Joel Francis, a Marine Corps veteran and senior at Cal State Los Angeles, has issued a debate challenge to Koch Industries' billionaire CEO Charles Koch on his support for the disastrous Prop 23 attack on California's climate and clean energy progress.
I can't help but feel like our pro-wind-farm movement in West Michigan helped to expedite Muskegon County's decision to proceed with a 150 MW wind farm in its massive waste water treatment facility. Fifty wind turbines the county hopes to begin construction on by 2012. (Thank you, Muskegon County commissioners!)
Muskegon County ready to move forward with wind farm
MUSKEGON COUNTY — By the end of this calendar year, a wind-energy developer could be in place and Muskegon County officials likely will be considering specifics of the proposed wind farm for the county’s wastewater site.
County officials are planning to move rather quickly over the next couple months in setting up and selecting a wind developer for the planned project that would result in large turbines generating 150 megawatts of power.
Oh but that's not all...
Who could have predicted that while other manufacturing jobs declined, jobs in green industries increased in California, the state with some of the toughest environmental laws? What a shock, eh?
In a study released Wednesday, Palo Alto-based nonprofit Next 10 and Collaborative Economics Inc. of Mountain View found that manufacturing jobs in the state's green sector grew by 19 percent between 1995 and 2008.
The increase came at the same time that overall manufacturing jobs in California tumbled 9 percent.
Furthermore, who could have known that venture capitalists, seeing California's "friendly" climate for green technologies would invest billions of dollars into growing that part of California's manufacturing sector?
(cont.)
The Administration announced late Friday, that it has approved 1.4 billion for the giant wind farm in Oregon.
GE was the company that managed the deal, GE had been lobbying for such a deal to take place and finally attracted the support of the WH!
Join me over the jump for discussion:
I couldn't believe my ears. Did Arnold just change from Red to Blue ?
Or maybe it was just a deeper shade of Green.
Schwarzenegger defends climate law, slams Texans
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer, SFGate -- Sep 28, 2010
The governor's vehement defense of the climate legislation commonly referred to as AB32 comes amid a fierce campaign led by oil interests to win passage in November of Proposition 23, a ballot measure that calls for suspending the climate law until the jobless rate hits 5.5 percent for a year, a level achieved only three times in 40 years.
Schwarzenegger, speaking before several hundred people at the Commonwealth Club in Santa Clara, said the proponents of Prop. 23 are attempting to subvert the democratic process using scare tactics. He likened the campaign to a shell game hiding what he said was the real purpose: "self-serving greed."
"They are creating a shell argument that they are doing this to protect jobs," the governor said. "Does anybody really believe they are doing this out of the goodness of their black oil hearts - spending millions and millions of dollars to save jobs?"
On July 14th, Green Change announced the campaign for a Green New Deal, a 10-point program to create economic prosperity together with ecological sustainability.
Since then over 100 candidates for elected office at all levels have joined the Green New Deal Coalition.
The Green New Deal Coalition will cut military spending, create millions of green jobs, and revive the economy by protecting the planet we depend on.
We hear talk about local energy production jobs and the young people along with those who want to retrain into a new industry get excited, but what does it all mean? What sort of jobs are there?
This little photo diary will give you some sense of what is possible.
If you need a reason, to get out there, and get Democrats re-elected, here ya go ...
Solar Power: Brighter Long-Term Investment Outlook
Energy standards requiring U.S. utilities to use solar power could drive growth for companies ranging from inverter makers to installation financiers
David Bogoslaw, Bloomberg Businessweek, msnbc.com -- 8/25/2010
With U.S. installed capacity growing at a faster pace than that of the international market, the country may be on track to become a more dominant market by 2014, according to Larry Sherwood, an analyst at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC).
Some 23Gw of solar capacity are under development in the U.S., enough to provide electricity for 4.4 million households, according to the Solar Energy Industries Assn. (SEIA). Solar demand in the U.S. is expected to grow 75 percent in 2011, compared with 2010.
Sounds Great! What's the catch?
Two Chinese companies have agreed to manufacture in America, instead of in China, a significant portion of the wind turbines needed for a Texas wind farm. The deal is a result of white collar Chinese executives negotiating with blue collar union officers to create green collar jobs in the U.S. The agreement defies stereotypes about unions as constantly combative, excessively expensive and environmentally challenged. The United Steelworkers union, which struck the deal, has a track record of engaging with enlightened CEOs for mutual benefit. It has a long green history. And it has worked to return off-shored jobs to the U.S.
When I attended Netroots Nation last week, I didn’t need to drive the streets of Las Vegas to see the abandoned worksites, boarded up buildings, and closed factories. I can see that in my own district. Too many of us are not making it in America.
Congressional Democrats responded with a two-step approach. In the first half, we sought to stabilize the economy, rein in Wall Street, provide lifelines to families in freefall, and immediately put Americans back to work. We’re now nearing the second half, where our job creation strategies must be complemented by a long term commitment to bring back American manufacturing.
In California, Nevada, and across the nation, people out of work through no fault of their own outnumber new jobs available. Five people are out of work for every one job available. The Great Recession led to widespread job loss, and without a new approach to economic development, good manufacturing jobs will continue to be shipped overseas. If we don’t make it in America, we won’t make it America.
Some time back in the 1990s there was a poor to middle class neighborhood off of Sherman boulevard, not too far from the hospital. Peppered with large trees and scrubby oaks, it was more or less on the outskirts of town, but a very old neighborhood of the Muskegon Area...
And then one day Walmart and Lowes made the decision to locate in the area.
They picked that very spot, that very neighborhood to locate their store on. Not near. On. And so they bought up most of the houses in the neighborhood, and for the people who opted not to sell, Muskegon Township condemned their homes and kicked them out with a pittance for their trouble.
People living in the poor neighborhood in Muskegon, MI, USA were intimidated and kicked out of their homes, which were then bulldozed and a new Walmart and Lowes was built on it.
And this, my good reader, is where we come to the subject of wind turbines 6 miles away in Lake Michigan.
What the hell is wrong with this country when horrendous environmental disasters go virtually unpunished, and non-violent, non-destructive activism result in the possibility of months in jail?
Environmental activist Ted Glick is facing possible jail time for hanging banners on the Hart Senate Office Building. One of the banner's read "Green Jobs Now" and the other read "Get to Work". That hardly sounds like the kind of dangerous anarchism that deserves jail time, does it?
But, the fact is that Glick faces a maximum penalty of 3 years in jail, and while he's not likely to get the max sentence, there is a good chance he could end up serving months in jail. Especially since the prosecuting attorney's are pushing for a severe sentence.
More details, links and action you can take below the fold.
Earlier this month, I spoke to the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects in Miami Beach, as part of a session on neighborhood density. We had a sizable, knowledgeable and attentive audience, and I was struck by the fact that most of the comments and questions after our session were about what we need to do to craft sustainable urban economies, not the facts and figures we had presented regarding the market for walkable neighborhoods, how to design for environmental sustainability, and the dividends that urban densities can bring to their communities.
Imagine your local Widget Factory, employs dozens of workers,
to put together hundreds of the latest Must-have Widgets, each and every day.
Now imagine this Widget Factory, in the hopes of increasing profits,
took all its industrial by-product Gunk, gathered them up each day,
and quietly dumped them, each night around midnight, when no one was looking,
in the local River waterway. Pollution be gone!
Instant Profit Gain, right? No costly "Gunk Processing" equipment to buy or operate. No extra hidden costs, need be added to that Price of a Widget -- which could keep consumers from flocking to Widget Retail Outlets, right?
Wrong ... ONE Big Problem in this Free Market scheme ...
The Folks living downstream on that local River waterway!
The Folks making a living on the beauty and productivity of that River --
They all might notice that somethings up, in their once pristine Waterway?
They might eventually figure it out too, that "Widget One" has been "cutting corners", in its responsibility to be "good neighbors".
Clearly America needs to reach for, and achieve, a Clean Energy Future.
Not so Clear is the Road we will take, if any, to ultimately get there ...
Kerry says Obama intends to move votes on energy
Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan, Editing by Sandra Maler, Reuters -- June 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - [...]
Obama is slated to meet leading Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday to discuss a way forward for the energy legislation.
[...]
Kerry said the bill must include ways to price carbon but was not "locked into any one single way of doing it.""The fact is if we don't price carbon, we will create one tenth of the jobs and reduce only one tenth of the emissions," he said. "It would essentially be an energy-only bill."