Save and Conserve

My post-election hangover is running pretty strong 2 days later ... I am absolutely thrilled by the Obama victory & even more amazed at the reaction to the win. People seem genuinely pumped to turn the page on the 8 year national nightmare that has been the Bush administration. It's wonderful to see ...

It's also wonderful to see that Prop 1a in California passed on Tuesday. That's a major victory for those of us who feel we need systemic change in how we move people around this country.

It will be interesting to see how Obama plans to inject life into the economy. My hunch tells me he will take the lead from California & throw support in back of high speed rail. It makes perfect sense given the jobs situation, the energy situation & his clear, powerful mandate for change.

Exciting times!

Posted by tom c. at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In addition to pulling for an Obama win next Tuesday & perhaps even 60 D-seats in the Senate, I'm most interested in the outcome of California's Proposition 1a, the high-speed rail act.

Voters are being asked to approve the issuance of $10 billion worth of bonds to finance this ambitious project, which would provide a high-speed rail service from San Francisco & Sacramento to San Diego. Passage of the proposition is by no means a sure thing & the debate is running pretty hot.

So Californians have the chance to step up on a major issue & show some leadership & some guts. Yes, they have a major structural budget deficit ... but this is a transcendent issue. This is a rethinking of how we get from point A to B in this country. This would be taking action to rearrange our lifestyles to address the energy crisis. This would open people's eyes to new forms of transportation. This would get people off the road, out of their cars. This would be real change & a new direction.

This is when we have to start projects like these. Right now. Not in 5 years. This couldn't be more important & I hope Californians do the right thing.

Posted by tom c. at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been pretty sickening watching the McCain - Palin ticket "go Rove" on us over the past few weeks. I mean, it's one thing to spread lies about your opponent (see Kerry in 2004), but it seems even worse to lie about your own record. I mean, come on! It's YOUR record & we can check it pretty easily.

The "Palin is the most knowledgeable person on energy" meme is particularly irksome, given that she can't even get the basic facts about how much energy Alaska produces relative to the entire US correct. Check out this post for the whole story, but suffice to say Palin is going around saying that Alaska produces almost 20% of the energy in the US. She is inflating this number rather dramatically. According to the Energy Information Administration, the actual number is more like 3.5%. Then she modified the claim, saying Alaska is producing 20% of the oil & natural gas in the US. Unfortunately, she is still way off. The actual number is 13%.

These seem like the type of mistakes "the most knowledgeable person on energy" in the US wouldn't make. Since Palin is largely basing her foreign policy credentials on the fact that Alaska is an important energy state, shouldn't the public be aware she is inflating Alaska's importance? Yet we hear nothing about this in the mainstream media.

Instead, we get the talk shows & the pundits. Usually there is one from each party & they argue & talk over one another for the entire "bit". Then the host thanks them for the enlightening discussion & the viewer has learned nothing. We really need to get a handle on the news media. It is not helping anyone figure out the truth. Since news should really be about facts, this seems perverse.

I'm not surprised that someone with some energy experience is on the national scene in this election. As I've written before, energy is probably one of the top 2 or 3 issues in this election ... for good reason. But it is surprising that someone can completely misrepresent the facts ... & not get called on it outside of the blogosphere.

Posted by tom c. at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the speech everyone in the media should be talking up:

It's interesting to note that the speech on energy got the crowd more fired up than anything else last night. Granted, Schweitzer (Governor of Montana) worked the crowd pretty hard, but people are really concerned & interested in energy. As I said before, the Obama campaign should make energy a top priority in this last 60ish days. There is hay to be made here ...

Posted by tom c. at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, Obama delivered a speech attacking McCain on energy. Not only did he lay out a very detailed & comprehensive plan (read the speech here), but he tied McCain to 30 years of political ineffectiveness that has led to our complete & utter addiction to oil.

I think Obama can really make hay on this subject. Not only does he have the superior policy plans & ideas on how to move the country forward, but he can hurt McCain badly with remarks like these:

What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He voted against increased fuel efficiency standards and opposed legislation that included tax credits for more efficient cars. He voted against renewable sources of energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power. Against an energy bill that - while far from perfect - represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country. So when Senator McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, it's important to remember that he's been a part of that failure. Now, after years of inaction, and in the face of public frustration over rising gas prices, the only energy proposal he's really promoting is more offshore drilling - a position he recently adopted that has become the centerpiece of his plan, and one that will not make a real dent in current gas prices or meet the long-term challenge of energy independence.

Senator McCain would not take the steps or achieve the goals that I outlined today. His plan invests very little in renewable sources of energy and he's opposed helping the auto industry re-tool. Like George Bush and Dick Cheney before him, he sees more drilling as the answer to all of our energy problems, and like them, he's found a receptive audience in the very same oil companies that have blocked our progress for so long. In fact, he raised more than one million dollars from big oil just last month, most of which came after he announced his plan for offshore drilling in a room full of cheering oil executives. His initial reaction to the bipartisan energy compromise was to reject it because it took away tax breaks for oil companies. And even though he doesn't want to spend much on renewable energy, he's actually proposed giving $4 billion more in tax breaks to the biggest oil companies in America - including $1.2 billion to Exxon-Mobil.

This is a corporation that just recorded the largest profit in the history of the United States. . This is the company that, last quarter, made $1,500 every second. That's more than $300,000 in the time it takes you to fill up a tank with gas that's costing you more than $4-a-gallon. And Senator McCain not only wants them to keep every dime of that money, he wants to give them more.

That has to hurt if you are staffing or supporting the McCain campaign. I predict this message we heard today from Obama will resonate with American voters. The timing just feels right for a bold new vision to sweep old stuff (like McCain) away. I predict Obama will become a broken record on this for the rest of the campaign. This is winning material.

Now, if he would only start thinking & talking about passenger rail. That would be icing on the cake.

Image provided by Flickr user radiospike photography under Creative Commons license

Posted by tom c. at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Given that much of the current Democratic Presidential Primary season has been defined by questions & posturing about experience (35 years from HRC or lack thereof in the case of Obama), I thought it would be useful to see how important experience is in the Arctic circle.

I was shocked to see that up in the Arctic they have learned that experience is no longer an important factor in sea ice makeup.

The image above, compliments of NASA, clearly shows that young beats old.

I think we can learn a lot from the ice in the Arctic. I hope voters take this to heart & realize that experience is definitely overrated. Young ice, old ice ... what's the big deal?

Posted by tom c. at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a detailed policy speech today in Wisconsin, Obama spoke about where he intends to take the economy as President of the US. Full details are available via PDF file here. Energy was included in the speech. Let's see where Obama's head is at on the issue we care most about ...

Invest In a Clean Energy Economy and Create American Jobs: Barack Obama will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. A principal focus of this fund will be devoted to ensuring that technologies that are developed in the U.S. are rapidly commercialized in the U.S. and deployed around the globe.

My comments: $150 billion over 10 years really isn't enough, given the near term challenges that are looming. Love the idea to support plug-in hybrids .... this is definitely where I see personal transportation heading. It doesn't make sense to burn oil to power cars. It makes a lot more sense to electrify the cars & use solar or wind to generate the electricity. That being said, Obama is right on the money in saying we need commercial scale renewable energy. Don't love the "low emissions" part of the coal bit, but practically speaking, zero-emissions coal plants are probably a figment of the imagination.

All in all, this is on the right track. I think we could use even more money devoted to RE ... but much better than the current thinking.

Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies: The Obama plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, high-paying jobs. Obama will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth. This program will provide youth participants with energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings in their communities, while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high-growth employment. Participants will not only be able to use their training to find new jobs, but also build skills that will help them move up the career ladder over time.

My comments: Weatherization training? WTF? I had to Google it. This entire jobs-related piece of the platform exposes Obama'a roots in community organizing in Chicago. Sounds like he wants to use the "green revolution" to solve rampant unemployment & overall decay in urban areas. At the same time, any training focused on energy conservation has to be considered a huge positive. Americans really need to get smarter about saving this precious thing we call energy.

New Jobs Through a New National Infrastructure Investment: Barack Obama believes that it is critically important for the United States to rebuild its national transportation infrastructure - its highways, bridges, roads, ports, air, and train systems - to strengthen user safety, bolster our long-term competitiveness and ensure our economy continues to grow. Investing in national infrastructure is especially important in our efforts to bolster our homeland security to meet international terrorism and natural disaster threats. Additionally, a robust federal infrastructure investment program today will help strengthen the U.S. economy and provide at least one million more U.S. jobs at a time when the housing and construction industries are slowing. Barack Obama will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation's most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.

My comments: I wonder what Obama's take on peak oil is. Does he realize that there might not be enough fuel to use the infrastructure that he wants to fix/maintain? I really wish there was more focus on the resurrection of our rail system. This is very status quo ... which is a bummer.

Posted by tom c. at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)