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Archive for April 3rd, 2009

Pedernales Public Hearing Tomorrow at Noon: Let ‘Em Hear from Ya

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Good Government, Renewables, tagged , , , , , on April 3, 2009 |

Do you, Pedernales Electric Coop member, want to save money on your electric bills?  World class energy efficiency programs? Solar Panels on your roof? Shape the future of PEC?

Let your voice be heard!

A public hearing on a proposal to adopt energy efficiency and smart grid policies will be held tomorrow in Johnson City.  If you’re a PEC member, this is your chance to weigh in on the standards PEC will adopt that will guide their energy efficiency and conservation policy in the future.

When: Noon, April 4, 2009

Where: Pedernales E. Babe Smith Headquarters, 201 South Avenue F, Johnson City, TX

What’s all this about anyway:

Congress passed a bill in 2007 (the Energy Independence and Security Security Act, or EISA) that included a requirement for all electric coops to consider adopting standards that would make information sharing, energy efficiency and conservation coop priorities.

If adopted, these standards would make it easier for Pedernales to offer energy efficiency programs and develop a “smart grid” which is crucial to develop small-scale renewables like solar panels on your rooftop.

PEC has a draft proposal on the table which modifies the federal standard. They want the public to comment on it and offer suggestions. So…

Now’s your chance! Show up to the meeting or submit written comments.  Tell PEC you want them to:

  • Develop a plan for meeting the PEC’s 30% renewable and 20% efficiency goals by 2020.
  • Create a sweries of innovative retrofit programs that have a goal of saving 20% or more of the energy used in each structure by 2020.
  • Give builders incentives to make new buildings as efficient as possible, and to add on site renewable energy.
  • Create solar and small wind incentives to help the coop and their customers meet 30% of the energy they consume with renewables by 2020.
  • Create a loan or lease program to help members afford these retrofits.
  • Give members information on the pollution produced by the power they consume.

To find out more visit www.cleanenergyfortexas.org.  There you will find a bunch of information, including our initial comments on all the good stuff above. Here is the link to PEC’s draft proposal too.

A group of like-minded folks will gather outside the building around 11:30.

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Lying Liars and the Climate Deniers

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 3, 2009 |

And so it begins….

We knew as soon as there was a draft climate bill that it would be falsely attacked and derided disingenuously as “an energy tax.”  But we had no idea to what extent the truth-stretchers would go to make their rhetorical points.

Did I say stretch the truth?  I meant break, beat, spit upon and then toss it into a cesspool to be feasted upon by worms and vermin, for as little as truth means to these lying liars.

Wednesday, Keith Olbermann named John Boehner his “Worst Person in the World” for his exaggeration lie about the costs of tackling carbon.  Watch this video for yourself:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lJWX_xmxco]

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  At least some people are willing to check their facts and talk about climate in a rational manner.  Look, a Press Release! (emphasis added is mine, not in original)

‘Energy Tax’ Rhetoric Ill Serves Debate on Climate Legislation

Republican members of Congress have taken to calling cap-and-trade legislation an “energy tax” or a “light switch tax” on American families and businesses.

Most recently, congressional Republicans misrepresented a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study analyzing cap-and-trade proposals. They distorted the study’s conclusions to exaggerate the costs of cap-and-trade legislation on individual households, by making faulty calculations based on erroneous assumptions and by ignoring a basic principle of economics – the time value of money.

Conservatives, of all people, should not ignore basic principles of economics. (more…)

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