Pickens Plan District Group OH-16

Comment

Comment by J Jay Pirko 17 hours ago

Notice to Entrepreneurs in the New Energy Economy:

ADVANCED-ENERGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR IN WARREN, OHIO

The Youngstown-Warren Ohio region (in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania) is a hotbed for Green Energy technology and business opportunity.

The Youngstown Business Journal published this article, another example of their outstanding business news coming from the Youngstown region. (I strongly recommend subscribing to the Youngstown Business Journal daily news broadcasts, and in-depth printed newspaper.)

- James Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader


NorTech to Help Launch Warren Incubator
-- 12/15/2009
Dec. 22, 2009 6:48 a.m.
By Dennis LaRue
WARREN, Ohio -- Possessed of a vision and fortified with $2.7 million in federal and state grants and another $1.7 million in private funding, a steering committee of 26 will, over the next 10 months, work toward the birth of an advanced-energy business incubator downtown.

Midwife to this birth is Rebecca O. Bagley, president and CEO of NorTech, a consulting firm based in downtown Cleveland whose tagline is “Growing Northeast Ohio’s High Tech Economy.”

Bagley, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, state Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-32 Hubbard, state Rep. Tom Letson, D-64 Warren, and Mayor Michael O’Brien, outlined their vision Monday of what such an incubator might achieve in the fields of “advanced energy and flexible materials.”

Long on optimism and short on specifics, the four expressed hope the incubator will rejuvenate manufacturing in Mahoning Valley through infant enterprises that one day produce parts for windmills, geothermal, solar and nuclear energy plants and sources of energy other than petroleum, coal and natural gas.

“Four hundred tons of steel go into a windmill,” Ryan noted.

Bagley offered a number of people she expects would be employed in the incubator -- “50 to 70 jobs” – rather the number of companies that would be housed there.

“We have done some market testing,” she said later, reporting that “450 firms” in the region are interested.

The incubator is incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that will be funded by both the public and private sectors.

The site of the incubator, whether it will be a converted building or a brand-new structure, and its design all must be worked out, to be determined by the steering committee that includes “nine CEOs or CEO-level executives,” Bagley said.

Mike Garvey, president of M 7 Technologies, Youngstown, and William Letson, president of the Trumbull 100, were present at yesterday’s press event in Ryan’s Warren office. So, too, were leaders from organized labor such as Gary Steinbeck, Sub-District 1 director of the United Steel Workers of America, and Mark Catello, business manager of Local 573 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Tony Iarusso, executive director of Warren Redevelopment and Planning, “will be involved,” O’Brien promised.

“Our role is facilitation,” Bagley said, “walking the steering committee through the process.”

The steering committee will look closely at the Youngstown Business Incubator, which Ryan called “a successful model [that will help the committee] avoid landmines.” He praised its success, noting it has earned national attention and, he hopes, the Warren incubator will too.

O’Brien voiced great optimism about the incubator, which in conjunction with the main campus of Eastern Gateway Community College to be established in Warren, should boost his city’s economy. Bagley and Ryan expect a partnership will develop between the community college and incubator.

“From North Park [Avenue] to Main Street,” O’Brien predicted, “within the next year, all [vacant buildings] will be filled.”

After nearly 30 years of neglect from Washington and Columbus, he rejoiced in the funding for the incubator and the development of the community college campus.

O’Brien pronounced himself “thoroughly impressed by the connectivity” of the Ohio House of Representatives, Ohio Senate and Congress that allowed the public funding of the incubator.

Before founding NorTech, Bagley served as deputy secretary for the Technology Investment Office of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development under Gov. Ed Rendell, says the biography provided by NorTech. There she “was responsible for the administration of several major state programs and initiatives, including the Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the Keystone Innovation Zone program, the research and development tax credit program and the manufacturing strategy.”

In that role, she managed “more than $1.7 billion in investments for Pennsylvania.”

Before that she was an investment banker in New York City where she was involved in oil and gas mergers and raising capital for various energy ventures.

She earned her baccalaureate in marketing at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Copyright 2009 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

Comment by James Lutz on December 20, 2009 at 1:47pm

Provide a zoning strategy that promotes a business on the first floor with residences on the upper floors in urban areas, and it will encourage small business. These small businesses will source, employ, and sell locally, stimulation local agriculture, manufacturing, and economic diversity. Plus the people of these urban areas in many cases will not require a car, increasing their dispensable income and decreasing their environmental impact.

Comment by J Jay Pirko on December 20, 2009 at 1:22pm

Global Green USA Finds City (Youngstown) Fertile Ground

To the Pickens Plan Army:

You have heard me describe the Youngstown Ohio region (in northeast Ohio and
western Pennsylvania) as a hotbed for Green Energy technology and business
opportunity.

The Youngstown Business Journal published this article, an example of their outstanding business news coming from the Youngstown region. (I strongly recommend subscribing to the Youngstown Business Journal daily news broadcasts, and in-depth printed newspaper.)

- James Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader

Global Green USA Finds City Fertile Ground
Dec. 18, 2009 6:32 a.m.
By Dan O’Brien
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The city missed out on the technology revolution during the last decade and it won’t make the same mistake with the “green” revolution, vow U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17, and Mayor Jay Williams.

Ryan and Williams announced Thursday a partnership with Global Green USA, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Monica, Calif., that pledges to help the city get grants and philanthropic contributions to boost its stature in environmental and neighborhood redevelopment.

“We are committed to make sure that we don’t miss the green revolution that’s coming,” Ryan told reporters during a conference call. Ryan and about 30 other members of Congress joined world leaders in Copenhagen yesterday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

“We have a partner with Global Green that’s internationally recognized and is going to help re-brand Youngstown and put Youngstown back on the map,” Ryan said. “This is something that totally takes Youngstown to the next level.”

Ryan said Global Green’s expertise in the field “expedites what we thought would take much longer” to accomplish.

Matt Petersen, president of Global Green, said his company would help the city craft an environmental and neighborhood sustainability component to its Youngstown 2010 plan.

“We were looking for a community to work with in the state of Ohio for awhile,” said Petersen, also on the call from Copenhagen. He noted that the organization wanted to work with an area in which it could “create a model that embodies everything we need to do in this world, such as green jobs and affordable energy to low-income families.”

The idea has already received $25,000 in contributions from Youngstown State University alumnus Jack Scott, president of Applied Systems and Technology Transfer. That figure was matched by the Raymond John Wean Foundation, which has taken an aggressive role in promoting and supporting housing and neighborhood revitalization projects.

Petersen said he’s impressed with the work that’s already been done relative to Youngstown 2010, the city’s long-range land use plan that was launched six years ago.

“It will help us contribute to Youngstown 2010 in regards to the ‘greening’ of the city,” Williams said.

That could translate in identifying new ways to adapt green space in the city that’s been vacated as a result of demolition projects, Williams said. “Global Green has got a strong history on finding productive ways to reuse this space,” he said.

As an example, the mayor said green parcels could be reused to develop an urban agriculture program. “It could be a plan to provide fresh food in the inner city to a small-scale economic venture,” he said.

The partnership with Green Global would also yield a design competition to redevelop areas of the city, in specific a neighborhood along the south side.

“It’s still in the early stages,” Williams said. “I think by early next year we’ll have more to report.”

Here are the goals of the partnership, as stated in press materials:

• Create a climate action and sustainability plan that builds on Youngstown 2010 and could be implemented near to mid-term.

• Establish a neighborhood-specific plan on an as-yet unidentified area of the south side that suffers from devastating levels of blight.

• Attract provocative and creative ideas through design competition that could bring national attention and resources to the project.

• Establish measurable indicators of progress, documenting model policies and best practices t hat would be shared with regional and national leaders.

• Leverage existing investments and secure funding commitments from local and regional organizations and congressional appropriations.

• Create a regional framework of ideas and next steps that will identify how the “greening” of Youngstown could influence the greening of Rust Belt communities in the Midwest.

Copyright 2009 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

Comment by J Jay Pirko on November 22, 2009 at 8:20am

NEO Clean Energy Network Meeting in Trumbull County
Tuesday, November 24, 2009, from 7-8:30 p.m.

Energy Efficiency's Role in Green Building

Michael Hein and Jason Clark of The Green Building Pros are the main speakers for a Clean Energy Network Meeting in Trumbull County on Tuesday, November 24, 2009, from 7-8:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in Room 117 of the Kent State University Trumbull Campus Technology Building. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Hein and Clark will discuss "Energy Efficiency's Role in Green Building" and will deal with topics such as what makes a building "green," why energy efficiency is important to homeowners and small business owners, and energy audits. To make existing buildings more energy efficient, an energy audit is the place to start. The speakers will explain what is involved in an energy audit and the reports produced to help determine the steps needed to reduce energy use while maintaining a comfortable and healthy building. A question/answer session will follow the presentation. Also, attendees will discuss future meeting topics.

The Green Building Pros (GBP) is a collaboration of energy efficiency and sustainability experts dedicated to bringing their expertise to the marketplace in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. The staff at GBP has decades of experience in the construction industry and hold advanced degrees and certifications in sustainability and green building. This experience and education – coupled with memberships and accreditation by leading organizations in green building and energy efficiency organizations such as the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), and the Building Performance Institute (BPI) – position GBP to be a leader in the growing green building market. GBP is on the Web at http://thegreenbuildingpros.com/.

Clean Energy Network in Trumbull County is a group dedicated to increasing awareness in sustainability, green building and renewable energy technologies by bringing together like-minded people in the area. The Clean Energy Network in Trumbull County is a regional affiliate of Green Energy Ohio.

For more information about the Clean Energy Network and the Trumbull County meeting, contact Dave Ambrose at 330-647-3666 or dambrose1@neo.rr.com.

Green Energy Ohio is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally and economically sustainable energy policies and practices in Ohio. GEO is the Ohio Chapter of the American Solar Energy Society. GEO promotes renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass and low-impact hydro) statewide by acting as a clearinghouse to inform Ohioans on sustainable energy. The GEO

Comment by J Jay Pirko on November 18, 2009 at 2:52pm

This was sent to me by Kenneth Prendergast, Executive Director of All Aboard Ohio!

As we ponder the removal of urban rail transit systems that anchored walkable neighborhoods, the abandonment and destruction of many U.S. cities over the past 50 years, the isolation of the urban poor, the nation's immobilized elderly population, the creation of sprawling car-dependent suburbia where transit cannot effectively serve or survive, our depletion of our once-world leading domestic oil reserves and thus ever-worsening dependence on imported oil, as well as dangerously high carbon emissions, consider these issues in the context of the eye-opening Harper's article by Jonathan Kwitney from February, 1981, "The Great Transportation Conspiracy."

The article, scanned column by column, was uploaded to a friend's web site as a series of JPGs displayed by an html file. A text search won't stumble across it; one has to know where to look. Well here it is:

http://robertpence.com/streetcars/streetcars.html

From time to time, interviews and articles surface where some current or retired transit official claims it never happened. That's not too surprising, considering that when Kwitney researched his article he found "no more than three" such people who claimed to have any knowledge of the events. Probably a lot of former execs and employees from that era had already died off, and I speculate that some who denied any knowledge were trying to conceal their own complicity.

Kwitney presents such a thoroughly-researched, detailed narrative that it's pretty hard to believe the claims of those who deny it ever happened.

KJP

Comment by Lynne Pultea on November 18, 2009 at 3:44am

NO they are used along bridges and commerical builings.

Comment by James Lutz on November 17, 2009 at 8:17pm

It sounds like windpods are a low-wattage urban solution, better for a house at low altitudes. Most train tracks would go through plenty of rural area where a larger unit can be placed.

Comment by Lynne Pultea on November 15, 2009 at 4:40pm

http://www.windpods.com/technology.html

Comment by Lynne Pultea on November 15, 2009 at 4:34pm

Windpods would probably be better for this than wind turbines along the tracks.

Comment by J Jay Pirko on November 15, 2009 at 11:10am

This was sent to me by Kenneth Prendergast, Executive Director of All Aboard Ohio!

The Oil Situation Is Really Bad
by Dave Cohen

Published Nov 12 2009 by ASPO-USA, Archived Nov 12 2009


On the eve of the International Energy Agency’s release of its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), a whistleblower at the IEA claims the agency “has been deliberately underplaying a looming [oil] shortage for fear of triggering panic buying” in the world markets. As the young fan said to “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who was wrongly convicted of helping to throw the 1919 World Series, but knew the fix was in, say it ain’t so, Joe.

Ah, but apparently it is so. Another dose of disillusionment for the naive. A second Guardian informant went so far as to say the situation is really bad—

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organization’s latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies…

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organization was that it was “imperative not to anger the Americans” but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. “We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad,” he added.

READ MORE AT:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/50688

READ IEA'S WEO REPORT AT:
http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/

READ THE GUARDIAN ARTICLE AT:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency#history-byline

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