A cleaner coal is that which is used to produce hydrogen. The cleanest coal is that which stays in the ground.
Solar Energy and Jobs
While checking into coal to hydrogen research, I came across an interesting factoid: The Solar Energy industry employs more people than the entire coal mining industry. Coal mining jobs are trending to decline (combination of more mechanization and slower demand) while solar related jobs are set to double each year.
Behavior in Congress
It seems inconceivable that any politician, elected to Congress, would deliberately ignore the needs and wishes of his/her constituency and try to sabotage our country’s nascent economic recovery and to push unemployment rates higher just to fulfill his/her own goal of holding President Obama to a one-term presidency. But that is exactly what all too many Republicans are doing today. These are people who should never, ever be re-elected to any post.
Let’s make the rich part of the solution
Part 3
It’s one thing to be a Monday-morning quarterback and pick out shortcomings. It’s another to make some recommendations. I think the discussions have become so politicized that key groups of prominent individuals and companies are being bypassed. Yet they are too important to be neglected.
It’s one thing to be a Monday-morning quarterback and pick out shortcomings. It’s another to make some recommendations. I think the discussions have become so politicized that key groups of prominent individuals and companies are being bypassed. Yet they are too important to be neglected.
President Obama should recognize their talents and ask them to take some small steps that cumulatively will help bring this economy back.We must look at the corporate officers of the Fortune 1000 companies and the 400 American billionaires and others whose wealth exceeds $250 million, as ndividuals, as responsible citizens, as capable of using just a small fraction of their wealth to help stimulate local distressed economies. We have to harness their personal influence as well as their financial influence to motivate their friends and business associates to take action — beyond political donations.
These are all highly successful people and they share several traits that need to be put to work: They have creative imaginations, they know how to take calculated risks, they have great negotiating skills, and they know
how to get things done.
Perhaps they have to be reminded that this is the country that helped make them great. Now it needs their help. There are actions they can take. Even if only some of them do what is their patriotic duty, their companies and private fortunes will benefit, millions of struggling Americans will
benefit, and an increase in the rate of GDP will lower the national debt burden.
The question is not “What do you need so that you will be able to help stimulate the economy?” or “What do you need in order for you to start hiring?”
Here are some suggestions, and they can probably come up with many more of their own. It’s time for them to step up to the plate.
On an immediate personal level: 1) they should make their home(s) more energy efficient. They benefit directly and also put some locals to work.
2) if they do not have any solar panels on their residences they should install both solar photovoltaic and solar water heating systems. Again, they will be helping local companies and, in the aggregate, help sustain the momentum of an important new industry.
In all probability they would be able to take federal tax credits and might qualify for additional state incentives. In virtually all areas of the United States they would be at what I call “consumer grid parity”, which means that if they are paying the utility 10-11 cents or more per kilowatt-hour for electricity, the cost of their solar system would be in
the same range. They have the option of paying the utility or paying for their own energy-saving system. While the cost of electricity from the utility is projected to increase by 2-3% a year, their solar-based electricity cost will remain virtually flat for over 20 years. Their savings is even greater if they have to pay the utility an even higher
price per kilowatt-hour for peak power usage.
Once their systems are installed, they should brag about it to all their friends.
On a corporate level they may be reluctant to hire under current conditions. However, many companies are sitting on tons of cash; they can put a portion of that to work with a high return on investment and help stimulate the economy by:
1) Accelerate purchases for inventory. Get delivery of items this year that were planned for purchase early next year.
2) Move up the date for implementing sustainability expenditures. Virtually all companies now have engineers tasked with developing sustainability solutions.
3) Upgrade commercial real estate to “high performance buildings” and “smart buildings”. Again, they have trained staff that can implement these programs and they may also be eligible for tax credits and accelerated depreciation. Their companies benefit and the local economy benefits.
4) Add some solar to all buildings that are properly situated (unobstructed roof facing south to southwest). — I keep mentioning solar because of the speed with which a system can be designed, bid, and installed, with benefits stretching out more than 25 years.
5) Add vehicles to their fleets that run on natural gas, and/or electric/hybrid and/or hydrogen fuel cell.
6) Adopt a school or even a school system, adopt a road, adopt a rural hospital, adopt a nursing home, adopt a village or a small town, adopt a Main Street.
I’m going to suggest: adopt a distressed neighborhood. There is no single model. There is no one-size-fits-all. Each neighborhood has its own dynamic. The following is a guide, not a blueprint
(Corporate execs and billionaires are used to doing big deals — they are not used to doing a lot of little deals. The problem is time and to a lesser degree money — proportionately it takes more time and costs more
to do a little deal than a big deal. But big deals take a lot of money and a great deal of time to put together while little deals can be accomplished with token amounts of money and junior staff. Properly structured they are also low risk)
Start with a suggested investment of $10-million. $5-million for direct neighborhood involvement and $5-million to provide up to $25,000 in loan guarantees for local small businesses. $1.5 million will be used to buy up foreclosed houses; another $1.5 million will be used to bring them to
energy efficient, rentable condition. In most distressed neighborhoods $1.5-million will be enough to purchase between 15-25 properties, plus a few vacant lots.
Assign one or two staffers to identify the neighborhood and oversee the work. They should have backup as needed from senior maintenance staff. The choice of neighborhood can come from recommendations by local government agencies and community leaders. Get suggestions from employees who may
live in the area.
Typical steps include: first, stop any additional derioration (usually means repairing roof and window leaks, replacing rotted wood, shoring up porches). Second, do an energy audit and determine what energy conservation work needs to be done. Then, repair, repaint, install energy
efficient materials, finish floors, upgrade bathrooms and kitchens, install Energy Star appliances.
During the remodeling process make the home solar ready, and, if finances permit, install some solar panels. A good rule of thumb is to provide 2 watts per square foot of conditioned space.
At the same time start cleaning up the neighborhood. Send out crews of locals to pick up trash, trim back overgrowth, mow lawns. Start with purchased properties and then volunteer to help out the neighbors at no charge.
Benefits: creates short-term employment, builds some local businesses (electricians, plumbers, painters, tile setters, etc.), stabilizes a neighborhood and plants the seeds for growth. A small cadre of local workers will have learned what has to be done to bring a distressed building back to a functioning home. And some will take those skills that
they have just learned to find other employment, or even start their own small business.
Get to know the neighbors — as individual families — what are their strengths – what are their capabilities – even though impoverished – what can they bring. In the end this has to have positive community involvement. The challenge is that each neighborhood, each community, is different.
Take advantage of local community colleges and technical colleges. Pick up the tuition for promising students from the neighborhood or surrounding community. Certificate programs can cost as little as from $500 to $1600.
Building a neighborhood takes more than just fixing up houses. Ask the residents and local civic leaders what they want to see happen. Maybe they need a park, or a playground, or fix a community center or establish a community garden, or improve street lighting. Maybe the neighborhood needs
a visiting nurse twice a month, or some tutoring help, or some random patrols of a private security firm, or a monthly visit from a veterinarian, or some food, or school uniforms, or power tools, or a sewing machine, or some computers, or a decent outfit to go on job interviews.
This is not charity. This is building on the strengths of locals.
Leverage activity with help from city agencies, service organizations, churches, schools. Solicit the involvement of elected officials on local, state and national levels who represent the neighborhood. But be prepared to make a commitment of from 3 to 5 years.
According to this plan $3-million is spent on real estate development. Some of the rest of the proposed $5-million goes to providing help to the residents. Once a budget is established for recurring expenses, anything left over goes into acquiring and rehabbing other foreclosed properties.
Additional benefits: local banks reduce their exposure to foreclosed properties, unsold real estate inventory is reduced, property values stabilize and move up, more local homeowners may stay and not abandon property.
The other $5-million is deposited in one or more local banks that have a good history of lending to small businesses. The deal: up to $25,000 can be used as a guarantee for each small business loan. In this way more than 200 local small businesses should be able to obtain loans.
A similar approach can be taken to help small towns, farming communities, school districts, rural health facilities. Open up the project selection process to employees; get them involved.
Will the investment be repaid in full through rentals and eventual sale of properties? Will all the loan guarantee funds be repaid? Probably not.
Will lives be changed? No question. And how do you put a price on that?
Corporate leaders should be able to go to their Boards of Directors and to their shareholders and say, “For the short term we have to shave a little off the bottom line, so that we all can continue to prosper in the future.”
If they don’t do their part over the short term, if they don’t step up, then they leave it exclusively to government. And they don’t like that option either. — Jack Star
Be Specific to Get Out of This Mess
[The following post should be read after: Is the Mess We are In All My Fault? (below)]
WOW!! Finally, at least one of the TV analysts, Howard Fineman, is calling on President Obama to be specific in detailing job creation. On the Chris Matthews show “Hardball”, Fineman said the President should state “500 schools, 500 roads…”.
Well it’s not that easy BUT…
Most people, I’m sure, don’t know that Federal Stimulus funds are channeled through a state agency tasked with reviewing project applications for funds, selecting those to fund, and proving oversight to make sure that funds are used properly. In fact, in Georgia, the very first contract put out to bid by that state agency was for a firm that would monitor compliance.
Not all promising applications were funded as the Stimulus money dried up. This means that there are probably thousands of projects across the country that have gone through the application process and that could be started in a very short period of time. The White House staff should be contacting all state agencies now and building a database of those projects that have the potential for rapid job creation.
The decision would be left up to the states, but they would be required to promptly report those ready-to-go projects, and the President should specifically mention some of the more prominent ones at every public meeting. And the Press Secretary should point out three or four at EVERY press briefing. “If Congress (i.e. Republicans) will authorize the funds, these projects will be underway creating jobs across the country.”
I hope someone in the White House is listening.
Jack Star jack@solarcitiesusa.com
Is the mess we are in all my fault?
That’s the question I keep asking myself. You see several months after the Stimulus Bill was passed I started hearing it called the “Porkulus Bill”, and criticism that it was a failure, a waste of hard-earned taxpayers’ money leading the country into greater debt. The drumbeat started before it had even begun to be implemented. I knew that if the opposition kept up the chant, even though they had no hard data to support it, the administration’s position would be one always on the defensive, and public support would erode – unless a Crisis Intervention Strategy was implemented.
But I said nothing, Wrote nothing, Occasionally yelled at the TV talking heads. Vented over the dinner table. White House press briefing after briefing passed and yet I didn’t get the sense of urgency. Was the critique thought of as “politics as usual”? Was I the only one aware that this should be treated in crisis mode?
Months passed. Still I did nothing. I thought of writing to Press Secretary Gibbs, or to President Obama, or to Vice President Biden, whose office was in charge of oversight. But the fingers never got to the keyboard. Meanwhile the opposition’s talking points continued to be mouthed, again without any supporting data.
What was the strategy that could have been implemented – that can still be implemented?
Let me take a step back. The typical response to political criticism is to point to flaws in the argument. To treat it as two sides of a policy debate. Therefore the talking heads and the bloggerati marshal their talking points and, all too often, the TV anchors let “both sides” express their views, and rarely intervene, even to challenge some egregious statements.
From the point of view of blunting politically biased criticism this approach is a disaster in the making. The other side sets the agenda, frames the issue, and time and energy are spent arguing. From a public perspective it becomes a “he said, she said” finger-pointing exercise.
A Crisis Intervention Strategy is solidly fact based. It is the antithesis of “spin”. It is transparent and subject to scrutiny. It is detail oriented. It is also relentless.
So if I were advising the Press Secretary, I would suggest that each daily press briefing would start by highlighting a project that was receiving Stimulus money.
. It might be the award of a particular grant – what the goals were, what results might be anticipated.
· A ground breaking or ribbon cutting ceremony of a publicly funded project.
· A decision by a state or local government to retain police, fire fighters, first responders, teachers — based on stimulus funds.
· Energy savings from the installation of solar, wind, geothermal, or fuel cells.
· A manufacturing start-up made possible by stimulus funds.
· Major roadway and infrastructure improvements.
· Improvements to public buildings and construction of new schools and libraries.
· Construction of affordable housing.
· …. The list goes on – in every state ….
In addition, I would feature a project of the week, and a project of the month, a quarterly review, and an annual review.
I would also order a review of the media relations departments of all of the federal government agencies involved. Do they have an up-to-date list of journalists who report in their specialty field? Of known freelancers? Of bloggers? Unfortunately, from what I have seen, press releases are posted on websites, and given limited distribution. However, there is a local story for every grant, loan guarantee, new business or business expansion. These stories were not being told primarily because the local journalists were not informed.
In addition, the federal agencies have to be involved with the state agencies that actually determine many of the awards in order to establish procedures for notifying the local press, and provide any needed instruction, templates, etc. Many of the state agencies were understaffed because they suddenly had to manage the increased volume of funds that were allocated. The federal agencies need to ensure that routine local media contact procedures are put into place.
It is very easy to criticize the Federal Government. To pick at an expenditure, poke a finger in the eye, rail against some perceived injury. If individual Americans do not know what is being done for them, for their community, for their business by the activities of government then it becomes easier for the demagogues to sway public opinion.
Well, I knew what needed to be done – yet I remained silent. I take small comfort that it appears others in the media relations community did not speak up. There is still time. Throughout this country there are many ongoing projects that received stimulus funds and that remain underreported.
I am willing to put myself on record. I just hope I can get someone in authority to listen — and take action.
Jack Star jack@solarcitiesusa.com
Is American Democracy in Its Death Throes?
If the Tea Partiers have their way, Plutocracy will replace Democracy in America. That is, a government ruled by a small group of people or corporations or both, composed of the very rich.
Why? Since I don’t believe that all of the Tea Party leaders are super-rich (although some are) I believe this is the result of so many leaders of the Tea Party being shaky on facts (they seem to think facts irrelevant) and bereft of any meaningful knowledge of history.
We have been subjected to the Big Lie for months. The Big Lie, as you know, is based on the theory that if you repeat something often enough, again and again, for long enough, the majority of people will come to believe it is true.
The Big Lie of our time — somehow taxes prevent or discourage the creation of jobs.
When customer demand surpasses that which can be handled by current staff, that is the only time new jobs are created. It’s pretty simple. If you are a carpenter and you have one half-time helper, you are only going to put that helper on full time if you have so much additional business that you need more help. Then you may not only increase that helper’s hours, but if it appears that your business is rapidly growing, you may start looking for a second helper, and so on. If you are an automobile manufacturer, you only hire more workers when you NEED to hire them to meet customer demand. Whether your tax rate is 10 percent or 35 percent is largely irrelevant when customer demand is good and you’re making more money.
Interestingly, the Nineteen Fifties, a decade of enormous economic growth and increasing prosperity for all — from the working class to the richest of the upper class — was a period when the income tax rate for the top bracket of income (over $400,000) was 91 percent.
Throughout the Nineteen Nineties, another period of great prosperity, the top bracket was taxed at 39.6 percent. Incidentally, at the end of the Clinton Presidency, there not only was no national deficit, there was a surplus!
Today, those in the top income bracket pay only 35 percent, and of course, in that bracket, there are more tax loopholes than those of us in the middle and working classes can possibly imagine.
The ultra-conservatives, led by the Tea Partiers (nurtured and supported by the Koch Brothers), want not only to leave taxes at their lowest rate in recent history, but, they claim, to cut expenses, they want to decimate Social Security, gut Medicare, and cut spending on education, child care, health care, parks, highways, bridges, and a host of other services which not only employ people but make life livable for most of us.
They will not even cut the loopholes for Big Oil and other giant and enormously successful corporations. They want to cut corporate taxes even more.
All of these so-called spending issues are the excuses they currently use for refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Do they know as well as you and I know, that if it is not raised, our nation faces and will, with little doubt, be plunged into a second Great Depression?
Although this depression would destroy the lives of many of us and seriously cripple the lives of the rest, it would be nirvana for the super-rich, who for the past nine or ten years have had the lowest taxes in recent history and who have happily been stashing money away instead of hiring anyone to do anything.
In a serious Depression, Cash is King. The setting is ready. America becomes a Plutocracy, an Oligarchy, or perhaps a combination of the two, a Plutarchy.
Have you ever been to a country where the tiny but powerful population of fabulous wealth was in total power? Do you remember the streets filled with sick, homeless human beings, from children to those few who live to be old? If you have, you will know it is not a pretty sight.
Know, too, that it could become the life of the majority of Americans.-CS
Bachmann favors fantasy over fact
Rep. Michele Bachmann launched her bid for the Presidency of the United States yesterday. She waxed nostalgic for the time “5 decades ago” when gasoline was 31 cents a gallon and the national debt could be measured in
billions not trillions. She also claimed, to the cheers of the crowd of well-wishers, that government had become too big.
billions not trillions. She also claimed, to the cheers of the crowd of well-wishers, that government had become too big.
Here are a couple of items she didn’t mention. In 1961 (5 decades ago) the
minimum wage had just gone from $1.00 an hour to $1.15, nor did she
mention that the highest federal tax rate was 91% and capital gains was
25%, surely part of the reason the national debt was kept in check
minimum wage had just gone from $1.00 an hour to $1.15, nor did she
mention that the highest federal tax rate was 91% and capital gains was
25%, surely part of the reason the national debt was kept in check
As for the government being too large: in 1961 the population was
183,591,000 and it grew almost 70% to over 310.3-million today. Meanwhile
the number of federal employees went from 1.81 million to 2.10 million an
increase of just 16%. Part of that increase was due to the aftermath of
9/11 with massive hiring in Homeland Security and the Justice Department.
In 1961 there was 1 government employee for every 101 residents and by
2010 that had decreased to 1 government employee for every 148 residents.
Rather than getting too big, on a per capita basis, the number of federal
employees has actually decreased.
183,591,000 and it grew almost 70% to over 310.3-million today. Meanwhile
the number of federal employees went from 1.81 million to 2.10 million an
increase of just 16%. Part of that increase was due to the aftermath of
9/11 with massive hiring in Homeland Security and the Justice Department.
In 1961 there was 1 government employee for every 101 residents and by
2010 that had decreased to 1 government employee for every 148 residents.
Rather than getting too big, on a per capita basis, the number of federal
employees has actually decreased.
Presidential hopeful Bachmann certainly knows how to throw out red meat;
too bad it is tainted with the poison of blind partisanship
too bad it is tainted with the poison of blind partisanship
River Street Reunion
River Street Reunion
As a child my family moved around a lot. As a result I didn’t make friends easily. However, in the fall of 1995 that changed. I was sixteen years old and going to a new school. It was there I met my best friend, Alecia Miller. At twenty-one I moved here to Savannah, where I remain. I have come to love this little city. We kept in touch, but eight hours separated us. Many emails, letters, and not so funny cell phone bills came and went over the years.
Finally, last year, Alecia was able to make the trip here to see me. I was so excited. We had planned the perfect evening starting with dinner at a tucked away bistro near City Market. Over salad and wine we talked about old times and laughed about our teenage antics.
Then we walked, arms linked, to River Street while we talked about the strange ways our lives had differed from how we imagined. Neither of us brought up the subject of her leaving the next morning. It was too painful. This was our only night to be the girls we had once been together. The street lamps shining brightly against the evening dusk, we skipped down the cobble stone street, oblivious to the stares we acquired along the way. All that mattered was that we were together again.
The sounds of the Savannah River could be heard as boats passed by, leaving a wake of waves splashing below us, drowning out our off key renditions of our once favorite songs. Overwhelmed with the perfect Savannah evening we found a bench to sit down on. We watched the river. We began to share our emotions. The loneliness we had felt while we were apart was evident in the tears flowing down our cheeks. We talked for hours until it was time for her to leave. We never have been able to get together again. Our lives are full of being mothers and full time workers, but we will always have our once-upon-a-time in Savannah, at the edge of the river where this city was born. — L. M.
