Neighborhood Electric Vehicles

Comment

Comment by Chris Schneider on February 5, 2009 at 6:54am

Lisle,
Thank you for bringing your Columbia Summit mounted with 3 solar panels to the Tomah area Town Gathering last week. It was an awesome display of technology working together to wean America off of foreign oil. Keep up the great work in Reedsburg, Wisconsin!
Chris

Comment by Chris Schneider on February 5, 2009 at 6:53am

In less than two weeks, Tom Schee and I will be taking the Early Earth Day Odyssey including the video, Journey to the ZONE (Zero Oil, No Emissions) and a Columbia MEGA NEV to Black RIver Falls, Cadott, Ladysmith, Hayward, Medford, Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids. If you live near these communities please RSVP my Pickens Plan events page and encourage others to attend. The discussion will be heavily oriented to CNG technology that Mr. Pickens is advocating! Thanks,
Chris Schneider
Hybrid Guru

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on February 5, 2009 at 1:47am

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on February 3, 2009 at 3:43pm

February 3, 2009

Dear Mr. Fernald:

Thank you for contacting me with your views regarding the economic stimulus package. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.

Every day, we hear more reports of massive job losses, and Maine is no exception with an increase in its unemployment rate to seven percent. Congress must work with President Obama to get the economy moving again. I believe, however, that it is critical that Congress pass an economic stimulus bill that achieves the right balance, right size, and right mix of tax relief and spending programs to ensure that any stimulus legislation will actually boost the economy and create jobs, not just add to the soaring deficit.

In that regard, I have serious concerns with the $819 billion bill that has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. I am working with Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), on a bipartisan, compromise plan that would result in a smaller and more targeted bill that would help get our economy back on track.

In addition to infrastructure investments, the stimulus should include funding to help states avoid cuts in essential health care programs, tax relief for low and middle-income families, tax incentives to help small businesses, and investments in energy conservation to help create jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come up with a final stimulus package that is bipartisan, targeted and effective.

Sincerely,
Susan M. Collins

United States Senator

SMC: dsc

Comment by Chris Schneider on January 31, 2009 at 4:19pm

The Early Earth Day Odyssey was an enormous task and opportunity. To visit 29 different communities to communicate about the economic, environmental and national security benefits of CNG and NEV vehicles remains daunting even after the 1st stage is complete. But I would like to review the first 9 communities in an effort to encourage more Pickens Planners to participate and to make sure that I am maximizing the efforts of my associate, Tom Schee and myself.

Finding the right person at the right venue was generally the first objective. This was made easier by the fact that Tom and I have visited most of these communities and campuses on earlier trips. Coordinating campus schedules and allowing enough time for loading and unloading vehicles, props and the video, Journey to the ZONE (Zero Oil, No Emissions) was learned on last year's adventure.
Rising early and being prepared to forego lunch and then travel until after dark before retiring is just the physical challenge that we were required to perform. Sometimes the mental anguish of explaining the importance of the message was a part of the other challenges but I must say that most campuses have a small but persistant group of people that understand this mission had been sidetracked since the '70's and must be realigned now. The absurdly low oil prices certainly have a contributed to the inertia that can be present at some communities. But as Winston Churchill said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

Our first stop was in a community that has already demonstrated the vision to invest in NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) technology. The mayor of Whitehall has also been working with legislators to broaden the usage of NEVs in communities that are dissected by state highways. This was our "dress rehearsal" and we learned that the dolly that we had rented for transporting the CNG Honda CIvic GX was going to damage the nose of the car partially due to the below zero temperatures. But as Elbert Hubbard said, "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one." After the initial damage, we did not have to be afraid of making that mistake again.

The city of Eau Claire has recently passed the NEV ordinance, so we were anxious to get the city officials involved in the presentation at UW-Eau Claire. The venue was outstanding but the community response did not include a city official from Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls or Bloomer. The sustainability community is developing as a result of a recently appointed Sustainability Fellow but our first event beyond "dress rehearsal" was clearly not a sell-out.

A family friend from the '60's provided the conections at Rice Lake that proved that small communities can still be some of the most enlightened. I must thank Kathy and Debbie for making the WITC event one of the best on stage 1 and a fitting end of an otherwise dissappointing start. My discussion of WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio) as well as the local press releases to the weekly newspapers fueled the majority of the attendence. The questions and comments were great.

UW-Superior was a cold and early gathering that proved successful on the basis that the local technical colleges sent teachers and students that provided the enthusiasm that we needed to start the middle stage to be rewarding.

We encountered great attendance at Wisconsin's premiere independent environmental college at Northland College. But a miscommunication with the AV personnel created a rushed atmosphere for me and I was not at my finest. But as Henry David Thoreau said, "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined," and I do and have lived the energy efficient life. Many of the audience will as well but technical difficulties prevented this event from being as effective as the graduates.

The first day radio interview was a premonition of the success of the Rhinelander event. The Nicolet Technical College press release even got us TV coverage and the response in attendance and questions proved again that small communites can be some of the most enlightened. I even stayed to say hello to an incredibly interesting explorer named, Eric Larsen. Please take my recommendation to see his presentation if he is in your "neighborhood."

Wausau has been a location that we have visited repeatedly in recent times but a last minute venue change prevented this gathering from being successful.

UW-Stevens Point is the home of the environmental education program for the UW system. Our PR work must be better next time but a dedicated group of "green" people and the opportunity to return the following day for a special event made Stevens Point a special location.

Thank goodness that the Pickens Plan prompted me to encourage speakers with solar and NEV specialties to participate. The PR for the event was apparently non-existant but the interest came from within. And the opportunity to see Columbia's first Summit NEV with a solar charging system made it all worthwhile. John Keats was quoted as saying, "I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best." And I was among the best experts in their fields in our area.

Thank you to all of you who had a hand in making the 1st stage of the Early Earth Day Odyssey as successful as it was in January. Stay tuned for the 2nd stage in February! Please RSVP the events in your area to send a signal to other PP'ers to get involved.

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on January 28, 2009 at 4:18am

Hi Mike Anthony, Here is a way to help and give tools to all of us for getting more RE projects started. I have been pushing for the sell of US Treasury "Energy Independence Savings Bonds". Savings bonds are normally purchased in $25 increments. This gives a way for just about any American to tighten their belts just a bit by skipping a meal at McDonalds or Pizza Hut and buying a RE savings bond to support a project. I need help pushing this project, I've faxed and emailed many in Congress/Senate already. My email is ke6cvh@yahoo.com. Here is a copy of a fax sent to Nancy Pelosi yesterday:
27FEB09

Honorable Speaker of the House Congresswoman Pelosi,

I am an Electronic Technician Chief in the US Navy with 27 years service stationed overseas. I’m outlying an idea to assist and work with current plans for achieving energy independence. I urge you, as speaker of the house and the driving force to form the select committee on energy independence and global warming, consider for discussion and introduction into the house US Treasury Savings Bonds for Energy Independance.
In WWII America sold war bonds supporting the war effort. When young, my mother told me her primary school raised enough money through bonds to build a tank to support troops. I am impressed with the patriotism and purpose of our greatest generation that accomplished so much.

Selling energy bonds for RE (Renewable Energy) development would lower foreign oil imports and assist with the complex problem of funding. Bonds sold as “Energy S” could support new solar trough plants, “Energy W” to support wind farms, Energy “H” to support hydroelectric plants, Energy “T” to support RE transportation such as electric bullet train routes powered by RE, Energy "C" COOPS for small communities only needing a small quantity of turbines, and Energy “I” for needed infrastructure high voltage power lines to the RE site. Bonds will have the project name and include an artist’s perspective of the project and an American flag. President Obama had great success with the internet during his campaign. In a similar manner, using the internet, energy bonds could have a website listing current projects and an “electronic checkout” could purchase a bond $25 or higher. Simpler methods of payment such as “PAYPAL” and credit cards would be available and after an electronic purchase is complete a color print out of the bond is available with a follow up of the bond in the mail. The website would limit quantity of projects for each category until funding is complete. After a project becomes funded, a new project will be available. A tab on the site will show history and status of previous projects. Purchasers may take great pride in “collecting” and displaying bonds of various RE projects and participating at different levels of financial support. Solar trough plants in the multi-hundred MW size capacity with molten salt energy storage in California, Arizona, and West Texas can provide a major portion of electric needs. North Dakota has potential to support 1/3 of our nations electric needs in it’s class 4 wind zone areas. There are plenty of suitable proposed wind turbine farms now around the nation to significantly increase our RE if funded. Mid sized hydro-electric has not been used in America to it’s full potential. Following the example of our neighbor, Canada, it would provide a significant increase in percentage of electric production. Developing all three we could provide the majority of our electric and heating needs through renewable energy in a "New New Deal" fashion allowing natural gas for transportation as T. Boone Pickens is working for. Bullet train routes have proven a viable alternative to commercial domestic air service and when powered by electricity provided by RE suppliers America would be in the forefront of world technology. Example, I heard of discussion for a commuter train from Denver to Colorado Springs. Such a route built as a renewable energy project with charter requirement legally requiring to only purchase electricity from available renewable energy sources would be a model example. There are many train routes, city bus systems, and government vehicles that can be converted to run from alternative energy sources and fuels. Jobs created would bolster the economy, lower trade deficit, and strengthen national security. I would take great pride in print outs of bonds with graphics of each project I supported and many other Americans would also. The energy bonds could have tax breaks. BLM lands may be a viable place to start for some projects.

I contacted the US treasury department and was told that the marketing department for savings bonds closed several years ago. I was told there would be problems because savings bonds are at the federal level while the projects will be at the state and local level. I disagree and believe that these can easily be figured out in the way of grants to the state and local level using money from the bonds for those specific projects. I was told to check out auctions on the www.treasurydirect.gov website and found them to not apply to citizens wanting to buy savings bonds to support a cause such as energy independance. I was told by the treasury department to look into CREB (Clean Renewable Energy Bonds). I found CREB to be large scale funding that a citizen would not be able to participate in as a US Treasury Energy Independance Bond would provide. If given the tools to participate directly, the power of the citizens of the United States to help achieve energy independance could not be denied. Americans mean well and the Energy Independance Savings bond program will give citizens the power at their level to make it happen. If marketed through a web page, commercials, and to federal employees the word would get out and participation would spread like wildfire.

Mr. Paul Gipe, a resident of Bakersfield CA, an author of several books about wind energy, and recipient of multiple awards as a pioneer in the industry since the 1970's has put a letter I wrote to Senator Dorgan on this subject as well as an older letter I wrote on wind COOP in JAN07. These websites are:

http://www.wind-works.org/coopwind/RenewableEnergyBondsforEnergyIndependence.html

and

http://www.wind-works.org/articles/AmericanEnergyIndependencethroughCooperativeInvestmentinWindEnergy.html

Sincerely and very respectfully,

ETC(SW/AW) Mike Kendall USN

Mailing address: PSC 476, Box 879, FPO AP, 96322 USA

Telephone (803) 265-4756, Email: ke6cvh@yahoo.com

Comment by Eric Koch on January 25, 2009 at 8:38am

Choosing What Cities Will Look Like in a World Without Oil

http://www. worldchanging. com/archives/009304. html

Choosing What Our Cities Will Look Like in a World Without Oil

Sarah Kuck

As we draw nearer to reaching the point of Peak Oil, it benefits us to imagine what our cities will look like in a world without oil.
Does this conjure up images of cities turned into urban farms just to produce enough food for us all? Do we devote all our energy to growing, bartering and trading the food we grow? Or will the city become divided, with the wealthy moving to the center while higher costs of living force lower-income families to the outer-ring suburbs, where access to goods, services and transport will be limited?

If we start now, we can choose what we want our cities to look like in the future. We can make them the resilient, sustainable centers of culture, justice, art and creativity that we hope they will become.


Author and Professor Peter Newman is asking us to imagine and then get to work building these urban centers. His book and talk, both titled Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change, ask audiences to honestly look at what will happen to our cities when we reach Peak Oil. During his 90 minute presentation last night at Seattle's City Hall, Newman explained to the full house how peak oil will soon change reality as we know it; and how if we choose to make it so, we can take this challenge as our opportunity to create a functional, just and sustainable world.


Picturing a future where we do nothing resulted in some frightening scenarios: ones where we are barely getting by and injustice is running rampant. But, as Newman explained, picturing a future in which we respond to the challenge by building resilient cities results in images of a flexible and supportive, flourishing society.


In order to build the new resilient city of the future, Newman said that “we need to stop building extra urban road capacity and urban scatter; we need to start building electric renewable cities with much greater localism in the economy and infrastructure.
”

“We need both at the same time," Newman said. "Or they will undermine what we need to do together.
”

Here are a few exceptional points, summarized from Newman's worldchanging presentation:

End Agglomeration Diseconomies
The freeway is a failed technology. Freeways don’t actually ultimately help people get where they want to go any faster; they simply scatter people and economies. Freeways fail as public spaces; as infrastructure, they are dinosaurs. Their impact on cities is not good for economics or people. So we should stop building them. We should instead organize and advocate for rail systems so we can reclaim and rehabilitate our open spaces. Car-dependent cities can begin to reclaim freeways by investing in rail transit and building up local economies around station hubs.


Density, Walkability and Affordable Housing
High quality, high rise developments in the city will increase walkability, and decrease the number of trips taken by car. These developments will function best if developers work in partnership with land use planners. To end the division and disagreements that high density development creates, we have to require all developments to allot 15 percent of space to social housing, and require 5 percent of the value of a development to go toward social infrastructure, like landscaped open-to-the-public space, public art, community centers, schools, arts facilities.


Complete Streets, Smart Grids
Cars won’t go away completely, even though the oil we currently use to power them will. The cars of the future will run on alternatively produced electricity. We can link the extra energy produced from solar and wind production systems to the batteries in our cars with Smart Grids. These energy linking systems help buildings and transportation power each other. (Read more about Smart Grids on Worldchanging here and here.
)

Eco-villages colonizing the fringe
Build eco-villages on the outskirts of the urban ring. Built with their own water, power and sewage systems, we can turn the crumbling suburbs into self sustaining eco-communities of the future.


What We Need to do Now
Newman gave vibrant examples of each of these ideas happening in cities all over the world, from Seoul to London, Copenhagen to Vancouver, B.C., these cities are proving that this is possible.
All we need now, said Newman, is imagination, post oil strategies, partnerships and demonstrations, and above all HOPE!

Let’s get to work.

Comment by Chris Schneider on January 24, 2009 at 8:49pm

Bob, Please call Tom Schee at (608) 784-6440 and tell him I sent you to set up a tour. The next Green Drinks in La Crosse will be February 10 at 6:30 pm at Hackberry's above the People's Food Coop. If you are coming, let me know in advance and I will see if Lisle from Baraboo or Marie from Camp Douglas would carpool. Thanks, Chris

Comment by Bob Kelly on January 18, 2009 at 7:25am

Chris
I live in Baraboo but have never visited the NEV factory in Reedsburg. Can you tell me who to contact to get a tour of the place and try to figure out how one of these vehicles could be incorporated into my day to day activity. Also when is the next green drinks in Lacrosse.

Thanks Bob Kelly www.solarenergytoday.net

Comment by Chris Schneider on January 17, 2009 at 1:21pm

I will be a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) this Wednesday, January 21.
Larry Meiller will host our discussion on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles from 11-11:45 am.
You can tune in your radio in Wisconsin or visit www.wpr.org and click on listen to WPR online.
The show is on the Ideas Network and you can call in toll-free at (800) 642-1234.
Please plan to participate and tell others to get involved!

Thanks,
Chris Schneider
Hybrid Guru
International Motorwerks
La Crosse, Wisconsin

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