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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:
- Independent research
- What excites you about this campaign?
- The Top Ten Reasons for Renewables-based Energy Independence:
1. Climate Change: Oil and Coal contribute to global warming and will only do so more as China, India etc. emulate American lifestyles. According to many scientists, We may already be past the temperature “tipping point.”
2. Balance of Trade: We import 70% of our oil - $700 billion/year - often from countries that hate us, fund terrorists, and buy our businesses (Citigroup) and infrastructure (Chrysler Building). This is an unsustainable transfer of wealth which will only make America poorer, maybe forever. We are now paying foreign powers both what we earn personally AND what our companies earn, while they sit back and enjoy the results of their geological luck.
3. Green Jobs: Germany has created 250,000 new green jobs in its solar industry, which supplies 13% of its electric needs. We need to replace oil, coal and nuclear producing jobs with wind and solar installation and maintenance jobs. (It takes 10 years to build a nuclear plant and 2 years to build a solar thermal field).
4. National Security: We must not depend on foreign powers to supply us with vital energy, which is as critical to modern society as food and shelter. Even if we drill the arctic for oil (home to up to 25% of the world’s reserves, according to US Geological Survey), we will have to defend those new wells not only from nature, but from Russia, Canada, Denmark (Greenland), and others with a claim to the high north, leading to unnecessary conflict with these countries. Clearly, ANWR has never been about the tiny bit of land off northern Alaska that would supply just 2 years of oil for America; it’s been about opening up the entire Arctic to exploration. We cannot afford to defend such a large and inhospitible region.
5. The Oil Curse: Countries that depend on natural resources to make money, and not people, are the most corrupt, despotic, self-righteous and anti-human rights regimes on Earth. China does not seem to care where their oil comes from, encouraging rogue states like Sudan, Iran, Burma and Venezuela, where human rights barely exist. This is a naïve and ultimately counter-productive strategy for China but not one we should be encouraging again either (see: the downfall of the Shah of Iran).
6. Military Overreach: America cannot afford to defend oil fields. The Iraq war is, at least partly, a subsidy for Big Oil. Lives are being lost and resources are being spent ($12 Billion/month) so that - maybe, eventually - we can get more oil out of Iraq (estimated to be 2 or 3 largest holder of oil reserves). Meanwhile, Iraq does not even use $79 billion surplus to pay for its own infrastructure needs, while here in the U.S. our bridge collapse from lack of care (Minnesota) and our electrical grid blacks out.
7. Peak Oil: We are probably only seeing peak geopolitical oil, not peak geological oil, now, but it will only get more expensive to drill oil. Most estimates put peak oil within 10 years, and since global demand has exceeded earlier estimates, we may be even closer. The perversion of the OPEC dominated oil market means that they will drill LESS, not MORE, as the price goes up, since they literally collect more money than they know what to do with already, and they want to stretch out their supply.
8. Local Environmental Damage: If we drill everywhere, we will eventually have oil wells all over the west (instead of wind turbines), and even in the (newly melted) arctic. These high-risk drilling areas will be more likely to see oil spills, soot, and CO2 damage and the further eradication of local animal (Polar Bears) and plant life. Already, regional water tables are being polluted by accidents and poisoness chemicals involved in the drilling industry.
9. We eat too much oil: Oil goes into fertilizer, which goes into corn, which goes into EVERYTHING we eat, including meat. Omega 6 fatty acids (the bad kind) are higher in factory-fed beef. Omega 3 fatty acids (the good kind) are higher in grass-fed beef and almost as high as in fish. Corn-fed meat is making us fat and raising the national health bill. Cattle, pigs, chickens live a cruel, short life in tight, economical confines because it is cheaper for them to do so than to live on the open range. Yet each wind turbine could pay farmers $5,000-$10,000 annually and allow livestock to graze in their shade, making natural grass-fed meat economically viable again. This synergy could make us healthier AND wean us off imported oil.
10. Loss of American’s position as “Innovation Leader:” The oil industry was born here over 100 years ago. It is time for us to lead the world into the renewable era.
- What do you want to do to help?
- How can we get Washington to move beyond the special interests? CNBC reported that the oil industry is the #2 source of revenues for the federal government. How do we compete with that in behalf of the American people? Americans "get it" on a gut level. Yet Washington is in gridlock and about to let the wind and solar tax credits expire. I've written all the politicians, contributed to the DNC platform through Obama parties etc. What can I do?!
Scott Baker's Blog
Cabot Oil & Gas’s Marcellus Drilling to Slow After PA Environment Officials Order Wells Closed by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica
More than 15 months after natural gas drilling contaminated [1] drinking water in Dimock, Pa., state officials are ordering the company
responsible -- Houston-based Cabot Oil and Gas -- to permanently shut
down some of its wells, pay nearly a quarter million dollars in fines,
and permanently provide drinking water to 14 affected…
Posted on April 16, 2010 at 5:28pm
Most Barnett Shale facilities release emissions
Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The News under federal and state open-records laws, plus other reports and studies, reveal a
pattern of emissions of toxic compounds, often including
cancer-causing benzene, from Barnett Shale facilities.
More than 90 percent of the gas-processing plants, compressor stations and wells that agencies have examined with leak-detecting infrared cameras since 2007 were…
ContinuePosted on April 12, 2010 at 12:20pm
Congress Launches Investigation Into Gas Drilling Practices
acknowledged pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel-based
fluids into the ground in the process of hydraulic
fracturing [1], raising further
concerns that existing state and federal regulations don't adequately
protect drinking water from drilling.
Rep. Henry A.…
ContinuePosted on April 12, 2010 at 12:11pm
Broad Scope of EPA’s Fracturing Study Raises Ire of Gas Industry
http://www.propublica.org/feature/broad-scope-of-epas-fracturing-study-raises-ire-of-gas-industry
Posted on April 7, 2010 at 5:16pm
How Cheney's Loophole is Fracking Up America
Check out the following article…
Continue
Posted on March 18, 2010 at 1:42pm
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http://www.opednews.com/populum/link.php?id=103053
The industry says it is too expensive, but I have an answer to that too, called Geonomics. You can read about it here:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Geonomics-and-the-true-cos-by-Scott-Baker-090629-672.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creating-a-Geonomic-Politi-by-Scott-Baker-091208-229.html
A new form of capitalism: Geonomics
http://www.change.org/actions/view/a_new_form_of_capitalism_geonomics
The deeper Marcellus Shale Gas deposits use advanced horizontal drilling. I am looking for specific engineering answers about this technology, and the drilling radius from each well head. Would fewer, more productive, drilling sites provide better containment and less environmental impact than those of decades past?
Another concern is trying to re-sell a home near a gas well. Current FHA regulations prohibit issuing a mortgage for any home within 300 feet of an existing (or possible) drilling site. This is a major concern for Realtors and homeowners in northeast Ohio.
We need to develop natural gas and other energy resources within our country, with our eyes open to the risks, and protection against catastrophic costs and “unintended consequences.”
J. Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader
When they transport the dirty water to ? what is the end process to clean it?
Tom
http://energyparty.ning.com/
Today in the world some 1.5bn people are fresh water challenged,its expected over next 10-15 years this could be in the range of some 3bn people with fresh water issues.
We are now talking about the single most important issue of the 21st century--sustainability.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/energy-races-to-watch/
thanks again.
Welcome and THANK YOU for joining Pickens Plan with the rest of us. We are glad you are here and we need your help.
You will have lots of fun on this site, meet a lot of people and learn more than you ever imagined. Start by joining some groups.
Be sure to check out my friends, as they are so smart, creative, educated, talented, hardworking, wholesome, friendly, helpful and very passionate.
Please remember why we are here, as we must help get our numbers up at a faster much pace.
Have a Green day,
Kim (Texas)
p.s. If you would like you can add me as one of your friends so that we may keep in touch and share ideas and information. Click the button (hyperlink) below your profile photo on your page + Add as friend.
You are right on the details. you are also right- it's a start.
We need to begin somewhere. when is it going to be that we have everything lined up like this again. We need your help.
Please friend me so we can keep in touch.
Kim
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