groSolar

Senator Bernie Sanders has written the following article, just published in The Nation (link to article here) Since it says what I’d like to say, and is well written, I thought I’d post here as well. And I’d also like to note that it’s a priviledge to live in the state of Vermont, with such a great Congressional delegation.

Jeff

Global Warming Is Reversible

by BERNIE SANDERS

“Scientists now tell us that the crisis of global warming is even worse than their earlier projections. Daily front-page headlines of environmental disasters give an inkling of what we can expect in the future, multiplied many times over: droughts, floods, severe weather disturbances, loss of drinking water and farmland and conflicts over declining natural resources.

Yet the situation is by no means hopeless. Major advances and technological breakthroughs are being made in the United States and throughout the world that are giving us the tools to cut carbon emissions dramatically, break our dependency on fossil fuels and move to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. In fact, the truth rarely uttered in Washington is that with strong governmental leadership the crisis of global warming is not only solvable; it can be done while improving the standard of living of the people of this country and others around the world. And it can be done with the knowledge and technology that we have today; future advances will only make the task easier.

What should we be doing now?

First, we need strong legislation that dramatically cuts back on carbon emissions. The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309), a bill that I introduced with Senator Barbara Boxer and that now has eighteen co-sponsors, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050.

Second, if the federal government begins the process of transforming our energy system by investing heavily in energy efficiency and sustainable energy, we can accomplish the 80 percent carbon reduction level and, at the same time, create millions of high-paying jobs.

Energy efficiency is the easiest, quickest and least expensive path toward the lowering of carbon emissions. My hometown of Burlington, Vermont, despite strong economic growth, consumes no more electricity today than it did sixteen years ago because of a successful effort to make our homes, offices, schools and other buildings more energy-efficient. In California, which has a growing economy, electric consumption per person has remained steady over the past twenty years because of that state’s commitment to energy efficiency.

Numerous studies tell us that retrofitting older buildings and establishing strong efficiency standards for new construction can cut fuel and energy consumption by at least 40 percent. Those savings would increase with the adoption of new technologies such as LED light bulbs, which consume as little as 10 percent of the electricity that incandescent bulbs do and last twenty years.

Transportation must also be addressed in a serious manner. It is insane that we are driving cars today that get the same twenty-five miles per gallon that US cars did twenty years ago. If Europe and Japan can engineer their vehicles to average more than forty-four miles per gallon, we can do at least as well. Simply raising fuel-efficiency standards to forty miles per gallon would save roughly the same amount of oil as we import from Saudi Arabia and would dramatically lower carbon emissions. We should also rebuild and expand our decaying rail and subway systems and provide energy-efficient buses in rural America so that travelers have an alternative to the automobile.

Sustainable energies such as wind, solar and geothermal have tremendous potential and often cost no more than fossil fuels (and, in some cases, even less). Increased production and research should cause sustainable energy prices to decline steeply in the future.

Wind power is the fastest growing source of new energy in the world and in the United States, but we have barely begun to tap its potential. Denmark, for example, generates 20 percent of its electricity from wind. We should be supporting wind energy not only through the creation of large wind farms in the appropriate areas but through the use of small, inexpensive wind turbines available today that can be used in homes and farms throughout rural America. These small turbines can produce, depending on location, more than half the electricity that an average home consumes while saving consumers money on their electric bills.

Solar energy is another rapidly expanding technology. In Germany, a quarter of a million homes are now producing electricity through rooftop photovoltaic units, and the cost of that technology is expected to decline steeply. California is providing strong incentives so that 1 million homes will have solar units in the next ten years. The potential of solar energy, however, goes far beyond rooftop photovoltaic units. Right now, in Nevada, a solar plant is generating fifty-six megawatts of electricity. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Energy Department, “Solar energy represents a huge domestic energy resource for the United States, particularly in the Southwest where the deserts have some of the best solar resource levels in the world. For example, an area approximately 12 percent the size of Nevada has the potential to supply all of the electric needs of the United States.”

As a strong indication of what the future holds, Pacific Gas and Electric, the largest electric utility in the country, has recently signed a contract to build a 535-megawatt solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert. This plant, which should be operating in about four years, will have an output equivalent to a small nuclear power plant and will produce electricity for about 400,000 homes. Most important, the price of the electricity generated by this plant, about 10 cents per kilowatt hour, is competitive with other fuels today and will be much cheaper than other fuels by the end of the twenty-five-year contract. Experts in the industry say that dozens of these plants can be built within the next twenty years.

Geothermal energy, the heat from deep inside the earth, is another overlooked resource with real potential. It is free, renewable and can be used for electricity generation and direct heating. A recent report for the US Energy Department by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that geothermal could supply 100,000 megawatts of new carbon-free electricity at less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour, the going rate today. It is estimated that electricity from geothermal sources could provide 10 percent of the US baseload energy needs in 2050.

As the nation at last confronts global warming, it is no time for denial, greed, cynicism or pessimism. It is a time for vision and international leadership. It is a time for transforming our energy system from the polluting and carbon-emitting technologies of the nineteenth century into the unlimited and extraordinary energy possibilities of the twenty-first. When we do that we will not only solve the global warming crisis; we will open up unimaginable opportunities for improving life all over the planet.”

This is the week of “StepItUp”, the campaign led by Bill McKibben one year ahead of the ‘08 elections. The idea being to reaise awareness of climate change and make it a campaign issue. This was certainly a StepItUp week for me personally and groSolar.
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I attended 5 different events in 4 states, making a presentation or being on a panel in each one. That was:

So that was bad for carbon emissions, and good for getting our message out more broadly. And based upon response, I’ll be speaking quite a bit more going forward.

Dori, my wife, co-founder, and continuing partner, was active in getting the StepItUp message out. We had some signs made up and distributed. Photos are just coming in to our website and the StepItUp web site. It’s not too late to add your photo, the action continues! Go to Take Action now and get a yard sign, then follow the instructions we’ll send with it to submit your picture. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it helps get the message out!

As part of our action, we also financially supported the StepItUp actions in Burlington, Vermont and Concord, Massachusetts. groSolar also attended the StepItUp event in Concord, MA. (Thanks Kevin!) Like most locations in New England, the weather was dreadful, keeping numbers down. But what impressed us was that no elected officials failed to show. U.S. Senator John Kerry, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and several state legislators were right on time. And the location!!! Just steps from the famous North Bridge in Concord where the first shots of the Revolution were fired. And a few more steps from The Old Manse, the house owned first by Emerson’s father and then by Nathaniel Hawthorne and visited frequently by Thoreau. What would they be thinking today as climate change legislation is slowed in Congress by legislators worried about preserving the carbon-based economy?

About 50 hardy souls braved the monsoon-like weather and delivered their pitch to the political leaders. Kerry said not one more old-fashioned coal-fired power plant should be built anywhere in the world unless it has the latest in clean technology and has the ability to sequester the carbon. He called also for major new funding for solar, wind and other renewables, nothing short of an energy revolution. Thoreau would have been proud.

the whole thing about StepItUp is to START actions, not be the only action. Keep it moving. Stay tuned to StepItUp, and 1Sky. Meanwhile,

Make this the subject of cocktail party, dinner time, and office conversation!

If we all work on this, we CAN not only make a difference, we can make the difference we need to make.

Sorry for the extended absence. The solar industry is growing rapidly, as is groSolar. We are currently undertaking an additional capital raise to further accelerate our growth, and that is consuming what extra bandwidth I had for writing. If it’s any consolation, I think about writing here often, and sincerely appreciate those who have sent me kind notes of encouragement. I will try to write more often Mom…

The following is a letter I’ve just sent to our local paper, the Valley News. While it’s specific to that paper, it also highlights a continuing and growing problem in our press today. That is the reporting of “balance” rather than “truth and opinion”. Too often today we see opinion framed in the same manner as fact. Using quotes from non-peer reviewed magazines, misstatements about what scientists are saying, and purposely misusing terms to further confuse the subject has become standard fare in the media today. Unfortunately, the problem goes well beyond global warming, and has infected all discourse today. (And yes, I’m going to blame the neo-conservatives more than the “liberals”. One fault, if you will, of liberals is that we tend to listen to other views. Even when we may have our mind made up, we allow others to hold their opinions. Frankly, I do not see that in the neo-conservative side of the media.) The motivation to write this letter came from an editorial cartoon which sows confusion over the difference between climate change and current local weather.

But global warming is the central issue here. While our government may go down in flames if we cannot arrest the decay and subversion currently underway, it is our world that will go down in flames if we cannot arrest global warming. While I desire neither, while I work to avoid both, clearly global warming represents a larger problem, and not one that can be “fixed later”.

Here is the text of my letter, which hopefully will be published this week. I’ve added in a web link to the offending editorial cartoon.

“It concerns and confuses me that the Valley News is still running editorial cartoons that lampoon the concept of global warming. It concerns me because global warming is real, and we have a very limited amount of time to start acting very seriously to limit the effects. Cartoons like the one in Friday’s paper (by Glenn McCoy, http://www.gocomics.com/glennmccoy/2007/07/10/, added reference for Blog) encourage people to not take global warming seriously, and to doubt the conclusions of one of the largest scientific research efforts ever undertaken.

I am confused because I do not know why the Valley News published the cartoon. Was it out of some warped sense of “fair and balanced” or because the editorial staff actually has doubts, or because they found it humorous and think that everyone understands the reality of global warming. (I wish that was true.) “Fair and balanced” does not mean that opinion can be set against fact. While we still have much to learn about climate dynamics and the speed and severity of climate change, there is NO doubt in the broad scientific community that global warming is real, and is largely caused by the actions of people. Yes, there are individual scientists who do not believe that global warming is real. There are also individual scientists who believe the earth is flat, and that aliens inhabit among us. But peer-reviewed science, the kind that gets published in the name-brand science journals (“Science”, “Nature”, etc.) has 100% agreement that global warming is real and that we are causing it. When you trace back the funding for the skeptics, an amazing number turn out to be funded by the oil companies.”

So I hope that the Valley News can present factual news on global warming. It is the most pressing issue of our time, and needs constructive action taken, not misinformation given.”

OK, remember you saw it here first. “Unplanned refinery outages. Almost sounds like the California electric supply a few years ago.” I’ve since heard this on the radio news. (Cannot remember where, I’ve been cross country this week.) Gas prices are now officially over $3/gallon for regular. In the Pacific Northwest, prices were over $3.20/gallon for the same grade. And this coming just about one month after the US Energy Information Agency said that we’ll be seeing lower gas prices this summer.

Lower than what?

With continued “unplanned refinery outages” (oh they learn so fast) just as we’re moving into storm season (seems the tornados are starting out pretty strong this year), I cannot even begin to predict. If we actually get a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, I predict we’ll see $4/gallon this summer.

But it really does not matter. This summer, next summer. We’ll see $4/gallon for regular gas by the end of 2008. The sooner the better, as discussed in my last post, for keeping prices lower longer. Of course, I’m not convinced that lower prices are a good goal. higher prices not only encourage conservation (read as “reduce global warming emissions) but also make alternative fuels more profitable. And nothing drives investment and invention like profit.

So do we attempt to take the lead and seize the moment? Tax gas up to $4/gallon now, and collect the revenues while we wait for the actual price to go up? We could phase it in over the next 3 months. But if a hurricane hits in the Gulf, we might be more than a bit behind the actual price rise.

Anyone else notice that gasoline prices have jumped 50 to 75 cents in the last two months? I have not looked back at the historical figures, so I don’t know the exact dates, time, costs, but I do know that I’m now paying over $3.00 per gallon for regular in Vermont. (This Vermont Fuel Price report is for April 3. Prices are up $0.40 since then.)

Now, I’m not surprised that gasoline is at $3.00/gallon. I knew that it just went down for the elections and would go back up again afterwards. But I am shocked at two things. First, it’s going up quickly. Second, and more surprising, is that we’re not hearing about it. It’s the great non-story. Here we are, close to the prices we saw in this area for gasoline after Katrina, yet there has not been a hurricane (or hard winter, or spring flooding, or any new war, or any other large oil-influencing event). So what gives? Anyone have an opinion? According to an EIA (US Energy Information Agency) April 10, 2007 report, “U.S. retail motor gasoline prices surged over the last 2 months, rising by more than 60 cents per gallon due to higher crude oil prices, unplanned refinery outages, increased demand for gasoline, and low levels of gasoline imports from Europe. Although gasoline prices began their seasonal increase about a month earlier than usual, the rapid rate of price increase is projected to slow over the next few months.” Unplanned refinery outages. Almost sounds like the California electric supply a few years ago.

So now we have $3 gas again. Of course, when we had $2.25 gas, it was “too expensive”, and so we could not add a higher tax on it to fund renewable and alternative fuel technologies. We needed to keep the price down. Well, the price just went up again, and ALL the money is going into the oil companies coffers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m for free enterprise and profit-making companies. I’m also for taxing things that are bad for us, to try to create things that are good for us. (It’s called creating social policy with tax policy. We do it all the time in the US, don’t let anyone tell you differently.)

What if we had increased the tax on gasoline when it was at $2.25/gallon. Make the tax increase the cost to $3/gallon, with the tax reducing if the gas price increased, to hold it at $3/gallon. What would have happened? Most likely, several things:

- We would now have a LOT of money to fund some research, subsidies, or other programs with to encourage alternative fuels, clean vehicles, or anything else we wanted.

- Poorer folks would have a hard time paying for gasoline (I’m not sure I buy this, but I’ll go along for the ride. I mean, poor folks have a hard time paying for everything.)

- Businesses would know for certain what to budget for gas. $3/gallon. No question. (Assuming it did not go ABOVE that level. And our government says it will not even get to $3, so, oops, we’re there already, sorry.)

- We would likely have used less gasoline. Higher prices do encourage some conservation, even in the US.

- Lower gasoline usage would assist in reducing the price of gasoline (less demand, less price pressure). So maybe the price of gasoline really would stay below $3.

- People would complain that gasoline is too expensive.

So, to keep gas prices low, we need to increase the price of gas to reduce demand, and to create funding for gasoline alternatives which also help to keep the cost of gasoline lower by creating alternatives.

But of course, we cannot do this, because at $2.25/gallon, gasoline is too expensive to add taxes to. Oops, sorry. Gasoline is now $3/gallon. And soon we’ll be seeing those beautiful, but potentially devastating storms in the gulf, just like the slides from Al Gore’s presentation.

Now what do we do?

We all try so hard, work so hard in a counter-productive direction, against believing in science. Scientists are called wonks and nerds, athletes are called studs. I’ve got nothing against athletes, or for that matter, for or against scientists. I do not fall into either group, although admittedly I’m closer to the science camp, having been trained as an engineer. (Although I now spend most of my days in sales, marketing and management.)

But it seems that we citizens of the USA will go to great lengths to avoid believing in science. No, I understand, that we don’t all want to follow what the “latest study about caffeine” says. I’m not saying that we should all read science magazines any more than we all need to read Sports Illustrated. (Although I bet that Sports Illustrated has more subscribers than almost all the science magazines in the US!) What I am saying though is that when a whole bunch of scientists get together, experiment and study data for years, and come to very similar conclusions, then shouldn’t we give their statements more weight than statements from a science fiction author or an unscientific news anchor?

I think we have a predilection for believing whoever is telling us the happier, simpler story. The story that means that we’re ok, that we don’t need to do anything differently, that we’re still great. Because, and this goes way across the grain of most everything that one sees written about the average US citizen, I think we’re on auto-pilot. Yes, I know that we work more hours than any other society. That we are more productive, take fewer vacations, and have higher GDP per capita than anyone else. But we are doing it through the innovation and industriousness of a relatively small number of people. Most of us are simply following along, taking as much vacation as we’re allowed, and working only as hard as the guy or gal beside us.

How else can we be so reluctant to change? I think that we in the US are willing to do almost anything so long as we don’t have to change anything that we are doing. Change takes a different kind of motivation. It’s not the motivation that gets us out of bed every morning for the same old routine. It’s the motivation that gets us out of bed for a different new routine. And that’s harder.

I also believe that people in the US will follow whatever the easiest and simplest path is. And my worry here is that the only way they will follow a path to solve global warming is when it becomes the easier path, when NOT doing something against global warming is harder than doing something. My fear is that by the time it becomes evident to science-ignoring and science-contorting people, it will be too late for us to have large enough actions to reduce global warming to a livable extent.

And my fear is amplified by the fact that the scientific community is actually NOT in agreement on global warming. Oh, don’t be mistaken, the community of scientists very much believes global warming is real and human caused and will have large scale, even devastating effects on people as well as almost all other living beings. What they are not in agreement on is how fast it will happen and how bad it will be. The IPCC report (nicely summarized here IPCC report summary) is the consensus of the scientists, meaning it is the lowest common denominator they could all agree on. Many key words and phrases were changed to accommodate countries that want a go-slow approach.

My children, ages 16 and 18, will certainly see a very different world by the time they are my age. But how different? Current “accepted consensus” scientific thought is that sea level will not rise too much by then. But, there are those who think that the ice sheet melting on Greenland and the West Antarctic may greatly accelerate. Just recently, a new island was found off the coast of Greenland. We’d thought it was a peninsula all these decades, and it turns out that the ice has melted off of it revealing a mountainous island. Melting has increased greatly on the ice surface. Ice quakes – the abrupt movement of the ice sheet - are increasing exponentially. So will sea levels rise seven to 23 inches (IPCC published predictions), or will it be three feet or more – in my lifetime?

I can’t wait to find out. And neither can you.

What is perhaps most shocking is that by denying global warming, by not working to stop it, mitigate it, reduce its effects, we are all deciding to take part in a global science experiment. Sort of like the frog, the fish and the plants in the closed glass jar. Will they survive? Personally, I never liked the idea of being part of an experiment. I’d like to work to keep the earth the way it has been, I know that works.

We need to act now. We need to believe in the science. We need to stop giving credence to the skeptics and the naysayers who, with no real science back up, deny us our right, our ability, and our need to change our economy to accommodate the earth.

We need to accept that if we start changing now we can turn global warming into an economic engine of growth. Sure, there will be losers, like ExxonMobil, who refuse to change. But there will be winners too; companies like Evergreen Solar, and of source, the rest of us.

We need to accept that sometimes we need to change our routine in order to protect it. When there is a fire in your house, or your neighbor’s house, you get up out of bed off-schedule and take care of the problem.

We need to accept that the US, by dint of being “the world’s only superpower”, is expected to lead, needs to lead, should want to lead, and will be best served by leading. No, it’s not always fair to lead, but it almost always turns out to be better to be the leader than a follower.

Who’s a leader?

It seems like everyone wants to get into the act of “debunking” global warming these days. Reminds me of an old saying “you can tell the character of a man by the kind of enemies he attracts”.

Our latest is John Stossel of ABC “News” 20/20. He’s got a show coming out on May 4 on 20/20 called “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity”. What’s his message? “Global warming can be safely ignored”. From what I’ve learned of John Stossel, he’s the one who should be ignored. What passes for journalism from him might better be characterized as a carnival sideshow or hucksterism. Anyone who agrees with his viewpoint is not questioned about their facts. Anyone who disagrees is not given a chance to defend themselves.

Just as the movie, the Great Global Warming Swindle has been debunked, so will Stossel’s 20/20 piece, as soon as it is aired, and the damage of misinformation is done. I suspect that he knows this, but the game is to keep as many people as doubtful as possible, and spewing his crud over the airwaves lets the industries that support him continue to spew their crud into our air. (In fact, the British TV station that put on the Great Global Warming Swindle now has a substantial FAQ on their website indicating that global warming IS caused by people!)

Of course, anyone who wants to do a little work on their own can find all the facts supporting the reality of global warming that they have the stomach for. Websites include:

Real Climate (they even have a non-affiliated review of each part of An Inconvenient Truth)
University of Cambridge, England (site with great and long references and resources)
Union of Concerned Scientists (general resource on climate and energy)
UCS site specific to the latest IPCC report on global warming. (Great summary)

My friend Mark Robinson over at The Energy Grid has started a movement to discredit Stossel’s report before it is shown. You can join him and assist with his replies on his blog.

Education is a long process, especially when you have so many trying to dumb us down rather than smarten us up! Talk about downright stupidity!

So much news. First, StepItUp was a tremendous success, locally and nationally. In Strafford, Dori (my wife, and partner in our business), organized a tree planting. In the drizzle and left over snow, over 30 people showed up. No frost (I mean zero) in the ground under the snow (boy is that an indication) and we had the tree planted in 30 minutes. Great fellowship and energy.

Then Dori and I traveled to the Vermont Democratic Party David Curtis Dinner. It was themed on global warming this year, and we had 6 others from groSolar attend with us. That made a pretty good splash in the hall and at a table. Keynote speech by Roger Ballantine was on target regarding the problem and what needs to be done to solve it. Political will to make changes is what it takes. Vermont is a great place to start. Here’s hoping that the leadership in the Vermont legislature was listening. I think they were, and I think we’ll have some great legislation passed before they wrap up this year.

I had my first Climate Presenter presentation tonight. There was a “home field” audience at the Strafford Lions Club of about 30 people. They are used to a 20 minute presentation after dinner and a quick exit. They stayed pretty well glued to their chairs for over an hour. It was obvious from the looks on their faces and a few comments that they had not seen the movie, or seen the evidence, before tonight. We changed at least a few, if not many, minds. And I managed to get through the presentation (dramatically slashed in time and content) with only modest technical glitches.

Giving the presentation is an exhausting and exhilarating task. Exhausting as it is an act, a choreographed performance. While I am mindful of the audience moving in understanding, fear, and desire for action, I am also feeling those emotions with them. Exhilarating because it is educating, moving people toward action that I passionately believe is necessary for our survival, and I felt a “thank-you” from the audience when I was done. Albeit a nervous and uncertain thank you, but a thanks nonetheless for telling them, for being willing to share this message, this Inconvenient Truth.

So I’ve passed the first hurdle, I’m on the loose, ready to present to any willing audience. (And even unwilling audiences if they can be held in place somehow!) Let me know if you want a presentation in your area.

All those who care about the climate, the planet, their families, and the economy, (that should cover everyone somehow), please plan on attending a StepItUp07 action tomorrow (Saturday, April 14). More information, including events that are probably near you wherever you are, is available on the StepItUp07 website.

Lead by climate activist and author Bill McKibben, this national / local event is designed to raise awareness in the general population and the media. Last year Bill lead the biggest ever march on Global Warming, and this year will be bigger, broader, and have even more impact. There are 1367 actions planned, with at least one in every state of the USA. And if there is not one near you, create your own. It can be as simple as standing out on the street corner with a sign to taking a group hike in the woods, to planting a tree. If you can, register the event on the StepItUp Events web page.

So have fun, do something important, get noticed, make a difference. Tell your friends. Small actions add up.