- 22:41 @WriteRCastle Fave Tim Burton movie has to be "Edward Scissorhands". Elfman's music, Depp's acting and the story was enchanting. *melts* #
- 22:52 The hours pass slowly / Minutes mark my solitude / Home's always with you. #HaikuFriday #
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Robert S. Eshelman writes in The Nation:
| Where's the Clean Energy?:</p> It was in Germany that Ed Regan realized Gainesville, Florida, was going about things all wrong. The assistant manager at Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) was out looking for ways to boost his city's renewable energy capacity. "Germany was a game-changer," Regan says. Wind turbines and solar panels seemed to be everywhere. He soon learned the secret. Before Regan's June 2008 trip, the GRU was trying to promote small-scale renewable energy generation by offering hefty cash rebates to customers who installed solar photovoltaic panels. And it had a "net metering program" that allowed customers who generate their own power to run their electricity meters backward, thereby cutting their electric bills potentially to zero. But the programs weren't attracting a great deal of interest. The utility's rebate program had yielded only 300 kilowatts of solar power capacity--roughly the amount of electricity used by 160 hair dryers--and it cost a lot of money. The difference between Gainesville and Germany was that Germany had a national feed-in tariff. Under this system, energy consumers can become renewable energy producers by installing solar panels on their roof or a wind turbine in their backyard and selling their energy to the local utility. These customers-turned-producers receive above-market prices for their energy, often for up to twenty years. With the feed-in tariff, Germany boosted its renewable energy production from 1 percent of its total output in 1995 to 12 percent in 2005. By 2007 renewables supplied 14 percent of Germany's electricity. Denmark and Spain also have successful feed-in tariff programs. So this past March, Gainesville rolled out its own feed-in tariff. GRU now pays twice the retail cost for every kilowatt of solar power-generated electricity. The extra cost means a small increase in electrical bills for all utility consumers, less than a dollar per month per household. But in order to keep consumer prices down, the feed-in tariff is limited to expand by only 4 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity per year, for six years. And the first year's quota was snapped up in just two weeks. The program now has a waiting list through 2016. Rather than a bunch of homeowners each installing a few panels, the Gainesville quotas were mostly taken by commercial investors. |
• • • • • • •
Green Diary Rescues appear on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The diary rescue begins below and continues in the jump. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it.
• • • • • • •
Rei asked Who's killing the electric car again?: "How did a woman who the SEC says planned one of the largest accounting frauds in US history end up as Chief Financial Officer of Aptera Motors? It's just one of many questions swirling around what appears to be a meltdown in progress at the beleagured manufacturer of safe, hyper-efficient electric vehicles. When a business is running smoothly, there are strong incentives for everyone to be a team player and hide any signs of internal strife. As the rate of layoffs and "vacations" increases, however, so does the potential for leaks. And sometimes a simple name can take you places you never thought you'd go."
David Brin offered a lesson in capitalism with his diary Re-allocating energy research: "The Obama Administration, while pumping up funding and incentives to further develop hybrid vehicles, has slashed $100 million (60%) from the budget for George W. Bush’s preferred approach -- hydrogen fueled cars. Of course, this is one more sign that we are being led by people who want America to succeed, and no longer by technological morons, determined to make every possible wrong decision. Why am I so fierce in my appraisal of so-called ‘hydrogen-power’ -- despite my portraying it positively, in several stories and novels? Because it cannot possibly help us in the near (twenty year) future, as was cogently pointed out recently by Energy Secretary (and Nobel winner) Stephen Chu. "

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On this TCCIF*, the rangers are srkp23, vcmvo2, dadanation, ybruti, blank frank, and jlms qkw waved the editor's wand. *Thank Ceiling Cat It's Friday
Please celebrate good writing with us and show these diarists some love - commenting, recommending, and subscribing are all appropriate!
jotter brings us another excellent edition of High Impact Diaries: November 19, 2009.
emeraldmaiden has Top Comments 11/20/09 - A Letter from Diaper Dave.
Please share your own favorite diaries from the past 24 hours in this Open Thread.
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The weekend beckons....
CA-Sen: Boxer Maintains Solid Edge, Even in Ras Poll
Given that the Rasmussen poll in question had some data that hinted at a GOP skew (the 55% job approval for President Obama, for example), the news on the Senate race has to be considered very good news for Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. In the new Rasmussen poll, she leads both of her likely Republican challengers (Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore) by nearly identical margins. She leads Fiorina by nine (46-37) and leads Devore by a ten-point margin (49-39).
The Race for 2012: Obama Still Leads All Comers, According to PPP
Despite flagging approval numbers with the same pollster (PPP had him under 50% for the first time this week), a new set of numbers on the 2012 elections from PPP (PDF File) shows that President Barack Obama has leads of between 5-8 points over four leading GOP figures. As has been customary as of late, Mike Huckabee (49-44) and Mitt Romney (48-43) keep Obama the closest in terms of margin. Against Sarah Palin (51-43) and Ron Paul (46-38), Obama stretches out his advantage.
National: An Embarrassing Moment For Gallup
It was almost undoubtedly coincidental, but a sequence of events occurring over the past few days has put quite a bit of egg on the face of the most venerable pollster in the game: Gallup. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh decided recently to mix his polling analysis with a little racist speculation:
"Gallup has it [Obama's job approval] just teetering there on the
little teeter-totter at 50%, and they're doing everything they can,
they're upping the sample of black Americans, to keep him at 50% in
the Gallup poll."
This, of course, is an incredibly serious accusation, and it led to a sharp denial from Gallup polling head Frank Newport on Thursday. But what happened on Friday? Gallup's tracking poll broke the barrier and found Obama at 49%. No word on how many seconds into his broadcast it took for Limbaugh to claim the credit and proclaim his infallibility.
IN POLITICAL NEWS....
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Via Grist, the caption reads "EACH DAY HUMBLE SUPPLIES ENOUGH ENERGY TO MELT 7 MILLION TONS OF GLACIER!"
Reportedly from a 1962 edition of Life Magazine -- no way to tell for sure without an original copy of that edition. Humble Oil merged with Standard Oil which underwent various name and organizational changes, to eventually become Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest energy company and the most profitable single company in history. But one thing remains the same: they're still melting tons of glacier and they're probably just as proud of it now as they were way back then ...
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Keith Olbermann rips News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch for denying that he had accused President Obama of making racist comments:
Unfortunately for Murdoch, he did accuse Pres. Obama of making racist comments, and Keith plays the video.
It’s bad enough that Rupert Murdoch would have ever back Glenn Beck’s absurd allegation that Barack Obama is a racist; the fact that he doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to stick by that attack shows that Murdoch isn’t just a wingnut, he’s a coward.
Standish, Michigan, tells Liz Cheney to sell it up the street:
Officials in a small Michigan town featured in a new video about Guantanamo by Liz Cheney’s national security group want her to know that they’re not falling for her “fearmongering” — and tell us they want Gitmo detainees in their town.
Cheney’s group, Keep America Safe, has released a short documentary starring several residents of little Standish, Michigan, slamming the Obama administration over a proposal to transfer some Guantanamo detainees to the town’s maximum security facility, one of several facilities being discussed. [...]
Cheney is “certainly not representing the views of our community,” the City Manager, Michael Moran, told our reporter, Amanda Erickson.
While some local residents do appear to have expressed mixed feelings or opposition to the plan, Moran says that they’re an isolated minority that Ms. Cheney’s video elevates out of proportion in a way that’s “off base.”
The teabagger way -- pretend that the voice of extremism is speaking for everyone.
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