Gorepallooza, the Live Earth Concert set for this Saturday, is supposed to highlight the growing concerns of global warming. I have to admit the music will be phenomenal, but do we really need to keep highlighting concerns? When are Mr. Gore and the left going to give us some solutions? I can’t wait to hear Madonna stand up and bash George Bush in another great example of “Dixie Chicks” politics of cheap shots and sound bites.
If he wants to highlight SOLUTIONS, Mr. Gore should go on TV with the CEOs of the US-CAP Coalition and talk about the significant steps that government and business can take together for market based solutions that will not only protect our planet but will grow our economy.
The days of awareness have passed us by, and now is the time for solutions. The solutions are not in my iPod.
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July 7th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
When are Mr. Gore and the left going to give us some solutions ?
When will the right come up with solutions ?
People in glass houses should not throw rocks.
Gore does have his pledge that has a series of positive actions (use less energy personally (only a private virtue according to our Vice President), oppose ANY new coal fired plant that does sequester, patronize businesses that are working on solutions, pressure politicians to sign a MUCH stronger Kyoto II, etc.)
You will of course disagree, but it is a plan. Certainly better that ANYTHING proposed by the current occupant of the White House.
Look at next Monday’s Peak Oil Review for my plan.
Where is your plan ? Specifics beyond sitting down with CEOs please.
Best Hopes for electing people interested in solutions,
Alan
July 9th, 2007 at 11:08 am
A link to my plan. Good for Global Warming and Reduing US Oil consumption.
http://www.aspo-usa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=168&Itemid=91
Best Hopes for Good Plans,
Alan
July 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Thanks, Alan. I read the plan at your link and I am also a fan of rail. However, it’s the first mile and the last mile of a rail freight car’s trip that require greater energy. The hopper must move to and from the feed chute or the dump track. This operation can be made automatic, but it cannot be made energy free, so the plan plays with the figures a bit. Also, on older industrial sites, there is little room for modern upgrades like automatic freight car movement. Therefore, small diesels will always be running within the crowded industrial sites eating away at your cross country gains.
Just trying to be practical.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Thanks Alan. I am a fan of passenger light rail. Living in an ag state I would much rather be using biofeuls than electricty when it comes to public transpotison such as trolleys. Several of us on the right also ride our bicycles whenever we can.
My plan for a solution is working with the CEO’s of the US Cap Coaltion. Check out us-cap.org.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
No French Train Will Use Fossil Fuels By 2026
French trains will not use a drop of oil in 20 years’ time, President Chirac has declared. In a New Year message, reported by The Times newspaper and Reuters news agency, …
The French President said that as a result the country’s national rail operator, SNCF, and the Paris Metro operator, RATP, “should not consume a drop of oil in 20 years’ time.“
Of course they are the French, with their famous “Can Do” spirit and “Just-Get-It-Done; It’s-Important” attitude and we are Americans, with our infamous bureaucracy and endless paper shuffling and excuses.
It is very feasible to use battery locos in switch yards (I have talked specifically with the VP of Engineering @ Brookville Equipment on this issue. Brookville is the last US maker of small locos.
And the minor quantities of biofuels should be used for applications where there are no good substitutes, like ag machinery (electric combines are not going to happen, although GE built a few electric tractors in the 1970s).
Corn based ethanol is 10 BTUs of oil and natural gas in, 13 BTUs of ethanol out. Simply not worth doing. A boondoogle !
Biodiesel has some marginal promise for small quantities.
Letting the CEOs tell you what to do may maximize their profits, but it simply will NOT solve any problems. Corporations are set up to make money, not solve larger social or economic problems.
Corporations are, at best, useful tools to, say, help win WW II, but they are NOT sources of strategy on HOW to do it. Simply not their job and not their focus or skill set.
For example, Railroads may support my electrification proposals (CSX has an interesting proposal on the table now), but trucking companies NEVER will.
Best Hopes for a Plan from The Right because you have zero now,
Alan
July 11th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I wrote the above before downloading the report.
I did find one specific policy proposal in it.
…with specific targets that are:
between 100–105% of today’s levels within five years of
rapid enactment
between 90–100% of today’s levels within ten years of
rapid enactment
between 70–90% of today’s levels within fifteen years of rapid enactment.
The range of values are too large to be useful, but at least a range of numbers came out of the committee.
The rest (except perhaps the characteristics of the R&D program) were vague generalities put together by a committee with occasional sentences that could be useful to a bill drafter. Hardly a plan. But the group is ill suited by their nature to draft a plan in any case, so I do not fault them.
Merkel of Germany has a goal (-3% in carbon emissions EVERY year) and is soliciting specific proposals to put into her plan. She inherited from the Social Democrats a VERY useful (and Germanic strict) building code. R-49 walls, limited & hi-tech windows, etc. for new construction and an active insulation retrofit program. But the old Gov’t was only reducing carbon emissions by -0.9%/year.
I have worked some with the moderate (the most right wing party in Sweden is best described as moderate) party on energy policy now that they are in a coalition gov’t. Again, they inherited a good set of policies from the Social Democrats but they are looking to expand them and make them more effective (doing things that the SD would not do for ideological reasons).
Small “micro” hydro plants on farmers land is one concept that I have pushed and connected them with EU and Swedish sources. Make it easier and more profitable for old watermill sites to have modern generation added. Also, speeding up the process of building tram lines, etc.
Plans have specifics (no oil use by French trains by 2026, 100% electrification; all German buildings must be brought up to specific energy efficiency standards before being sold; small hydro owners in Sweden pay only half of the grid connection costs (the other half by the grid owner) and can borrow that half from the gov’t)
My plan has some specifics (remove property taxes from any rail line that electrifies, 90% federal funding fro any viable Urban Rail project with a detailed list of projects ready-to-go, 92% funding for electric trolley buses, 75% for all other buses) plus, I admit, some hand waving (make it patriotic to walk and bicycle).
Hand waving without specifics is not a plan.
Best Hopes for Rational Planning,
Alan