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As you all might know, our Citizens Schools sixth and seventh graders have been learning about sustainability, renewable energy, and also have been building solar cars to race at the Junior Solar Sprint at MIT in a few weeks! In our last class, we focused on sustainability, in which we did a “web of resilience” exercize and then we finished off by discussing Peak Oil.

Last summer, I sat in the Town Hall in Merrill, Maine listening to the Town Clerk cry over the town not having enough money for road salt this winter; the town had no way to get the money, since they couldn’t raise taxes with such a depressed economy. The Clerk made it clear to me why she was so upset – she was afraid that one of her friends’ children will skid off a slick road and hit a tree.

We’re starting a movement. The Emergent Posse is an online group/movement/community of highly-motivated community activists spread across the nation working to educate and empower communities and community leaders in order to implement real sustainability programs and projects. We’ve hit a paradigm shift: oil isn’t cheap, the planet has a fever, and the economy is in the toilet. I’ve heard smart people calling for BIG government intervention and Europe-styled Socialism. That’s not the answer here in America.

Emergent Energy Group is excited to be attending the first annual Kairos Summit on April 3 – 4. The invitation-only event will bring over 500 young entrepreneurs from around the world to the Intrepid Air, Sea, & Space Museum in New York City. Some of the notable speakers include President Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States; William Gates Sr., Chairman of the Gates Foundation; Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont; and Naveen Jain, Founder & CEO of Intelius. For more information on the event please visit www.kairossociety.com Emergent is excited to be apart of this event. We will have a table at the entrepreneurship expo on Friday evening; come visit us at the Intrepid!

Emergent’s holding a webinar on March 25th at 10:00am to discuss the changes in federal legislation that affects wind power, and how the recent Stimulus Bill has increased the feasibility of wind power project development. We’ll also be discussing ways in which communities, schools, and other agencies can prepare for private wind power development or take advantages of the benefits of wind power.

Emergent Partners Jesse Gossett, Jared Rodriguez, and Jayson Uppal have joined the Citizens School program in South Boston to counsel and prepare 14 Middle School students for the Junior Solar Sprint in May. Jesse, Jared, and Jayson will be teaching at the Gavin Middle School in an 80 minute after-school program once a week (Thursday afternoons).

WindPole Ventures LLC created by Mr. Steve Kropper of Massachusetts has set out to do something no other wind power company has aimed at doing – set up a system to quickly develop hundreds of wind power projects across the entire nation.

So I was hoping the Massachusetts Utilities and the state government would come to a conclusion about how to institute (define) the new net metering regulations stipulated in the Green Communities Act passed last year by the Massachusetts Legislature and the governor. Since they’re not quite there yet, I’ll stall and we can talk about Community Net Metering (CNM), or Neighborhood Net Metering (NNM) and why we haven’t done this sooner. For the sake of simplicity we’ll call it all CNM, and prepare yourself for an interesting blog post…

I just got whiff of the specifics of some specifics in the proposed stimulus plan. This was just delivered to the house: TAX RELIEF INCLUDED IN “THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT PLAN” 

On page 5 section V there are suggestions for renewable energy. The highlight in my view is the second in the section, “Temporary election to claim the investment tax credit in lieu of the production tax credit.” (ITC and PTC respectively)

Here’s why this could be a game changer for smaller, community wind projects.

Some questions that I have on the proposed Obama Economic Stimulus Package, which lacks so much detail at this point, are as follows:

1. Will “green energy” funds be available to all alternative energy companies, or just those with the biggest lobbying voice in Washington?
2. Can we expect new subsidies in Renewable Energy Credits (REC), causing REC prices to rise, and support more alternative energy development?
3. What funds will be allocated to sustainable mass transit?
4. How much will unsustainable highway projects get?
5. Will there be a focus on community energy or more centralized, industrial-scale alternative energy development?
6. Will the plan favor one technology over the other, or give more of a blanket approach for all technologies?
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