It’s time to get more aggressive than Kyoto or even the Pickens Plan. Watch this video for inspiration. The next video we post will not be as upbeat, but will definitely show you why we need to start an energy revolution today!
Start doing something about it - Click here!
I have been trying not to get political on this blog, but this was the last straw. Since the House failed to approve extension of the ITC, or Investment Tax Credit, the Senate had to package it into the abominable $ 700 billion bank socialization package. The Renewable Energy Tax Credit is the incentive package that the Senate Republicans blocked passage of eight times, leaving billions of dollars of renewable energy projects in limbo.
We waste billions on ineffective Ethanol and farming subsidies at a time when food prices are rising out of control. We continue to support big oil with tax breaks, effectively subsidizing the purchase of foreign oil from countries who are hostile to our interests, but we cannot find a reason to support alternative energy, which would be a predominantly DOMESTIC industry and find it necessary to insert it into a bank bailout package.
Countless solar installation contractors, solar panel manufacturers, wind turbine manufacturers (anybody watching General Electric’s stock price dropping?), consultants, and integrators, among others, will lose their jobs because of the suspended projects.
If you were waiting to buy an expensive solar panel for your home and did not know if the $ 2,000 capped Federal Tax Credit would be applicable next year, would you still order the system installed, or would you wait for Congress to announce the extension of the tax credits beyond their January 1, 2009 expiration, knowing you probably cannot install the panels on time this year to qualify for the existing credit?
The United States is half-way decided on spending $ 700 billion on the banking bailout, just waiting for House approval now. This will just aggravate some of our biggest problems at present: National debt and balance of trade. We should be working to close those gaps before our government goes bankrupt. Let’s stop sending our wealth to the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela, none of whom are our true allies, and get a sensible domestic energy policy on track.
There is strength in numbers. If you have not done so already, see our main page and click on “Take Action.” There you will see a link to the Pickens Plan. Sign up on their mailing list for more information. So far, The Pickens Plan is the best idea anyone has proposed for investing in our domestic infrastructure, creating jobs, and weaning ourselves from the addictive substance we have been importing into our country for billions of dollars per year.
Take action now! Sign up for the Pickens Plan!
December 15, 2008 post update - Congress has passed the tax credits legislation which are more generous than ever. Unfortunately, the tax credit legislation had to be bundled with the $ 700 billion bailout. Seriously now, is that the only way the USA can pass legislation to improve our infrastructure - by burying it into an “emergency bailout package” which went against popular will?
So here we stand close to closing the first decade of the second millenium with temporarily lower fossil fuel prices which will discourage renewable energy investments right when we need them most - as we pass down the right slope of the Peak Oil supply curve, and a Picken’s wind power plan which is having trouble generating sufficient financing.
Anyone with a clear vision of where all these market forces are leading us should feel like a sunbather on a long, flat beach watching the oncoming tsunami approaching. It’s too late to run and nobody built any shelters while the water was calm.
Many orders for oil drilling rigs have been canceled because the new oil discoveries cannot be extracted profitably at current market rates. When oil prices recover, and even skyrocket, building new rigs will take years.
Those among us who are not afraid to act like Noah building his ark upon dry land while being ridiculed by everyone will make the right preparations. Maybe it’s time to build a house off-grid, self-sufficient in electricity and water, with photoelectric solar panels and solar water heating systems on the roof, rainwater capture and storage cisterns under the house, and gray water recycling systems to extract every possible bit of utility from the water before disposing it as black waste water. The house should be made of SIPs with R28 insulation ratings, able to withstand high wind speeds, be moisture and mold resistant, and economical to build.
If you are thinking about building such a house, please see our suggested materials link at:
http://www.marylandgreenpower.com/off-grid-house.html
To view Laurel Boys and Girls Club progress in saving energy, click here on “Energy Maps”
by Timmy Gelles | Staff Writer
(Reprinted with permission of The Laurel Gazette)
In an effort to reduce a skyrocketing utility bill, the Laurel Boys and Girls Club is teaming up with Maryland Green Power Company, which will donate energy-saving equipment pro-bono.
Patrick Reed, LBGC executive director, said the club spends about $90,000 each year on heating and electricity, a price that has increased 30 percent during the past couple of years. With rising fuel prices, he said this year’s bill will top $120,000.
“The energy cost has never really been this high,” Reed said.
Much of the high cost is due to the age of the LBGC building and the condition of its insulation and windows. The LBGC building was built in 1899, some renovations were done in 1935 and 1950 but the original windows remain.
Vanessa van der Have, the club’s under-age 6 soccer team coach, said she wanted to find an affordable long-term solution to the soaring costs and contacted Maryland Green Power, who offered to help the club pro-bono.
“The energy bill is preposterous,” said Dennis Meizys, owner of the Columbia-based Maryland Green Power.
Meizys said that the LBGC is the first pro-bono contract his company has ever done.
“It was perfect site because they have very high energy usage,” Meizys said. “And they’re a social work group, so they should spend their money on other things besides electricity.”
Meizys said Maryland Green Power has donated more than $7,000 of equipment, including the EnergyMaps system which allows LBGC to remotely monitor its energy usage. EnergyMaps analyses the data and allows each staff member to view it in real time, whereby they can see their effects on the overall consumption.
Meizys said EnergyMaps is probably the most effective way to cut down energy usage.
In six months, with all the data logged and examined, Meizys said he will meet with the LBGC and look at things that require small to medium investments. He said some options include a new lighting system in the gymnasium and adding water cooling capabilities that should save the club 30 percent on air conditioning costs.
The club is also taking steps on its end. Reed said he and club officials are educating each of the 18 programs on how to be more energy conscience, such as turning off lights when not in use.
He said the club is working on receiving a government loan to acquire new windows or repair the existing windows. Reed said he is expecting a report within a couple weeks on whether the windows are even repairable.
Reed said the rise in prices has cut into LBGC programs. Each year the club normally offers 400 partial or full waivers for families who cannot afford the $75 program fee. This year, the club can only provide 200 waivers to its 3,500 youth participants.
With winter on the horizon, the rising oil prices will also add to the bill. Reed said the boiler usually costs about $12,000 a month during the winter. This year he projects the cost will rise up to $17,000 per month.
The future of the club’s finances looks optimistic. Reed said that within 18 months, the LBGC should start reducing its energy by 40 percent. Meizys said the amount of money the LBGC will save will be larger than the amount they currently pay.
“I think it’s a win-win for both because [Meizys] aligned himself with the largest club in Maryland,” van der Have said. “And for the club, the more support they can get from the outside — from the private sector, the parents, the volunteers — the better.”
E-mail Timmy Gelles at tgelles@gazette.net.
Sellers offer “Green” Incentive Package to Buyers
Boca Raton, Florida (PRWEB) March 5, 2008 — With headlines reading “Home prices to post another decline in ‘08,” residential home sellers are between a rock and a hard place. In order to set their home apart from the 235 houses on the market in their price range in the Boca Raton, Florida area, Tara and Daniel Biller devised a “green home” incentive plan for potential buyers. They are offering buyers a slew of environmentally friendly upgrades and products including a solar water heater system.
“Tara and Daniel Biller are in the same situation as millions of American’s with a home to sell,” said Torm Martinson, broker/agent for Campbell & Rosemurgy Real Estate. “They’ve lowered their asking price, made home improvements and have been patient waiting for an offer - any offer.”
“We realized it was time to do something different to set our house apart,” commented Tara. “I’m in the process of starting up a residential ‘green home’ consulting service and I have been doing a lot of research on solar panels and outfitting the home with more environmentally friendly solutions. Daniel and I devised this plan to see if this would peak the interest of potential buyers.”
For those that are interested in learning more about the Biller’s home and the “green home” incentive package, please contact Torm Martinson at 561-504-6200, or torm@campbellandrosemurgy.com.
Progress on this project so far:
1) Located no-cost electricity provider switch which will save Laurel Boys and Girls Club 8% on their electricity bill immediately;
2) Installed Enigin Eniscope and started metering energy usage in facility’s gymnasium, which contains their largest air conditioning loads: 40 tons of air conditioning. Will commence data logging to develop load profiles and energy usage history for up to 2 years with data stored off-site in redundant storage;
3) Will launch “Energy Buddies” phase in order to implement additional no-cost energy saving solutions.
4) Will publish link to live meter data on this website.
Companies can have their energy bills analyzed for savings for free by faxing all pages of 2-3 months of their electric and gas bills to fax: 443-927-9018, Attn: Free Energy Audit. If selected, we will contact you and send an engineer to your facility for a no-cost energy survey. Please include cover sheet with contact information in order to be considered.
It would be interesting to know whether most readers believe that enough is being done for the environment by our government, corporations and individuals?
Although in previous posts I have criticized government interference in commerce with the perceived intention of helping the environment, e.g. the inefficient production of “green energy” ethanol which mostly benefits large agricultural concerns, nevertheless I still believe that government must do its part through responsible stewardship of the resources it does consume.
For example, while playing with my daughter in her school’s playground on a chilly early April day after school, I heard noise emanating from the roof of the building. I noticed that the chiller was left running after-hours. (It was a containerized air-handling system, so I can’t be sure, but it sounded like a compressor running leading me to believe that the chiller was on.)
In any case, many parents and pupil complain that the air temperature from classroom to classroom varies so widely, that sometimes children in one classroom have to wear thick sweaters on a hot, late-Spring day, while others in a different wing are perspiring from the heat and humidity.
Not only is this wasteful, but it is unhealthy for the children!
Teachers try to solve the problem by running space heaters in one classroom while the entire school is being air conditioned. Nothing can be done locally about this, because I learned that the thermostats are remote-controlled from the Howard County Board of Education building in the next town.
Another example was on a warm Sunday when I decided to practice my tennis ground strokes against the large gymnasium wall on the outside of the same school. Although there were a few children in the playground playing basketball not far from me, all of the school parking spaces were entirely empty, as to be expected on a Sunday afternoon.
So why was the air conditioner running, keeping the school cooled at the taxpayers’ expense for nobody at all?
Again, this is a waste of energy and taxpayer money.
Who is keeping track of this and who is responsible? Unfortunately, as anyone who has contacted their local school about such issues knows, it is difficult to corner the responsible party. Nobody local has the authority, and the distant authorities are eternally “not aware” of the problem, are constantly “looking into it” or are “hearing about this for this first time from you.”
How does one get people motivated to fix the gaping money sinkholes at our schools? Another Howard County school (names will be left out of this blog in order to protect the guilty) had maintenance problems and even rodent infestations which were not being handled until the issue reached the newspapers.
It’s no surprise that voter turn-out is low when we feel so powerless to affect change in our democracy. Yet, we have to pay the taxes for these less than acceptable services. Sometimes it feels like “taxation without representation.”
Luckily, the USA has the best method of creating a revolution - peacefully at the ballot box, and I think the current Howard County administration has been working hard to improve things.
Most impressive is how Howard County Executive Kenneth Ulman has created an “Office of Sustainability” under Director Joshua Feldmark, which is being replicated in other Maryland counties. I was fortunate to be able to observe one of their meetings as a guest, fascinated by the amount of issues on a wide range of topics they were endeavoring to tackle, as the meeting continued until almost 10:00 P.M. (You can stop complaining that government doesn’t work for you - they called to continue the meeting at 7:00 AM over coffee.)
While they are working on matters such as Baltimore Gas & Electric’s unilateral decision to clear-cut trees through public land in Columbia’s Owen Brown Village, or the impending insufficiency of the sewer system to handle the expected growth in Columbia, they informed me that they have very little influence over the school system. Matters like that have to be taken to the Board of Education.
Here is a short list of items we should be bringing up at the Board of Education meetings, not only here in Howard County, but wherever you happen to be reading this blog:
1) The heating and cooling systems should be optimized and shut down when unused,
2) Lights do not have to burn at 100% intensity at night: some should be switched off while others dimmed;
3) Unused computers in the computer labs should be hibernating when not used: $ 75 Saving per Computer!
4) Plus many other smaller items like, hibernating vending machines at night, using motion-sensing lighting in lesser-used auxiliary classrooms, etc.
These are inexpensive fixes which offer the quickest payback time. The schools do not need to implement expensive projects like solar energy, etc.
I have confidence that there are those in government who can still turn things around. Let’s support them in their efforts - get involved with your local governments, observe, write to the newspapers, write to the politicians, attend a meeting, organize an advocacy group, and complain when you see problems!
Democracy’s worst enemy is indifference.
As a sidenote, which also pertains to schools, read this blog about how Daylight Savings Time waste more energy than it saves:
…Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings…
