If you read any sort of energy or environmental news these days, you are certainly aware that  government initiatives to combat climate change are taking place from the local to state to federal level.  These laws and incentives offer great hope that renewable energy could serve a much larger portion of our energy needs in the years to come.  While large scale energy projects offer us great hope in making a sizeable impact in our energy dependence, we should not forget all the small projects that together will  make a huge change.

We have been working hard over the past few months to reduce both our costs and our carbon footprint. Here’s some of the stuff we’ve been doing

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/obamas-transportation-secretary-america-is-one-big-pothole.php

This is a transformational president, and the department is following the president’s lead. People haven’t really been thinking about these things. They have been thinking about how to build roads, how to build interstates, how to build bridges. People now are thinking differently about where they want to live, how they want to live, and how they want to be able to get around their communities.

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The Suburban parked at a Shell Station in New Jersey, behind a new Prius.

The Administration is sanctioning (through the “Stimulus Bill”) payment to anyone who brings in their old car, and uses that payment toward a new car. The environmental and carbon impacts of this program is devastating. The amount of new carbon dioxide that shall be spewed into the atmosphere by the recycling of old cars and creation of new cars vastly outweighs simply driving our old clunkers until they die. Preferably, we would repair our cars until they have literally rusted away. The amount of carbon dioxide and new pollution that is tacked onto the production of a new automobile is burdensome. I wish the U.S. Government would consult scientists prior to passing these programs that are meant to “bolster the economy.”

Fun Commentary on this:

http://www.journalgazette.net/

http://forums.treehugger.com/

A Constant Shore

And through the ages of Impermanence
Through nations: rise and fall
Through long and short winters
The taste of Constancy has riddled our tongues

Hey all – Greg and I treked down to the Garnerville Industrial Arts Center in West Haverstraw, New York (actually to take a headshot for me). The complex, which houses tons of artists and craftsmen, is called GAGA (SoHo of the north). It’s a fantastic place.