Tea Party You Tube Video Commerical

This video is a must see for everyone. I enjoyed the video very much.

 

 

Calif. lawmakers promote clean energy standards

 

By DON THOMPSON - Feb 3, 2011 8:37 AM ET

By The Associated Pres

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Legislature's Democratic leaders on Wednesday unveiled a package of proposed laws they said will position the state as the national leader in developing clean energy alternatives and green jobs, promising quick passage to help spur the state's lagging economy.

The package includes a bill requiring utilities to get one-third of their power from alternative energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal by 2020.

The state already gets 18 percent of its energy from renewable sources and is on track to reach 21 percent by year's end, said state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, citing California Public Utilities Commission estimates.

The state's air pollution regulators set the 33 percent requirement in September, but a bill that would make the higher standard California law failed at the end of last year's legislative session. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed previous attempts to make the goal state law in 2009.

Simitian, who is carrying the new version, SB2x, said it is important to include the standard in law to end the ambiguity and let investors know the state is serious about switching to renewable fuels.

A landmark 2006 California law already requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Voters in November defeated Proposition 23, which would have suspended the reduction goals until California's unemployment rate, now 12.5 percent, drops to 5.5 percent and holds there for a year. That has occurred just three times in three decades.

Thomas Steyer, a hedge fund manager who helped finance the campaign against Proposition 23, said seven of the nation's top 10 clean technology companies are in California, as is 60 percent of the venture capital — five times the amount invested in any other state.

"Everyone is going to be watching us," said Steyer, founder of the investment firm Farallon Capital Management LLC. "We're going to be the test case, and in fact the kinds of policies these legislators are trying to pass are critical for us to be able to get the private sector going, to create the businesses, to create the jobs and to show the country and the world that this can be done."

Another measure in the package would speed up permits for renewable energy projects, while a third would use a portion of utility ratepayer funds to guarantee loans for residents and small business owners to make energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.

The fourth bill would use $8 million annually in electricity surcharges for grants to schools to establish 90 "green partnership academies" statewide that would train students for clean technology jobs.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who is carrying SB1x, the academy bill, said the package is California's effort to meet President Barack Obama's proposal last week to get 80 percent of the nation's electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.

He and Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, said they hope to use their Democratic majorities to quickly send the bills to new Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, though both said the first priority is to pass a budget. The state faces a deficit estimated at $25.4 billion through June 2012.

Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said in an e-mail that the bills are consistent with the governor's clean energy and jobs goals. Westrup said the governor will pursue those goals "after the state's fiscal house is in order."

Copyright © 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Senator Tea Party

1:01 am February 4, 2011, by Jamie Dupree

If there is anyone who seems to fit the mold of the Tea Party in the Senate, it might be Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).  He may well turn out to be a party of one many times in the Senate.

I got that thought after Paul was the only Senator to vote against an amendment to an aviation bill that made it a federal crime to aim a laser pointer at the cockpit of an aircraft.

The vote was 96-1.  Just like his dad, the kid may be ready to be the lone holdout in the Senate on a variety of issues.

When I related the laser pointer news on Twitter, the comments pro and con rolled in like the tide on a beach.

"Seriously? One hold-out?" asked one of my Tweeps.  "Is laser-pointing airline pilots a sport in Kentucky?"

The amendment from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) would allow penalties of up to five years in prison for someone who is convicted of using a laser pointer on pilots.

Paul simply argues that states should set such laws and penalties, not the federal government.

"Good 4 Rand," said another one of my Twitter followers, not impressed with the idea of penalties for lasering a pilot.

"Even if it's an alien spacecraft?" added one Twitter jokester.

Paul also set the table for a fight next week over the budget of the Federal Aviation Administration, as he wants to limit the budget to what it was back in 2008.

"What I am asking is a very modest proposal," said Paul on the Senate floor, who called it a "first step to budgetary restraint."

The Senate left town without setting a vote for Paul's amendment, which will be the first test on spending this year.  It will be interesting to see if Republicans stick with him on this vote or not.

His father sometimes has trouble getting the support of his party's leadership over in the House.

We'll see if the son gets treated a little differently next week.  

Vatican seeks better ties with Islamic institute

The Associated Press 
Friday, January 28, 2011; 12:17 PM

 

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican is seeking to repair relations with the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world.

Cairo's Al-Azhar academy froze its dialogue with the Vatican last week to protest Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks calling for better protection for Christians in Egypt.

The head of the Vatican's office for interreligious dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the Vatican newspaper Friday that the Holy See didn't understand what Al-Azhar was so upset about.

He said any careful reading of the pope's remarks showed he was merely asserting universal values about the need for religious freedom.

Tauran said he remained open to dialogue and that regardless, a February meeting with Al-Azhar remained on his calendar.

 

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Al-Azhar getting angry at the Catholic Church asking for better protection of Christians was most likely offensive to him. This is said since he saying he closed dialogue  due to wanting / asking for protection.  Al-Azhar needs to be asking to repair relations not the Roman Catholic Church. 

2010 REVIEW / 2011 OUTLOOK.

2010 REVIEW / 2011 OUTLOOK.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

Three paragraphs can sum up the energy highlights, or low-lights, of 2010.

BP’s Macondo well blew up on April 20 killing 11 and spilling more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Herculean efforts cleaned up much, but not all. It will take years to determine the real damage. The catastrophe was also a missed opportunity: President Obama should have used the event to push his clean, less oil dependent energy agenda. He didn’t for political reasons. He had signed off on more offshore drilling shortly before the incident.

However, clean energy and the beginnings of permanent move away from oil started near year’s end. Deliveries began for Nissan’s all-electric Leaf and Chevy’s partly-electric Volt. Both cars mark a profound change in the auto industry: Electric vehicles are here and they’re here to stay. A purchase of 12000 Volts by General Electric for fleet use nearly guarantees the success of that car. GE will buy another 13000 electrically-driven vehicles by 2015.

Washington may not have been the shining star in the Macondo well/Deepwater Horizon disaster, but it did come through with cash to help new renewable energy projects get started and come online. There’s no doubt that the US Department of the Treasury’s 1603 Program: Payments for Specified Energy Property in Lieu of Tax Credits has really been helpful in building more renewable capacity in the U.S. that may not have been built otherwise. As part of the Stimulus Package of 2008 the program was set to expire at the end of the year. Thanks to the work of industry groups (aka lobbyists) the program was extended for a year in a last minute tax cut bill. Another year will do wonders for large scale renewable energy.

On to 2011.

I can’t predict the future, but I can look at trends in the news and offer some thoughts for the coming year.

As above, the 1603 Program will help build more renewable power plants than would have been built had the program been left to expire. With that thought I expect solar energy will be the beneficiary in the number of projects built, but not in power output. Wind is still cheaper and one turbine sticking in the air can generate the same amount of clean power as a solar plant that covers many acres. Still, solar photovoltaic power plants can be built quickly and in populated areas with little or no resistance from the public. Few complain about solar power plants since they are often out of sight on rooftops or carports.

2011 should be another good year for non-silicon photovoltaic solar power. There’s more factory production capacity being built that’s going online this year.

Generally, anything legitimately green energy should do well in the year in the US despite a lagging economy. It seems everybody is on the green bandwagon. Green energy may also get an additional boost this year with help from Big Oil.

Currently gasoline prices are on the rise. John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil says $5 a gallon is in the cards, but not until 2012. Between now and then gas would be rising in its usual saw-tooth, up-and-down but generally upward curve.

If this happens there will be the usual call for more drilling: Drill Baby Drill! The opposing message needs to be sent out loud and clear and simple: The price of oil is set on the global market. Drill all you want, but you won’t bring the down the price. It’s the global demand for oil that determines the cost and even though the U.S. is the single most oil guzzling nation in the world, the rest of the world guzzles more than we, thus we don’t control price.

(By the way the only way to dramatically bring the cost of oil down would be to nationalize the remaining domestic oil companies. But that’s not going to happen.)

High prices at the pump tend to help spur interest and investment in renewable and alternative energy technologies. So for those in the Green Energy Industry hope for $5 a gallon gas.

This time if petrol skyrockets as it did in 2008 (contributing to the recession) the U.S. is much better armed for battle: Electric cars are here as are a nice array of far more fuel efficient conventional cars. It’s a bit of a stretch, but the next time gas peaks the U.S. might actually benefit.