Carbon Neutral

Add a Comment

Comment by Chris Caldwell on September 19, 2008 at 7:59pm

My Blog. Technology is available now! Get it together!
National Environmental Report
Learn about Oil Free Air Bearings
See How A MicroTurbine Works

Comment by Karen Nardella on September 17, 2008 at 3:29am

I just read Obamas New Energy Plan, you will find it at www.scribd.com. I also read Mcain-Lieberman Act, S. 342 and his New Energy Plan "Lexington Project" you will find it at www.nrdc.org/energy. I will say that God Help us if Obama does get in-this man is truely without a clue. Mcain is more in line and I wrote him sujecting he just try and out ego aside and partner with T. Boone. Together the three of them would have a real plan. We will see if old ways can be over come. Anyway, we should be informed on all sides. So, if you want to know where our candidates stand this is where you will find your answers. Thank you for reading this. Karen Nardella

Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on September 11, 2008 at 8:12am

On the anniversary of the day that eats at the American soul, and at the hour that we heard of the deaths at the Pentagon had been added to the toll at the twin towers in Manhattan, I say a prayer of mourning.

God save these innocent souls. May the light of their sacrifice become a beacon to lead our Nation to understanding its role in the world.

We have spent these last seven years in a futile attempt to reconcile their loss, even starting wars for reasons that remain indecipherable to the people of this planet.

Many would not dare utter this sentiment, but it is obvious to me that we were attacked because of our energy policy. Directly or indirectly, energy is the reason for our presence in the Middle East. Bin Laden has repeatedly stated that we were attacked because of our presence in his homeland, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis sit on a quarter trillion barrels of oil.

19 of the attackers on 9/11 were Saudi.

As some of the engineers who post here say, do the math.

Comment by Walt Barrett on September 10, 2008 at 6:12am

I am new to this group but have forty years in the solar energy manufacturing, sales and installation of solar heating and hot water systems including geothermal heat pumps. I no longer manufacture these items but would like to know that if we produce a FREE video on building inexpensive DIY solar hot water collectors, how many of you would be interested? We are also currently building a totally off the power grid micro home, and have an ongoing slide show showing our progress up on the Pickens site.
Thanks,
Walt

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on September 7, 2008 at 11:33am

Mike

Yep I will be positive here also :o}

Mike

Comment by Bruce Eric Montgomery on September 6, 2008 at 5:46pm

Everyone contributes to carbon dioxide emissions, but some more than others. Reducing global CO2 emissions requires that we have a good understanding of the current picture. Serious progress can be made if we develop a renewable source of electricity that is cheaper than coal.

Comment by Bruce Eric Montgomery on August 30, 2008 at 9:17am

IBERDROLA RENEWABLES announced today that construction is underway on a 50 megawatt (MW) wind farm, the Buffalo Ridge Wind Power Project near White, South Dakota. The project, expected to be complete in 2009 contingent upon passage of the Production Tax Credit, will export enough energy for approximately 15,000 homes each year.

"The construction of yet another large-scale wind energy project in Brookings County by IBERDROLA RENEWABLES represents South Dakota's willingness to be a significant contributor to a new energy economy that lessens our dependence on foreign oil and enhances our national security," Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said. "Not only will Brookings County benefit from the economic development and jobs that accompany this new project, customers in Indiana will gain from utilizing this clean, renewable source of energy that symbolizes the future of our country's energy economy.

I offer my best wishes to IBERDROLA RENEWABLES as they move ahead with Buffalo Ridge and will continue my work at the federal level to ensure that the incentives and support are available for future projects that capitalize on the role rural America can and will play in moving our country toward greater energy independence."

The power generated from this South Dakota wind farm will be purchased by Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), serving more than 445,000 electric customers across the northern third of Indiana.

"With our successful MinnDakota Wind Power Project also operating in Brookings County, IBERDROLA RENEWABLES is delighted to once again bring jobs and additional property taxes to the community," said Tim Seck, director of development for IBERDROLA RENEWABLES. "In this case, South Dakota is able to export clean, renewable wind power to our customer NIPSCO just as South Dakota farmers export corn and soybeans."

"Increasing NIPSCO's renewable energy capacity with wind power is a positive step for the environment and for our customers," said Eileen O'Neill Odum, Chief Executive Officer of NIPSCO. "A competitive bidding process was conducted before selecting a supplier, and Buffalo Ridge and Barton Windpower offered the most cost-effective and reliable sources of wind energy for our customers."

The Buffalo Ridge Wind Power Project will include 50 Suzlon turbines. As with the MinnDakota wind project, IBERDROLA RENEWABLES will build and operate the new wind farm.

IBERDROLA RENEWABLES is currently the world's leading provider of wind power with more than 8,000 MW of wind power in operation globally now.

Between 2008 and 2012, the company will invest $26.8 billion globally to achieve installed capacity of close to 18,000 MW and production of more than 42,000 GWh.

IBERDROLA RENEWABLES will invest $8 billion in the U.S. between 2008 and 2012 and plans to install 1,000 MW of wind power each year in the U.S. www.iberdrolarenewables.us.

Comment by Eric Straatsma MS on August 26, 2008 at 10:39am

Want to be carbon neutral? Do you live in Texas Or New York?

A free green energy system is here now for those who live in New York and Texas, 22 other states are coming as soon as they are fully energy deregulated. Imagine your house and car powered 100% by clean green wind power.. It is possible, as both Pickens and Al Gore say.

www.aaagreenenergy.com

Going green with electricity for a home is as easy as switching energy providers in deregulated states such as Texas and New York. Just switch to an energy provider that offers this option.. Click on link to see what the latest up to date electricity rates are. I can answer any concerns or questions.

Imagine living in a home powered by wind, without spending a dime on machines, wires, inverters, towers, and grid interties or panels!

You can also plug your electric scooter or car into your home and recharge it with wind power also... Guess what?

You are now a living example that Al Gore's and Picken's Plan works.. We can all live 100% green like this if we want to. Getting 100% carbon free for home electricity and cars is not that hard.. Make the choice... go green. If you live a monopoly energy state where you have no choices, push for deregulation, so that you at least have this power and this CHOICE available.

At the very least, save some money and pick a lower priced energy plan.. The above site will also let you compare rates and save up to 28% on your electricity bill. Try it out.. It is FREE to switch and no costs are involved as far as equipment or installation.

Careers are opening up in this field.

Green energy consultants are needed in all 50 states. Contact me if interested.

Comment by amy oconnor on August 24, 2008 at 10:43am

Check out the Legislation tracking group so we can follow the A/E Tax Credit Bill(s) and make sure the right one gets passed without too much negative pork attached to it which will defeat the purpose of what were all trying to do here..( why break our necks to looby congress to pass a bill for some small token incentive when a hidden addendum to the bill allows them to fully open ANWR for drilling and kill all the remaining polar bears that havent already drowned?

http://push.pickensplan.com/group/legislationtracking

I have also located a website that gives us the elected officials of each state and the date they are up for relection, When we find members from the states they are from we can hit them hard by email and telephone to let them know their constituents wont vote for them if they oppose TPP...

Comment by Bruce Eric Montgomery on August 19, 2008 at 12:32pm

Green economics is the economics of the real world—the world of work, human needs, the Earth’s materials, and how they mesh together most harmoniously. It is primarily about “use-value”, not “exchange-value” or money. It is about quality, not quantity for the sake of it. It is about regeneration---of individuals, communities and ecosystems---not about accumulation, of either money or material.



The industrial or capitalist definition of wealth has always been about the accumulation of money and matter. Any use-values generated (i.e. social needs met) have been secondary—a side-effect, by-product, spin-off or trickle-down—to the primary goal of monetary accumulation. For two centuries, the quest to accumulate money or capital drove a powerful industrialization process that actually did spin off many human benefits, however unfairly distributed. But blind material and monetary growth has reached a threshold where it is generating more destruction than real wealth. A postindustrial world requires an economics of quality, where both money and matter are returned to a status of means to an end. Green economics means a direct focus on meeting human and environmental need.



Tinkering with money, interest rates, or even state regulation is insufficient in creating sensible economies. One can scarcely imagine a more inefficient, irrational and wasteful way to organize any sector of the economy than what we actually have right now. Both the form and the content of sustainable agriculture, of green manufacturing, of soft energy, etc. are diametrically opposed to their current industrial counterparts, which are intrinsically wasteful. There is no justifiable rationale to be producing vast quantities of toxic materials; or generating more deskilled than skilled labour; or displacing labour rather than resources from production; or extending giant wasteful loops of production & consumption through globalization. These are economic inefficiencies, economic irrationalities that can only be righted by starting from scratch—to look at the most elegant and efficient ways of doing everything. As green economist Paul Hawken writes, our social and environmental crises are not problems of management, but of design. We need a system overhaul.



Green economics is not just about the environment. Certainly we must move to harmonize with natural systems, to make our economies flow benignly like sailboats in the wind of ecosystem processes. But doing this requires great human creativity, tremendous knowledge, and the widespread participation of everyone. Human beings and human workers can no longer serve as cogs in the machine of accumulation, be it capitalistic or socialistic. Ecological development requires an unleashing of human development and an extension of democracy. Social and ecological transformation go hand-in-hand.



Green economics and green politics both emphasize the creation of positive alternatives in all areas of life and every sector of the economy. Green economics does not prioritize support for either the "public" or the "private" sector. It argues that BOTH sectors must be transformed so that markets express social and ecological values, and the state becomes merged with grassroots networks of community innovation. For this to happen, new economic processes must be designed, and new rules of the game written, so that incentives for ecological conduct are built into everyday economic life. The state can then function less as a policeman, and more as a coordinator. This is a very different kind of "self-regulation" than current profit- and power- driven market forces. The basis for self-regulation in a green economy would be community, and intelligent design which provides incentives for the right things.

Here are ten interrelated principles that cover key dimensions of a green economy:

1. The Primacy of Use-value, Intrinsic Value & Quality: This is the fundamental principle of the green economy as a service economy, focused on end-use, or human and environment needs. Matter is a means to the end of satisfying real need, and can be radically conserved. Money similarly must be returned to a status as a means to facilitate regenerative exchanges, rather than an end in itself. When this is done in even a significant portion of the economy, it can undercut the totalitarian power of money in the entire economy.

2. Following Natural Flows: The economy moves like a proverbial sailboat in the wind of natural processes by flowing not only with solar, renewable and "negawatt" energy, but also with natural hydrological cycles, with regional vegetation and food webs, and with local materials. As society becomes more ecological, political and economic boundaries tend to coincide with ecosystem boundaries. That is, it becomes bioregional.

3. Waste Equals Food: In nature there is no waste, as every process output is an input for some other process. This principle implies not only a high degree of organizational complementarity, but also that outputs and by-products are nutritious and non-toxic enough to be food for something.

4. Elegance and Multifunctionality: Complex food webs are implied by the previous principle--integrated relationships which are antithetical to industrial society's segmentation and fragmentation. What Roberts & Brandum (1995) call "economics with peripheral vision", this elegance features "problem-solving strategies that develop multiple wins and positive side-effects from any one set of actions".

5. Appropriate Scale / Linked Scale: This does not simply mean "small is beautiful", but that every regenerative activity has its most appropriate scale of operation. Even the smallest activities have larger impacts, however, and truly ecological activity "integrates design across multiple scales", reflecting influence of larger on smaller and smaller on larger (Van der Ryn and Cowan, 1996).

6. Diversity: In a world of constant flux, health and stability seem to depend on diversity. This applies to all levels (diversity of species, of ecosystems, of regions), and to social as well as ecological organization.

7. Self-Reliance, Self-Organization, Self-Design: Complex systems necessarily rely on "nested hierarchies" of intelligence which coordinate among themselves in a kind of resonant dance. These hierarchies are built from the bottom up, and--in contrast to civilization's social hierarchies--the base levels are the most important. In an economy which moves with ecosystem processes, tremendous scope for local response, design and adaptation must be provided--although these local and regional domains must be attuned to larger processes. Self-reliance is not self-sufficiency, but facilitates a more flexible and holistic interdependence.

8. Participation & Direct Democracy: To enable flexibility and resilience, ecological economic design features a high "eyes to acres" ratio (Van der Ryn & Cowan, 1996)--that is, lots of local observation and participation. Conversely, ecological organization and new information/communications technologies can provide the means for deeper levels of participation in the decisions that count in society.

9. Human Creativity and Development: Displacing resources from production and tuning into the spontaneous productivity of nature requires tremendous creativity. It requires all-round human development that entails great qualities of nurture. These are qualities of giving and real service that have been suppressed (especially in men) by the social and psychological conditioning of the industrial order. In green change, the personal and political, the social and ecological, go hand-in-hand. Social, aesthetic and spiritual capacities become central to attaining economic efficiency, and become important goals in themselves.

10. The Strategic role of the Built-environment, the Landscape & Spatial Design: As Permaculturalist Bill Mollison has emphasized, the greatest efficiency gains can often be achieved by a simple spatial rearrangement of system components. Elegant, mixed-use integrated design which moves with nature is place-based. In addition, our buildings, in one way or another, absorb around 40 per cent of materials and energy throughput in North America. Thus, conservation and efficiency improvements in this sector impact tremendously on the entire economy.


Green economic conversion must be radical, but it must also be incremental and organic. How is this possible? Rodale cites the need for a kind of economic succession which mimics ecological landscape change. We need "pioneer enterprises" which can thrive in today's hostile economic landscape, but also prepare the ground for more ecological and egalitarian enterprises to come. A vision of what each sector of the economy would look like in an ecological economy--based on the specifics of each place--is a starting point. This vision must be coupled with practical action in each of these sectors, gradually moving toward this vision. Enough practical activity can eventually generate the impetus for state action to level the playing field for ecological alternatives.

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last