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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.

If you google search (or yahoo, we don’t discriminate) for “Energy Bill” under news you get a bonanza of results for both the new national energy and climate bill, just released, as well as for numerous states who are all releasing their own far reaching bills. California just passed one which requires all utilities to purchase 33% of their power from renewable resources by 2020. Tennessee will be releasing their own in a few weeks for discussion and is expected to be a ‘lead by example’ type bill with much of the focus being on greening the government and its operations. It also may include a residential code for certain green and efficiency standards for new homes. And they’re not all rosey…

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).

I was caught off guard this weekend when reading an article about how high savings rates in Japan have had a devastating effect on that nation’s economy. According to Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times,

“The economic malaise that plagued Japan from the 1990s until the early 2000s brought stunted wages and depressed stock prices, turning free-spending consumers into misers and making them dead weight on Japan’s economy.”

This article ultimately warns Americans of the dangers of saving their hard-earned money. I was taken aback when I fully realized the predicament our nation is in. How can we continue living in a society that rewards consumers for taking unnecessary risks? And yet, how can we revive our economy without consumer-driven growth?

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.

Barack Obama has officially been inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America. He now has the opportunity to take action on renewable energy that all previous administrations have yet to take. However, he has a difficult time ahead of him before he achieves his ambitious goals.