Three Local Companies Will Win if America adopts an Energy Policy

The York Dispatch included a great story this morning by Christina Kauffman highlighting two area businesses that stand to gain by the United States adopting for the first time a national energy strategy. Voith Hydro and Komax Systems (solar manufacturer) both based in the York area, see tremendous opportunities by the bill passed by the U.S. Congresss last friday.

Garner said part of his job is making people realize hydropower is one of the renewable energies the U.S. can utilize, and he was pleased the bill includes hydropower [as part of the renewable portfolio standard]. He said companies need incentives and options to move toward renewable energies, which would decrease dependency on foreign oil and help the environment.

Bravo Mr. Garner! Exactly the point of the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

The Lancaster New Era this morning also highlighted a local company investing in "going green." Cargas - a software development and consulting firm based in Lancaster - is breaking ground on a new office that will be "greener" than its current office space. In addition to offering bike racks and showers to encourage more of its employees to bike to work (which the owner and CEO does himself), Cargas is going to utilize solar energy and net metering, more natural light, geothermal heating and cooling and high efficiency lighting. The article did not indicate if the building will apply for LEED certification, but with those investments, it should.

These are just two remarkable examples of the future that awaits so many companies when they see the amazing potential sustainability and a national energy policy has to offer.

Capping CO2 emissions has wide support

A new Washington Post - ABC News poll says three quarters of Americans support regulating "the release into the atmosphere of greenhouse gases from power plants, cars and factories to reduce global warming, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with substantial majority support from Democrats, Republicans and independents."

A slight majority - 52 percent - favor cap and trade as the means to achieve that regulation. I'm betting that a majority of those in favor as well as those opposed could accurately describe what cap and trade is and who it applies to under Waxman-Markey. Still, the support shows that this idea's time has come, and not a moment too soon.

In six months, the world will convene in Copenhagen to negotiate a new international climate agreement that might be pivotal in the survival of the planet and human life beyond the 21st Century.

Top Ten Energypreneur Benefits of passing HR 2454 Friday

10. People won't think you're as cooky when you run through the streets shouting "CLEAN ENERGY IS COMING! CLEAN ENERGY IS COMING!"

9. You can go back to school to get a degree in "Alternative Energy Engineering" or "Wind Power Science" or a BS in "Distributed Electricity Generation Sciences." The possibilities are endless becaue the bill invests in new academic programs for the green sector.

8. You can call your out of work cousin or uncle and say "I think I've found the perfect job for you: energy auditor."

7. In that vein, being "audited" won't be a bad thing. it will SAVE you money.

6. The real price of inefficency and pollution will finally be part of the price of energy, making pollution free, high efficient energy the force to be reckoned with.

5. New career in America: Carbon Trader. Mad Money will have a lot more to talk about.

4. A new excuse for Dad to use when he's at the store: "But honey, we need a new TV/Microwave/Stereo/Computer/DVD player - this one is MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT!"

3. Skilled tradesmen will have lots of work building new, highly efficient homes - and low income people who have homes from pre-1976 will get assistance buying new ones.

2. There will finally be a place to plug in your Chevy Volt besides the garage.

1. A new cultural phrase - "As American as green energy."

The link. Stupid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0&feature=player_embedded
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Microsoft surface

You have got to check this out! This is technology from minority report - remember that flick? Anyway this is incredible. I'm predicting this could land in half of american homes by 2020. Now, how can we be sure they are made in america? And are energy neutral?
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Day One Almost Over

Day one of the America's Future Now conference is wrapping up.  A few social night events are on top for this evening, but most of the green jobs discussions appear to be slated for tomorrow including a presentation by Progressive Majority on The Green Economy: Keys to Economic Success and New Energy for America with a panel including Kate Gordon of the Apollo Alliance, Sen Jeff. Merkley (D-OR), Carl Pope (Sierra Club), Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins (Green for All), and Mark Ayers, (BCTC AFL-CIO).

Busy day for the blackberry

I really need to get some kind of solar charger for my crackberry. been a busy day. i'm thinking of upgrading to an iPhone from my candybar slider. Do they make solar chargers for iPhones? they should.