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I'm back and surprised at the changes that have and have not occurred, since I left on hiatus.

The Vision

As we fuel our 100 mile per gallon, zero emission cars with natural gas and power our houses and businesses with electricity from wind and solar power, the vision of green energy will unfold before us.

It was once a dream that our energy needs could be provided to us in an inexpensive and green fashion. The day has arrived when it is all possible and happening. The T. Boone Pickens wind project alone will go a long way in shifting our need away from oil as a major energy source, by capturing the unlimited energy of the wind belt that runs from Texas to Canada. Solar energy has come of age as the technology needed to store energy had evolved becoming reliable and cost effective.

Energy independence is a dynamic and exciting prospect. Not only are we looking to gain independence from foreign oil we are also playing with the idea that many of our states, cities or even buildings could become energy independent. Kansas has enough potential wind generated power that it could become completely independent from outside sources. California has enough sun and shoreline to provide itself with an unlimited supply of solar desalinated water. A large manufacturing facility could now with wind and solar retrofits go completely off grid with its energy needs.

This is the fork in the road and we have seen the vision of green independent energy become the reality before us. The cooperative thinking taking place in this endeavor has brought us together on a global scale. The world is moving as one in this vision and it will be a better world in which to live.

Leaders Drop The Ball

The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, died after a procedural vote in the Senate. So, once again our leaders are not leading. Whatever position you may have on the details of the bill, the point is nothing truly productive is being done by our representatives in Washington to address global climate issues.

November gives us our chance to send a strong message. A new leadership will go to work on 1 – 20 – 09 and they need to hear our voice loud and clear.

Passing Less GHG

Scientists in Australia and New Zealand are working to create a variety of grass that would lower the amount of Methane produced by cud-chewing cattle. This story shows just how many ways we can approach the GHG issue. The old story of Stone Soup illustrates how with the cooperation and enthusiasm of the villagers a great feast can come together from modest beginnings.

These scientists from Gramina and PGG Wrightson Genomics are using their expertise in Molecular Plant Breeding to contribute what they can to the global stone soup of GHG reduction. This new variety of low-gas grass is engineered to suppress an enzyme called O-methyl transferase, which makes the complex cellulose structure of the grass more easily digestible.

The effort is being made to make this grass viable in hotter climates which shows that these scientists are thinking ahead to time when grazing land could become dependant on heat-tolerant grass.

Methane is many times more polluting than the CO2 that much of the Carbon Community is busy working to reduce. Since most every animal on earth produces methane as a natural by-product of digestion, this is an area that needs more investigation.

Quick Invent a Tailpipe Insert

The EPA almost approved a plan by California to limit tailpipe emissions. This move screams out for some inventor to present a “Tailpipe Insert” that can be installed by the consumer that would capture particulate matter from a car’s exhaust.

This could easily be done with a filament designed to absorb and filter out certain pollutants. The technology is there and could be mass produced. This device would limit pollution from the exhaust until the car is replaced, preventing a wholesale panic among owners of older cars.

On The Right Track In Maryland

Now this is the way to think. Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland, have worked out a 10 year contract to use wind power for 30% of their energy needs. As a direct result of this move, wind generated electricity is being purchased from Pennsylvania to power water and sewage treatment for 460,000 homes in Maryland.

By using the energy produced by just 14 wind turbines over the life of this agreement 10 billion pounds of carbon that would have been put into the atmosphere by coal generated energy, will be eliminated.

Maryland has put forth a mandate that the large companies doing business in the state are required to get 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The encouraging response to this mandate was real action and a workable solution to the energy needs of two Maryland counties.

I trust that this example will prove that the need for wailing and gnashing of teeth as a response to energy reduction measures is behind us. There is a task to complete that has been clearly defined, that of reducing energy usage and therefore carbon output. There are many ways to approach and complete this task and Maryland has presented one example of how it is done.

The Impact of Your Carbon Footprint

The quantifying and reduction of your companies Carbon Footprint will become mandatory very soon. You will be asked to leave no stone unturned in a company wide effort to reduce carbon emissions. For those of you who operate large complexes such as power plants, the retrofitting that you could be asked to undertake to comply with a mandated cap on your energy use and then therefore carbon emissions, could cost millions to complete. You could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on scrubbers and refitting to convert your plant from the use of one fuel source to another.

Even Hospitals, Schools, Hotels and large Manufacturing Plants will need to invest capital to bring carbon emissions in line with carbon caps. Tools such as sub-meters will become necessary to gather a true picture of your company’s energy consumption. A review of your building’s insulation, windows and HVAC systems will need to be completed.

This is not to say that every change has to be monumental to impact your carbon footprint. There are many low or no cost changes that you make in the office areas of your plant. Remember things like recycling, passive solar, unplugging or turning off equipment, these add no costs and are easy to bring online. Motion sensors are another low cost item that can lower your lighting costs by eliminating the need for lighting to be operating in unoccupied rooms. This type of system is used widely now in the hotel business.

Shifts can also be made in an ongoing fashion inline with normal operations or capital improvements. In the regular rotation of your fleet of vehicles for example there is an opportunity to shift to the use of alternative fuels, electric vehicles or more fuel efficient conventional fuel vehicles. These shifts are part of the annual operating budget and are implemented with less impact to bottom line than something like a newly mandated retrofit.

The footsteps you hear behind you will be the echo of you own carbon footprint and it will be up to you to reduce the impact of that footprint on your workers, community and your company’s bottom line.