Pickens Plan District Group CA-03

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Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 20, 2009 at 5:02pm

http://www.toledofreepress.com/2009/04/16/owens-corning-pickens-focus-on-energy-conservation/

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 8, 2009 at 12:29pm

Let's keep the pressure on Congress!
We would like people to continue and visit the 'take action' page on the Virtual March site and contact their members of Congress if they haven't already. There are six actions people can take to make their voice heard: http://www.pickensplan.com/virtualmarch/takeaction.php
Congress is on recess and that means many Representatives and Senators are heading back to their home districts. We want to coordinate as many letters to the editor as possible and encourage people to attend town hall meetings and to schedule face-to-face meetings with their members of Congress. This is a great way to get district members involved. Let's try to coordinate visits in every district! A great way to approach this is to organize a small team of members so it's not just you or just one person meeting with and asking your members of Congress to support energy legislation.
As always, please let us know of your activities.

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 6, 2009 at 6:34am

This is day 5 of my letter writing campain. At the end of January 2009, I wrote this for PickensPlan: We will know when the people in Washington get off the edge of the cliff they have pushed us toward when they put an end to 401k's and Conventional IRA's, end Mark to Market rules, and recriminalize federal gambling in the markets. The problem with 401k's and Conventional IRA's is their demand to take distribution starting at age 70 and a half which will cause a massive depression in 2016 as baby boomers have to sell stocks and other assets. Lets do it now while the markets are down. Then we pay less taxes too. We are glad that the Mark to Market rules have changed to allow assets to be valued by thier value and not by what the lowest price the asset sold for. After 9-11, Bush allowed for new rules (that were set up after the depression started) that made it a crime to gamble on assets. People are now allowed to gambling on stocks, bonds, mortgages, the price of fuel-just about everything without a corresponding other side of the bet or reality to the thing being bet on. Yet some mortgage backed securities did have a piece of mortgage but those values dropped as Mark to Market rules kicked in sinking Leiman Brothers. I am now adding the uptick rule which loks to be changing this week. It is only with solving our problems that we can move on to the problems like energy funding, Social Security reforn, health care and so many others. I and millions others are watching.

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 4, 2009 at 6:58pm

Here is my day 4 plan:
Everyone is looking to our leaders in Washington DC and our state houses to help provide The USA with comprehensive plans that give each individual the chance to compete and live what has been called the American Dream.

This work is not easy or it would have been done over the past 50 or so years. But this work is vital if we plan to retire, give to charities, build new communities, breath without chocking, and be productive and healthy.

A plan to help the survival of humans and all other living things on earth while giving Americans a competitive advantage is now required. We simply can not avoid the hard choices of funding Social Security, Medicare, energy, education and health care while watching the peak of oil, in fact the peak of almost everything-even humans.

Today, many in the world community are pushing for these types of reforms on their leaders. Therefore, the time has come for leaders to lead. That is what leaders do when facing seemingly insurmountable problems like the USA’s long term effects of buying imported oil. When faced with a healthcare system that the nation pays for that could cover everyone but only the select are covered but costs everyone. Leaders lead when they see our education systems are not giving the knowledge we all need. Leaders look for new solutions when the environment is not better than the one our parents left us. Leaders show leadership by giving and helping charities and those in need with their time and resources.

Funding Medicare is going to have to mean big changes in our medical system. Not only to put patient information on computers, fund new medical research, educate a new generation of professionals, but take a stake in that research, education, and efficiencies. New drugs funded with grants, research done at schools, or even research loans will need to give up 20 percent of ownership to fund Medicare.

Building out a new energy system is not going to be easy and many are going to object. But as new dams are needed to fight climate change, reducing sewage treated water and getting that water out of our rivers, developing new concentrating solar locations, and advancing natural gas for transportation. Some will find fault, but leaders will stress the importance of humans thriving. Even here as grants are given out, we have to have a return beyond taxation.

When leaders see multiple beneficial effects, they make those changes happen. Education is one of these. To improve health care, we need better educated applicants. To help fund Social Security, we need improved percentage of graduates for high school. To build out our new energy system we need applicants with education beyond high school. One of the big changes I want to see is state colleges offer more degrees on line. Take California, where a new system could combine all online classes into The New UC Online Campus. Students would save energy, the school would save energy and our nation would be better off for the change.

We are looking for leaders to make long-term commitments to renewable energy, promote united health care, new education for our children, the military and in prisons. The way to do this is to create the infrastructure; the way to pay for this is to advance a pollution surcharge, and a new progressive national sales tax. I hope you will join me in this effort to help get our house in order. Our work toward ending imported oil may just be starting but we are taking great strides in improving our environment, our national security and allowing us to become wealthy by investing in renewable energy, inventing new technologies, and most importantly investing in our economy.

I hope you will join me and 250 million other Americans to move forward with education reform, Social Security reform, health care reform, renewable energy, and transportation using electric cars, natural gas trucks, and renewed conservation efforts, all with an eye to help reduce imported oil. Only by planning for tomorrow can we go forward with hope and new pride in America.

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 3, 2009 at 4:48pm

Submit your ideas to the Sacramento Bee! I just did

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 3, 2009 at 4:39pm

This is our third day of looking to our leaders in Washington to help provide America a comprehensive energy plan. We have to move in three areas: Smart Grid, Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), and Funding.

Part one is legislation that will establish the legal underpinnings for siting, design, building and operating a 21st century transmission grid. To move the energy from solar and wind farms - largely in rural areas - to the population centers where that energy is needed will require a new grid. Antiquated state laws and regulations will not permit a seamless transmission system so this legislation is necessary to allow FERC the same authority as it has for siting gas lines.

Part two is an achievable National RES that would include tradable renewable energy credits as part of the transmission and grid effort. A national RES that increases over time will be economically achievable as transmission becomes available to bring power from renewable sources to multi-state regions. While 28 states now have a Renewable Electricity Standard, a single National RES would allow producers, utilities, and rate-payers the opportunity to know with whom they were doing business, when that business will begin and what the terms of that business will be.

The third and final leg of the renewable energy stool is an Energy Bank. Congressman Chris Van Hollen has introduced the Green Bank Act of 2009, which will provide long-term, low-interest loans to permit ranchers, farmers, communities and companies to utilize our vast wind and solar resources. Other types of funding need to be worked out but include Federal Energy Bonds and new grants for new projects like the ones promoted on CoolingEarth.org.

We are looking for leadership in making a long-term commitment to renewable energy. The way to do this is to create a U.S. market for renewable energy through a national Renewable Electricity Standard and expanded transmission infrastructure. I hope you will join me in this effort to help US work toward ending imported oil while taking great strides in improving, our environment, our national security and allowing us to become wealthy on investing in renewable energy, inventing new technologies, and investing in our economy.

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 2, 2009 at 6:48pm

Here is my personal message:
The Department of Energy has released the oil import figures for the month of March 2009. The data shows we imported 386 million barrels at a cost of $18 billion last month. While we are importing less oil because of the recession, the percentage of oil we are importing is remaining disappointingly stable. The March numbers show we imported 65 percent of the oil we used.

Over the past 12 months, America has had to import nearly two-thirds of the oil we need. In 2008 that amounted to $475 billion dollars. Keep in mind, this is not a one-time payment like a stimulus package or a bail-out bill. This is our hard earned money.

The annual cost is over $400 billion per year.

Since July 2008, I have joined with millions of other Americans in being a member of the Pickens Plan and We Can Solve It. These are comprehensive approaches to reducing our dependence on foreign oil. If the pillars of the Pickens Plan are adopted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, we can reduce our imports by 30-50 percent over the next ten years. With the We plan we can produce our electricity without carbon. Any plan has to include replacements of our nuclear power plants.

Being so heavily dependent on foreign oil affects every American and every sector of our economy. It also has significant national security implications. As well as adding greenhouse gasses to our atmosphere.

The Pickens Plan will reduce this dependency starting almost immediately, and over 10 years can help us meet President Obama's pledge to completely eliminate oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela. We helps with even more cuts.

I hope you will join me and 5 million other Americans to move forward with solar, wind, natural gas, electric cars, renewed conservation to help reduce imported oil, only by planning can we go forward with hope and new pride in America.

Comment by Lawrence Murray on April 1, 2009 at 4:13pm

Go to VM and send emails to the list below:
Barack Obama (D)
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Representative Dan Lungren (R-CA 3rd)

Comment by Lawrence Murray on March 31, 2009 at 6:13pm

Dear district members,

Our Virtual March on Washington is just around the corner. Are you ready? April 1st kicks off the 3 day event; Boone is asking us to contact our members of Congress, not just once, but each day of the March. Each day has a specific energy theme so keep an eye open for daily emails from Boone. Then, plan to call/email/fax our members of Congress each day of the March to let them know we are serious about energy independence!

So, what can you do before the Virtual March arrives? Submit letters to the editor about the Virtual March, asking fellow Americans to join us at http://pickensplan.com/virtualmarch. Recruit family, friends, and co-workers to join us. Help recruit companies and other organizations to join us as Virtual March partners. Spread the word far and wide.

Thank you for your support. After you call/email/fax our members of Congress, visit the district group page and leave a comment letting your fellow district members know that you've taken action. When you recruit a partner organization, let me know so we can get them recognized on the Virtual March page.

Let's get ready to storm Washington in a way never before seen!

Comment by Mike Johnston on March 28, 2009 at 7:19am

In these final days leading up to the virtual march I want everyone to spread this on twitter and get us major exposure to the millions of twitter users by using the hashtags: #pickensplan and #virtualmarch

By including these hashtags twitter will group all of your messages together and the pickens virtual march will be listed on twitter hot topics. many news agencies are watching twitter hot topics to see how the audience feels about issues and which stories will be popular for them to cover.
Here is a suggested sample post for you:

The Pickens Plan Virtual March On Washington begins April 1 with over 3.5 million people! : http://bit.ly/lXhLv #pickensplan #virtualmarch

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