RENEWABLE ENERGY, IT’S TIME TO TAKE THE GLOVES OFF!

Okay, so all’s fair in love and war. The latest advertising incarnation for the oil companies is a pleasant, almost jolly and good looking (Ladies, correct me if I’m wrong.) mid-50s man talking about how science does some extraordinary research that leads to finding energy underground. With a smile he professes that this great work creates jobs and runs clean vehicles and babies are born and the sky parts and we all live happily ever after (of course i'm partly kidding). Hallelujah!

In my opinion this is a bunch of $#!+. The sad part about this form of advertising is that it is effective. Just the same way we continue to elect worthless individuals during elections, this message will be drilled into the mainstream mind and perfectly sane individuals will have arguments over what’s better, clean energy or filthy disgusting polluting energy. It’s crazy to think that this stuff will work, but it will.

Until the renewable energy industry gets its act together and spends money to counter the message being served by the non-renewable energy industry we will not see considerable gains on the renewable energy side. From the beginning of time communication has been twisted to serve one cause or another.

The renewable energy industry is not without resources or organizations to represent it. I don’t mean to pick on any one group, but it comes to mind that the American Council on Renewable Energy, United States Green Building Council, and Interstate Renewable Energy Council, to name a few, have a mission to grow renewable energy. But I see no national campaigns to counter the oil companies. Yes, the oil companies have huge amounts of cash and will counter any campaign with even more ads. But, man, this is competition and you have to make your case in the minds of the people.

My message is that we should stop making apologies, take the gloves off and start using television to get the renewable energy message out. That is, if you want to stand for what you believe in. As a matter of fact, let me take the first to place an ad on behalf of renewable energy. The following demonstrates the jobs that are being created by clean renewable energy and by dirty un-renewable oil and gas (Enjoy!):



Renewable Jobs



Non-renewable jobs



Renewable jobs



Non-Renewable clean up Jobs



Renewable Jobs

 

Non-Renwable Jobs

Renewable Jobs

No caption needed

These are just a few examples of what can be used to combat the PR campaign that big oil is bringing. When the renewable energy industry organizes and fights back, the sky will be the limit.

By George Lopez

Headlines

Department of Energy Pushes for Baseline Water Testing

StateImpact Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania may be the only state that has no regulations regarding private drinking water wells. That means well location, construction, testing and treatment are all up to the individual landowner. So the Department of Energy's Shale Gas Production ...

 

Pennsylvania Groups Respond to Department of Energy Fracking Report

StateImpact Pennsylvania

By Scott Detrow As expected, the Department of Energy's fracking report is dominating today's drilling news. Here's some Pennsylvania-based reaction to the document. PennFuture's John Quigley calls it a “must-read.” Air quality, methane emissions, ...

 

Pennsylvania Wants Beacon Power's Flywheel Energy Storage

CleanTechnica

In addition to the $5-million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program state grant, the $53-million Hazle Township plant was also awarded a $24-million Smart Grid stimulus grant from the US Department of Energy...

 

Japan parties reach agreement on renewable energy bill

Reuters

TOKYO Aug 11 (Reuters) - Japan's ruling Democratic Party reached an agreement with the main opposition parties on Thursday to pass a bill designed to promote renewable energy, an opposition lawmaker said, setting the stage for unpopular Prime Minister ...

 

Billionaire Donald Trump's anger at Scottish wind farm decision

Environmental Data Interactive

The host of the US original version of the Apprentice, who is almost as famous for his hair as he is for his business ventures, issued a statement criticising plans for 11 wind turbines. A consortium consisting of Vattenfall, Technip and the Aberdeen ...

 

Wind energy now generates 20 percent of Iowa's electricity

REVE

Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) and other state officials will join the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) in sharing wind's powerful message this week in Ames: wind farm works for Iowa, which has become a national leader since adopting the first ...

 

Ford Offers Solar Charging For its EVs and Hybrids

Hybrid Cars News

SunPower, which is based in San Jose, Calif., says the photovoltaic cells in its SunPower® E18 Series solar panels are highly efficient, and take up less space than some other systems. The Ford program calls for 11 panels totaling about 147 square feet ...

 

Inexpensive catalyst that makes hydrogen gas 10 times faster than natural enzyme

PhysOrg.com

"This nickel-based catalyst is really very fast," said coauthor Morris Bullock of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "It's about a hundred times faster than the previous catalyst record holder. And from nature, we knew it ...

 

Geothermal system may provide heating, cooling for 750 condos

Niagara Advance

That was the beginning of a seed that was planted that he hopes will come to fruition—the use of relatively inexpensive geothermal energy to heat and cool the entire project. Racioppo explains that in discussion with Suzanne Wiltshire, an ...

 

Metro Vancouver is in hot water - and happy about it

Vancouver Sun

The regional district installed glass tubes on the roof of the 20-storey building in Burnaby in December 2009 to collect solar heat to augment the building's hot water system and gauge the effectiveness of reducing GHGs in commercial highrises. ...

 

To make green a reality http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/

 

Headlines

Samsung deal, wind turbines becoming hot election issues
The Beacon Herald

And everywhere from Huron and Perth counties to Sudbury and Wolfe Island and the shores of Lake Erie green power, more accurately wind power, is a hot topic. It reared its head around here this week as news of a wind turbine farm within sight of ...
 
Blackstone to invest €2.5bn in German wind farms
Siliconrepublic.com

WindMW GmbH, a company majority owned by funds managed by Blackstone, has completed the financing for "Meerwind, which will be the first German wind farm to be fully financed by private investors. The 288-megawatt 80-turbine wind farm will be situated ...

US wind up in Q2 but could stall if tax credit expires
EcoSeed (blog)

By Oliver M. Bayani Wind energy manufacturing and construction jobs that have been a bright spot through the recession, said AWEA. However, analysts from the American Wind Energy Association warned that the market's recovery could stall if the ...
 
U.S. Debt Deal Kills Off Prospects of Renewable-Power Support
Bloomberg

The department said in May it stopped work on a loan guarantee for Cape Wind off of Massachusetts because there wasn't enough money for all applicants. The first US offshore wind farm is projected to cost $2.6 billion. Funding for the loan guarantee ... 
 
International utility hones local focus
Boston Globe

Because Massachusetts has some of the highest energy costs in the nation, National Grid has taken heat on its decision to purchase expensive power from Cape Wind. Can you explain the company's thinking? I continue to fully admit that the cost of this ...
 
Cape Wind saga gets big-screen treatment
The News Journal

This October 2008 photo released by Rebirth Productions shows filmmakers Daniel Coffin (left) and Robbie Gemmel on location in Woods Hole, Mass., recording a scene for "Cape Spin." The feature-length documentary is about the battle over the Cape Wind ...


In Pennsylvania, produce buyers question safety of drilling near farm market ...
The Republic

Industry officials and the state Department of Environmental Protection secretary criticized that research, noting the authors have supported gas industry competitors and limited their study to an area known for contaminated water wells. Pennsylvania ...
 
Nissan Provides City of Lincoln, UK with Pair of Charging Stations
EV World

Drivers of electric cars may be pleased to hear that the city of Lincoln is set to benefit from two new car charging points provided by Nissan. The Japanese manufacturer was prompted by last Sunday's (July 31st's) episode of Top Gear, which showed ...
 
Electric vehicles to swamp Indian & Chinese markets
Financial Express

New Delhi: With Reva already having made an entry in the Indian electric-car market and GM and Renault having it in their pipeline, electric vehicles (EVs) may become major market players in emerging markets of India and China. ...
 
Commercial Solar Hot Water Arrives in the Midwest
RenewableEnergyWorld
 
If you live in the Midwest, and if you are a solar energy aficionado, you have had great reason to be jealous of most, if not all, of the rest of the country. The great states of Florida, California, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, New Jersey, Massachusetts...
 
CONSTELLATION ENER : Baltimore Gas and Electric Company Encourages Customers ...
4-traders (press release)

4, 2011 – Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) today announced that the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) has made available more than $850000 in additional funds intended to encourage customers to take advantage of BGE's Home Performance with ...
 

THE HOUSING CRISIS IS KEEPING RENEWABLE ENERGY DOWN

How is this possible, you say.

The housing bubble and ensuing burst created much carnage in our society. Governments borrowed and grew without check. Homeowners leveraged against their ever-growing equity like drunken sailors. Now the entire country is nursing a hangover.

The worse part of this equation is that the bill is due and no one seems to be able to pick up the check. The recent debt crisis’ events (that I will not go into detail in this blog) have the entire world looking at the United States as an example of what can happen without good leadership. The country borrows too much on things that are not essential and the citizens follow suit.

And the only thing we have to show for it is a high number of foreclosures; which in my opinion is the biggest hindrance to our recovery. Go into any city with boarded up houses and you can bet that not much economic activity is going on there. This problem is now prevalent and growing.

The collapse of the U.S. Housing Bubble had a direct impact not only on home valuations, but the nation's mortgage markets, home builders, real estate, home supply retail outlets, Wall Street hedge funds held by large institutional investors, and foreign banks, increasing the risk of a nationwide recession. Concerns about the impact of the collapsing housing and credit markets on the larger U.S. economy caused President George W. Bush and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, to announce a limited bailout of the U.S. housing market for homeowners who were unable to pay their mortgage debts.

In 2008 alone, the United States government allocated over $900 billion to special loans and rescues related to the U.S. housing bubble, with over half going to the quasi-government agencies Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration. On December 24, 2009, the Treasury Department made an unprecedented announcement that it would be providing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unlimited financial support for the next three years despite acknowledging losses in excess of $400 billion so far.

There are many sides to the argument of why the housing market has not recovered. Banks say they are trying to help homeowners in trouble, but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. The political right wants the banks to be left alone without regulation although there is plenty of evidence to suggest that is what got us here. The left says they are for the working man, but there is plenty of evidence that that is just not quite 100% true. If it were, wouldn’t we be celebrating the appointment of Elizabeth Warren to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? The President could appoint this highly qualified financial crime fighter, but he chose not to.

One thing is certain, when a person or family buys a house they automatically want to take care of it and the neighborhood around it, they invest in their home; which in turn helps create a healthy economy where everyone thrives. If this segment of our economy were in better shape and homeownership were up, solar panels, wind turbines and all other types of renewable energy would finally begin to thrive the way it should.

We all need to do as the President said about the debt crisis (I know I said I would not mention it in this blog, sorry): call your Member of Congress, Senators and all your local politicians and tell them that the next thing that should be fixed is the housing market in a way that is truly just and fair to all involved regardless of who got us here. If we all do this, homeownership for all could again be an attainable American dream.

By George Lopez

To make green a reality visit http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/

Renewable is the term used to describe what we do, everything else is dirty

After a long vacation following the Solar and Wind Expo Maryland and Pennsylvania, I would like to say that we are all glad to be back to work and we truly apologize for the lack of postings during this time… but the entire staff needed a break. Now we are all back at our desks and have once again plugged into the rhetoric that continues to spew out of state and national arenas.
  

If we already know the correct path to a healthier and more economical way of life, such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, biomass and so on, then why must we endure the constant barrage of confusing comments and terms by no lesser than even our own President. Mr. Obama, in his quest to please everyone, has continuously touted clean energy to include “clean” coal and nuclear. REALLY? REALLY?

We might as well include oil and shale gas in there. Oh wait, he has.

He mentioned natural gas when he called for the United States to get 80% of its electricity from a “wide range of energy sources.”

Similar to the way “Green” has been whitewashed or watered down, so have the words “Clean” and “Alternative.” It is interesting how language is constantly used to persuade the general public to abandon its quest for genuinely clean energies and instead settle for what is touted as clean, such as “clean” coal and nuclear. But the sad part is, this is only done to profit a certain group.

In a capitalist society, blaming the profiteer is a futile exercise. As a matter of fact, our system is structured to reward the risk takers, even when those rewards are not for the benefit of the whole. Just look at the banking industry. Our government is supposed to keep this in check, but as we know, it has not done a good job of it.

So again, why must we hear these terms being used by officialdom? This is not leadership. Surely it would be utopian to never have to worry about our government and to always feel protected. But the truth is that government has few checks and balances. We as a society have got to make them accountable for their lack of strength and rectitude. Another election approaches and we again will have a chance to do our duty - or sit and grumble.

Great to be back!

"make green a reality"

Visit http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/

Offshore wind Power in Maryland

Did you know that:

• The very best resources for wind are off the East Coast.
• East Coast states could meet all their energy needs from wind.
• The East Coast waters are so shallow the construction for these turbines would be cheap.
• Wind electricity would be cheaper, cleaner and eternal compared to coal.
• East Coast Governors are teaming up to make it happen.
• The entire East Coast population could harness their own power.

"make green a reality"

http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/