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Columbus Rally: Support Obama's Economic Recovery Plan
By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Jan 5, 08:29 PM
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Dennis Spisak's Blog
It's time to elect independents to state government to stop the constant fighting between Democrats and Republicans which do nothing but stop progress on bills and programs that can benefit Ohio Citizens.
Clean Energy Ohio News From Solar Flares
January 2009
· State of Ohio Green Energy Grants Offered. Solar and wind technologies could be coming to a home near you, thanks to a boost from the state. The Ohio Energy Office wants to entice developers to include those efficient energy-generation methods in single- and multifamily homes by offering $3.5 million in grants for solar hot-water systems and wind turbines. The goal is to have about 200 solar thermal systems and 266 small wind turbines for residential use in the state in the next two years. See January 3, 2008
Columbus Dispatch article [CLICK HERE] Also see Ohio Energy Office grants notice [CLICK HERE].
· Energy Remains Burning Concern. The stars may be aligned for green energy advocates such as William Spratley when Barack Obama becomes the nation's 44th president Jan. 20.With a campaign platform calling for a renewable energy standard for electricity and controls on greenhouse gas emissions, Obama has aligned himself squarely with green energy proponents. He has followed up since the November election by listing investments in alternative energy projects as a cornerstone of the economic recovery plan he hopes Congress will have ready for him to sign when he takes office. "It's an exciting time for us," said Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, a group pushing for energy policies that are environmentally and economically sustainable. See January 2, 2008 Columbus Business First article [CLICK HERE].
December 2008
· Wind Power Leads Way in Ohio Push for Green Energy. As Ohio looks for way to go green, it has a number of alternative energy sources it could tap to help produce power.Topping the list for now is wind power, which so far is attracting the most interest from outside investors.PJM Interconnection and Midwest ISO, the two electric grid operators that move power around the state, report the bulk of their proposed projects involve wind power....Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, says the state has vast, untapped biomass potential from agricultural production. "Solar and wind is more attractive to the average consumer, but biomass is our biggest renewable resource," he said. See December 28, 2008 Dayton Daily News article [CLICK HERE].
· North Olmsted Schools Continue to Pursue Plans for Wind Turbine. Capturing the wind and turning it green are the goals of city and school officials, who are mapping plans to build a wind turbine. Green to help the environment and green to save money on the school's electric bill. See the December 23, 2008 Cleveland Plain Dealer article [CLICK HERE].
· Green Energy Ohio monitoring study to test area's potential for turbines. Through grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ohio Lake Erie Commission, Green Energy Ohio will conduct a wind monitoring study on an existing communications tower in Lorain. If the study proves there is a sufficient wind resource, it may pave the way for future turbine installations and turbine component manufacturing. See the December 20, 2008 Lorain Morning Journal article [CLICK HERE].
· Toledo's Makeover: Glass City to Solar Valley. To secure its future, Toledo, once known as the Glass City, embraced its past; Toledo is where glass was first mass-produced for bottles, buildings, and cars. Now, the city is turning those skills -- and that tradition -- to the sun. New solar energy-related businesses are taking hold in what city officials and local executives hope will become Ohio's "solar valley." See December 17, 2008 ABC News story [CLICK HERE].
· Wind Energy Key to Ohio's Revival, Gov. Ted Strickland Says. Ohio's battered economy feels the winds of opportunity. Gov. Ted Strickland told a crowd of 800 at the InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland that the wind industry "has a bright future" in Ohio because of its manufacturing capacity and the growing need for renewable power. "Energy jobs will lead the way to invigorating Ohio's economy," Strickland told conference attendees, most of them manufacturers eager to supply some of the 8,000 parts that go into a wind turbine. See December 10, 2008 Cleveland Plain Dealer article [CLICK HERE].
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
Www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
January 2009
· State of Ohio Green Energy Grants Offered. Solar and wind technologies could be coming to a home near you, thanks to a boost from the state. The Ohio Energy Office wants to entice developers to include those efficient energy-generation methods in single- and multifamily homes by offering $3.5 million in grants for solar hot-water systems and wind turbines. The goal is to have about 200 solar thermal systems and 266 small wind turbines for residential use in the state in the next two years. See January 3, 2008
Columbus Dispatch article [CLICK HERE] Also see Ohio Energy Office grants notice [CLICK HERE].
· Energy Remains Burning Concern. The stars may be aligned for green energy advocates such as William Spratley when Barack Obama becomes the nation's 44th president Jan. 20.With a campaign platform calling for a renewable energy standard for electricity and controls on greenhouse gas emissions, Obama has aligned himself squarely with green energy proponents. He has followed up since the November election by listing investments in alternative energy projects as a cornerstone of the economic recovery plan he hopes Congress will have ready for him to sign when he takes office. "It's an exciting time for us," said Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, a group pushing for energy policies that are environmentally and economically sustainable. See January 2, 2008 Columbus Business First article [CLICK HERE].
December 2008
· Wind Power Leads Way in Ohio Push for Green Energy. As Ohio looks for way to go green, it has a number of alternative energy sources it could tap to help produce power.Topping the list for now is wind power, which so far is attracting the most interest from outside investors.PJM Interconnection and Midwest ISO, the two electric grid operators that move power around the state, report the bulk of their proposed projects involve wind power....Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, says the state has vast, untapped biomass potential from agricultural production. "Solar and wind is more attractive to the average consumer, but biomass is our biggest renewable resource," he said. See December 28, 2008 Dayton Daily News article [CLICK HERE].
· North Olmsted Schools Continue to Pursue Plans for Wind Turbine. Capturing the wind and turning it green are the goals of city and school officials, who are mapping plans to build a wind turbine. Green to help the environment and green to save money on the school's electric bill. See the December 23, 2008 Cleveland Plain Dealer article [CLICK HERE].
· Green Energy Ohio monitoring study to test area's potential for turbines. Through grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ohio Lake Erie Commission, Green Energy Ohio will conduct a wind monitoring study on an existing communications tower in Lorain. If the study proves there is a sufficient wind resource, it may pave the way for future turbine installations and turbine component manufacturing. See the December 20, 2008 Lorain Morning Journal article [CLICK HERE].
· Toledo's Makeover: Glass City to Solar Valley. To secure its future, Toledo, once known as the Glass City, embraced its past; Toledo is where glass was first mass-produced for bottles, buildings, and cars. Now, the city is turning those skills -- and that tradition -- to the sun. New solar energy-related businesses are taking hold in what city officials and local executives hope will become Ohio's "solar valley." See December 17, 2008 ABC News story [CLICK HERE].
· Wind Energy Key to Ohio's Revival, Gov. Ted Strickland Says. Ohio's battered economy feels the winds of opportunity. Gov. Ted Strickland told a crowd of 800 at the InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland that the wind industry "has a bright future" in Ohio because of its manufacturing capacity and the growing need for renewable power. "Energy jobs will lead the way to invigorating Ohio's economy," Strickland told conference attendees, most of them manufacturers eager to supply some of the 8,000 parts that go into a wind turbine. See December 10, 2008 Cleveland Plain Dealer article [CLICK HERE].
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
Www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Big System, Little Footprint
At two tons a day for fourteen days, the system may be processing up to 28 tons of organic waste at any one time, diverting up to 25% of the Athens campus' current landfill waste.
Ohio University is ramping up its waste diversion in order to ratchet down its ecological footprint. The university recently installed the largest in-vessel compost system at any college or university in the nation, scheduled to come online in January 2009. The site also boasts one of the largest solar photovoltaic arrays at any public college in Ohio, and was selected as the first stop on the 2008 Green Energy Ohio Southeast Solar Tour.
Tour participants had the opportunity to view the system and its 10.03-kilowatt roof and ground mounted solar array. The array is grid-tied and capable of supporting approximately 50% of the electricity needs of the composting unit, allowing the university to significantly reduce the facility's carbon footprint.
The system, manufactured by Wright Environmental, is sized to handle up to two tons of organic waste per day. Temperature, moisture, and aeration inside the machine are controlled in order to accelerate waste decomposition. Harvested rainwater from the pole barn roof will be used to maintain the system's moisture, as well as to clean the compost collection bins. After funneling through the down spout, the water will travel to the roof wash, which removes leaves, twigs and other debris. The water will be stored in a 2,200 gallon underground cistern and pumped into the system as needed.
This water, along with heat and aeration, will allow the system to produce a valuable soil amendment in just 14 days. At two tons a day for fourteen days, the system may be processing up to 28 tons of organic waste at any one time, diverting up to 25% of the Athens campus' current landfill waste. This diversion will result in an annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction of approximately 1,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents - about the same amount of co2 emissions resulting from the energy use of 108 homes in one year. The system has positioned Ohio University as a trailblazer in biodegradable waste diversion, both locally and nationally.
"Ohio University is beginning to emerge as a leader in the area of energy, environment and sustainability," said Ohio University's Sustainability Coordinator Sonia Marcus. "The composting project is an example of our demonstrated commitment to these areas, allowing us to put theory into practice."
A grant from the Division of Recycling and Litter from the Ohio Department of Development's Energy Loan Fund Grant Program helped fund the solar array. The majority of the funding for the in-vessel composting system came from Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention within the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Food waste diversion has been a priority of theirs since 2006.
"We knew a very large portion of the waste stream was ending up in the landfill. So we wanted to make sure that we were investing state dollars to improve infrastructure. If we want people to compost materials we can't just say go ahead and do it. We needed to create facilities where the food waste could go" said odnr Grants Section Manager Chet Chaney. To date, odnr has invested $2 million dollars into the creation of facilities and projects that divert food waste from landfills in Ohio. Ohio University was the recipient of $300,000 in grant funding through both the Market Development and College & University programs.
Food waste will be collected from campus eateries, including dining halls and the food court at the new student center. An average of 2,500 meals are served at the food court daily on compostable service ware made from sugar cane fiber, potato starch and corn plastic. The Dining Services department has been a critical supporter of the project since its inception.
"This one step for dining services will add to Ohio University's bigger sustainability picture," said Gwyn Scott, Executive Director of Culinary and Dining Operations Gwyn Scott.
Since the opening of the student center in January 2007, patrons of the food court have been sorting their waste into trash, recycling and compost bins. Early waste audits indicated that 75% of the compost waste stream contained little or no contaminants, such as chip bags, ketchup packets, and other non-biodegradable items. Once the composting system comes online, pre- and post-consumer food waste will be collected daily by the grounds department and brought up to the site at the Ridges, overlooking the Athens campus.
When food waste is loaded into the in-vessel unit, it will be amended with landscaping waste as well as animal bedding from research labs and sawdust from the carpentry shop, in order to achieve the right carbon to nitrogen balance. Once the waste is processed, the resulting nutrient-rich, soil amendment will be used to improve university grounds.
Because of its multiple benefits to the university - a smaller ecological footprint, avoided landfill waste costs, learning and research opportunities for students and faculty, and reduced food waste - many are invested in the initiative's success.
"I am hoping we will max out the capacity of this first in-vessel composter and that we will soon need to take the machine to the next level," said Scott.
Green Energy can also mean helping reduce food waste and bringing city and county partnerships together.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
At two tons a day for fourteen days, the system may be processing up to 28 tons of organic waste at any one time, diverting up to 25% of the Athens campus' current landfill waste.
Ohio University is ramping up its waste diversion in order to ratchet down its ecological footprint. The university recently installed the largest in-vessel compost system at any college or university in the nation, scheduled to come online in January 2009. The site also boasts one of the largest solar photovoltaic arrays at any public college in Ohio, and was selected as the first stop on the 2008 Green Energy Ohio Southeast Solar Tour.
Tour participants had the opportunity to view the system and its 10.03-kilowatt roof and ground mounted solar array. The array is grid-tied and capable of supporting approximately 50% of the electricity needs of the composting unit, allowing the university to significantly reduce the facility's carbon footprint.
The system, manufactured by Wright Environmental, is sized to handle up to two tons of organic waste per day. Temperature, moisture, and aeration inside the machine are controlled in order to accelerate waste decomposition. Harvested rainwater from the pole barn roof will be used to maintain the system's moisture, as well as to clean the compost collection bins. After funneling through the down spout, the water will travel to the roof wash, which removes leaves, twigs and other debris. The water will be stored in a 2,200 gallon underground cistern and pumped into the system as needed.
This water, along with heat and aeration, will allow the system to produce a valuable soil amendment in just 14 days. At two tons a day for fourteen days, the system may be processing up to 28 tons of organic waste at any one time, diverting up to 25% of the Athens campus' current landfill waste. This diversion will result in an annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction of approximately 1,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents - about the same amount of co2 emissions resulting from the energy use of 108 homes in one year. The system has positioned Ohio University as a trailblazer in biodegradable waste diversion, both locally and nationally.
"Ohio University is beginning to emerge as a leader in the area of energy, environment and sustainability," said Ohio University's Sustainability Coordinator Sonia Marcus. "The composting project is an example of our demonstrated commitment to these areas, allowing us to put theory into practice."
A grant from the Division of Recycling and Litter from the Ohio Department of Development's Energy Loan Fund Grant Program helped fund the solar array. The majority of the funding for the in-vessel composting system came from Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention within the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Food waste diversion has been a priority of theirs since 2006.
"We knew a very large portion of the waste stream was ending up in the landfill. So we wanted to make sure that we were investing state dollars to improve infrastructure. If we want people to compost materials we can't just say go ahead and do it. We needed to create facilities where the food waste could go" said odnr Grants Section Manager Chet Chaney. To date, odnr has invested $2 million dollars into the creation of facilities and projects that divert food waste from landfills in Ohio. Ohio University was the recipient of $300,000 in grant funding through both the Market Development and College & University programs.
Food waste will be collected from campus eateries, including dining halls and the food court at the new student center. An average of 2,500 meals are served at the food court daily on compostable service ware made from sugar cane fiber, potato starch and corn plastic. The Dining Services department has been a critical supporter of the project since its inception.
"This one step for dining services will add to Ohio University's bigger sustainability picture," said Gwyn Scott, Executive Director of Culinary and Dining Operations Gwyn Scott.
Since the opening of the student center in January 2007, patrons of the food court have been sorting their waste into trash, recycling and compost bins. Early waste audits indicated that 75% of the compost waste stream contained little or no contaminants, such as chip bags, ketchup packets, and other non-biodegradable items. Once the composting system comes online, pre- and post-consumer food waste will be collected daily by the grounds department and brought up to the site at the Ridges, overlooking the Athens campus.
When food waste is loaded into the in-vessel unit, it will be amended with landscaping waste as well as animal bedding from research labs and sawdust from the carpentry shop, in order to achieve the right carbon to nitrogen balance. Once the waste is processed, the resulting nutrient-rich, soil amendment will be used to improve university grounds.
Because of its multiple benefits to the university - a smaller ecological footprint, avoided landfill waste costs, learning and research opportunities for students and faculty, and reduced food waste - many are invested in the initiative's success.
"I am hoping we will max out the capacity of this first in-vessel composter and that we will soon need to take the machine to the next level," said Scott.
Green Energy can also mean helping reduce food waste and bringing city and county partnerships together.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Why the BAARD Plant may NEVER BE BUILT!
Posted by: D.Spisak (IP Logged)
Date: January 04, 2009 10:58PM
In today's Vindicator ran the story on the progress of the Baard coal to liquid fuel plant.
What was interesting was buried near the end of the story. Writer D.A. Wilkinson states "Baard Energy is seeking investors for the plant. David DiStefano of Locke Lord Strategies in Washington, D.C., has been seeking federal loan guarantees for the project."
The Sierra Club released a study recently that stated Banks are refusing to invest in in coal projects across the country. Over the past 2 years, several coal proposals have collapsed in Ohio Alone due to a lack of private funding.
And Baard is still seeking investors? Seems like dad and son Charlie and Jason Wilson have sold Columbiana County a Pig in a Poke.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Posted by: D.Spisak (IP Logged)
Date: January 04, 2009 10:58PM
In today's Vindicator ran the story on the progress of the Baard coal to liquid fuel plant.
What was interesting was buried near the end of the story. Writer D.A. Wilkinson states "Baard Energy is seeking investors for the plant. David DiStefano of Locke Lord Strategies in Washington, D.C., has been seeking federal loan guarantees for the project."
The Sierra Club released a study recently that stated Banks are refusing to invest in in coal projects across the country. Over the past 2 years, several coal proposals have collapsed in Ohio Alone due to a lack of private funding.
And Baard is still seeking investors? Seems like dad and son Charlie and Jason Wilson have sold Columbiana County a Pig in a Poke.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Help Re-power America with Green Energy
2009 is going to be a challenging year. This past summer, we faced the highest prices at the pump ever. While prices have plummeted since then, it certainly does not mean our energy crisis is over. In fact, the current economic crisis is intricately linked to the energy problems our country is just beginning to face.
Unfortunately, most politicians and business leaders are pouring billions of dollars into trying the save a crumbling system instead of creating something better - a green economy. Please act today to support smarter, greener energy plans as part of America's economic recovery efforts »
In 2009, we need to start addressing the economic crisis and energy crisis as two sides of the same coin. The solutions for both are intertwined, from cutting our dependence on oil in half to creating millions of new clean energy jobs.
We need a government that brings vision to repowering, refueling and rebuilding America with a green economy.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
2009 is going to be a challenging year. This past summer, we faced the highest prices at the pump ever. While prices have plummeted since then, it certainly does not mean our energy crisis is over. In fact, the current economic crisis is intricately linked to the energy problems our country is just beginning to face.
Unfortunately, most politicians and business leaders are pouring billions of dollars into trying the save a crumbling system instead of creating something better - a green economy. Please act today to support smarter, greener energy plans as part of America's economic recovery efforts »
In 2009, we need to start addressing the economic crisis and energy crisis as two sides of the same coin. The solutions for both are intertwined, from cutting our dependence on oil in half to creating millions of new clean energy jobs.
We need a government that brings vision to repowering, refueling and rebuilding America with a green economy.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Water Contamination in Tennessee from Coal Ash Spill
Written by Becky Striepe
Published on January 3rd, 2009Posted in Tennessee
The Tennessee Valley Authority and the EPA reported that levels of pollutants such as lead and arsenic were below safe levels for drinking water in areas affected by the Kingston coal ash spill. An environmental group's tests had dramatically different results.
[
Appalachian Voices teamed up with scientists at Appalachian State University to test water samples downstream from the spill. They found contaminant levels far above what is considered safe for drinking.
»
These tests results are only preliminary, but the group released them because they raise a public health concern. A sample close to the coal-fired power plant had over 300 times the allowable level of arsenic.
Activists are afraid that the TVA and EPA are not being up front about the extent of damage from the spill. TVA police detained two activists from United Mountain Defense just for taking pictures of the spill site. Residents and environmental groups complain that the agencies have been dragging their feet on releasing water toxicity results from the December 21st spill.
The real tragedy in this story is that this disaster in Tennessee could have been avoided if the Kingston plant had taken preventative measures. Greenpeace is calling for a criminal investigation into the spill, saying that the Kingston plant should have had a spill contingency plan in place.
Charlie Wilson, is this what you want for Wellsville?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Written by Becky Striepe
Published on January 3rd, 2009Posted in Tennessee
The Tennessee Valley Authority and the EPA reported that levels of pollutants such as lead and arsenic were below safe levels for drinking water in areas affected by the Kingston coal ash spill. An environmental group's tests had dramatically different results.
[
Appalachian Voices teamed up with scientists at Appalachian State University to test water samples downstream from the spill. They found contaminant levels far above what is considered safe for drinking.
»
These tests results are only preliminary, but the group released them because they raise a public health concern. A sample close to the coal-fired power plant had over 300 times the allowable level of arsenic.
Activists are afraid that the TVA and EPA are not being up front about the extent of damage from the spill. TVA police detained two activists from United Mountain Defense just for taking pictures of the spill site. Residents and environmental groups complain that the agencies have been dragging their feet on releasing water toxicity results from the December 21st spill.
The real tragedy in this story is that this disaster in Tennessee could have been avoided if the Kingston plant had taken preventative measures. Greenpeace is calling for a criminal investigation into the spill, saying that the Kingston plant should have had a spill contingency plan in place.
Charlie Wilson, is this what you want for Wellsville?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Key Provisions of Federal Tax Incentives for Going Green
These provisions will:Extend the investment tax credit for residential and commercial solar installations for eight years (it was previously set to expire at the end of 2008)
End the $2000 cap on the investment tax credit for residential solar electric installations placed into service after December 31, 2008
Allows filers of the alternative minimum tax to claim solar investment tax credits
Allows public utilities to claim the solar investment tax credits
Authorize $800 million in new clean renewable energy bonds and creates a new category of tax credit bonds called Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds to finance state and local initiatives to reduce carbon emissions
Extends deductions for energy efficient commercial buildings
Establishes a new tax credit for purchasers of plug-in electric-drive vehicles
Extends research and development tax credits
President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, commonly known as the "Bailout Bill," into law on October 3, 2008. The Act included incentives for production of advanced energy, which are outlined below.
I. Production & Investment Tax Credits and Bonds
A. Investment Tax Credit ("ITC") - The bill also extends the 30% ITC for solar energy property by eight years, through December 31, 2016, and expands the credit to include installation expenses for geothermal heat pumps and residential wind turbines. The cap on qualified residential solar electric property expenditures (currently $2,000) was also removed.
B. Production Tax Credits ("PTCs") - The bill extends the expiration date for PTCs until January 1, 2010. PTCs credit 1.5 cents/kWh of electricity produced from a "qualified energy resource," which include wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, small irrigation power, municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower production, and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy. A new tax credit was created for combined heat and power system property.
C. R&D Tax Credit - The bill extends the research and development tax credit of 20% through December 31, 2009.
D. New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds ("NCREBs") - The bill authorizes $800 million of NCREBs to finance facilities that generate electricity from renewable resources. Proceeds will be allocated one-third to projects of state/local/tribal governments, one-third to projects of public power providers, and one-third to projects for electric cooperatives.E. Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds ("QECBs") - $800 million in new tax credit bonds, named QECBs, were created by the bill and may be used to finance state and local government initiatives including reduction of energy consumption, implementing green community programs, rural renewable electricity development, or research of technologies to reduce peak electricity usage.
II. SmartMeters & Smart Grid Systems
The bill provides accelerated depreciation over a 10-year period, instead of the current 20-year period, for smart electric meters and smart electric grid equipment.III. Commercial Building Provisions
The bill extends the expiration date on the tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings to December 31, 2013. This tax deduction of up to $1.80/sq. ft. is available for commercial buildings that save at least 50% of the heating and cooling energy of the building. Partial deductions of up to $0.60/sq ft can be taken for measures affecting any one of three building systems: building envelope, lighting, or heating and cooling systems.
IV. Residential Property Provisions
A. Residential Energy Efficiency - A 30% tax credit is available for qualified solar water heating and photovoltaic systems. These credits were extended to December 31, 2016 and the monetary cap (currently $2,000) has been removed for photovoltaic systems. The 30% tax credit is also available for small wind energy property, up to $500 for each half kilowatt of capacity with an overall maximum of $4,000. Fuel cell and microturbine systems are also allowed a credit of up to 30% of the cost (up to $1500 per 0.5 kw of capacity maximum). Geothermal is allowed 30% of the cost of the system up to $2,000.
B. Residential Energy Efficiency Improvements - Residential energy efficiency improvement credits were also extended through 2009. These provide credits for individual appliances ranging from $45-$250 (with a combined maximum of $500) and are available for insulation, replacement windows, non-solar water heaters, and certain high efficiency heating and cooling equipment.
V. Coal and Carbon Capture/Sequestration The bill allows a 30% tax credit for advanced coal-based generation technology projects which capture or sequester carbon, and increases the credit cap to $2.55 billion. The investment tax credit rate for coal gasification projects was increased to 30%. Also, a new tax credit was created for carbon dioxide sequestration.VI. Transportation, Fuel Security, and Alternative Fuel Refueling Equipment
A. Cellulosic biofuel - Cellulosic biofuel is now included within the definition of biomass ethanol plant property so that taxpayers may immediately to write off 50% of the cost of facilities that produce it.
B. Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel - The $1.00/gallon production tax credit for biodiesel and $0.10/gallon credit for small biodiesel producers will continue through 2009. Now the $1.00/gallon credit will be extended to diesel fuel created from biomass. Diesel fuel created by co-processing biomass with other feedstocks (e.g. petroleum) will be eligible for $0.50/gallon tax credit.
C. Alternative Fuel - The tax credits for alternative fuel and fuel mixtures has been extended to December 31, 2009. This includes compressed or liquefied biomass gas but requires the meeting of certain carbon capture requirements.
D. Electric Vehicles - A new tax credit between $2,500 and $7,500 was created for purchasers of plug-in electric vehicles.
E. Vehicle Refueling Equipment - The tax credit of up to 30% (up to $30,000 per business location or $1,000 per individual principal residence) is available for the installation of alternative fuel vehicle refueling equipment has been extended through 2010. Significantly, installing equipment to recharge the batteries of an electric-powered car now qualifies for the credit.
http://www.bricker.com/energy2008.pdf
Summarized by Terrence O'Donnell
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
These provisions will:Extend the investment tax credit for residential and commercial solar installations for eight years (it was previously set to expire at the end of 2008)
End the $2000 cap on the investment tax credit for residential solar electric installations placed into service after December 31, 2008
Allows filers of the alternative minimum tax to claim solar investment tax credits
Allows public utilities to claim the solar investment tax credits
Authorize $800 million in new clean renewable energy bonds and creates a new category of tax credit bonds called Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds to finance state and local initiatives to reduce carbon emissions
Extends deductions for energy efficient commercial buildings
Establishes a new tax credit for purchasers of plug-in electric-drive vehicles
Extends research and development tax credits
President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, commonly known as the "Bailout Bill," into law on October 3, 2008. The Act included incentives for production of advanced energy, which are outlined below.
I. Production & Investment Tax Credits and Bonds
A. Investment Tax Credit ("ITC") - The bill also extends the 30% ITC for solar energy property by eight years, through December 31, 2016, and expands the credit to include installation expenses for geothermal heat pumps and residential wind turbines. The cap on qualified residential solar electric property expenditures (currently $2,000) was also removed.
B. Production Tax Credits ("PTCs") - The bill extends the expiration date for PTCs until January 1, 2010. PTCs credit 1.5 cents/kWh of electricity produced from a "qualified energy resource," which include wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, small irrigation power, municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower production, and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy. A new tax credit was created for combined heat and power system property.
C. R&D Tax Credit - The bill extends the research and development tax credit of 20% through December 31, 2009.
D. New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds ("NCREBs") - The bill authorizes $800 million of NCREBs to finance facilities that generate electricity from renewable resources. Proceeds will be allocated one-third to projects of state/local/tribal governments, one-third to projects of public power providers, and one-third to projects for electric cooperatives.E. Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds ("QECBs") - $800 million in new tax credit bonds, named QECBs, were created by the bill and may be used to finance state and local government initiatives including reduction of energy consumption, implementing green community programs, rural renewable electricity development, or research of technologies to reduce peak electricity usage.
II. SmartMeters & Smart Grid Systems
The bill provides accelerated depreciation over a 10-year period, instead of the current 20-year period, for smart electric meters and smart electric grid equipment.III. Commercial Building Provisions
The bill extends the expiration date on the tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings to December 31, 2013. This tax deduction of up to $1.80/sq. ft. is available for commercial buildings that save at least 50% of the heating and cooling energy of the building. Partial deductions of up to $0.60/sq ft can be taken for measures affecting any one of three building systems: building envelope, lighting, or heating and cooling systems.
IV. Residential Property Provisions
A. Residential Energy Efficiency - A 30% tax credit is available for qualified solar water heating and photovoltaic systems. These credits were extended to December 31, 2016 and the monetary cap (currently $2,000) has been removed for photovoltaic systems. The 30% tax credit is also available for small wind energy property, up to $500 for each half kilowatt of capacity with an overall maximum of $4,000. Fuel cell and microturbine systems are also allowed a credit of up to 30% of the cost (up to $1500 per 0.5 kw of capacity maximum). Geothermal is allowed 30% of the cost of the system up to $2,000.
B. Residential Energy Efficiency Improvements - Residential energy efficiency improvement credits were also extended through 2009. These provide credits for individual appliances ranging from $45-$250 (with a combined maximum of $500) and are available for insulation, replacement windows, non-solar water heaters, and certain high efficiency heating and cooling equipment.
V. Coal and Carbon Capture/Sequestration The bill allows a 30% tax credit for advanced coal-based generation technology projects which capture or sequester carbon, and increases the credit cap to $2.55 billion. The investment tax credit rate for coal gasification projects was increased to 30%. Also, a new tax credit was created for carbon dioxide sequestration.VI. Transportation, Fuel Security, and Alternative Fuel Refueling Equipment
A. Cellulosic biofuel - Cellulosic biofuel is now included within the definition of biomass ethanol plant property so that taxpayers may immediately to write off 50% of the cost of facilities that produce it.
B. Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel - The $1.00/gallon production tax credit for biodiesel and $0.10/gallon credit for small biodiesel producers will continue through 2009. Now the $1.00/gallon credit will be extended to diesel fuel created from biomass. Diesel fuel created by co-processing biomass with other feedstocks (e.g. petroleum) will be eligible for $0.50/gallon tax credit.
C. Alternative Fuel - The tax credits for alternative fuel and fuel mixtures has been extended to December 31, 2009. This includes compressed or liquefied biomass gas but requires the meeting of certain carbon capture requirements.
D. Electric Vehicles - A new tax credit between $2,500 and $7,500 was created for purchasers of plug-in electric vehicles.
E. Vehicle Refueling Equipment - The tax credit of up to 30% (up to $30,000 per business location or $1,000 per individual principal residence) is available for the installation of alternative fuel vehicle refueling equipment has been extended through 2010. Significantly, installing equipment to recharge the batteries of an electric-powered car now qualifies for the credit.
http://www.bricker.com/energy2008.pdf
Summarized by Terrence O'Donnell
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Ohio Green Energy State Tax Incentives
Ohio Energy Office Financial Incentives Currently Availablehttp://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/GrantsLoans.htm
Residential Wind Energy Incentive Program (09-02)
This program is available for "Qualified Systems" installed for "Eligible Customers" through applications submitted to the Program by an "Eligible Installer." Eligible customers include all residential customers who are connected to the electric grid and have an active account in the American Electric Power, Duke, First Energy or Dayton Power and Light service territories in the State of Ohio, are eligible. Qualified residential wind turbine must have a minimum annual output of 3000 kWh at the average annual wind speed for the site at the proposed hub height. A list of eligible installers is available on the Ohio Energy Office web site.
Incentive amount• : $2.00/kWh or 50% of project costs
Maximum award amount• : $25,000
Alternative Fuel Transportation (AFT) (NOFA 08-03)
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/transportation.htm
Qualified parties are invited to submit applications for consideration to purchase and install AFT refueling facilities in Ohio. The goal is to increase the availability and use of biofuels formotor vehicles, specifically B20 (a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) or higher percentage blends of biodiesel, and E85 (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% of unleaded gasoline).
Eligible project costs• : new or conversion of existing facilities to use new AFT fuel, and educational and promotional materials.
Maximum award for conversion of retail facilities• : $10,000
Maximum award for new installation of retail facilities• : $40,000
Maximum award for educational material• : $5,000
B20 Biodiesel School Bus Program (NOFA 08-07)
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/transportation.htm
School districts, county Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities (MRDD) programs and similar local agencies that provide k-12 education are eligible to apply to cover the incremental costs of using B20 fuel (a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) in their school bus fleets. Incremental cost is the difference in the cost per gallon to use B20 compared to the cost to use petroleum diesel. Maximum award is $25,000.
Distributed Energy Resources (DER) (NOFA 07-01)http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/ELFGrant.htm#NOFA_07-01
Interested and qualified parties are invited to submit an application for consideration to increase the use of DER in Ohio with systems up to 25 megawatts (MW) for commercial, institutional, and industrial applications. DER is defined as modular generation technologies that generate and deliver electricity to customers at or near the point of use.
Eligible technologies• : clean burning reciprocating engines (meeting CA standards), industrial turbines, microturbines, innovative use of waste heat, combined heat and power, cogeneration, landfill or biomass methane.
Maximum Grant Share and Grant Award• : 25% of project cost and $100,000
Owners Cash Equity Requirement• : 10% of total project cost
Manufacturing Energy Efficiency (NOFA 07-04)http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/ELFGrant.htm#NOFA_07-04
This program focuses on the utilization of energy efficiency measures and technologies, including efficient lighting, HVAC and refrigeration, motors and improved building envelope. Manufacturing facilities are eligible to apply.
Incentive and Maximum award• : 25% of project cost or $50,000
Commercial Renewable Energy Program (NOFA 08-09)
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/ELFGrant.htm#NOFA_08-09
This program seeks applications to implement renewable energy projects limited to solar electric, wind electric, and solar thermal systems for commercial, industrial, institutional, and governmental entities in Ohio.
Technology End User Applicant Third Party Applicant
Incentive Min size Max % Max $ Incentive Min size Max % Max $
Solar electric $3.50/watt 10 kW 50% $150K $3.50/watt 50 kW 50% $200K
Wind electric $2.00/watt 10 kWh 50% $200K $2.00/watt 50 kWh 50% $200K
Solar thermal $30 kBtu/day 200 kBtu/day 50% $150K $30kBtu/day 500 kWh/day 50% $200K
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Ohio Energy Office Financial Incentives Currently Availablehttp://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/GrantsLoans.htm
Residential Wind Energy Incentive Program (09-02)
This program is available for "Qualified Systems" installed for "Eligible Customers" through applications submitted to the Program by an "Eligible Installer." Eligible customers include all residential customers who are connected to the electric grid and have an active account in the American Electric Power, Duke, First Energy or Dayton Power and Light service territories in the State of Ohio, are eligible. Qualified residential wind turbine must have a minimum annual output of 3000 kWh at the average annual wind speed for the site at the proposed hub height. A list of eligible installers is available on the Ohio Energy Office web site.
Incentive amount• : $2.00/kWh or 50% of project costs
Maximum award amount• : $25,000
Alternative Fuel Transportation (AFT) (NOFA 08-03)
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/transportation.htm
Qualified parties are invited to submit applications for consideration to purchase and install AFT refueling facilities in Ohio. The goal is to increase the availability and use of biofuels formotor vehicles, specifically B20 (a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) or higher percentage blends of biodiesel, and E85 (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% of unleaded gasoline).
Eligible project costs• : new or conversion of existing facilities to use new AFT fuel, and educational and promotional materials.
Maximum award for conversion of retail facilities• : $10,000
Maximum award for new installation of retail facilities• : $40,000
Maximum award for educational material• : $5,000
B20 Biodiesel School Bus Program (NOFA 08-07)
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/transportation.htm
School districts, county Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities (MRDD) programs and similar local agencies that provide k-12 education are eligible to apply to cover the incremental costs of using B20 fuel (a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) in their school bus fleets. Incremental cost is the difference in the cost per gallon to use B20 compared to the cost to use petroleum diesel. Maximum award is $25,000.
Distributed Energy Resources (DER) (NOFA 07-01)http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/ELFGrant.htm#NOFA_07-01
Interested and qualified parties are invited to submit an application for consideration to increase the use of DER in Ohio with systems up to 25 megawatts (MW) for commercial, institutional, and industrial applications. DER is defined as modular generation technologies that generate and deliver electricity to customers at or near the point of use.
Eligible technologies• : clean burning reciprocating engines (meeting CA standards), industrial turbines, microturbines, innovative use of waste heat, combined heat and power, cogeneration, landfill or biomass methane.
Maximum Grant Share and Grant Award• : 25% of project cost and $100,000
Owners Cash Equity Requirement• : 10% of total project cost
Manufacturing Energy Efficiency (NOFA 07-04)http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/ELFGrant.htm#NOFA_07-04
This program focuses on the utilization of energy efficiency measures and technologies, including efficient lighting, HVAC and refrigeration, motors and improved building envelope. Manufacturing facilities are eligible to apply.
Incentive and Maximum award• : 25% of project cost or $50,000
Commercial Renewable Energy Program (NOFA 08-09)
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/ELFGrant.htm#NOFA_08-09
This program seeks applications to implement renewable energy projects limited to solar electric, wind electric, and solar thermal systems for commercial, industrial, institutional, and governmental entities in Ohio.
Technology End User Applicant Third Party Applicant
Incentive Min size Max % Max $ Incentive Min size Max % Max $
Solar electric $3.50/watt 10 kW 50% $150K $3.50/watt 50 kW 50% $200K
Wind electric $2.00/watt 10 kWh 50% $200K $2.00/watt 50 kWh 50% $200K
Solar thermal $30 kBtu/day 200 kBtu/day 50% $150K $30kBtu/day 500 kWh/day 50% $200K
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Tennessee coal pond disaster shows what can happen with mine waste
December 31, 2008
To the Editor:
Those who were busy with the Christmas holiday may have missed the tragic news about the rupture of a TVA coal-slurry impoundment pond in Tennessee. An estimated 5.4 million cubic yards of coal sludge has covered hundreds of acres, destroyed three homes, damaged many more, and is clogging the Emory River. Some of the affected land is covered with up to six feet of sludge -- a mix of water, toxic fly ash and mud.
The story is a cautionary tale for all Ohioans. Murray Energy Corp. wants to build a similar coal slurry pond in Belmont Ohio to store 1.85 billion gallons of slurry. Luckily, the Ohio EPA has denied the permit for this pond. Gov. Strickland and Ohio's regulatory agencies need to stand firm and forbid the creation of any more of theses coal-waste impoundments, which are just disasters waiting to happen.
Maybe this will drive a stake into the heart of the coal industry's "clean coal" campaign. There's simply no good way to store or dispose of coal-mining waste. The only way to stop more tragedies like this is to keep the coal in the ground, where it belongs.
Mary Beth Lohse
Cotterill Road
Pomeroy
December 31, 2008
To the Editor:
Those who were busy with the Christmas holiday may have missed the tragic news about the rupture of a TVA coal-slurry impoundment pond in Tennessee. An estimated 5.4 million cubic yards of coal sludge has covered hundreds of acres, destroyed three homes, damaged many more, and is clogging the Emory River. Some of the affected land is covered with up to six feet of sludge -- a mix of water, toxic fly ash and mud.
The story is a cautionary tale for all Ohioans. Murray Energy Corp. wants to build a similar coal slurry pond in Belmont Ohio to store 1.85 billion gallons of slurry. Luckily, the Ohio EPA has denied the permit for this pond. Gov. Strickland and Ohio's regulatory agencies need to stand firm and forbid the creation of any more of theses coal-waste impoundments, which are just disasters waiting to happen.
Maybe this will drive a stake into the heart of the coal industry's "clean coal" campaign. There's simply no good way to store or dispose of coal-mining waste. The only way to stop more tragedies like this is to keep the coal in the ground, where it belongs.
Mary Beth Lohse
Cotterill Road
Pomeroy
Green Energy Working In Northwest Ohio, why not our neighborhood?
A Northwest Ohio Green First - Decker Homes
In Wood County, on the NW Ohio 2008 Solar Tour, just over 30 people learned a lot at seven stops which focused on wind, geothermal and conservation. Tour goers saw four residential turbines and visited Ohio's first utility scale wind farm. Three tour stops were at homes with geothermal heating and cooling. Two of the homes had 5-star plus Energy Star ratings. The importance of conservation was the leading topic at the Bowling Green State University ice arena stop and a prominent topic when visitors stopped by Green by Design, a NW Ohio provider of green (energy) products.
Throughout the tour, site owners talked about investment, return on investment and how we invest in ourselves with conservation and renewable energy. Part of that discussion is about taking care of the planet. For example, one home had a yard of native flowers, rain gardens and swales. The other part is return on investment, which is not only about payback on appliances and wind turbines, but on the time-sensitive value of photovoltaics, the productivity of the Bowling Green wind farm and the terms of payment for which farmers are contracting as commercial wind develops around the state.
Don Scherer
Green Energy Ohio (GEO) member Decker Homes recently completed a high-performance, low energy home designed to reduce electric consumption, heating, cooling and hot water cost by 65% percent.
The 2100 sq. ft., three-bedroom ranch style home incorporates both photovoltaic (PV) and geothermal renewable energy systems. The home achieved a 35 HERS rating, making it one of the most energy efficient homes built in Northwest Ohio. The home's estimated annual energy cost is expected to be less than $700 dollars and will demonstrate the viability and cost effective benefits of owning an energy efficient home with modern renewable energy systems.
A 2 kW solar electric system, installed by Green Energy Ohio member company, Dovetail Solar and Wind, converts sunlight into electricity, producing about 30% of the power the house consumes, while the geothermal heating/cooling system transfers heat from the ground in the winter and removes heat from the house in the summer, reducing heating and cooling costs by approximately 30%. No traditional combustion furnace or air conditioning system is necessary.
Additional energy-saving Green features include LED recessed lighting, high efficient Energy Star certified appliances, a tight building envelope and a fully insulated basement.
Decker Homes has entered the home in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building America Program. After the home has been occupied for one year, a case study about the home's performance will be sent to the DOE. The study will be made available to the public, and posted on the Decker Homes Web site.
The home is located in Decker Homes Deer Valley development near Maumee, Ohio. It is the fourth home in the Energy Star development built with a solar electric system, but the first to be built combining both solar electric and geothermal technologies.
Bill Decker, Sr.
On October 4, 2008, Madonna Homes was proud to be part of the 2008 Ohio Solar Tour and one of the few large solar hot water sites. The Catholic Diocese of Toledo has recently finished a major renovation of Madonna Homes, a 171 unit, low income housing complex for the elderly and disabled. As part of its long term commitment to stewardship of the Earth, the Diocese committed to a 48 collector hot water solar system to supplement the domestic hot water system in the building. The system will cost approximately $200,000 (with a $62,000 rebate from the State of Ohio) and is expected to supply approximately 50% of the hot water for the building with a savings of about $500,000 over the life of the system.
Some 30 to 40 people toured the renovated building, the resident garden, community room (with a very popular Wii system) and, of course, the large, black four foot by ten foot Heliodyne collectors lined up in six rows of eight on the roof. The major downtown office buildings look down on the Madonna roof, so these collectors have high visibility in Toledo and will hopefully inspire others to "think solar."
Dick Hogan from Dovetail Solar, the system installer, shared details of the collector loop, the heat exchanger and the 2,000 gallon storage tank. University of Toledo students are designing and building a computer monitoring system which will display real time system performance on a large TV screen in the lobby to allow residents and visitors to get a feel for the system's operation.
One of the benefits of the system is the pride that the Madonna Homes residents are taking in their solar system. I'm often asked "When do I get my collector outside my window?" and I've overheard comments to visitors explaining that "our hot water comes from the sun!" The benefits of the system reach far beyond the natural gas saved and the carbon dioxide not added to the atmosphere. The Madonna system has been so popular and generated so much interest that residents of other Diocesan projects are beginning to ask "When do we get our solar system?" This may lead to a photovoltaic system on the roof of Michaelmas Manor in Toledo, a 94 unit complex for the elderly and severely, physically disabled.
John Kiely
Is it because we will be last again to join the rest of the state in Green Energy? Is it because we continue to believe in Coal Power values from Charlie Wilson?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak./thinkgreen/
A Northwest Ohio Green First - Decker Homes
In Wood County, on the NW Ohio 2008 Solar Tour, just over 30 people learned a lot at seven stops which focused on wind, geothermal and conservation. Tour goers saw four residential turbines and visited Ohio's first utility scale wind farm. Three tour stops were at homes with geothermal heating and cooling. Two of the homes had 5-star plus Energy Star ratings. The importance of conservation was the leading topic at the Bowling Green State University ice arena stop and a prominent topic when visitors stopped by Green by Design, a NW Ohio provider of green (energy) products.
Throughout the tour, site owners talked about investment, return on investment and how we invest in ourselves with conservation and renewable energy. Part of that discussion is about taking care of the planet. For example, one home had a yard of native flowers, rain gardens and swales. The other part is return on investment, which is not only about payback on appliances and wind turbines, but on the time-sensitive value of photovoltaics, the productivity of the Bowling Green wind farm and the terms of payment for which farmers are contracting as commercial wind develops around the state.
Don Scherer
Green Energy Ohio (GEO) member Decker Homes recently completed a high-performance, low energy home designed to reduce electric consumption, heating, cooling and hot water cost by 65% percent.
The 2100 sq. ft., three-bedroom ranch style home incorporates both photovoltaic (PV) and geothermal renewable energy systems. The home achieved a 35 HERS rating, making it one of the most energy efficient homes built in Northwest Ohio. The home's estimated annual energy cost is expected to be less than $700 dollars and will demonstrate the viability and cost effective benefits of owning an energy efficient home with modern renewable energy systems.
A 2 kW solar electric system, installed by Green Energy Ohio member company, Dovetail Solar and Wind, converts sunlight into electricity, producing about 30% of the power the house consumes, while the geothermal heating/cooling system transfers heat from the ground in the winter and removes heat from the house in the summer, reducing heating and cooling costs by approximately 30%. No traditional combustion furnace or air conditioning system is necessary.
Additional energy-saving Green features include LED recessed lighting, high efficient Energy Star certified appliances, a tight building envelope and a fully insulated basement.
Decker Homes has entered the home in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building America Program. After the home has been occupied for one year, a case study about the home's performance will be sent to the DOE. The study will be made available to the public, and posted on the Decker Homes Web site.
The home is located in Decker Homes Deer Valley development near Maumee, Ohio. It is the fourth home in the Energy Star development built with a solar electric system, but the first to be built combining both solar electric and geothermal technologies.
Bill Decker, Sr.
On October 4, 2008, Madonna Homes was proud to be part of the 2008 Ohio Solar Tour and one of the few large solar hot water sites. The Catholic Diocese of Toledo has recently finished a major renovation of Madonna Homes, a 171 unit, low income housing complex for the elderly and disabled. As part of its long term commitment to stewardship of the Earth, the Diocese committed to a 48 collector hot water solar system to supplement the domestic hot water system in the building. The system will cost approximately $200,000 (with a $62,000 rebate from the State of Ohio) and is expected to supply approximately 50% of the hot water for the building with a savings of about $500,000 over the life of the system.
Some 30 to 40 people toured the renovated building, the resident garden, community room (with a very popular Wii system) and, of course, the large, black four foot by ten foot Heliodyne collectors lined up in six rows of eight on the roof. The major downtown office buildings look down on the Madonna roof, so these collectors have high visibility in Toledo and will hopefully inspire others to "think solar."
Dick Hogan from Dovetail Solar, the system installer, shared details of the collector loop, the heat exchanger and the 2,000 gallon storage tank. University of Toledo students are designing and building a computer monitoring system which will display real time system performance on a large TV screen in the lobby to allow residents and visitors to get a feel for the system's operation.
One of the benefits of the system is the pride that the Madonna Homes residents are taking in their solar system. I'm often asked "When do I get my collector outside my window?" and I've overheard comments to visitors explaining that "our hot water comes from the sun!" The benefits of the system reach far beyond the natural gas saved and the carbon dioxide not added to the atmosphere. The Madonna system has been so popular and generated so much interest that residents of other Diocesan projects are beginning to ask "When do we get our solar system?" This may lead to a photovoltaic system on the roof of Michaelmas Manor in Toledo, a 94 unit complex for the elderly and severely, physically disabled.
John Kiely
Is it because we will be last again to join the rest of the state in Green Energy? Is it because we continue to believe in Coal Power values from Charlie Wilson?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak./thinkgreen/
Want Coal? Expect Occassional Sludge
Posted: 31 Dec 2008 06:13 AM CST
The toxic coal sludge impoundment that broke in Tennessee last week is a tremendous disaster-and the finger pointing has begun.
I'm reminded of GreenPeace's New York Times ad in 1990 after the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill: "It wasn't the Exxon Valdez captain's driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours." That's not to say the drunken captain wasn't to blame, but the consequences from the overuse of oil-much like the overuse of coal, are a fault of the demander (sounds like a Bush-ism) as well as the supplier.
Of course, when the supplier tries to save time and money by not constructing a structurally sound waste depository they are also very much to blame (I wish it were the homes and towns of those responsible for cutting corners that were flooded with coal sludge)-but we are not completely innocent either.
Before I am attacked for suggesting the victims of this disaster deserve a portion of the blame, let me make my point more clearly. I am saying everyone who uses abuses electricity is to blame (ie. most americans). It is not our fault that we have a coal-based electric grid. That started long ago-but we could use less electricity-much less, and we could petition our representatives to support the development of wind and solar energy, and we could educate others on how to make their homes more efficient. All of these measures (and more) would result in less coal sludge because we'd be using less coal…oh yeah, it would also mean less CO2 in the atmosphere, less mercury in the air and water, less asthma cases, and asthma relted deaths, less…
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votepisak.org/thinkgreen/
Posted: 31 Dec 2008 06:13 AM CST
The toxic coal sludge impoundment that broke in Tennessee last week is a tremendous disaster-and the finger pointing has begun.
I'm reminded of GreenPeace's New York Times ad in 1990 after the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill: "It wasn't the Exxon Valdez captain's driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours." That's not to say the drunken captain wasn't to blame, but the consequences from the overuse of oil-much like the overuse of coal, are a fault of the demander (sounds like a Bush-ism) as well as the supplier.
Of course, when the supplier tries to save time and money by not constructing a structurally sound waste depository they are also very much to blame (I wish it were the homes and towns of those responsible for cutting corners that were flooded with coal sludge)-but we are not completely innocent either.
Before I am attacked for suggesting the victims of this disaster deserve a portion of the blame, let me make my point more clearly. I am saying everyone who uses abuses electricity is to blame (ie. most americans). It is not our fault that we have a coal-based electric grid. That started long ago-but we could use less electricity-much less, and we could petition our representatives to support the development of wind and solar energy, and we could educate others on how to make their homes more efficient. All of these measures (and more) would result in less coal sludge because we'd be using less coal…oh yeah, it would also mean less CO2 in the atmosphere, less mercury in the air and water, less asthma cases, and asthma relted deaths, less…
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votepisak.org/thinkgreen/
Living Cincy Landmark goes Solar
At Findlay Market in downtown Cincinnati the vegetables aren't the only things that are green. This historic market in the Over-the-Rhine area of Cincinnati recently completed and dedicated a major solar energy project with the help of the Duke Energy Corporation, a $73,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development Advanced Energy Fund and the City of Cincinnati, which owns the market.
The 21.66 kilowatt project is the largest photovoltaic array in Ohio installed on a building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is mounted on the roof of Ohio's oldest public market started in 1855 and consists of 114 individual solar panels which will generate electricity for use in the historic market house. Any excess power generated will be net metered back to the electric utility grid.
Robert J. Pickford is the President and CEO of the Corporation for Findlay Market, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization incorporated in 2000. Bob came to Cincinnati after running a regional food co-operative in the Columbus, Ohio area. His background includes more than 25 years in the food industry managing wholesale and retail food businesses and working with volunteer boards of directors. He brings a wealth of experience to this position.
Besides running the actual day-to-day activities of the market itself, he is responsible for continuous improvement of the market and the surrounding areas of the market, including development of vacant properties in the area and assisting in new business start-ups.
Bob is very enthusiastic about what he does. He has many good ideas on how to improve the market area and he is working with his marketing director to develop ways to attract new vendors and shoppers. This solar project will be a great way to bring attention once again to this historic market.
The Market plans to open a kiosk which will contain information about the market history, including information on renewable energy. Then shoppers can pick up literature about renewable energy, take it home and consider it for their own dwellings.
The Findlay Market solar energy system consists of two 10 by 100 foot sub-arrays mounted on the south facing roof of each wing of the market house. Each sub-array is comprised of three rows of nineteen poly-crystalline silicon solar panels. Each panel generates 190 watts of DC electricity. The DC current is then converted to usable AC by utility interactive power inverters inside the market house and fed into the market house electrical system, or back to the utility grid.
This installation has an expected life of at least 30 years. By replacing electricity generated by fossil fuels, the Findlay Market solar energy system offsets more than 52,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year, or more than 780 tons of carbon dioxide during the life of the installation.
Some of the additional benefits to be realized from this project include the following:
Will compliment other sustainable initiatives
Will provide public education regarding solar, carbon-free energy resources and sustainability for dozens of public tours and more than 300,000 visitors to Findlay Market each year
Will generate attention and positive press about Findlay Market
Will contribute to reduced utility costs
Will reduce carbon footprint and improve regional air quality
Will help reduce utility peak load demand
Findlay Market is more than a century and a half old but it is not merely a historic monument. It is a living landmark visited by thousands of shoppers every week. The solar energy project aesthetically blends the market's iron-framed 19th century structure with leading edge energy technology. This project links Findlay Market's rich past to a forward-looking future as one of the most important assets in Cincinnati's urban core and a critical element of the city's emerging downtown renaissance.
Third Sun Solar and Wind Power, based in Athens, Ohio, installed the Findlay Market solar energy system and will provide any maintenance the system will need. Because there are no moving parts, little maintenance is expected. The solar panels were manufactured in the United States by Evergreen Solar, Inc. in Marlboro, Massachusetts.
For additional information about Findlay Market please call 513-665-4839 or go to www.findlaymarket.org
It is possible to go solar……..when will we do it in our neighborhood?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
At Findlay Market in downtown Cincinnati the vegetables aren't the only things that are green. This historic market in the Over-the-Rhine area of Cincinnati recently completed and dedicated a major solar energy project with the help of the Duke Energy Corporation, a $73,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development Advanced Energy Fund and the City of Cincinnati, which owns the market.
The 21.66 kilowatt project is the largest photovoltaic array in Ohio installed on a building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is mounted on the roof of Ohio's oldest public market started in 1855 and consists of 114 individual solar panels which will generate electricity for use in the historic market house. Any excess power generated will be net metered back to the electric utility grid.
Robert J. Pickford is the President and CEO of the Corporation for Findlay Market, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization incorporated in 2000. Bob came to Cincinnati after running a regional food co-operative in the Columbus, Ohio area. His background includes more than 25 years in the food industry managing wholesale and retail food businesses and working with volunteer boards of directors. He brings a wealth of experience to this position.
Besides running the actual day-to-day activities of the market itself, he is responsible for continuous improvement of the market and the surrounding areas of the market, including development of vacant properties in the area and assisting in new business start-ups.
Bob is very enthusiastic about what he does. He has many good ideas on how to improve the market area and he is working with his marketing director to develop ways to attract new vendors and shoppers. This solar project will be a great way to bring attention once again to this historic market.
The Market plans to open a kiosk which will contain information about the market history, including information on renewable energy. Then shoppers can pick up literature about renewable energy, take it home and consider it for their own dwellings.
The Findlay Market solar energy system consists of two 10 by 100 foot sub-arrays mounted on the south facing roof of each wing of the market house. Each sub-array is comprised of three rows of nineteen poly-crystalline silicon solar panels. Each panel generates 190 watts of DC electricity. The DC current is then converted to usable AC by utility interactive power inverters inside the market house and fed into the market house electrical system, or back to the utility grid.
This installation has an expected life of at least 30 years. By replacing electricity generated by fossil fuels, the Findlay Market solar energy system offsets more than 52,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year, or more than 780 tons of carbon dioxide during the life of the installation.
Some of the additional benefits to be realized from this project include the following:
Will compliment other sustainable initiatives
Will provide public education regarding solar, carbon-free energy resources and sustainability for dozens of public tours and more than 300,000 visitors to Findlay Market each year
Will generate attention and positive press about Findlay Market
Will contribute to reduced utility costs
Will reduce carbon footprint and improve regional air quality
Will help reduce utility peak load demand
Findlay Market is more than a century and a half old but it is not merely a historic monument. It is a living landmark visited by thousands of shoppers every week. The solar energy project aesthetically blends the market's iron-framed 19th century structure with leading edge energy technology. This project links Findlay Market's rich past to a forward-looking future as one of the most important assets in Cincinnati's urban core and a critical element of the city's emerging downtown renaissance.
Third Sun Solar and Wind Power, based in Athens, Ohio, installed the Findlay Market solar energy system and will provide any maintenance the system will need. Because there are no moving parts, little maintenance is expected. The solar panels were manufactured in the United States by Evergreen Solar, Inc. in Marlboro, Massachusetts.
For additional information about Findlay Market please call 513-665-4839 or go to www.findlaymarket.org
It is possible to go solar……..when will we do it in our neighborhood?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
In Toledo, green is the favorite color
By Charita Goshay
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Dec 27, 2008 @ 10:03 PM
If you've been in northern Ohio for any length of time, you knew we were in a recession long before CNN got wind of it.
As cities in the Rust Belt continue to gasp for air, Toledo has found a way to add 6,000 jobs.
That isn't a typo.
Toledo and its surrounding communities are in the process of re-emerging as a "green belt."
Every one of us knows a 30-something who might have done this community a world of good had he or she been able to stay. Toledo may have found a way to bridge the gap between those young adults who want to stay and the growing number of renewable energy and energy-efficient companies that need educated workers.
Toledo and Lucas County officials have formed a Green Jobs Partnership, a training and job-placement mechanism to meet the growing needs of green-collar start-ups.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner is buttonholing Gov. Ted Strickland to establish an Ohio Center for Renewable Energy and sustainable Development Center at the University of Toledo, which has engaged in solar-cell research since the 1980s.
GREEN SPROUT
One advantage Toledo has over other cities is its glass industry. Toledo is the home of Owens Corning, which gives the area a head start -- but not an insurmountable one -- in the manufacturing of solar panels.
According to the American Solar Energy Society, green-collar companies created 8.5 million jobs in 2006. There are estimates the industry could employ 40 million people by 2030, which sounds far off until you remember that nine years ago, we were living in mortal fear of Y2K.
In Canton, the arrival of the Hydrotech Corp. is a heartening "green" sprout. Last year, there was some talk about Canton's possibly becoming a site for manufacturing turbines for wind energy. That may sound far-fetched too, until you look at places such as Holland, and see windmills in Lake Erie, spinning alongside Browns Stadium.
Change can be difficult to envision and even harder to embrace. In 1903, the president of the Michigan Savings Bank advised Henry Ford not to bother with the automobile industry, stating, "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty -- a fad."
TREE-HUGGING?
Northern Ohio is suffering because we failed to embrace change, even as the economy was shifting beneath us. We thought that if we just stayed behind the factory gate, the world eventually would come to its senses. For years, people in Toledo clung to the auto industry for dear life, and even as recently as this month, appeals were made to salvage still-crucial jobs at the Chrysler-Jeep plant there.
The difference is, instead of rearranging the deck chairs, Toledo has begun building its own life raft.
More than a few people still scoff at the notion of a green-collar economy. Because the industry sputtered in the 1970s, they see it as little more than tree-hugging. But guess what else is green?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Toledo is going Green, Now Canton. Why not Youngstown? Why not the rest of Ohio?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
By Charita Goshay
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Dec 27, 2008 @ 10:03 PM
If you've been in northern Ohio for any length of time, you knew we were in a recession long before CNN got wind of it.
As cities in the Rust Belt continue to gasp for air, Toledo has found a way to add 6,000 jobs.
That isn't a typo.
Toledo and its surrounding communities are in the process of re-emerging as a "green belt."
Every one of us knows a 30-something who might have done this community a world of good had he or she been able to stay. Toledo may have found a way to bridge the gap between those young adults who want to stay and the growing number of renewable energy and energy-efficient companies that need educated workers.
Toledo and Lucas County officials have formed a Green Jobs Partnership, a training and job-placement mechanism to meet the growing needs of green-collar start-ups.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner is buttonholing Gov. Ted Strickland to establish an Ohio Center for Renewable Energy and sustainable Development Center at the University of Toledo, which has engaged in solar-cell research since the 1980s.
GREEN SPROUT
One advantage Toledo has over other cities is its glass industry. Toledo is the home of Owens Corning, which gives the area a head start -- but not an insurmountable one -- in the manufacturing of solar panels.
According to the American Solar Energy Society, green-collar companies created 8.5 million jobs in 2006. There are estimates the industry could employ 40 million people by 2030, which sounds far off until you remember that nine years ago, we were living in mortal fear of Y2K.
In Canton, the arrival of the Hydrotech Corp. is a heartening "green" sprout. Last year, there was some talk about Canton's possibly becoming a site for manufacturing turbines for wind energy. That may sound far-fetched too, until you look at places such as Holland, and see windmills in Lake Erie, spinning alongside Browns Stadium.
Change can be difficult to envision and even harder to embrace. In 1903, the president of the Michigan Savings Bank advised Henry Ford not to bother with the automobile industry, stating, "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty -- a fad."
TREE-HUGGING?
Northern Ohio is suffering because we failed to embrace change, even as the economy was shifting beneath us. We thought that if we just stayed behind the factory gate, the world eventually would come to its senses. For years, people in Toledo clung to the auto industry for dear life, and even as recently as this month, appeals were made to salvage still-crucial jobs at the Chrysler-Jeep plant there.
The difference is, instead of rearranging the deck chairs, Toledo has begun building its own life raft.
More than a few people still scoff at the notion of a green-collar economy. Because the industry sputtered in the 1970s, they see it as little more than tree-hugging. But guess what else is green?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Toledo is going Green, Now Canton. Why not Youngstown? Why not the rest of Ohio?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Let's Put a Leash on the Bush Dogs
Submitted by Bob Fertik on August 22, 2007 - 8:50am. Democratic Primary Challenges
Our friends at OpenLeft.com have launched an excellent campaign to put a leash on the Bush Dog Democrats. As Matt Stoller writes,
I'm hearing more and more frequently a sense of rage with the Democratic leadership in Congress. From failing to stop the war to expanding Bush's wiretapping authority, the swing vote of conservative Democrats in the House are forming an effective conservative majority that is enabling Bush to govern as he wishes.
OpenLeft's Chris Bowers is defining "Bush Dogs" as Democrats who voted both for the Supplemental Surrender on 5/24/07 and for Warrantless Wiretapping on 8/4/07. So the "Bush Dogs" are:
Jason Altmire, PA-04
John Barrow, GA-12
Melissa Bean, IL-18
Dan Boren, OK-02
Leonard Boswell, IA-03
Alan Boyd, FL-02
Chris Carney, PA-10
Ben Chandler, KY-06
Jim Cooper, TN-05
Jim Costa, CA-20
Bud Cramer, AL-05
Henry Cuellar, TX-28
Lincoln Davis, TN-04 Joe Donnelly, IN-02
Chet Edwards, TX-17
Brad Ellsworth, IN-08
Bob Etheridge, NC-02
Bart Gordon, TN-06
Stephanie Herseth, SD-AL
Baron Hill, IN-09
Nick Lampson, TX-22
Dan Lipinski, IL-03
Jim Marshall, GA-08
Jim Matheson, UT-02
Mike McIntyre, NC-07
Charlie Melancon, LA-03 Colin Peterson, MN-07
Earl Pomeroy, ND-AL
Ciro Rodriguez, TX-23
Mike Ross, AR-04
John Salazar, CO-03
Heath Shuler, NC-11
Vic Snyder, AR-02
Zack Space, OH-18
John Tanner, TN-08
Gene Taylor, MS-04
Tim Walz, MN-01
Charlie Wilson, OH-06
The "Bush Dog" list is similar to the broader "Bush Democrat" list we created at Democrats.com, but we add more votes and end up with a longer list that also includes:
Shelley Berkley NV01
Howard Berman CA28
Sanford Bishop GA02
Rick Boucher VA09
Nancy Boyda KS02
Dennis Cardoza CA18
Gabrielle Giffords AZ08
Gene Green TX29
Al Green TX09
Tim Holden PA17
Steny Hoyer MD05 Ron Kind WI03
Tim Mahoney FL16
Harry Mitchell AZ05
Dennis Moore KS03
Solomon Ortiz TX27
Dutch Ruppersberger MD02
Allyson Schwartz PA13
David Scott GA13
Ike Skelton MO04
Mark Udall CO02
Al Wynn MD04
So what will OpenLeft do with its Bush Dogs? Put a leash on them, and even threaten primary challenges.
One, many of these members feel no pressure to vote correctly or uphold progressive values. Criticism is the signal they are relying on to let them know when they err. Two, some of these members may need to face a primary challenge, and it's useful for potential primary challengers to know that there is criticism of these members. Three, other members considering joining the Bush Dog caucus may be dissuaded if they know there will be criticism. Four, candidates running for office will finally have a signal on how they should talk about being good Democrats that are willing to take tough votes.
To get started, OpenLeft is inviting its readers to write profiles of the Bush Dogs:
When we're done doing these profiles, we can begin to track these members, engage in online advertising to let their constituents know their record, and/or help local activists in their districts. This is going to be a completely open process, and as votes come up this fall, we won't hesitate to add new Bush Dogs or honorary Bush Dog titles based on political games played by leadership... Already, there's a contempt vote in the House that I'm going to watch closely, and of course, there's the Petraeus PR ploy.
Of course OpenLeft is already taking flak from Democratic "leaders" like Chris Van Hollen and Artur Davis of the DCCC, but they are not deterred:
This is going to be uncomfortable for many of us. Criticizing the people we just elected, people who may even be nice to us personally, is never easy. And shifting away from raw partisanship, which was necessary from 2002-2006, towards the idea that we need good Democrats and not Bush Dog Democrats, is going to take some slight adjustments. We're going to be told that we are jeopardizing candidates in swing districts, that we are hurting the possibility of retaining the majority. We're going to be told we're bad Democrats.
None of that is true, and it is loser talk. There is no such thing as a Republican district, and Democrats only get stronger when we stand confidently for our values. Criticism makes us better, not weaker, and demanding that our candidates stand for ideas and not just party labels will make the Democratic Party a more vibrant and effective vessel for change. After all, at the same time as we push against Bush Dog Democrats we are also trying to elect Democrats all over the country. I mean, beating Lieberman in the primary in 2006 was just the spark the party needed to focus on Iraq. Perhaps this is the spark that progressives in the House and Senate need to get some ferocity of spirit.
In other words, this is a new project for many of us, but it's part of the continuum of what the netroots is all about. Such is how movements get stronger.
Right on, OpenLeft!
p.s. Thanks to Stoller for linking to our Warrantless Wiretapping poll, which showed 73% of Americans oppose Bush's wiretapping on Americans.
Submitted by Bob Fertik on August 22, 2007 - 8:50am. Democratic Primary Challenges
Our friends at OpenLeft.com have launched an excellent campaign to put a leash on the Bush Dog Democrats. As Matt Stoller writes,
I'm hearing more and more frequently a sense of rage with the Democratic leadership in Congress. From failing to stop the war to expanding Bush's wiretapping authority, the swing vote of conservative Democrats in the House are forming an effective conservative majority that is enabling Bush to govern as he wishes.
OpenLeft's Chris Bowers is defining "Bush Dogs" as Democrats who voted both for the Supplemental Surrender on 5/24/07 and for Warrantless Wiretapping on 8/4/07. So the "Bush Dogs" are:
Jason Altmire, PA-04
John Barrow, GA-12
Melissa Bean, IL-18
Dan Boren, OK-02
Leonard Boswell, IA-03
Alan Boyd, FL-02
Chris Carney, PA-10
Ben Chandler, KY-06
Jim Cooper, TN-05
Jim Costa, CA-20
Bud Cramer, AL-05
Henry Cuellar, TX-28
Lincoln Davis, TN-04 Joe Donnelly, IN-02
Chet Edwards, TX-17
Brad Ellsworth, IN-08
Bob Etheridge, NC-02
Bart Gordon, TN-06
Stephanie Herseth, SD-AL
Baron Hill, IN-09
Nick Lampson, TX-22
Dan Lipinski, IL-03
Jim Marshall, GA-08
Jim Matheson, UT-02
Mike McIntyre, NC-07
Charlie Melancon, LA-03 Colin Peterson, MN-07
Earl Pomeroy, ND-AL
Ciro Rodriguez, TX-23
Mike Ross, AR-04
John Salazar, CO-03
Heath Shuler, NC-11
Vic Snyder, AR-02
Zack Space, OH-18
John Tanner, TN-08
Gene Taylor, MS-04
Tim Walz, MN-01
Charlie Wilson, OH-06
The "Bush Dog" list is similar to the broader "Bush Democrat" list we created at Democrats.com, but we add more votes and end up with a longer list that also includes:
Shelley Berkley NV01
Howard Berman CA28
Sanford Bishop GA02
Rick Boucher VA09
Nancy Boyda KS02
Dennis Cardoza CA18
Gabrielle Giffords AZ08
Gene Green TX29
Al Green TX09
Tim Holden PA17
Steny Hoyer MD05 Ron Kind WI03
Tim Mahoney FL16
Harry Mitchell AZ05
Dennis Moore KS03
Solomon Ortiz TX27
Dutch Ruppersberger MD02
Allyson Schwartz PA13
David Scott GA13
Ike Skelton MO04
Mark Udall CO02
Al Wynn MD04
So what will OpenLeft do with its Bush Dogs? Put a leash on them, and even threaten primary challenges.
One, many of these members feel no pressure to vote correctly or uphold progressive values. Criticism is the signal they are relying on to let them know when they err. Two, some of these members may need to face a primary challenge, and it's useful for potential primary challengers to know that there is criticism of these members. Three, other members considering joining the Bush Dog caucus may be dissuaded if they know there will be criticism. Four, candidates running for office will finally have a signal on how they should talk about being good Democrats that are willing to take tough votes.
To get started, OpenLeft is inviting its readers to write profiles of the Bush Dogs:
When we're done doing these profiles, we can begin to track these members, engage in online advertising to let their constituents know their record, and/or help local activists in their districts. This is going to be a completely open process, and as votes come up this fall, we won't hesitate to add new Bush Dogs or honorary Bush Dog titles based on political games played by leadership... Already, there's a contempt vote in the House that I'm going to watch closely, and of course, there's the Petraeus PR ploy.
Of course OpenLeft is already taking flak from Democratic "leaders" like Chris Van Hollen and Artur Davis of the DCCC, but they are not deterred:
This is going to be uncomfortable for many of us. Criticizing the people we just elected, people who may even be nice to us personally, is never easy. And shifting away from raw partisanship, which was necessary from 2002-2006, towards the idea that we need good Democrats and not Bush Dog Democrats, is going to take some slight adjustments. We're going to be told that we are jeopardizing candidates in swing districts, that we are hurting the possibility of retaining the majority. We're going to be told we're bad Democrats.
None of that is true, and it is loser talk. There is no such thing as a Republican district, and Democrats only get stronger when we stand confidently for our values. Criticism makes us better, not weaker, and demanding that our candidates stand for ideas and not just party labels will make the Democratic Party a more vibrant and effective vessel for change. After all, at the same time as we push against Bush Dog Democrats we are also trying to elect Democrats all over the country. I mean, beating Lieberman in the primary in 2006 was just the spark the party needed to focus on Iraq. Perhaps this is the spark that progressives in the House and Senate need to get some ferocity of spirit.
In other words, this is a new project for many of us, but it's part of the continuum of what the netroots is all about. Such is how movements get stronger.
Right on, OpenLeft!
p.s. Thanks to Stoller for linking to our Warrantless Wiretapping poll, which showed 73% of Americans oppose Bush's wiretapping on Americans.
Brink of Depression? Fastest Consumer Price Drop Since 1932
Written by Jennifer Lance
No longer do we need to look to history books and grandparents to know what the darkest days of the Great Depression were like: we are there if consumer prices are any indication.
In November 2008, consumer prices fell to their lowest in 76 years. Will the Bush Depression be worse than the Great Depression?
1932 is considered the bottom point of the Great Depression:
Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929…The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.
Have we reached the bottom of this economic depression or is the worse still to come? Mike Schenk, an economist for Credit Union National Association, expressed his economic concerns, "This is scary stuff. We are teetering on the brink of a massive downward spiral. Deflation is a threat."
Gasoline prices have seen the sharpest decline as they plunged by 29.5% in November, the greatest drop since the government began keeping records in 1967.
Energy, the airline industry, and commodities have been the hardest hit by plummeting prices. In contrast, medical, food, and housing prices rose slightly last month.
On one level, I am glad prices are dropping to a more affordable level for Americans, especially the unemployed or those who have received pay reductions. On the other hand, I worry what the reduction in prices will do towards the sustainability movement. For the employed, lower plane tickets and cheaper gas prices may encourage behaviors that increase carbon output. Slate explains:
History shows that significant declines in U.S. oil consumption occur only after prolonged periods of high prices. Over the last two decades, U.S. consumers have been spoiled by low fuel prices. And those lower prices led to a buying binge that put millions of giant SUVs, pickups, and other gas guzzlers on our roads.
We've experienced the decline in oil consumption that resulted from $4.00 a gallon gasoline. Americans began to carpool, ride mass transit, bike, etc. Now that oil prices have dropped significantly, will oil consumption increase? If we really are in the darkest days of the Bush Depression, the economy should take care of these concerns. The average Americans can't afford to buy a new car, whether it is a hybrid or SUV. let alone take an extravagant vacation. With the economic uncertainty facing this country, no one is immune from losing their job or facing a pay cut.
Happy New Year 2009?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Written by Jennifer Lance
No longer do we need to look to history books and grandparents to know what the darkest days of the Great Depression were like: we are there if consumer prices are any indication.
In November 2008, consumer prices fell to their lowest in 76 years. Will the Bush Depression be worse than the Great Depression?
1932 is considered the bottom point of the Great Depression:
Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929…The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.
Have we reached the bottom of this economic depression or is the worse still to come? Mike Schenk, an economist for Credit Union National Association, expressed his economic concerns, "This is scary stuff. We are teetering on the brink of a massive downward spiral. Deflation is a threat."
Gasoline prices have seen the sharpest decline as they plunged by 29.5% in November, the greatest drop since the government began keeping records in 1967.
Energy, the airline industry, and commodities have been the hardest hit by plummeting prices. In contrast, medical, food, and housing prices rose slightly last month.
On one level, I am glad prices are dropping to a more affordable level for Americans, especially the unemployed or those who have received pay reductions. On the other hand, I worry what the reduction in prices will do towards the sustainability movement. For the employed, lower plane tickets and cheaper gas prices may encourage behaviors that increase carbon output. Slate explains:
History shows that significant declines in U.S. oil consumption occur only after prolonged periods of high prices. Over the last two decades, U.S. consumers have been spoiled by low fuel prices. And those lower prices led to a buying binge that put millions of giant SUVs, pickups, and other gas guzzlers on our roads.
We've experienced the decline in oil consumption that resulted from $4.00 a gallon gasoline. Americans began to carpool, ride mass transit, bike, etc. Now that oil prices have dropped significantly, will oil consumption increase? If we really are in the darkest days of the Bush Depression, the economy should take care of these concerns. The average Americans can't afford to buy a new car, whether it is a hybrid or SUV. let alone take an extravagant vacation. With the economic uncertainty facing this country, no one is immune from losing their job or facing a pay cut.
Happy New Year 2009?
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
There Is No Such Thing As Clean Coal
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 08.28.07
We were surprised to see this covered in Forbes Magazine, an information source for big investors.
"As the nation's coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they'll likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the country's hundreds of coal-fired plants is now recycled - mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize embankments, among other things."
"But in a process being used increasingly across the nation, chemicals are injected into plants' emissions to capture airborne pollutants. That, in turn, changes the composition of the ash and cuts its usefulness. It can't be used in cement, for example, because the interaction of the chemicals may keep the concrete from hardening."
Are we thinking about bridge replacement and repair using coal ash as an amendment to concrete? Because if we are, we better think twice.
"That ash has to go somewhere - so it usually ends up in landfills, along with the rest of the unusable waste. "You're replacing an air problem with a land problem - a disposal problem," said Bruce Dockter, a research engineer with the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota... And the chemicals added to clean up emissions - such as ammonia, lime and calcium hydroxide - make the ash worse, environmental groups say, because they take toxins such as mercury out of the air but leave higher levels of it in the ash."
Although the Forbes article is insightful, it stops short of explaining a potentially critical factor. Historially, coal combustion wastes rarely exhibit the characteristics of hazardous waste. However, if coal burning utilities and the so-called "clean coal plants" were required to meet air emissions standards protective of human health, fly ash produced by them could be regulated as hazardous waste due to the elevated levels of mercury that would result. We might suppose that any fly ash with hazardous characteristics due to heavy metal content would have to be sent to special and expensive waste fills or be treated at great cost.
But we would be wrong to assume that. USEPA made fly ash exempt from regulation as a hazardous waste far before the risks of mercury and lead exposure were well understood and before air emission limits on heavy metals were contemplated. Hold that thought.
There is another unintended consequence of making fly ash toxic. Reduced use of fly ash as a concrete amendment means more cement must be added to the mix, increasing the carbon emissions footprint per Kg of concrete used.
These two reasons together explain why the coal utility industry has been opposed to more stringent mercury emission standards and why even the lenient mercury emission standards recently recommended by EPA were scheduled to be phased in so very slowly. Were high levels of mercury found in commercially sold fly ash, you can bet that a can o' regulatory worms would be opened. So, nothing to see here, move along now.
The only little boy happy to get a stocking full of coal this Christmas was Charlie Wilson!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 08.28.07
We were surprised to see this covered in Forbes Magazine, an information source for big investors.
"As the nation's coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they'll likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the country's hundreds of coal-fired plants is now recycled - mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize embankments, among other things."
"But in a process being used increasingly across the nation, chemicals are injected into plants' emissions to capture airborne pollutants. That, in turn, changes the composition of the ash and cuts its usefulness. It can't be used in cement, for example, because the interaction of the chemicals may keep the concrete from hardening."
Are we thinking about bridge replacement and repair using coal ash as an amendment to concrete? Because if we are, we better think twice.
"That ash has to go somewhere - so it usually ends up in landfills, along with the rest of the unusable waste. "You're replacing an air problem with a land problem - a disposal problem," said Bruce Dockter, a research engineer with the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota... And the chemicals added to clean up emissions - such as ammonia, lime and calcium hydroxide - make the ash worse, environmental groups say, because they take toxins such as mercury out of the air but leave higher levels of it in the ash."
Although the Forbes article is insightful, it stops short of explaining a potentially critical factor. Historially, coal combustion wastes rarely exhibit the characteristics of hazardous waste. However, if coal burning utilities and the so-called "clean coal plants" were required to meet air emissions standards protective of human health, fly ash produced by them could be regulated as hazardous waste due to the elevated levels of mercury that would result. We might suppose that any fly ash with hazardous characteristics due to heavy metal content would have to be sent to special and expensive waste fills or be treated at great cost.
But we would be wrong to assume that. USEPA made fly ash exempt from regulation as a hazardous waste far before the risks of mercury and lead exposure were well understood and before air emission limits on heavy metals were contemplated. Hold that thought.
There is another unintended consequence of making fly ash toxic. Reduced use of fly ash as a concrete amendment means more cement must be added to the mix, increasing the carbon emissions footprint per Kg of concrete used.
These two reasons together explain why the coal utility industry has been opposed to more stringent mercury emission standards and why even the lenient mercury emission standards recently recommended by EPA were scheduled to be phased in so very slowly. Were high levels of mercury found in commercially sold fly ash, you can bet that a can o' regulatory worms would be opened. So, nothing to see here, move along now.
The only little boy happy to get a stocking full of coal this Christmas was Charlie Wilson!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Green Party of Michigan opposes auto bailout
December 26th, 2008 · No Comments
Mailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com by Lou Novak
Not one job saved, not one community protected
Statement of Fred Vitale, Chairperson, Green Party of Michigan
The Green Party of Michigan strenuously opposes the $17.4 billion bailout for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
The agreement by the Bush administration to use a small part of the $700 billion already promised to Wall Street bankers is no victory for working people in Michigan.
The loans support the failed policies of the current corporate leaderships.
Not only have they systematically pressured the union to reduce the living standards, but they have undermined the construction of mass transportation, fought laws to reduce pollution, and refused to build ecologically friendly automobiles.
GM, Chrysler and Ford are not democratic institutions. Product choices and policy were and are made by boards of directors and top executives. Why are the workers and communities punished for decisions that weren't theirs?
The struggles of UAW members have won some measure of racial equality in the factories; production workers developed political strength and clout; they fought for and won a high standard of living for production workers which provided the foundations for all workers, including salaried professionals, to have higher wages throughout the North.
All these gains are gravely threatened.
The auto bailout now puts the full weight of the central government behind the wealthy owners and bankers, who, as exhibited by the bloodthirsty howls of the southern senators, want to reverse the gains of the UAW, to turn back into profits a large part of the workers' wages and benefits and, in that process, tear apart families, crush hopes, terrorize communities.
There are other, alternative solutions to the crises facing auto workers and their communities.
GM, Chrysler and Ford facilities should be nationalized with their assets controlled locally and democratically by workers and communities. Workers and affected communities need decisive control
over what happens to jobs, to work at the factories, and the factory equipment.
Previously granted municipal and state tax abatement agreements to keep factories and jobs, as well as other local agreements, must be vigorously enforced.
Michigan needs a real safety net for its residents. Michigan has been in this recession longer than most states. We need to guarantee all residents a livable income. We need a moratorium on all foreclosures and utility cutoffs; unemployment benefits should be paid as long as there is a
recession. Food stamps and food kitchens must be opened and supported in all needy
neighborhoods.
We need quality education available without charge for all residents from kindergarten through college. We need to develop training programs for environmentally friendly green jobs and work.
We need a public works program to offer employment to everyone who wants to work at a livable wage with full health care benefits. This is an opportunity to create green spaces, urban farms, large living cooperatives in our cities. It is an opportunity to support and strengthen rural life through locally
supported and approved projects.
We need to develop a green economy -- local agriculture, local manufacturing, local work and life environments, extensive recycling and reuse facilities, new sources of energy -- wind, thermal, wave.
None of this will happen without positive action from the majority of people. We need to fight against this bailout and for real alternatives to unemployment, poverty and slashed living conditions.
We need to support each other in all these struggles. People need to think and act independently of the auto executives, the bankers and their spokespersons, the Democratic and Republican Parties. They need to vote Green.
The auto bailout, like the larger bailout scam it is part of, offers no real hope for millions of citizens. Like so many things from our government under Republican and Democratic Party leadership, it is an illusion of help, hiding continued steps down the wrong road.
A brighter future depends on us.
-
Lou Novak lmn@lppals.com 313-623-4709
-----------------------------------------------
Ohio is not far behind the state up North!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
December 26th, 2008 · No Comments
Mailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com by Lou Novak
Not one job saved, not one community protected
Statement of Fred Vitale, Chairperson, Green Party of Michigan
The Green Party of Michigan strenuously opposes the $17.4 billion bailout for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
The agreement by the Bush administration to use a small part of the $700 billion already promised to Wall Street bankers is no victory for working people in Michigan.
The loans support the failed policies of the current corporate leaderships.
Not only have they systematically pressured the union to reduce the living standards, but they have undermined the construction of mass transportation, fought laws to reduce pollution, and refused to build ecologically friendly automobiles.
GM, Chrysler and Ford are not democratic institutions. Product choices and policy were and are made by boards of directors and top executives. Why are the workers and communities punished for decisions that weren't theirs?
The struggles of UAW members have won some measure of racial equality in the factories; production workers developed political strength and clout; they fought for and won a high standard of living for production workers which provided the foundations for all workers, including salaried professionals, to have higher wages throughout the North.
All these gains are gravely threatened.
The auto bailout now puts the full weight of the central government behind the wealthy owners and bankers, who, as exhibited by the bloodthirsty howls of the southern senators, want to reverse the gains of the UAW, to turn back into profits a large part of the workers' wages and benefits and, in that process, tear apart families, crush hopes, terrorize communities.
There are other, alternative solutions to the crises facing auto workers and their communities.
GM, Chrysler and Ford facilities should be nationalized with their assets controlled locally and democratically by workers and communities. Workers and affected communities need decisive control
over what happens to jobs, to work at the factories, and the factory equipment.
Previously granted municipal and state tax abatement agreements to keep factories and jobs, as well as other local agreements, must be vigorously enforced.
Michigan needs a real safety net for its residents. Michigan has been in this recession longer than most states. We need to guarantee all residents a livable income. We need a moratorium on all foreclosures and utility cutoffs; unemployment benefits should be paid as long as there is a
recession. Food stamps and food kitchens must be opened and supported in all needy
neighborhoods.
We need quality education available without charge for all residents from kindergarten through college. We need to develop training programs for environmentally friendly green jobs and work.
We need a public works program to offer employment to everyone who wants to work at a livable wage with full health care benefits. This is an opportunity to create green spaces, urban farms, large living cooperatives in our cities. It is an opportunity to support and strengthen rural life through locally
supported and approved projects.
We need to develop a green economy -- local agriculture, local manufacturing, local work and life environments, extensive recycling and reuse facilities, new sources of energy -- wind, thermal, wave.
None of this will happen without positive action from the majority of people. We need to fight against this bailout and for real alternatives to unemployment, poverty and slashed living conditions.
We need to support each other in all these struggles. People need to think and act independently of the auto executives, the bankers and their spokespersons, the Democratic and Republican Parties. They need to vote Green.
The auto bailout, like the larger bailout scam it is part of, offers no real hope for millions of citizens. Like so many things from our government under Republican and Democratic Party leadership, it is an illusion of help, hiding continued steps down the wrong road.
A brighter future depends on us.
-
Lou Novak lmn@lppals.com 313-623-4709
-----------------------------------------------
Ohio is not far behind the state up North!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
New York City To Get LED Street Lighting
Written by Jerry James Stone
New York City's Department of Transportation has tapped the Office for Visual Interaction for testing LED street lighting around the Big Apple. If successful, all of the city's 300,000 street lamps could one day be made up of LEDs.
Of course, LEDs are just plain awesome! Their power consumption is much lower than that of standard bulbs. Heck, even lower than that of CFLs.
But the OVI contract doesn't only replace the current high-pressure sodium lighting, but also introduces a whole new lamp pole as well. While I am a fan of LEDs, I am quite fond of the Gotham-styled lamp poles. Keep your paws off, OVI!
Okay, maybe the new poles aren't so bad. The poles will be between four to six feet, and have up to 100 LEDs each. They will have four light sources per pole, and can create different light patterns. The light footprints can be tailored for parks, street corners or mid-block.
The city will begin testing with a mere six poles, and the testing period will end by fall of 2009. But even if the city approves the highly-efficient lamps, it's likely they won't roll out 300-thousand new lamp poles all at once.
Maybe the "Light-up" Youngstown Campaign should include donations that specifically go to LED lighting for downtown….
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Written by Jerry James Stone
New York City's Department of Transportation has tapped the Office for Visual Interaction for testing LED street lighting around the Big Apple. If successful, all of the city's 300,000 street lamps could one day be made up of LEDs.
Of course, LEDs are just plain awesome! Their power consumption is much lower than that of standard bulbs. Heck, even lower than that of CFLs.
But the OVI contract doesn't only replace the current high-pressure sodium lighting, but also introduces a whole new lamp pole as well. While I am a fan of LEDs, I am quite fond of the Gotham-styled lamp poles. Keep your paws off, OVI!
Okay, maybe the new poles aren't so bad. The poles will be between four to six feet, and have up to 100 LEDs each. They will have four light sources per pole, and can create different light patterns. The light footprints can be tailored for parks, street corners or mid-block.
The city will begin testing with a mere six poles, and the testing period will end by fall of 2009. But even if the city approves the highly-efficient lamps, it's likely they won't roll out 300-thousand new lamp poles all at once.
Maybe the "Light-up" Youngstown Campaign should include donations that specifically go to LED lighting for downtown….
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Why single-payer "Medicare for All" is what we need
By Len Rodberg, PhD
1. Americans are afraid that they can't afford to get sick. Those of us with insurance are paying more and more of the premium and more out-of-pocket as well. Studies show further that we face bankruptcy if we get sick1. Many among us have to choose between paying for medicine and paying for food and housing. And with the recent economic downturn, the ranks of those without insurance are growing.
2. A majority of physicians (59 percent) and an even higher proportion of Americans (62 percent or more) support single-payer national health insurance or "Medicare for All."2 In spite of this, all we are hearing about today are mandate plans that would require everyone to buy the same private insurance that is already failing us. These proposals don't regulate insurance premiums, they don't keep the insurance companies from refusing to pay many of our bills, and they don't improve the insurance we now have. Some offer a "public option," but this will quickly become too expensive as the sick flee to the public sector as private insurers avoid them, abandon them, or make it too difficult for them to get their bills paid.
3. These proposals won't work, either to expand coverage or to contain costs. Plans like these have been tried in many states over the past two decades (Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington State, Oregon, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine).3 They have all failed to reduce the number of uninsured or to contain costs.
4. These mandate plans will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation's health care costs. In this economic downturn, we need assure health care for all without adding to the nation's cost and the government's deficit. The bottom line is: these proposals don't reform our fragmented, inefficient system, they just add to its complexity and costs.
5. As long as we continue to rely on private for-profit insurers, universal coverage will be unaffordable. Their administrative costs consume nearly one-third of our health care dollar.4 We will never have enough money to provide everyone with decent care until we eliminate private insurance with its enormous waste and inadequate coverage. And we will never be able to keep costs down and get the care we need as long as the wasteful and unnecessary insurance companies stand between us and our doctors.
6. Every other industrialized country has some form of universal health care. None uses profitmaking, investor-owned insurance companies like ours to provide health care for all their people. 5
7. We have an American system that works. It's Medicare. It's not perfect, but Americans with Medicare are far happier than those with private insurance. Doctors face fewer hassles in getting paid, and Medicare has been a leader in keeping costs down. And keep in mind that Medicare insures people with the greatest health care needs: people over 65 and the disabled. We should improve and expand Medicare to cover everyone.
8. A single-payer "Medicare for All" system is embodied in H.R. 676, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers and 92 other members of Congress. It would have:
· Automatic enrollment for everyone
· Comprehensive services covering all medically necessary care and drugs
· Free choice of doctor and hospital, who remain independent and negotiate their fees and budgets with a public or nonprofit agency
· Public or nonprofit agency processes and pays the bills
· Entire system financed through progressive taxes
· Help job growth and the entire U.S. economy by removing the burden of health costs from business
· Cover everyone without spending any more than we are now.6
9. The growth in health care costs must be addressed if any proposal is to succeed.
· Single payer offers real tools to contain costs: budgeting, especially for hospitals, planning of capital investments, and an emphasis on primary care and coordination of care.
· Mandate plans offer only hopes: competition among insurance companies, computerization, chronic disease management. Competition among the shrinking number of insurance companies has already failed to contain costs and, in the absence of single payer and reformed primary care, computerization and chronic disease management will raise costs, not lower them.
10. Single-payer Medicare for All is the right answer:
· It is right on choice. It provides free choice of doctor and hospital, the choice Americans want and value. In mandate plans, we lose those choices.
· It is right on efficiency. Single payer would slash administrative costs and promote efficient primary care. It would also enhance evidence-based quality assurance.
· It is right on accountability. It will be a public, nonprofit system that will respond to what doctors and their patients need, not what corporate executives and their stockholders want.
Maybe Santa will bring us Single-payer Healthcare in 2009!
Merry Christmas!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
By Len Rodberg, PhD
1. Americans are afraid that they can't afford to get sick. Those of us with insurance are paying more and more of the premium and more out-of-pocket as well. Studies show further that we face bankruptcy if we get sick1. Many among us have to choose between paying for medicine and paying for food and housing. And with the recent economic downturn, the ranks of those without insurance are growing.
2. A majority of physicians (59 percent) and an even higher proportion of Americans (62 percent or more) support single-payer national health insurance or "Medicare for All."2 In spite of this, all we are hearing about today are mandate plans that would require everyone to buy the same private insurance that is already failing us. These proposals don't regulate insurance premiums, they don't keep the insurance companies from refusing to pay many of our bills, and they don't improve the insurance we now have. Some offer a "public option," but this will quickly become too expensive as the sick flee to the public sector as private insurers avoid them, abandon them, or make it too difficult for them to get their bills paid.
3. These proposals won't work, either to expand coverage or to contain costs. Plans like these have been tried in many states over the past two decades (Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington State, Oregon, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine).3 They have all failed to reduce the number of uninsured or to contain costs.
4. These mandate plans will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation's health care costs. In this economic downturn, we need assure health care for all without adding to the nation's cost and the government's deficit. The bottom line is: these proposals don't reform our fragmented, inefficient system, they just add to its complexity and costs.
5. As long as we continue to rely on private for-profit insurers, universal coverage will be unaffordable. Their administrative costs consume nearly one-third of our health care dollar.4 We will never have enough money to provide everyone with decent care until we eliminate private insurance with its enormous waste and inadequate coverage. And we will never be able to keep costs down and get the care we need as long as the wasteful and unnecessary insurance companies stand between us and our doctors.
6. Every other industrialized country has some form of universal health care. None uses profitmaking, investor-owned insurance companies like ours to provide health care for all their people. 5
7. We have an American system that works. It's Medicare. It's not perfect, but Americans with Medicare are far happier than those with private insurance. Doctors face fewer hassles in getting paid, and Medicare has been a leader in keeping costs down. And keep in mind that Medicare insures people with the greatest health care needs: people over 65 and the disabled. We should improve and expand Medicare to cover everyone.
8. A single-payer "Medicare for All" system is embodied in H.R. 676, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers and 92 other members of Congress. It would have:
· Automatic enrollment for everyone
· Comprehensive services covering all medically necessary care and drugs
· Free choice of doctor and hospital, who remain independent and negotiate their fees and budgets with a public or nonprofit agency
· Public or nonprofit agency processes and pays the bills
· Entire system financed through progressive taxes
· Help job growth and the entire U.S. economy by removing the burden of health costs from business
· Cover everyone without spending any more than we are now.6
9. The growth in health care costs must be addressed if any proposal is to succeed.
· Single payer offers real tools to contain costs: budgeting, especially for hospitals, planning of capital investments, and an emphasis on primary care and coordination of care.
· Mandate plans offer only hopes: competition among insurance companies, computerization, chronic disease management. Competition among the shrinking number of insurance companies has already failed to contain costs and, in the absence of single payer and reformed primary care, computerization and chronic disease management will raise costs, not lower them.
10. Single-payer Medicare for All is the right answer:
· It is right on choice. It provides free choice of doctor and hospital, the choice Americans want and value. In mandate plans, we lose those choices.
· It is right on efficiency. Single payer would slash administrative costs and promote efficient primary care. It would also enhance evidence-based quality assurance.
· It is right on accountability. It will be a public, nonprofit system that will respond to what doctors and their patients need, not what corporate executives and their stockholders want.
Maybe Santa will bring us Single-payer Healthcare in 2009!
Merry Christmas!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Charlie Wilson can't wait for the Baard plant to start operating so downtown Wellsville, ohio can look like this someday!
http://www.youtube.com/user/knoxnews
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
http://www.youtube.com/user/knoxnews
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
Court Reinstates Clean Air Interstate Rule
In a major decision benefiting clean air and public health, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today issued an order that leaves the Clean Air Interstate Rule in effect while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops a new clean air program for power plants.
"Today's court decision is a welcome gift for the millions of American's that face serious health threats from power plant pollution. Power plants across the East will reduce millions of tons of smog and soot pollution today while America's new leadership fixes the mistakes made by the Bush Administration," said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel at Environmental Defense Fund.
Granting aspects of rehearing requests from the Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council, the court found that the rule is an "integral action" and stated:
"Here, we are convinced that, notwithstanding the relative flaws of CAIR, allowing CAIR to remain in effect until it is replaced by a rule consistent with our opinion would at least temporarily preserve the environmental values covered by CAIR."
Judge Judith Rogers wrote a separate concurrence stating that CAIR is "so intertwined" with the nation's air quality management regulatory framework that "its vacatur would sacrifice clean benefits to public health and the environment while EPA fixes the rule."
The timing of this decision is critical. January 1, 2009 is the first important compliance deadline under EPA's Clean Air Interstate Rule -- requiring substantial reductions in year-round emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) to protect human health from this damaging pollutant.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Defense Fund, and numerous states asked the court to reconsider its July 11th opinion to vacate this clean air program.
The program was designed to reduce millions of tons of smog- and particulate-forming pollution from coal-fired power plants in 28 eastern states.
EPA estimated the rule would prevent 17,000 deaths annually by 2015. The pollution cuts required by the Clean Air Interstate Rule were to be implemented in two phases beginning on January 1, 2009 for NOx and 2010 for sulfur dioxide (SO2), and a second phase in 2015 for both contaminants.
EPA estimated that NOx would be reduced 2 million tons annually under full program implementation, about 60% over today's levels.
The program was designed to cut SO2 emissions by 5.4 million tons in 2015.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
In a major decision benefiting clean air and public health, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today issued an order that leaves the Clean Air Interstate Rule in effect while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops a new clean air program for power plants.
"Today's court decision is a welcome gift for the millions of American's that face serious health threats from power plant pollution. Power plants across the East will reduce millions of tons of smog and soot pollution today while America's new leadership fixes the mistakes made by the Bush Administration," said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel at Environmental Defense Fund.
Granting aspects of rehearing requests from the Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council, the court found that the rule is an "integral action" and stated:
"Here, we are convinced that, notwithstanding the relative flaws of CAIR, allowing CAIR to remain in effect until it is replaced by a rule consistent with our opinion would at least temporarily preserve the environmental values covered by CAIR."
Judge Judith Rogers wrote a separate concurrence stating that CAIR is "so intertwined" with the nation's air quality management regulatory framework that "its vacatur would sacrifice clean benefits to public health and the environment while EPA fixes the rule."
The timing of this decision is critical. January 1, 2009 is the first important compliance deadline under EPA's Clean Air Interstate Rule -- requiring substantial reductions in year-round emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) to protect human health from this damaging pollutant.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Defense Fund, and numerous states asked the court to reconsider its July 11th opinion to vacate this clean air program.
The program was designed to reduce millions of tons of smog- and particulate-forming pollution from coal-fired power plants in 28 eastern states.
EPA estimated the rule would prevent 17,000 deaths annually by 2015. The pollution cuts required by the Clean Air Interstate Rule were to be implemented in two phases beginning on January 1, 2009 for NOx and 2010 for sulfur dioxide (SO2), and a second phase in 2015 for both contaminants.
EPA estimated that NOx would be reduced 2 million tons annually under full program implementation, about 60% over today's levels.
The program was designed to cut SO2 emissions by 5.4 million tons in 2015.
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/
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