Wisconsin Clean Energy Jobs Act

February 8th, 2010

Wisconsin bill would promote small-scale distributed renewable power generation.
Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Jobs Act (AB 649/SB 450) was introduced January 7, 2010. It proposes major energy reforms recommended by Governor Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force. The bill isn’t just about climate change mitigation, though. If enacted the bill would:

1. Raise the renewable energy standard to 25% by 2025.
2. Establish renewable energy buy-back rates.
3. Include renewable biogas from Dairy operations
4. Requires 10% of energy production from in-state renewables by 2025.
5. Recommendation for zero-net energy usage in new construction by 2030.

According to a summary prepared by RENEW Wisconsin:

“The legislation would require the PSC to order electric utilities to purchase renewable energy, under certain terms and conditions, from renewable energy facilities that are constructed after the effective date of the PSC’s order. Such ART orders must include the following:

* The price to be paid for the renewable energy, taking into account production cost, rates of return, and existing state and federal financial incentives;

* A schedule of payments over a sufficient period of time to allow for recovery of the construction and operation costs associated with the facility; and

* A maximum limit on the generating capacity for qualifying facilities.
In ordering ARTs, the Commission is charged with meeting the purpose of “maximizing the development of small-scale, distributed, renewable generation technologies without unreasonable impacts on electric utility rates.”

The bill, if passed would be one of the most aggressive renewable energy packages found in the United States and mean building hundreds or even thousands of wind turbines by 2025.

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Will it Go Round in Circles?

February 6th, 2010

Billy Preston and Eric Clapton

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Public Service or Socialism?

February 4th, 2010

I don’t know, call me a “socialist” if you like, but I think speed limits and mandatory brake lights on cars are good ideas. Not everyone agrees. I’m glad the voltage of the electricity coming into our house is regulated so the appliances don’t burst into flames. I’m glad there’s a fire hydrant on the street in case one of the houses catches fire. Our village Fire Department is first rate.

How about health care and bank regulation? What if we “socialized” them like the water department? Would it be the end of life in America as we know it?

Here’s a joke, related to Efficient Market Theory found in Raj Patel’s book The Value of Nothing:

Q: How many Chicago Economists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None. If the light bulb needed changing, the market would have already done it.

Here’s some perspective, courtesy of YouTube, on “socialism” in our daily lives.

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Coastal Geologists Point to Abundant Evidence of Global Warming

February 3rd, 2010

“the sea still rises.”

American coastal geologists Orin Pilkey and Rob Young have published this article on global warming in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. Their position: “plain evidence of global warming abounds.”

The article, in the literary sense, takes the reader on a flight beginning with the North Carolina Outer Banks to observe dead trees along a drowning Albemarle Sound and an eroding stretch of barrier islands.

The flight then heads northwest, across the Canadian Rockies to look at shrinking alpine glaciers. Then, on to Alaska and a coastal community built on permafrost. Melting permafrost coupled with coastal erosion, worse now since the sea remains ice-free more months of the year, threatens to take out the village. From Pilkey and Young:

“Clearly, the Earth has revealed undeniable evidence of rising sea levels – drowning shorelines, shrinking arctic sea ice, warming oceans, and melting permafrost and ice sheets. It’s all there for anyone to see.”

Would Americans shut down all the medical schools, hospitals, and clinics if they found out a few doctors were guilty of malpractice? As ridiculous as that may sound, the global warming deniers frothing over bad behavior on the part of some IPCC and University of East Anglia climate researchers seem to be suggesting a comparable purge of global warming research.

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Sea Ice Update

February 1st, 2010

Loss of Arctic sea ice area is larger than France and Spain combined.

In regulating global climate, sea ice plays an important role by reflecting solar radiation back out to space. Satellites are monitoring sea ice on a daily basis and data are compiled by research groups such as the National Sea Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the Polar Research Group (PRG) at the University of Illinois.

The NSIDC has this map dated 31 January 2010 showing the current Arctic ice cover compared to the 1979-2000 median area coverage. The current situation reveals over 1 million square kilometers of ice-free Arctic compared ti the median, an area roughly the size of France and Spain.

The PRG presents this graph, which indicates Antarctic sea ice cover slightly greater than the 1979-2008 mean area coverage.

The net change in global sea ice, adding the Arctic and Antarctic components is still more than 1 million square kilometers below the 1979-2008 mean.

As some point to climate science, which is flawed like most other human endeavors, and cry “hoax!”, the satellites, our eyes in the sky above, may be telling a truer story.

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Stagflation Index for 2009

January 31st, 2010

The Stagflation Index (SFI) finished 2009 with a +6 gain for December as wage gains barely stayed ahead of the cost of living.

The key December data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics pertains to non-managerial workers in the private sector, those of us who make up about 80% of the American workforce. The key data:

Consumer Price Index (CPI) +0.1%
Average Hourly Earnings (AHE) +$0.03 or +0.16%
Average Hourly Wage $18.79/hour

Calculating the December increase in wages adjusted for inflation:
(AHE – CPI) = (0.16 – 0.10) = 0.06
December SFI = 0.06 X 100 = 6.

For 2009, the cumulative SFI was -62. Real average hourly earnings, i.e., growth in wages adjusted for inflation was -0.62%. This represents a loss in consumer buying power.

I’m a bit more optimistic about the current economic “recovery,” due to increased manufacturing exports. The last time unemployment was this high was the early 1980s. The recovery that followed that recession happened despite shipping manufacturing jobs overseas. The 1980s recovery was supported by three major factors:

1. The Baby-Boomers” were in their peak earning years, buying houses, minivans, and lots of stuff for the family. They were great consumers. Now they are downsizing.

2. Cheap oil. The Alaskan oil pipeline was completed, North Sea oil wells came on line, and Pemex (Mexican national oil company) pumped at a frenetic pace. Oil prices plummeted to around $10 per barrel. That is not happening now. With the rise of India and China, a sharp drop in oil prices is unlikely. As the economy improves ever so slightly, oil prices are going up, making it tough for the recovery to gain momentum.

3. Growth in defense industries, computer technologies, and financial services during the 1980s put a lot of people to work and earned a lot of money. The financial crises of 2008 caused a lot of layoffs in that sector. It’s hard to see many of them coming back soon.

Now, the Baby-Boomers, faced with plundered 401Ks and badly under-funded retirements, are hanging on to their jobs. Young workers can’t find jobs. High unemployment will keep wages low. Low wages will keep consumer spending low.

Demand for oil will keep prices high. “Drill baby drill” will not lower prices like in 1982. Demand for oil is higher now, supplies are lower. Oil companies don’t want lower prices, anyway.

The only potential technological saviour is green technology and infrastructure. As the oil companies and their surragates fight to maintain the status quo, nations less entrenched in old, dying technologies will develop, patent, and build the renewable energy systems they will eventually sell to the rest of the world that isn’t as “blessed” with vast coal supplies as the United States.

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Howard Zinn

January 29th, 2010

Howard Zinn died yesterday at the age of 87. His life had great purpose: pulling for the underdog. He rejected the “Great Person Theory” of history. He admitted his history writing was biased. History is the sum total of everything that has ever happened. The historian selects a tiny subset of people and events. That selection can’t help but be biased. Any honest historian would admit that.

Zinn had compassion for those who struggled and lived invisible lives. He told their story and brought them some respect and credit they deserved. He carried them shoulder high.

The following is a re-post from March 15, 2007, four years after the invasion of Iraq. Jim Lehrer interviewed four historians, including Howard Zinn, just before the first bombs exploded on Iraq. At the time, there was massive public support for the invasion. By July 2009, 58% of Americans believed the war was a mistake, according to a Gallup Poll.

On March 17, 2003, President Bush gave his now famous 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. That night, Jim Lehrer interviewed four historians on this edition of Newshour regarding the decision to invade Iraq. The transcript reveals very different opinions, including serious doubt about the war. Below are brief exerpts from the four experts.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD – Senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
“I actually think that in a way just as the stock markets have been going up as it looks like the crisis is going to be resolved quickly that probably we took much more damage in the run-up to war than we’ll take in the war itself.”

DIANE KUNZ – Diplomatic historian, formerly at Yale
“I think what’s interesting to remember is that what President Bush is doing is building on Wilsonian principles. Woodrow Wilson taking the United States into war in 1917 said, “We are going to war, we will expend our blood and treasure in order to safeguard principles.”

ROBERT DALLEK – Boston University:
“I think people who support him (Bush) find confirmation in his language and in his words. And I think we’re going to see in this country and around the world an explosion of tension and division over what the United States is doing.”

HOWARD ZINN – Professor Emeritus, author of People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)

“…the one thing that is missing in so much of the discussion is that we are going to kill a lot of people in this operation. It’s all well and good to talk about the promise of a different Iraq, a democratic and free Iraq, a promise which is very dubious considering the history of the United States.

It’s a history in which it has not been very good at creating democracy, a history in which it has rather supported dictatorships around the world, but we are going to kill — and think of it this way — we talk about Saddam Hussein and what he’s doing to the people of Iraq — we are going to kill the victims of Saddam Hussein. The civilians of Baghdad are going to be living under terrorism.”

Thanks again to Howard Zinn for his insight, wisdom, and humanity.

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Middle Class Scorecard: McConnell Earns an “F”

January 28th, 2010

TheMiddleClass.org (TMC), an advocacy group for issues it sees as helpful in growing and securing a strong, prosperous middle class, has a Congressional Scorecard out for 2009. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted with TMC 36% of the time, earning him an “F.”

The Scorecard has a long list of bills and how McConnell voted.

Despite the massive national debt, McConnell voted for a bill to lower taxes on the wealthiest estates, increasing the tax exemption to the first $5 million. Someone inheriting $5 million dollars from a rich relative would not have to pay one penny in federal tax. Meanwhile, workers flipping burgers for $7 an hour pay federal taxes so that Mitch McConnell can have top-notch “government run healthcare” extended to members of Congress.

According to TMC:
“The estate tax, the most progressive component of the federal tax code, applies only to Americans lucky enough to inherit substantial fortunes. In fact, only 0.6% of deaths result in taxable estates. By taxing inherited wealth, the tax preserves the American tradition of rewarding hard work, not inherited privilege and wealth.”

The deficit is a big problem for the middle class, not so much for wealthy Americans. High deficits generally lead to high interest rates, making it difficult for ordinary people to finance homes, cars and college. An estate tax that is fair and reasonable would generate significant revenue to help pay down the national debt.

In voting to raise the tax exemption on inherited wealth, McConnell made it clear who he works for and it’s not the middle class.

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If Obama REALLY Went “Hard Left”

January 25th, 2010

Yesterday on CNN, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed Obama went “hard left” to lead the country. Mitch is not telling the truth. He is building a false political narrative, like the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” narrative, designed to achieve Rebublican goals.

Here is what a “hard left” agenda would look like:

1. Constant congressional hearings about lies used to build support for the War in Iraq;
2. Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld indicted for torture and other war crimes.
3. Nationalize the banks;
4. Raise top income tax bracket to 90 percent.
5. Reparations for descendents of slaves.
6. Introduction of a constitutional amendment to allow gay marriage.

Obama’s tried to lead from the middle. He didn’t go “hard left” as Mitch McConnell would like Americans to believe. Mitch McConnell and his chronies are not honest men. They are strategically using a false narrative to pull the “middle” to the “right.”

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A Winning Strategy: Get Some Balls

January 23rd, 2010

Tip: Seeing the Forest

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Oligarchs and Earthquake Victims

January 15th, 2010

Today’s news, dominated by taxpayer-subsidized banks handing out billions of dollars in bonuses to executives, contrasting with the horror in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, illustrates the unsustainable economic condition of our time: the vast inequalities in human fortunes in this world.

After committing $700 billion to bail out banks in 2008, our government now pledges $100 million for the earthquake victims, most of whom cannot even find potable water.

Lincoln may have put it best:
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We…will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation… We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

Photo credits:
New York Daily News
The Insider

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An Arctic Heatwave

January 11th, 2010

Strongest Arctic Oscillation (AO) since 1950 warms the North Pole, freezes middle latitudes.

With all the cold weather so far this winter, I can’t blame some for entertaining the idea that the whole Global Warming thing is a tad overblown. Like a lot of other issues, we need to remember the “global” aspect of climate change, think about what’s happening elsewhere around the world, and not just the snow and black ice making for a tricky morning commute.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that a natural atmospheric phenomenon called the Arctic Oscillation is responsible for the colder than normal temperatures for December in the United States.

From the report:

December air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean region, eastern Siberia, and northwestern North America were warmer than normal. In contrast, temperatures in Eurasia, the United States, and southwestern Canada were below average. The strongest anomalies (more than 7 degrees Celsius/13 degrees Fahrenheit) were over the Atlantic side of the Arctic, including Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, where ice extent was below average.

The extent of Arctic Sea Ice remains well below the past 30-year median, decreasing, on average, 3.3% per decade since 1979.

There’s some hope that the current AO will help rebuild some of the Arctic ice pack this year. We’ll have to wait and see.

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Feed-In-Tariff Bill Introduced in Wisconsin

January 7th, 2010

Members of the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate have just introduced a bill (AB 649) to create a feed-in-tariff plan for renewable energy. A feed-in-tariff is the best way to create and build the renewable energy economy. Feed-in-tariff laws do three very important things:

1. Allow essentially anyone to get into the power generation business: homeowners, small businesses, farmers, co-ops, local governments.

2. Guarantee connection to the grid.

3. Pay a stable price to the producer that covers the startup costs plus a reasonable profit for an extended contract period of, for example, 20 years. This is necessary to avoid financial uncertainty due to electricity price fluctuation and is the same kind of deal the utilities get now when they build coal plants.

Feed-in-tariffs pay more per kilowatt hour than the utilities get to produce power from existing subsidized coal or nuclear plants, but prices are expected to fall over time as the renewable energy industry grows and matures.

In 1973, my dad bought me a pocket calculator that cost $300. It could add, subtract, multiply, divide, do square, square-root, and reciprocal. Today you can buy a much better one for under $10. As the technology and competition grew, the prices nose-dived. I often wonder what would have happened if dad and everybody else had decided “$300 was way too much, a slide-rule is a lot cheaper.”

There’s more about the bill at Wind-Works

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Colbert on Passenger Screening

January 6th, 2010

Brilliant. Tip: Informed Comment.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word – Ideal or No Deal
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy
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Charter for Compassion: Karen Armstrong’s Soul Food

December 30th, 2009

Our current political “hot flash” over the near-tragedy of Flight 253 presents both opportunity to learn and risk of irrational response. The coming month is going to be critical to get it right and this might be a good time for some “soul food.”

Karen Armstrong’s the 2008 winner of the Ted Prize. She’s a good speaker and the video below is her launching the Charter for Compassion, an effort to reclaim religions in a world where they’ve been hijacked for nefarious reasons.

an exerpt:
” …our current situation is so serious at the moment that any ideology that doesn’t promote a sense of global understanding and global appreciation of each other is failing the test of the times.”

Tip: Pulling for the Underdog

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