Noel's Green (make that SUSTAINABLE) Blog » Political and Economic Good

Dependence on oil has a BIG cost

noel — Mon, 03 May 2010 22:28:06 +0000

the common Oil slick

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is too big price to pay for our dependency on oil. Now we have to re-evaluate our energy plans. FINALLY. The sustainable approach is to stop drilling and spend more money on energy conserving measures and renewables.
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In this months supplement to Engineered Systems magazine, there was an interesting editorial
The Way I See It: Saving Billions — One Customer At A Time by Randy Rawson, the President of the American Boiler Manufacturers Association. He said:

“The great unfathomable mystery of why commercial, institutional, and industrial upper management remains so averse to saving money and, where appropriate, increasing shareholder value through greater attention to their energy use continues to dog this industry, despite all our efforts to the contrary.

So why is industry dogged by an aversion to saving money? I am sure it is lack of proper education and understanding. Science and math have been battered and beaten down in the US. So many good brains have ended up playing on Wall Street. This is a case of lots of money and potential income streams “hiding in plain sight” due to lack of recognition by those in charge.

Imagine a mile long parade of armored cars, all filled to bursting with 100 dollar bills, passing by a board room during a meeting. The parade stops for a moment, and then returns to the bank. When the executives ask why the money was not delivered, the engineers tell them, “Sorry, you have to TAKE ACTION FIRST (replace the boilers), then you get the money, you monkeys!”

Theodore Roosevelt brought us the Square Deal.

noel — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:41:26 +0000

We need another Square Deal. Its starting to happen, in spite of the terrible division in our government. Obama and the Democratic party are looking strong. Contrast that to the dissolution and confusion on the right wing.

Republicans, look at your current state of affairs and compare that to the great accomplishments and leadership of the GOP in the distant past, before the Bushes, Reagan, Nixon and Eisenhower!

Keep in mind, what Teddy said about America:

“A GREAT DEMOCRACY HAS GOT TO BE PROGRESSIVE
OR IT WILL SOON CEASE TO BE GREAT OR A DEMOCRACY.”

Republicans (not you who call yourselves conservative), listen up. He used the word progressive and great in the same sentence. We have to lead, follow or get out of the way. For more information about this great man, read the wiki on him.

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And here is something completely different :
The Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide widget to be added on this blog for monthly tracking of CO2

Sweet ending to a beautiful opera

noel — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:09:17 +0000

Finale to Les Miserables

President Jefferson said:

noel — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:06:49 +0000

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

Listen up Newt Gingrich! How radical was that?

America, love it or leave it.

noel — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:34:02 +0000

I love it. I love to vote my conscience.

To be clear on this, I plan to vote against every incumbent, on every side.
I have lost my patience with entrenched power.

I have lost patience with the right wing, those great hypocrites. What the hell are they doing?

I have no respect for the big corporations (meddling) with the news, opinion, and politics.

I have never had respect for those who complain and whine. People like Sarah Palin. Why is she back in the news? (Is she some kind of exotic curiosity of history?)

Like the senator said , “If you have nothing to good to contribute… why don’t you just go home?” ( He was about to go home himself…)

Report Dispels doubts on Conservation Measures

noel — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:43:20 +0000

This Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report, Building Commissioning: A Golden Opportunity for Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions should inform the skeptics about the efficacy of this process for buildings. Regular tuneups for your car are the norm, so the same should be for your building.

I quote:

“This report responds to a widely held concern that end-users do not have confidence in the nature and level of energy savings that can be achieved through the commissioning process.”

This is what I think of when they say “sustainable”: The report states that there is a 16% median annual rate of return on investment for existing buildings and and 13% median annual return on new construction. EXCELLENT. How many other investments bring in that rate of return on a sustained basis?

The report continues:

Applying … [this] to … non-residential buildings corresponds to an annual energy-savings potential of $30 billion by the year 2030… An industry equipped to deliver these benefits would have a sales volume of $4 billion per year and support approximately 24,000 jobs.

EXCELLENT!

President Theodore Roosevelt had it right!

noel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:28:14 +0000

Let us go back to the tried and proven. The Bush sponsored tax cuts did not do what they were supposed to do. We forgot to take Teddys advice, as quoted below.

The tax cuts did not increase our national economic vitality one wit. They should be allowed to expire post-haste. Especially since we need the money to offset more energy conservation tax incentives (such encouragement creates public good). US policy should lead the world in energy conservation, not follow!

About taxes, Teddy Roosevelt(who is among my most admired people), said:

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered–not gambling in stocks, but service rendered.

The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means.

Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective–a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.

Words to remember in November.

Some of my friends want me to clarify what I mean above. If Teddy had it right 105 years ago, and we had a balanced budget in the 1990s (Republican controlled Congress/Democratic President combination), we should have stuck with it. Democracy like ours really suck when voters get confused and switch the formula, like we did in 2000. Once upon a time, I had a theory about an optimal combination, a Dem president and a Repub congress, and I will be damned if that didn’t work under President Clinton. Looks like we might even get back to that state, but it will take 6 more years of President Obama working with a Republican Congress just to get back to where we were when Bush got elected in 2000.