7,978 fatalities by in 2013 – 4,199 by 2001 = 3,779, which is more than the 2,977 killed by the hijackers on 9/11. If the fossil fuel industry was a foreign country, we would have invaded it by now. Why should we let that industry invade our lands for their profit? Let’s not permit a fossil fuel disaster here.
Center for Biological Diversity wrote on YouTube 31 July 2013 America’s Dangerous Pipelines: Continue reading
Bryan Zulko gave me this information about a workshop Thursday in Nashville, Georgia. I don’t know if there’s a fee; none is mentioned on the flyer. Presumably the contact listed can tell you. -jsq
Learn How To:
Guest Speakers: Continue reading
- Eliminate Your Electric Bill
- Create an Additional income stream
- Use Government Grants and Tax Credits
- Access Grants Support & Financing
Applications are being accepted now for
grants from the
USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
According to
Bryan Zulko, the amount of funds available
is still being worked out, and an announcement is expected in
February.
Meanwhile, the number of applications is low this year.
To me that means that if you want to apply, you’ve
got a better chance than usual of getting in.
Section 9007 of the 2008 Farm Bill established a grant, loan, and loan guarantee program to assist eligible farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses in purchasing renewable energy systems and for making energy efficiency improvements.
Eligible projects include Continue reading
Maybe changing the precincts every year isn’t such a good idea:
a new report rankings Lowndes County second worst in the state
for voting access.
And it’s not as if nobody has complained about this before.
Cody Gibson wrote for ValdostaToday 20 January 2014, Lowndes Ranks Second Worst in Georgia for Voting Access,
Lowndes County had the dubious honor of having the highest rate of provisional ballots cast in the state—more than 10 times higher than the state average. The extremely high deviation from the state average on this factor was largely responsible for Lowndes County’s position as one of the worst performers in the state. The report’s findings provide insights that can help officials, policymakers, and advocates better understand voting administration practices that work.By comparing voter access and experience across Georgia’s counties, officials can determine the best practices for ensuring that citizens have an equal opportunity to participate in the democratic process.
I’m not familiar with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, but that’s a very interesting study, Unequal Access: A County-by-County Analysis of Election Administration in Swing States in the 2012 Election by Anna Chu:
This report evaluates the election performance of counties in the 17 states that had the smallest margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in 2012. This analysis allows us to better
understand how well the election process is working within a state, and will hopefully encourage state and local officials to consider how they can improve the voting experience for their citizens.
Many of those provisional ballots could have been because of people confused about Continue reading
And for about $57 a month.
Emily Chung wrote for CBC News 18 July 2013, Small Alberta town gets massive 1,000 Mbps broadband boost: Rural community of Olds builds its own fibre network and starts its own ISP
Ultrafast internet speeds that most Canadian city dwellers can only dream of will soon be available to all 8,500 residents in a rural Alberta community for as little as $57 a month, thanks to a project by the town’s non-profit economic development foundation.
“We’ll be the first ‘gig town’ in Canada,” said Nathan Kusiek, director of marketing for O-Net, the community-owned internet service provider that runs the fibre optic network being built by the non-profit Olds Institute for Community and Regional Development in Olds, Alta., about 90 kilometres north of Calgary.
There’s more in the article.
-jsq
LTE in the VDT today. -jsq
For millennia humans gazed into the sky and marveled at birds sailing through the air. While some imagined a day when we would be able to fly, others said it could not be done. Likewise the idea of infinite, clean energy might seem unattainable to some, but the progress we have seen in recent years is astonishing.
Since the discovery of fire Continue reading
While ten nukes were shut down or cancelled in 2013, solar power continues its compound-interest-curve ever-faster deployment. Zero (0) new nukes were built in 2013 and in October all new U.S. utility-scale power was solar. Unfortunately, the biggest of those was Southern Company’s Campo Verde, which powers California, not Georgia or the southeast, but that is changing now.
Todd Woody wrote for The Atlantic 26 November 2013, Solar Energy Was America’s Sole New Power Source in October: Get ready for a photovoltaic building boom.
In October, power plants generating 530 megawatts of electricity came online in the United States. And every single electron put on the grid came from the sun, according to a report released today.
That’s apparently not even counting rooftop solar.
The report is Solar the sole capacity completed in October, at 530 MW, by Althena Enguerra for SNL 25 November 2013. Continue reading
If Europe can do it, the U.S. can do it.
And we know
Georgia can get a third of its power from wind,
and even Spain is north of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida,
which have a lot more sun for solar power than anywhere in Europe.
Solar power
is already winning, even in Georgia.
Let’s help it win even faster, plus wind.
PR from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) 16 January 2014, EU could cut emissions by 40 percent at moderate cost,
The costs of achieving a more ambitious EU climate target are estimated to be moderate. Upscaling greenhouse-gas emissions reduction from the current 20 percent by 2020 to 40 percent by 2030 would be likely to cost less than an additional 0.7 percent of economic activity.
And that apparently doesn’t count the additional economic activity that would be produced by all those wind and solar deployments, not to mention related activities like electric cars. This is actually a pessimistic study, because it doesn’t account for such likely positive corollaries.
Many options to choose from—wind power could expand sevenfold
Continue reading
Stacey Higginbotham wrote for GigaOm 16 January 2014, Two charts that show how crappy U.S. broadband is,
Despite the deployments of a few gigabit networks by Google and the spread of faster cable technology, U.S. broadband is falling behind. It’s expensive both as a monthly bill and on a per-megabit basis when compared to the rest of the world. For example, at $89 per month on average, U.S. residents pay more for broadband than residents in 57 other countries including Canada, Bulgaria, Colombia and the U.K. That’s right, the U.S. ranks 58 out of 90 countries.
The research, from research firm Point Topic concludes that the higher broadband prices are “caused by lower investment in infrastructure as well as lower take-up which prevents them from benefiting from economies of scale.” To get the above data the firm compared the prices paid for residential broadband and includes standalone and bundled services offered over DSL, fiber and cable broadband in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Per-country comparisons like this are hard to act on, but even at the country level we know Continue reading
No penalties and no proposed criminal sanctions in TPP for environmental destruction, in sharp contrast to the U.S. proposal for new criminal penalties for “unintentional infringements” intellectual property.
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) – Environment Consolidated Text
Today, 15 January 2014, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Environment Chapter and the corresponding Chairs’ Report. The TPP transnational legal regime would cover 12 countries initially and encompass 40 per cent of global GDP and one-third of world trade. The Environment Chapter has long been sought by journalists and environmental groups. The released text dates from the Chief Negotiators’ summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013.
The Environment Chapter covers what the Parties propose to be their positions on: environmental issues, including climate change, biodiversity and fishing stocks; and trade and investment in ‘environmental’ goods and services. It also outlines Continue reading