electrical vehicles, energy storage, innovative materials, and new technology to power both buildings and cars. Consider this: we now have the technology to live in an energy producing home that's powered by on- and off-site renewable energy. We now have the technology to drive around with non-oil fuel sources. The technology of the future exists now, though we have to take action to use it.

*Jetson Green was selected to provide a unique perspective on how we should approach the discussion of oil as a finite energy source. During the first week of October 2010, five individuals provide their own thoughts on the subject. These independent contributors were not compensated for their participation and as such their views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Honda. Details and links to what others are saying about “Racing Against Time” can be found at www.facebook.com/honda.

Christy Mihos: Tilting At Windmills? Or NIMBY?

cct offered --


Mihos needs to cut ties with anti-wind farm bloc
Christy is still tilting at the windmill
By Ron LaBonte.

Massachusetts could use a man like Christy Mihos who, if elected governor, would shake up the status quo on Beacon Hill and likely lower taxes.

However, in my opinion, he’ll never make governor if he continues to align himself with William Koch, Glen Wattley and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. I wonder if Mr. Mihos has read Dennis Duffy’s Sept. 21 “My View” in the Cape Cod Times. Many thinking people have read it.

Why kill your chances of being governor for the sake of not having to look at the tops of wind turbines 6 miles away?

Ron LaBonte, Chatham
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Christy Mihos had cute ads for his last run, but that's as far as his substance went.

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He has stood with the wealthy NIMBYs to oppose a wind project that simply makes sense, against overwhelming public support because his ocean view would be spoiled.

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Shake up the status quo on Beacon Hill ?

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He'd likely add his own moneyed brand of "status quo."

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After standing with his wealthy buddy Koch, defending Mountaintop Removal, ignoring the threat of Coal Ash, the Commonwealth surely needs another wealthy, tone deaf Governor to protect his own interests, environment be damned!

ABC Refused to Run Alternative Energy Ad

WeCanSolveIt reports ABC recently refused to run our Repower America ad, even though they run ads from oil companies that mislead the American people about the role fossil fuels play in the climate crisis.
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Americans consume 25% of the world's energy, yet we are only 5% of the world's population. Our participation is essential for global energy solutions. We have the technology today to be energy independent.