Anne Violette's Page
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- Are you interested in becoming an organizer in your area?
- Maybe--But Not Sure What to Organize
- Tell us about your experience with alternative energy:
- I am a freelance writer and have written about energy and green environmental issues.
- What excites you about this campaign?
- Saving energy and money on fuel
- What do you want to do to help?
- I am a writer as a profession - 14+ years. I am also a professional photographer for 10+ years. Visit: www.ifreelance.com/pro/24979 OR www.photomaine.com to view samples of my work. My best asset to contribute would be in the written word, or with captivating images to express the implementation of harnessing the existing energy resources we have available without destroying our planet.
Anne Violette's Blog
www.thegreentreeproject.com is FOR SALE
Hello Energy Enthusiasts!
We have all been paying careful attention to this election. We need to choose the leader that is going to listen to Pickens and his brilliant ideas to better the energy crisis in this country.
I am not so sure either candidate is listening to the needs of America. As an independent, I dislike either candidate. Both are not telling the whole truth. I do like Sarah Palin. Maybe she should run for president next time.
We could be in real trouble if someone does not step… Continue
We have all been paying careful attention to this election. We need to choose the leader that is going to listen to Pickens and his brilliant ideas to better the energy crisis in this country.
I am not so sure either candidate is listening to the needs of America. As an independent, I dislike either candidate. Both are not telling the whole truth. I do like Sarah Palin. Maybe she should run for president next time.
We could be in real trouble if someone does not step… Continue
Posted on October 10, 2008 at 7:28am —
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Join this Ning Network
Thanks for offering REAL help!
Hope you can:
1. bring at least 5 friends and associates to the site
2. hit the red Contact Congress button to email your legislators and governors a request that they sign the pledge
3. get some pledges signed and faxed in to Boone. If you can get over 100 we would be proud to have you in the 100CLUB!
PLEASE see this video: http://push.pickensplan.com/video/video/show?id=2187034:Video:1249346 . It is very clear to even the pro alternative /renewable legislators that they will need significant and vocal support to "push back" the naysayers and give them a place to hang their "political hat" to support this plan. IT IS PURLEY POLITICAL. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Our success will be in our numbers!
Please get pledges signed and fax them in. We all meet so many people everyday, and they have not been counted yet. How badly do we want this? THEY ARE TELLING US THEY NEED HUGE numbers. Can we do it? ARE YOU IN?
Best
Kim
Just wanted to stop in and get your opinion on my latest cover design posted to my blog...
I would love your input.
Aidana WillowRaven
www.WillowRavenIllustration.com
901-325-1402
I just wanted to take a second of your time to invite you to view, A Solar Solution!
www.powur.com/homeenergy1 - click View Our Mission and if interested click the back arrow to Become an Ecopreneur.
Also you can see what we offer home owners - www.glenburniesolar.com
Thank You For Your Time
(Please feel free to add me as a friend)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/jul/23/germany.greenbusiness
Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff Legislation Introduced in U.S. Congress
While the Senate dawdles with one set of renewable energy incentives, four members of the House of Representatives, led by Jay Inslee (D-Washington), have introduced a new piece of legislation that everyone concerned about alternative energy in the United States really needs to watch.
Feed-In Tariff Legislation Introduced into House
The Renewable Energy Jobs and Security Act would create a feed-in tariff system of payments for small to mid-sized renewable energy suppliers (sites up to 20MW in size) similar to the one which has had such success, and has been recently expanded, in Germany.
Under a feed-in tariff system renewable electricty producers are paid a fixed, above market-rate, tariff for the electricity that is fed into the grid. The cost of this is then spread across all consumers of electricty. In Germany the estimated additional cost to the average family of three is €2 per month.
Inslee: “The feed-in tariff enacted in Germany in 2003 has helped the European nation achieve 55 percent of the world's installed solar capacity, provide 14 percent of its electricity supply from renewable sources and create at least 140,000 jobs. Similar policies also have been adopted by France, Spain and over 40 other countries, provinces and states.”
Inslee’s bill has three main components: guaranteed interconnection to the grid, long-term fixed rate contracts with electric utilities, and a rate-recovery program through a regional cost-sharing commission to minimize the impact on consumers. The bill would set technology-specific rates that utilities would pay renewable energy suppliers, that would incrementally decrease every two years for the 20 year lifespan of the tariff.
Though Inslee does not mention it, given the reports that we’ve seen recently about renewable energy reaching parity with fossil fuels, some of these rates should probably be set to depreciate more quickly than others, but overall the plan is sound.
New Direction in US Renewable Energy Promotion?
It may not seem it at first, and provided there are no demons lurking in the end pages of this bill which limit its effectiveness, this bill could dramatically change the way in which renewable energy is promoted in the United States.
Co-sponsoring the bill with Inslee are Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.; no relation to post author), and Mike Honda (D-Cali.). A companion bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.
I am trying to get Mr. Pickens to hold a large
stadium - energy summit. You may can help being a photographer and writer.
Let's be friends
Jeff
* Provide multiyear tax incentives for renewable-energy production and energy-efficiency projects.
* Set national mandates that would require utilities to get at least 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and geothermal energy by 2020.
* Add and updating the building code to require energy-efficiency measures in the construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings, and setting a goal to reduce buildings' energy use 50 percent by 2030.
* Set prices for carbon-dioxide emissions and creating a program that caps emissions from different industries and allowing companies to trade emissions allowances.
* Upgrade and expanding the nation's electric grid to enable it to support electric cars and the transport and storage of renewable energy.
* Provide incentives for utilities to invest in energy-efficiency technologies.
* Increase the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks and investing more money in private-public partnerships that would develop transportation systems that rely on little or no oil, such as electric cars.
* Provide incentives to consumers and small businesses to buy plug-in hybrid cars and alternative fuels, including natural-gas-powered cars.
* Invest more federal dollars in cleantech research and development, including ways to capture and store carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.
* Speed up the process of setting aside public lands and improving the permitting process for renewable-electricity projects on public lands.
* Shift from ethanol made from corn to ethanol made from wood chips, agricultural waste and other nonfood feedstock, and encouraging a joint U.S.-Brazil partnership to turn sugar cane into ethanol in the Caribbean.
Please join our group:
http://push.pickensplan.com/group/greenjobsnow
Thanks for adding me a friend. Please If i can do anything for you, or answer any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me as that's what I'm here for .
Have a great week,
Kraig
Last December, Congress amended the national Renewable Fuel Standard, setting a goal that the U.S. will produce a whopping 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022. It's no surprise that much of this renewable fuel will be ethanol.
Given the rapid industrialization of Asia, global demand for fuel ethanol is steeply increasing and is expected to do so in the foreseeable future. In order to satisfy this big demand, let alone meet the Renewable Fuel Standard, there is a growing concern that the standard U.S. practice of mass producing fuel ethanol from corn won't be feasible. There simply isn't enough corn acreage available in America to meet the future domestic and international demands for fuel ethanol.
Scientists contend that the answer to this problem is cellulosic ethanol, a technology that is now under furious research and development at many universities, national labs, and private industries across the globe.
This is an interesting technology, because it makes ethanol from cellulose feedstocks such as ordinary trees, perennial grass and cropland residues instead of food crops such as corn or sugar cane.
Scientists contend that cellulosic ethanol, once it is perfected, can significantly reduce America's imports of foreign oil, while creating a big variety of "green collar" jobs including farmers, truck drivers, business professionals, engineers, and scientists.
Before cellulosic ethanol becomes a commercial reality, there are many technology hurdles to overcome. Crop scientists and chemical engineers are furiously studying the genetics, the molecular structure, and other biological aspects of trees and plants in order to improve the efficiency of cellulosic ethanol production.
Last year, our country embarked on a once-in-a-generation effort to study the underlying science needed to improve processing efficiency. In the meantime, scientists are making great headway. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded $125 million to establish the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin, to study the science of processing cellulosic ethanol.
Also, Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University recently partnered with the Mascoma Corp. (a Massachusetts company), to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
Last May, at a scientific lecture in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Dr. Niels Lagvad of Danish Biogasol Corp. (www.biogasol.com). It was revealed that this company now has a proven, turnkey system to mass produce ethanol from a big range of perennial grasses and hemicellulosic feedstocks. He referred to the process as a "bolt-on, second-generation ethanol plant" which, in essence, attaches to the back end of a conventional plant making ethanol from food crops. "Second generation ethanol" refers to the use of non-food feedstocks to make ethanol, whereas, "first generation ethanol" refers to traditional methods that use food crops such as corn and sugar cane.
The immediate U.S. market for this Danish technology is to retrofit American corn-to-ethanol plants. In this concept, corn stover (corn leaves, stalks, and cobs) and distillers' grain (a voluminous, natural by-product of the corn-to-ethanol process) would be used as inexpensive feedstocks for ethanol production. The technology is now in the demonstration phase; a full-scale plant is planned for 2010 in Boardman, Ore., as part of a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Pacific Ethanol Corp.
Danish Biogasol also markets the same technology to electric power plants, regardless of whether the electric plant is fueled by coal, nuclear, natural gas or oil. Why this terrific market? Electric plants routinely produce massive amounts of waste heat. This waste heat is harnessed by the ethanol plant, which in turn greatly reduces the cost of ethanol processing. Imagine a line of semi-trucks, all loaded with massive bales of locally grown perennial grass, driving to the local electric plant - which makes fuel ethanol too.
I am excited to imagine where this technology is headed because America is blessed with abundant trees and native grass. I believe we're in for some hopeful times ahead: new jobs from locally made auto fuel with no imported oil.
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