Extending the Tax Cuts

I guess it’s politics as usual. It really doesn’t make any difference who is in the White House, or who is in control of Congress. The real power is in MONEY, so those who have it get their way. It seems the "conservatives" are classed with Republicans and are MORE out for the rich, big business, etc; while the "liberals" are Democrats more in support of the average and "lower" person...either way most of us get screwed. Since I clump myself more with the middle class...I support the Democrats. But I am VERY unhappy with OBAMA...so a lot of the criticism of him is true and justified. But I am still calling it as I see it, and to say ALL this is Obama's fault just isn't true...he has definitely screwed up HIS part of it. It is the top 1%...whatever that means...rich, politically powerful, bank execs, Wall Street moguls, big CEOs...the fat cats who are running the show, getting huge amounts of money, manipulating the economy, and not paying their fair share. That's been my beef all along, and is doesn't seem to matter who is in charge. The game has been manipulated to where we have the "best democracy money can buy," and a "news" media that doesn't really tell the news, but gives opinions of what the news is or should be. Those are the two basic realities that need to change if America is to remain a strong moral, free nation, and not succumb to communism, socialism, nazism, or whatever "ism" is out there. We need to revert back to the system where we identify the issues, elect people to deal with those issues, and openly discuss them in the political arena...namely Congress, and not MSNBC or Fox News. I fear that there will be a serious "revolution" in this country within the next four years. The Tea Partiers are right in part...they are frustrated with big government squandering their taxes; the Working Class is being outsourced and laid-off; the education system is being starved; most young folks won’t be able to afford a home; the lower class is being ignored, the majority of people are brainwashed, plugged into their Iphones facebooking their friends; the answer supposedly is for everyone to spend more of what they don't have; and the FEW “rich” suck away the dollars from the economy, stashing it where it really makes no impact on our economy….no real jobs in industry, infrastructure, basic commerce. At some point there will be a “trigger”…whether it is more recession/depression, spike in oil prices, terrorist action here, global climate change, drought….who knows, something that finally brings us together to realize the system is broken and we have the means…the wealth (dollars), the technology, the knowledge, the communication, the people to make the change. I guess that is the real American dream.

Veteran's Day

Last night, Susan and I went to Ferndale, her home town of about 1500 people, and viewed a documentary which a schoolmate of hers spent the last six months making for the Ferndale Museum. It is entitled "Letters Home" and basically tells the story of the men and women from Ferndale who went off and served their country during World War II...through the eyes, words, and stories of those few vets still alive, and the sons, daughters, and relatives of a lot of those who have since passed.

Susan is in it, telling a story of how her dad, who was 18 years olds at the time, was about to fly a bombing mission off of an island in the South Pacific. He thought that the new type of bombs they were attaching to his Corsairs were being put on backwards. Against orders, he and a few of his comrades remounted their bombs, and an hour later while flying in formation, three planes exploded in mid air. He broke radio silence, and told the others to immediately drop their bombs. They did, and survived to return to base. He faced disciplinary action; but to his dying day, he regretted the loss of those three fellow pilots. This was just one of many stories woven through this film...it was really well done and very moving, especially if you knew the people involved.

My feelings today are of compassion for not only those who were killed in action, but also for the enormous suffering which their friends and families went through, and to some degree continue to do so today. World War II was the "hell of all hell," the "war to end all wars"; but we as a civilized and informed society continue today, with our Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Millions of people are effected, sacrificing life, love...their future for the security and preservation of freedom for our country. And yet there are those who abhor a 4% increase in their tax rate.

May God bless America.

Election Day

Finally...I can hardly wait until election day is over. You would think that this should be one of the best parts of our "democracy"...being able to cast your vote...but in reality, it means little to me because it won't make any difference who/what wins...my life is at that point where whatever policy direction this country takes, I will not really be effected; and second, in this time-era, the process is absolutely absurd. Yes, we get to vote, just like the citizens in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, etc, get to vote. We are so lucky to be "free" to choose the direction we want. I remember in my younger days when I actually read the voters pamphlet, read the statements by the candidates, analyzed the initiatives, talked with others about the issues...no more....I just do what all the other Americans do...I watch FOX news, and let them tell me who/what to vote for. It's so much easier, rather than having to wade through all the TV ads...I guess if one of those is entertaining enough, I'll vote for that.
But we still get the best democracy money can buy.

"Last Tuesday, the Fox Business Network devoted five hours of programming to a California ballot initiative, Proposition 24, which would repeal corporate tax breaks. The New York Times observes that during all the coverage, which overwhelmingly attacked Prop. 24, Fox Business Network never reported on one fact: its parent company, News Corp., spent $1.3 million to defeat the proposition."


"There isn’t a single Republican leader, in Congress or among the party’s 2012 hopefuls, who has the power to disobey an order from Beck – or Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly or Hannity. These are the Dark Ages for America." (Washington Post...part of the liberal media)


http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/01/breaking-point-infomerical/

Yes, the economy is bad, we've done things we should not have done, tried things that didn't work, made bad policy decisions...yet we are still here, and life goes on, and things will change....either for the better or the worse.

Me feelings right now go beyond all that...I return to my moral fiber of who I am, how I was raised, what I believe...whether it is the right or wrong of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, working and fighting towards a clean and sustainable environment...my biggest concern today is the decline in "American" values...to a certain degree, a similar feeling like the Tea Party...the loss of debate, discussion, compromise, argument, honesty, respect.......we are such a diverse country...how do we WORK at dealing with the issues at hand.
It's all about money and power. I guess it always has been; it's just that today's technology has changed the playing field, the players, the game, the spectators, etc...too bad.

So tomorrow night I will watch the election returns...switching from FOX to MSNBC and be entertained by the circus...proud to be an American, free to cast my vote for the future of this wonderful country.

One Week Before the Elections

With one week to go until the elections, I can hardly wait for this circus to end, or at least to simmer down for a while. As said before, it is not going to make any difference who wins...if the "liberals" retain control, anything they propose will be blocked by the other side. If the "conservatives" gain control, nothing will really change because they have no agenda...don't have a clue as to what to do, other than stop/block any process to move forward. Meanwhile, the rich will get richer and sit on their untaxed money, you and I (we're lucky ones) will just coast by on our wealth, the average middle class will continue to struggle with lower income, joblessness, default and bankruptcy, and the poor...we'll, they'll just remain poor. But maybe we will solve the crucial issues facing society today...gays getting married, serving in the military, teaching of evolution, and of course, getting rid of those silly windmills and solar panels, and "drill, baby, drill"...or the new one..."mine, baby, mine!'

This piece in the SF Chronicle pretty well sums up my feelings.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/24/IN7R1FV3LE.DTL&type=printable

Follow that up with a piece in Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/21/billionaire-politics-donors-republicans-koch-murdoch-trump-wealth_print.html

The wealthy 1% already owns the media...there is really no news reporting today...maybe one hour of "news" and 23 hours of opinion.

They already own the Supreme Court...I saw an estimate of over half a billion dollars being spent in this election cycle...donated by "who?"

They already own Congress; it really won't make any difference who is in the White House.

As said before, we will face years of being ungovernable. The rich will suck the system dry, putting very little back into infrastructure, and America will become a second world country with crumbling sewer systems, potholed freeways, collapsing bridges, polluted water, and, of course, the dire "natural" catastrophes of drought, flood, heat, cold, etc., and their impact on food, water, and energy.

But the rich will continue to have fun. Maybe Carly Fiorina will buy a third yacht for the Mediterranean...maybe even one for the Somalia coast!

THE SLOW, BUT STEADY PRICE REDUCTION IN SOLAR ENERGY

The argument that solar energy is too expensive is slowly starting to crumble. Prices of photovoltaic panels have been literally cut in half over the past two years. First Solar, one of the largest solar manufacturers recently announced it is at the 76 cent/watt benchmark. Although this is still above the 50 cent/watt deemed for years as being the magic number where solar would be universally accepted, we’re at a major crossroads, and the optimism is that the cost will continue to decline.

I’d like to try and put all this in perspective. We use electricity in units of watts…a 100 watt light bulb, a 1500 watt toaster. We pay for electricity in units of kilowatts per hour…1 kwh means we use 1000 watts for 1 hour; and our cost is anywhere from 8 cents to 15 cents depending on where we live. This retail price includes the cost of production, transmission, maintenance, administration, taxes, insurance, profit…all the expenses associated with the business of a utility serving its customers. In order to produce the electricity, a “power plant” must be constructed. What First Solar is saying, is that its “production” modules now cost $760/kw to manufacture. Add to that the other construction-related costs, and the total cost of that power plant approaches $1000/kw. If we look at other kinds of power plants, a coal-fired plant costs roughly $4000/kw; the new natural gas-fired plant PG&E built at Humboldt Bay came in at $1500/kw; and the proposed new nuclear plants are estimated at $8000…$12,000…???????????$/kw.

The cost of solar is decreasing, while the cost of conventional fueled (fossil, nuclear) electricity generation is going up. Once the power plant is built, there are O&M (operation and maintenance) costs…the cost of fuel, replacement of parts that wear out, cost of water for cooling, cost of waste (air pollutants, CO2, nuclear spent fuel) disposal. PV solar has the advantage of no fuel costs, no emissions or wastes, a minimum of moving parts to wear out, and very low labor requirements once the plant is up and running. I recall in 1989, a colleague of mine from the Engineering Department at HSU and I visited two huge (by 1989 standards) PV facilities in Southern California. We were stunned that in the middle of the sunny afternoon, while each of these 1MW plants was producing electricity for the grid, we could not find anyone to talk to because the entrance gates were locked, and there was no one around. Just the birds chirping, and the steady creak of the trackers moving the PVs every 15 seconds to face the sun. Whether we place solar in dedicated “solar farms” or mount them on our rooftops, we have a relatively inexpensive source of electricity once the initial “cost of construction” is paid for. It is estimated that placing PVs on just 3% of the roofs of US structures could displace all the coal-fired electricity generation we have today.

The cost of solar is coming down. PVs are becoming more efficient, meaning less surface area and materials needed per watt. New technologies promise new materials that can be incorporated into almost everything in our lives…our homes and commercial buildings with PV coated roofing material and glass and solid walls, automobile and truck rooftops, highway median strips, even the clothing that we wear. And all this with no moving parts, no fuel costs, no emissions…no increasing bills from our local utility. In 2009, there were 146 new solar patents granted. The solar industry is making huge inroads in the economies of not only the US, but China, Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, and South Korea.

The renewable and sustainable future is possible, yet enormous obstacles and issues remain and must be overcome. The sun does not shine all the time. The biggest challenge is storage of solar energy so it can be used whenever we need it. I will leave that discussion for another time, but we are moving forward towards our “green energy” future. Major advances in energy efficiency, smart grid technologies, and the blending of other renewable resources such as wind and biofuels will continue to progress hand in hand with solar energy. The main role for solar right now is to produce electricity when the maximum amount (peak power) is demanded by consumers. That is generally in the afternoon, on a hot summer day, when the sun is shining at its brightest. The transition has been slow, ands there will be ups and downs; but the pace is escalating as we move into the new “green” era beyond fossil fuels and nuclear.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/09/producing-solar-at-70-cents-a-watt?cmpid=rss


http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/heslin-rothenberg-farley-mesiti-p-c-7929/news/article/2010/09/solar-patents-at-record-in-2009-shine-on-solar-edition-of-cepgi?cmpid=rss


http://www.jsonline.com/business/29482814.html

THE GROWTH OF SOLAR MANUFACTURING

Aside from the costs, another argument against solar energy has been its small scale compared to a large conventional power plant. A huge nuclear plant can produce enough power for 800,000 customers, while a PV system on someone’s rooftop might just provide enough electricity for that household. Yet, given time, and put in perspective, solar energy can become and increasingly viable means of electricity generation.

A rule that still hold true for energy planners is to have available 1kw of generating capacity for every customer being served. Here in Humboldt County, we have a population of about 110,000 people, and PG&E has a power plant capable of producing 120,000kw, the excess capacity being there for increased population and future demand. Playing the numbers game, 1000 kilowatts is 1 megawatt (MW), and 1000 MW is 1 gigawatt (GW). The US electricity system is capable of generating about 600GW of power, and the world capacity is somewhere around 4,600GW. All this is supplied by thousands of generators ranging from small 1kw portables to huge 1200MW coal and nuclear units. Replacing ALL of these with solar and other renewables such as wind appears to be a daunting, if not impossible task. It will take some time, but it is definitely possible.

A recent press release by Neo Solar Power of Taiwan announced that construction is underway on what will now be the world's largest solar cell facility, a plant that will cost $837 million and produce 3.4 GW of cells per year. LDK Solar of China has a current production capacity of 2GW/year. First Solar in the US can manufacture 1.4GW/yr. These are just three of the largest manufacturers. Include Sharp and Sanyo of Japan, Siemens of Germany, the other US and Chinese, Italians, Spaniards, and South Koreans, and you approach some 35GW of production per year. The significance of this is that this production capacity is manufactured EACH YEAR, and will most obviously increase.

To put this in perspective, we are currently proposing to spend an estimated $10 billion on a new nuclear power plant in Georgia. Once completed, at whatever the final cost, that plant will generate 1000MW (1GW) of electricity when it is running. It will have a license to operate for thirty years, but its output will be a constant 1000MW each hour it runs.

Neo Solar is investing $837 million in a manufacturing facility that will produce 3,400MW (3.4GW) of solar cells every year. So, for the first year, it puts out 3,4000MW, the second year it’s combined output will be 6,800MW, the next year 10,200MW, increasing each year so that in thirty years we will have 102,000MW (102GW) of generating capacity just from that one facility. Start multiplying that by the current, but significantly increasing PV production capacity and the role of solar becomes noteworthy. The nuclear industry dreams of mass production of small modular nuclear power plants, but at what cost, and when such units might be commercially available is hugely unknown. Meanwhile, we will be producing more and more solar energy at relative low cost, no fuel costs, minimal maintenance, no emissions, and readily available at the local level throughout the world. Coupled with increased energy efficiency, all the new technologies in renewables (wind, biomass, ocean, geothermal), and better ways to locally generate, transmit, and use electricity, and within thirty years we are definitely in the new era of green and sustainable energy. Of course many obstacles exist, but our incredible technological prowess, and the fact that there is much money to be made in this area will escalate the transition.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/08/worlds-largest-solar-cell-manufacturing-plant-underway

Changes in the Anti-Climate Retoric

The cookies begin to crumble in the two major policy issues that I have argued in the last thirty years:
Solar is now cheaper than nuclear power. The naysayers are going great guns arguing against this; but the point remains that solar costs have been steadily decreasing over the years, while nuclear costs have been steadily increasing. In 2010, we are at that crossing point, and five years from now, nuclear will have out-priced itself from our energy markets.
The other major policy shift which will occur in the next few years deals with global climate change. The science over the past thirty years shows that fossil CO2 emissions are increasing, the earth is warming, and we are beginning to experience the predicted effects of climate changes with record heat, rainfall, drought, etc.
The anti-climate change scientists have for years claimed the scientific data was wrong, bad, falsified, etc. Their well funded campaign debunked that warming was occurring, and actually proposed that the earth was cooling, and the increase in CO2 was a good thing. A well orchestrated game plan to confuse, lie, mis-state, etc.
One or the principle players in this game is Patrick Michaels. In this recent CNN interview, we begin to see the cracks in his ardent past positions.

http://climateprogress.org/2010/08/16/pat-michaels-global-warming-denier-cato-big-oil/

Here are a few excerpts:
[Fareed Zakaria: Can I ask you what percentage of your work is funded by the petroleum industry?
Pat Michaels: I don’t know. 40 percent? I don’t know.]
After years of denial of industry funding, we see some admission…is it 40%..50%…95%?
************************************************
[Michaels: It’s very clear the planet’s warmer than it was and that people have something to do with it. What you’re concerned about is the magnitude and the rate of the warming. And I think it’s quite demonstrable that the rate of observed warming is at the low end of the range of projections made by the United Nations. And furthermore, simply saying that one is going to reduce emissions could actually be the wrong thing to do at the moment if you don’t have the technology to really effectively do this and to do it globally. What you could wind up doing is spending large amounts of capital that would be dissipated when it could be invested in the future in technologies that frankly you and I don’t even know about. So —]
Admission that the planet is warming, and humans have something to do with it. His solution seems to be to do nothing for now...maybe a magic bullet will eventually appear…we could call it “renewables!”
***********************************************
[Michaels: What I worry about more is the concept of opportunity cost. We had legislation, again, that went through the House last summer, which would have cost a lot and been futile. And when you take that away or when the government favors certain technologies and politicizes technologies, you’re doing worse than nothing. You’re actually impairing your ability to respond in the long run. And that’s my major concern along this issue —]
I agree whole heartedly…taxpayer loans and guarantees to the nuclear industry is worse than doing nothing.
***********************************************
[The real challenge of solving manmade global warming is simply the “political acceptability” of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as climate catastrophes grow.]
It really is all about the money and what it can buy.
Common cents will eventually prevail.

The Issue of Global Climate Change

Here in the USA, 2010 has given us record weather-breaking highs and lows; serious flooding in Nashville, Oklahoma, Illinois; huge snowfalls in the upper mid-west; and a host of other weather abnormalities. Are these due to the measurable increase of CO2 in the upper atmosphere…the “global warming, global climate change, greenhouse effect” phenomenon? No one can say for certain. There is no “proof.” However, the scientific data gathered by thousands of scientists over the past thirty-some years has proved that CO2 is steadily increasing in our atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels…coal, oil, natural gas…stored carbon that has not been in the atmosphere for millions and millions of years, but which is being released in increasingly huge amounts over the past 100+ years. Computer model simulations and basic inference points to subtle changes in the dynamics of the atmosphere which creates variations in climate patterns, manifested by increased extreme weather.

Are these projections accurate? Is all the data “pure?” Are all the scientists and their life’s work 100% honest and true? As with any human endeavor, there is a bell shaped curve---there are extremists who lie, cheat, and steal on both sides of any issue, whether they be professional athletes, Wall Street bankers, or climate scientists. The consensus of global climatologists is that human induced CO2 is going to play ever more havoc with the weather on our planet. Whether we believe this or not depends on a lot of things. The fossil fuel industry spends huge amounts of money buying misinformation, disinformation, lies, confusion, whatever, in the media and in Congress. Any attempt to take positive steps towards reducing CO2 emissions has been heavily defeated by party politics…big money. Industry fights to minimize the costs they (we) would have to pay to reduce burning carbon and switching to renewables. It really is all about money.

There are two courses of action available to us. The first is to ignore this whole global warming thing, and continue with business as usual. Big oil and coal would continue to extract and sell their products, make huge profits on them, and we would plow along as these non-renewable resources become more difficult to discover and extract, and eventually are gone. If the premise that global climate change is a hoax is true, then everything in the next 50+ years should be relatively fine. But what if they are wrong? What if we continue to see more extreme climate changes…more flooding, more drought, more fires, more shifts in agriculture producing patters, more loss of oxygen producing ocean phytoplankton, more destruction of tropical rainforests, more loss of basic food production, more rising sea level…all these thing are occurring and may continue to occur over time. There will not be a magic day…Sunday, August 8, 2016…when we all realize that this climate change is true and we need to something about it.

It will never be too late to change our policies; however the sooner we do so, the less expensive it will be. We are going to have to spend money dealing with this one way or another. Our better course of action is to begin to wean ourselves away from the fossil fuels. This cannot/will not happen overnight…it will take many, many years to make the transition. But we need to seriously begin now. I assume we are all aware of the value of the “green revolution” which is finally making its way into the global mainstream of politics and policy. Renewables such as solar and wind for our electricity, heating, lighting, transportation...basically most of our energy needs; energy efficiency and making better use of our energy resources for out changing lifestyles; and the quest for future technologies such as hydrogen and ocean power. These are global solutions, appropriately applied to the great variety of needs and available resources of the earth’s peoples. And they provide local jobs and local capital investment. If we are wrong, then all we would have done is upset the “big money” markets for a time being, and saved us a lot of other “monies” which would have been spent on human miseries. This transition will eventually be made, regardless of whether we do it voluntarily or under extreme economic duress.

Here are just one of a few news bulletins that have sparked this diatribe:

RUSSIA Moscow has reached 102.2° F, after never before even breaking the 100-degree mark in recorded history. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev have flooded the airwaves in response to outrage over the wildfires and droughts caused by the global heat wave, as officials are forced to admit the situation is out of control. The Russian government has recommended people evacuate Moscow, banned wheat exports, diverted flights, fired senior military officers, and warned the fires could pose a nuclear threat if they reach areas contaminated by Chernobyl. Medvedev called the linked disasters “evidence of this global climate change,” which means “we need to change the way we work, change the methods that we used in the past.”
CHINA The worst flooding ever recorded in northeast China, caused by weeks of torrential rain with no end in sight, has caused nearly $6 billion in damage to water projects there, In addition, “52 people are reported to have died and an additional 20 are missing following rain-triggered floods in central China’s Henan Province.” “In the southwestern province of Yunnan, at least 11 people died and 11 were missing following a landslide caused by heavy rain.”
INDIA “Record temperatures in northern India have claimed hundreds of lives in what is believed to be the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s.” “The death toll in flashfloods that hit the remote mountainous region of Ladakh in Indian-held Kashmir has risen to 103.”
NORTH KOREA “Flooding last month caused serious damage in North Korea, destroying homes, farms, roads and buildings and hurting the economy,” the secretive dictatorship of North Korea admitted yesterday. “About 36,700 acres of farmland was submerged and 5,500 homes and 350 public buildings and facilities were destroyed or flooded,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. “The news agency had previously reported heavy rains fell in the country in mid- to late July, but those earlier reports did not mention flooding or damage. State media in the impoverished, reclusive nation often report news days or weeks after an event takes place.”
PAKISTAN “Islamist charities, some with suspected ties to militants, stepped in on Monday to provide aid for Pakistanis hit by the worst flooding in memory, piling pressure on a government criticized for its response to the disaster that has so far killed more than 1,000 people.” “Thousands of people are fleeing Pakistan’s most populous areas as devastating floods” that have already affected more than 3 million people “sweep towards the south.” Fatima Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto’s niece, lashed out: “The floods are just the latest, most tragic example of how inept the Pakistani state truly is.”

http://climateprogress.org/2010/08/07/russian-heat-wave-drought-soil-moisture-wheat/

Costly Repairs to Our Aging Nukes

We're going to see more and more very expensive repairs and actual early shut downs of our nuke fleet in the coming years....

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/crystal-river-nuclear-plant-outage-costs-approach-250-million/1113602

Then comes decommissioning, and the waste management costs and issues ...cost effective???? Not anymore. It looks like we are turning the corner and beginning to look at all the true costs..not just the 1.5-3.5 cent/kwh operating costs the industry so proudly and misleadingly built their foundation on. Remember, the same O&M costs for wind and solar are way below 1 cent/kwh...the fuel is free; maintenance is almost nil in solar, and a bit more with wind turbines..but a whole hell of a lot cheaper because of no radioactivity to deal with. It's all so much common cents!
And I am so optimistic and happy that it is ultimately the financing and economics of all this that will be nukes downfall, and not the more difficult safety, moral, terrorist and national security arguments that are as big a piece of the puzzle.


Interesting article on wind...10,000MW put on line in 2009...the most of any generation technology in the US. How many nukes?? This year may not be as big because of "sagging power demand, falling electricity prices, and low natural gas prices." Electricity rates are going up in Georgia because of their commitment to building two new nukes mostly funded by the American taxpayer. It is all so interesting!

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0806/Can-huge-Mojave-wind-farm-boost-faltering-wind-power-industry


On a side note. an interesting discussion I read recently talked about High Level Waste management. In 1981, Ronald Reagan asked Congress to come up with the National Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. A committee was formed, and they recommended a repository..ultimately Yucca Mountain became the choice. Here we are almost 30 years later, and what do we have going for us...a $13 billion hole in the ground at Yucca Mountain, and a committee! There is NO solution to the disposal of spent fuel. The new committee will come up with some options to look for another geologic site, keep the stuff on site for another 50 years, ???? We, and all our generations to come in the next 100,000 years will be stuck monitoring this stuff, keeping from leaking out into the environment, and paying the bills to do all this! I hope someone on the committee (a minority report?) comes up with the cajones (to use Sarah Palin's new favorite word) to say that there is NO SOLUTION.

My Treatise on Taxes

It has been stated that the Republican party is all for "small business as the backbone of America" and that we should do everything we could support it. That's the "Republican" standard.

"Republicans signaled that they would block a bill to expand government lending programs and grant an array of tax breaks to small businesses."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/politics/22cong.html?_r=1

Let's cut through all the hypocrisy. One of the main reason we are in the predicament we are in today is because of the Bush tax cuts for the rich in 2001. Things were great back then..low unemployment, big surplus...the rich took their huge tax breaks and really didn't know what to do with them. Most of the jobs created by any of their "investments" were overseas outsourced jobs...they certainly didn't invest in America's auto industry, or building solar manufacturing plants, or upgrading our railroad system. So they invented the great "Wall Street" games of derivatives, selling a loan to someone who then sold it to someone else, who sold it to someone else...everyone making money off it...until the house of cards collapsed. Then what happened? Who got screwed? The rich? Yea, they may have lost "value" in their portfolio, but those portfolios were huge to begin with. The average citizen took it (is taking it) in the shorts! Not many jobs were created in the process.

I have a friend whose daughter to Sacramento about three years ago...her husband got a pretty good job, and she got a job as a school teacher. They put $50,000 down on a house, and had a child...the American dream. Well, they had to walk away from the house a year and a half ago (Obama's fault?) Luckily, he still has his job. Another friend got married last year, and he and his wife moved to Carson City outside of Reno...they both got jobs...she has a condo in the LA area which she has been trying to sell for two years...she is now doing the "short sell" program where she , too, will basically walk away from it. Bummer...but better than bankruptcy or renting it for less than what the payments are. These are just two stories of people we know...what about the millions of folks who are suffering from the "sins of the rich?"

So Obama spends "our" money to try and help the economy...I guess he had to bail out the big banks, Wall Street, and the auto industry...but he is also trying to help the average citizen with unemployment, health insurance, small business support, etc, etc. This is what he is DOING. What are the Republicans offering....show me what they stand for and what they are proposing that would turn this country and the economy around.
Keep the Bush tax cuts? That's going to create jobs? Bullshit! Shrink government...fire and lay off a couple of million more people, and let our infrastructure go to hell? Deregulate industry so that they can run amok, outsource jobs, and create havoc in our waters, air, and land? Kill/deport all the dark skinned people? Get back to good 'ole family values and everything will be hunky dory? What DO the Republicans plan to do..what would you do...give me some specific ideas, etc. It seems nobody can find answers to this query.

I agree that the government is too big, full of fraud and waste...always has been, probably always will be..whether it is Republicans, Democrats, Bush, Obama, Clinton, Nixon, Reagan, Caesar, Henry VIII...whoever is in power.
The point is what do we DO NOW.

My suggestions are:
1. let the Bush tax cut fade away
2. step up the removal of troops from Iraq, and cut the military budget
3. develop a plan to get us OUT of Afghanistan
4. create incentives..gee..tax cuts..for small business development, especially in the area of local renewable energy; rebuild our infrastructure; and support education and job skill development.
5. And what I think needs to be done, but probably will not happen, is changes in political campaign financing, lobbying, and a return to the media "fair practices doctrine" eliminated by Reagan.

The "rich" have had a field day under Bush, and made lots and lots of money, without have to pay their FAIR share. It's time for them to bite the bullet and fess up. This is not going to destroy them or their wealth. If someone makes $5 million dollars a year, and they have to pay more taxes to support this country and the wonderful freedoms that allows them to make $5 million...then let them pay for it, They use our roads and our sewer systems; they need to educate their children; they get sick and need health care....in this time of National need, maybe they can swallow their greed and eat a little less caviar.

The criticism of the Obama administration is all about money...the debt, deficit, etc. Yes, that is a concern...BUT the big issue is the fate of the "average" citizen; the hard worker who wants a job, who will work for that paycheck, who cares about their family, who wants a "good" life...which they can get for $50-100-250,000 per year or more if they strive for it. Yet, it is the top 2%...let's say 5% who make WELL OVER $1 million who today are NOT paying their FAIR share. The great quote from Ruprecht Murdock in a recent Forbes magazine was "See my secretary over there...she pays a higher percentage of her income in taxes than I do. Ha Ha Ha !"

America is STILL a wonderful country. We HAVE the wealth, the technology, the knowledge... the American people who would WORK to keep it that way. What we lack is the political leadership and the will to make it happen, because our politics are corrupted by money and greed, and under the control of big corporations. They are the rich, and want to stay that way.

I am willing to pay my FAIR share for this wonderful life I have. That's ME..my values, what my parents taught me, what I learned and practiced in operating my business, what I strove for in my teaching, what I share with my family, friends, and in my music, and my struggles to preserve our environment. I deplore the hate, misplaced anger, misinformation, and fear mongering that is prevalent in the media, the internet, and in our political campaigns today. I realize there are many people who do not think the way I do. I love hearing their ideas, and am always open to learning/changing my beliefs, if they make any sense.

The Foolish Economics of Nuclear Power

In the ongoing "discussion" on the exorbitant cost of nuclear power, here is yet another report not picked up by Fox news and its ilk....

http://sunpluggers.com/news/solar-pv-now-cheaper-than-nuclear-power-in-north-carolina-report-says-0703

I've been saying this for years...nice to start seeing some verification...just wait until 2016......the nuke industry is going to need way more subsidies to even build 5-10 reactors, let alone 100. Right now, those subsidies are about $18 billion to build three reactors. The industry is definitely pushing for more...$140 billion total nuclear subsidies in Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act.

http://www.examiner.com/x-50672-SF-Solar-Energy-Examiner~y2010m7d7-Nuclear-opponents-fight-140-billion-total-nuclear-subsidies-in-KerryLieberman-American-Power-Act

We currently have some 100 nukes producing about 18% of the electricity in the US. These plants will reach their life's end in the next 10-30 years and will have to be decommissioned (very expensive...for a lot of the older plants, it's running more to dismantle them than it cost to build them; and it will cost even more if we extend their life)) and their wastes (both high level spent fuel..we really have no idea how to deal with this, let alone how much that will cost; and low level waste..maybe we will eventually dig up the entire state of Utah and bury it all there)

I cannot comprehend how the "fiscal conservatives" support nuclear power; just from an economic point of view it goes against everything they preach. I can see them not buying into the safety, proliferation, terrorist, and moral respect to future generations arguments. It's all about the money...big business buying and running our politicians (Democrats and Republicans) and using their wealth and control of the media to brainwash the public. The free market...get government out of regulating industry, let them do what they want! Right!

Great hypocrisies...don't help out the poor slobs with subsidized health care, but make sure you subsidize "cheap" electricity for them! And pass on the real costs to their future descendents.
Gee, we need nuclear power because it doesn't produce any CO2....not totally true... less than coal, oil, and natural gas, but not zero...lots produced in the massive construction and in fuel processing. But wait, aren't these the same people who don't believe that CO2 is causing climate change?????
We need the "base load" electricity that renewables can't produce...that's if you're stuck thinking like the old school dinosaur energy engineers. Study after study has shown that new technology, an upgraded electricity grid, and a diverse generation system will provide a more reliable grid than what we have today.
Conservation isn't an option...within five years, you won't be able to buy an incandescent light bulb...the new LED and compact florescents are 5-8x more efficient. New technology will let us use all the energy we need more efficiently...from residential use to transportation to industrial and commercial use.

In spite of the skeptics, the world is not flat, apples fall to the ground because of gravity, and yes, the wonderful sun does revolve around us all!

I stand firm on my prediction that by 2016, we may have 2-3 new nukes coming on line because you and I will have subsidized them in spite of their cost overruns; and their electricity will be so expensive (20-30 cents/kwh) that it will take even more subsidies to make anyone buy and use it...or we will really sock it to all the wonderful consumers in Georgia who are already paying higher rates for their construction today. We will be stuck with a few more partially built reactors shuttered up like the old ones at Satsop, WA because of bankruptcies, defaults, etc. We will still have no idea what to do with the 80,000 tons of spent fuel...we may politically decide to waste more of our money to study burying it in a hole in Nevada...but we probably will not have moved one single rod by then. Meanwhile the sun will shine, the wind will blow, hydrogen will be on the verge of being the new carrier of energy, and we will be making great strides towards being a more efficient and sustainable society.

Renewable power to the people!

Reflections on the oil leak

As I sit here on an unusually cold and rainy May 25^th, my thoughts go out to the many people who are trying to figure out what their lives will be like when the full ramifications of the devastating oil leak in the Gulf are brought to light. The immediate concern is all about the economics of the situation: the lost jobs in the tourism business; the loss to shrimpers and fishermen; the increase in price for seafood product; the cost to BP, Transocean, and the other players involved in that oil rig for cleanup and compensation; the legal battles that will ensue; the stock price of BP; the price of a gallon of gasoline, etc. Yet, the impacts are so far reaching that it is almost impossible to quantify. Lives are changed overnight; sources of income dwindle or dry up; family plans are severely altered, whether you’re a fisherman or a small storekeeper in a Louisiana town…you know..the “trickle down” economy. It will ultimately effect every single human being in one way or another.

To me, there are several other major concerns. Of course, the money aspect is important, and is the driving force behind everything. But probably more important is the ecological damage this huge oil spill will create for many, many years to come. The loss of habitat, the loss of species, and the change in natural biological, physical, and chemical processes may be confined to that small footprint in the Gulf; but it is another man-made attack at the very fiber of this planet. Some say that the however many millions of gallons leaked is tiny compared to what is normally excreted everyday around the world. The problems of fisheries depletion, forest loss, desertification, etc. all stem from the culmination of leaking oil, dumping of a waste product, the cutting of a single tree. Our technological appetite is not going to destroy the environment; it is slowly changing it in ways that we must continually adapt to stay ahead of the game. At some point, Mother Nature will catch up to us.

The other concern I have is how much we are at the mercy of technology. By technology, I am clumping together the science, machinery, corporations, government, policy, etc. We live in a technological world. Everything we do is dependent on technology; from the food we eat, the water we drink, the disposal of our wastes, our transportation, our jobs, our livelihood. We can make some choices as to how and what technologies we wish to embrace. We can choose to watch TV and be brainwashed by the 24/7 “news” channels, or not. We can grow some of our own food, walk to where we want to go, sing or play music for our entertainment; but we cannot slip into a world of self-sufficiency.

So here are some of my thoughts of this technological disaster in the Gulf. I/we are all part of it because we use petroleum products. This mandates the drilling in the Gulf, as well as other hostile and difficult areas; because we need the product. It doesn’t make any difference that the majority of the oil we extract from our leases in the Gulf are exported. We get our gasoline from a global bathtub which is worth billions and billions of dollars to oil industry, and comes from all over the globe. Until we reduce our demand and eventually replace it with other fuels, oil will continue to be extracted from even more far out corners of the earth, employing more difficult technologies, and creating potentially more devastating problems. What if this leak occurred in the icy plains of the Arctic?

BP is one of the largest corporations in the world, with access to state of the art technologies for oil drilling. They employ some of the brightest talent in the field for exploration, extraction, refining, and getting the product to the consumer. They spend millions along with all the other companies claiming they can produce oil and, at the same time, protect the environment. Do they lie? Probably not. I would hope they have good intentions on their own, beyond what they are forced to do through regulations and quality assurance procedures. So what happened? Technological error? Bad valve? Depleted battery? Improper concrete seal? Human error? Lax regulators and inspectors? Bribes? Deliberate sabotage? Who knows; it is probably a combination of many of these factors. Eventually the pointing fingers might figure it out. The main argument now is that accidents DO happen, regardless of how smug we are in saying that we know what we are doing. Most of us drive cars; we strive to be safe drivers…how many of you have been in a fender bender, in spite of how careful you thought you were. There are risks with everything we do. We have control over some risks, for example, we can choose not to drive, or take safer routes to reduce our risk. But with most large technologies, we are subject to risks we cannot avoid, and the consequences can be far reaching.

Most of you who know me, won’t be surprised that I now bring up the subject of nuclear power! Now, here is a humongous technology with an equally humongous risk; a risk that none of us can avoid. I, along with many others both critical and supportive of nuclear power, believe that we will eventually suffer a serious “accident” at a nuclear power station, in which there will be a release of radiation creating an unimaginable disaster of greater magnitude than the Gulf leak. In spite of the industry’s promise that they know everything and have thought of everything possible to prevent such an accident…s..t will happen! The difference here is that radiation is invisible; not like the oily slick and gobs that we see in the Gulf. The explosion at Chernobyl twenty-five years ago is reminiscent of what we saw occur in the Gulf. The initial corporate response was denial, then admittance of a situation that was not a big problem, then disclosure of under-estimated volumes of leaking oil, then finger pointing, then botched technological attempts to fix the problem, then legal attempts to maximize dollar liability, then admission of a more severe problem, then…… They didn’t/don’t have a clue as to what they are really doing; hiding behind the corporate and media disinformation and PR greenwashing. With Chernobyl, the International Nuclear Agency in Europe downplayed the significance of the accident, and years later continues to promote false information as to how humans and the environment were effected. A recently released book by the NY Academy of Sciences reveals previously unpublished Russian data that postulates over one million people have die from the radiation release at Chernobyl. Similar white-washes have occurred in the US following Three Mile Island; a new study on radiation effects around US nuclear power plants may shed light on what the human health impact was due to that accident. Big oil and nuclear power are controlled by very big and powerful corporations, who will say whatever they want and spread that information via the media which they own.

The bottom line, which I have held and spouted forth so many times is that we have so many options to “drill, baby, drill” and “glow, baby, glow.” The corporations that control the trillion dollar energy economy resent the fact that they cannot own and control the sun, the wind, the oceans, the millions of small independent power producers who can wean us off of oil and other fossil fuels, and lead us to a safer, saner, sustainable energy future.

More on this later. But for now check out a short little video put out by one of my mentors, Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute called "Reinventing Fire."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H2jnmJ6ZEw