There are a lot of people who are fighting to solve the climate crisis. I thought it would be good to take a moment and focus on a few. Add any additional resources to the comments. Don’t get discouraged, fight back. We are in good company.
The National Geographic Society was also defiant about the Paris Agreement decision, prominently featuring information about climate change on its home page, and releasing a statement along with National Geographic Partners that read, in part: “We are disappointed that the U.S. administration has withdrawn from the 2015 Paris Agreement, the landmark climate change accord that committed the United States and nearly all nations of the world to take actions to protect and care for our planet.”
Beyond that statement, National Geographic has also announced that it will be re-releasing its acclaimed documentary on climate change, Before the Flood, commercial-free and unauthenticated across its digital and TV Everywhere platforms from June 2-9. This includes Natgeotv.com, and Nat Geo TV apps (iOS and Android devices, Apple TV, Roku and Samsung Connected TVs).
The full movie can be seen here until June 9th: Before the Flood
Another must see movie is Carbon Nation, trailer below, movie info here
The Climate Reality Project has some great resources – their page is here.
An of course, Al Gore brings us an Inconvenient Truth and its sequel:
“Despair can be paralyzing, but this to me is the most exciting development. We are seeing a tremendous amount of positive change…” – Al Gore
Stay strong.
Baud
Thanks, TaMara.
germy
Here’s an example of direct action (I suppose)
TaMara (HFG)
@Baud: Just call me Pollyanna. ;-)
BTW, if there are any climate change experts in our group of jackals, I would love to have chat with you if you have time.
Bess
Wind and solar are bringing us cheap electricity. The unsubsidized price of onshore wind in the US has dropped below $0.03/kWh. That is cheaper than the operating costs of running a paid off coal or nuclear plant. We just saw our first purchase contract signed for solar for less than $0.04/kWh and solar is going to get a lot cheaper. We’re heading toward $0.02/kWh for both wind and solar.
The US states with the largest amounts of wind installed have seen the wholesale cost of electricity fall. No states yet have enough solar installed to impact prices but that won’t be too far in the future.
Within five years it should be cheaper to buy an EV than a same-feature ICEV. EVs are already much cheaper to operate than gasmobiles.
And – most of the stuff we use that is run with electricity is becoming more efficient. Not only will electricity become cheaper, we’ll buy less.
Now. Get out there and cut your own electricity use. Smile as you screw in that new LED, you’re helping to close a coal plant.
Push on your state and local officials to increase renewable installation. For the next few years most work is going to have to be done at the local level. Start in your own home and work up to the state where you live.
TaMara (HFG)
@Bess: You are so my people!
Chris T.
@Bess: In California, it’s already gotten to the point where wholesale electricity prices drop in the mid-day heat because of all the solar PV generation. We used to have wholesale electricity run $35-50 (per MWh) at night, climb into the 50-80 range for mornings and evenings, and run up into the $80-$1000 range during the day in summer. Now we have $35-50 at night, $50-80 mornings and evenings, and … $35-50 during the day.
(Of course, us retail suckers are still paying the equivalent of $180-$500. Subtract out transmission and distribution costs and we’re paying roughly $220, for something that PG&E buys for an average of about $50-$60. Home-rooftop-solar-PV, like I have, helps a lot. Not sure what SoCal SCE/SDG&E customers pay retail.)
NobodySpecial
This is surprising. Evidently no one told the Murdochs that their magazine has gone off the reservation.
lollipopguild
@NobodySpecial: I think Murdoch is smart enough to understand that a world in chaos because of Global Warming is a world were he is a lot poorer and has little/or no political power/leverage. He going to play both sides until he can see a clear side to be on 100%.
Iowa Old Lady
OT but OMG, “confusingly”? From The Guardian:
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: Well, I’m a man and I’m necessary for my pleasure.
Bess
@lollipopguild:
Rupert Murdoch, IIRC, is not a climate change denier.
Rupert is a whore who knowing sells the future of mankind for yet another 30 pieces of silver which he will never be able to spend.
japa21
Since Trump withdrew from the Paris Accord, he has dropped 4 points in Gallup, from 41% to 37% approval. He may have pleased his base, but not a lot of others.
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
Looks to me as though it’s because Diana herself was shaped from clay by her mother. No men involved.
(Edit): Hence, “confusing” that she would later state that men are required.
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: You mean, that’s the confusing part? That would be better.
MomSense
@Chris T.:
I really want to put solar pv on my roof despite the fuckery LePage is attempting but it’s still really expensive.
Frankensteinbeck
@lollipopguild:
I think Rupert Murdoch operates on the conservative ‘Fuck you, you’re not the boss of me!’ principle that results in Cleek’s Law. I also think he’s not the only Murdoch and can’t keep personal control of everything they own.
Wag
@japa21:
And he may have managed to piss off a sizable portion of his base if his approval dropped 4 points. That 4% total drop represents a 10% drop of those who approve of him.
tobie
Has anyone made calls for the Ossoff campaign from home? Since I’m not at the march today, I feel like I should do something but both my phone number and my accent will reveal I’m not from Georgia. Don’t know if this will be a hindrance, which is why I’m asking.
LurkerNoLonger
@japa21: Trump will never be liked by a majority of the American people because his policies and his personality are not likable. He can’t change who he is, so he will remain unpopular.
SiubhanDuinne
@tobie:
I honestly don’t think that’s a worry. It’s one thing when you’re phoning Congressional offices, where they want to hear from constituents only, but for phonebanking almost nobody you’re calling will care. And if they do, they’re unlikely to answer in the first place.
Thanks for doing this!
geg6
@MomSense:
My sister got her solar panels via Elon Musk’s Solar City. The panels and installation cost nothing up front. Over 20 years, they will pay a certain percentage of their excess electricity to Solar City plus a small monthly fee. Since they got it all hooked up in October, their highest electric bill has been $15 (usage from the local electric company when they don’t have enough electricity stored). The latest bill was $6. This is in Western PA over the winter. She’s psyched to see what summer brings. They have a huge 5 BR home and a heated swimming pool running on that. Plus they get a $250 credit for anyone they refer. I’m no expert on this stuff (to say the least), but they are very pleased with how it is working out so far.
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yeah. I think the reviewer was confused because
(a) Diana was conceived without male participation, and knows this to be so
(b) Diana subsequently states that male participation is, in fact, necessary
I would call it “inconsistent” rather than “confusing.”
MomSense
@geg6:
Oh cool. I’ll check it out
Frankensteinbeck
@SiubhanDuinne:
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I would guess she knows she’s the exception to the rule?
MomSense
@geg6:
Just checked and they are not in my area. I think it’s probably the LePage Maine GOP fuckery.
Westyny
@Bess: all LED at my house.
SiubhanDuinne
@Frankensteinbeck:
Haven’t seen it and likely won’t. I was going by the Grauniad review that Iowa Old Lady linked at comment #9. According to the reviewer, yes, Diana was told by her mother that she (Diana) was made of clay.
tobie
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for the feedback. I’ve made calls, it seems like, for gazillion years but I had a weird experience phone-banking from home for HRC in 2016 that has kind of stuck with me. Long story short–I was calling numbers in North Carolina, and one woman, whose husband I spoke to, called me back. She seemed to want to talk to a stranger, noted that I had a northern accent, and then told me a terrifying story about her daughter-in-law who refused forced birth to remove a stillborn fetus because she hoped God would revive it. (An emergency procedure was eventually done to save the mother’s life!) I didn’t know what to say to this woman, whose faith was making her and her family do really dangerous things. That one call has haunted me ever since.
Frankensteinbeck
@SiubhanDuinne:
I very much intend to see it, but I’m waiting for the Wednesday matinee. Cheap and won’t be crowded. The advantage of working from home!
SiubhanDuinne
@Frankensteinbeck:
The movies I do see are almost all weekday matinees, for the reasons you said. Will be going to see Obit Monday or Tuesday, and The Godfather either tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon.
Oatler.
Still waiting for an Al Gore quote that apologizes for Tipper.
lollipopguild
@Frankensteinbeck: Money and power are the Gods that Murdoch has followed his entire life and it has worked quite well for him. He finally got his President of the U.S.A. He also may have seen that things could go downhill pretty quickly from here in a way that would threaten his money and power. I hate his guts but I have never seen him as being stupid like so many conservatives in this country.
SiubhanDuinne
@tobie:
That’s a horrifying story on a lot of levels. I’m sorry you had to experience it. And I hope that distressed, grieving, misguided woman was able to get some useful counselling.
But I also think it’s a real outlier. Truly, your greatest challenge will be to keep from getting totally frustrated after you’ve had a couple of dozen “no answer” or “disconnected/not in service” numbers in a row.
Good luck, and thanks again!
Mart
I would add the documentary “Chasing Ice”to your list as it does a good job demonstrating the problem. https://chasingice.com/.
Chet Murthy
@Oatler.: Oh, c’mon. Just like we can’t hold WJC against Hillary, and we shouldn’t hold W against Laura, we shouldn’t hold Tipper against Al. I mean, yeah, she was execrable on so many things. But she was only a public figure in the way that political spouses are — she wasn’t a pol herself.
I can sign on for “-today-, a Dem can have it held against them, that they marry an R, b/c the Rs today are the party of fascism”. But in the ’70s (when they married)?
ETA: Oops, or did I miss the joke?
Kelly
@MomSense: There are federal tax credits that would allow you to buy a system with the money you would have paid in federal taxes. Oregon has a similar tax credit plus requires local utilities to kick in. I was excited to put some panels on my roof but alas too much shade from trees I don’t own.
Davebo
@Oatler.:
What do Ozzy Osborne and Jerry Falwell have in common?
Both got rich making Rock & Roll look evil.
bemused
I remember when Jimmy Carter’s solar energy study got the kiss of death from Reagan and funding for Solar Energy Institute drastically slashed. Rightwing stalled renewable energy innovation for decades. When I see the strides made in solar, wind and other renewable energy in recent years when Dems have had more power, I can’t help but think the US would have been not only the leader but a huge power source in the world if we had kept on going with Carter’s initiative since late 70’s. I rant about this often and how much money we average Americans could have saved on heating bills. I know we would have gone solar for our home if there had been rebates available for us to do it. I’m still furious. Damned Republicans are a blight on our country.
SiubhanDuinne
@Chet Murthy:
Apart from being a scold on music genres she didn’t understand, I always thought she was solid on most issues — homelessness, LGBT, mental health, reproductive rights, etc. Granted, I never studied or followed her positions closely, but I don’t recall that much to hold against her.
dm
@japa21: Fivethirtyeight aggregates Trump approval/disapproval polls. Right now he’s at 55% disapprove, 39% approve, the lowest so far. Also, handy comparison charts showing how Trump compares to past presidents at this point in their terms.
schrodingers_cat
@dm: That doesn’t add up to 100% do the remaining 6% have no opinion? That’s strange.
Frankensteinbeck
@lollipopguild:
There’s no question that Murdoch is greedy and smart, but that’s not exclusive with being Cleek’s Law style conservative. We’re used to the crazy, incompetent ones, but there are mean shits just as intelligent, like McConnell. Climate change is a slow enough problem it doesn’t force them to care.
MomSense
@Kelly:
The federal tax credits (my state doesn’t offer tax credits) would take about 5,000 off the price but I’d still have to pay 12,000. And net metering is under constant threat and onlysurvived recently with the imposition of a deadline. So if I don’t install panels by 2018 I won’t get the credits from my utility for the power I generate.
Redshift
@bemused: And even with the Reagan fuckery, the result of conservation and efficiency gains started by the Carter Administration initiatives was that the country’s total energy consumption didn’t rise above 1978 levels until 1992.
One of the more infuriating zombie lies from the right is that this stuff is impossibly difficult.
Uncle Cosmo
@geg6: I’m a near-ideal candidate for solar with half of a side-gable roof facing due south – except most companies (including Solar City) won’t install over a slate roof & there is no percentage in replacing it when I’m unlikely to be here more than another dozen years. Ah well.
Similarly with plug-in EVs: I live in an urban row-house with no garage & there is no way to install a secure, tamper-proof charging conduit to recharge the battery overnight. At best I might manage a temporary 30′-40′ cable for curbside charging for a couple of hours at a time while I’m home during the day. Ah well; maybe a used non-plug in would be worth it for the dozen years or so I might still want/need to drive.
And I would love to save energy & $$$ by installing a ground-source heat pump, but my yard is only 20′ x 50′ & I would need a deep well with associated ruinous drilling costs. Ah well (literally).
dm
@schrodingers_cat: I assume yes, 6% no-opinion. That doesn’t seem excessive to me.
Also, while it’s not at their aggregate-results link, someone at Fivethirtyeight has written before that the number of “strong approves” has declined quite a lot while the number of “strong disapproves” has increased. So, not only is Trump support declining, it is also becoming softer.
Chet Murthy
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, fair enough. I remembered her railing against all things rock-n-roll, and the “lax morality” of the time. And that really pissed me off. But fair, that’s the only thing. She just slipped out of my consciousness and got merged into the mass of moral scolds I call “the right wing”.
MomSense
@tobie:
Here’s the reality of phonebanking from home using those out of state tools (it’s different if an organizer gives you the log in for virtual phonebanking or sends you lists). You are calling the least up to date lists. If you think of your job as cleaning up phone lists for the future it becomes a much more bearable task.
schrodingers_cat
@dm: How can one not have an opinion on T?
Eric U.
whatever I can do to stay away from gas stations is a good thing. I want a solar roof, gotta think harder about that
chris
For those who can, the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund seems a worthy cause. The scientists have taken all kinds of shit for years and now the US government is after them again.
Link
p.a.
When even economics has a liberal bias…
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: There are left wing moral scolds as well.
Kelly
@MomSense: The Oregon deal is so good I can’t figure out why anyone with enough daylight passes it up. Federal + State + Utility = almost free if you size it to match your tax bill. They sensibly require a free solar survey to avoid low value installations.
ThresherK
@germy: Step aside, Wonder Woman, there’s a new superhero in town. And he’s a Libertarian!
Fake Irishman
A lot of good stuff here about solar and wind and energy efficiency, but if you want to do a little more to go after dirty energy than put solar panels on your home and install LEDs and energy-efficient appliances (done the latter, looking into the former), the Sierra Club has been running an incredibly successful campaign (with a lot of funding from Mike Bloomberg) to shut down coal plants called “Beyond Coal” It’s played a hand in helping to retire 254 coal plants since 2011 (after stopping more than 90 percent of the coal plants proposed during the Bush administration) See here for details.
Eric U.
@Fake Irishman: I’m a little surprised that we don’t hear about that when the coal advocates are whining. I can’t imagine building a coal-fired plant right now anyway, gas is so much cheaper. Some of those utilities must be happy they were opposed. The nuke operators are whining that it costs them money to make power. Imagine if they had to pay all the costs associated with cleanup of their plants.
I’m a little unhappy that Penn State is getting rid of the coal-fired plant across the street from my office. It was really fun to tell the scammers that called my number and asked for the person that bought electricity that I could see our electric power plant from my desk. Seems like the part of it I can see, the giant brick smokestack, is coming down. Brick by brick. Gas fired uses much shorter smokestacks
Fake Irishman
Mike Grunwald, one of the more underrated reporters out there, was all over the Sierra Club’s campaign in 2015. See his great article on the oddball alliance they put together (Bloomberg, major retailers, social justice warriors, environmentalists and community activists) to take on the utilities and generating companies. There’s a great anecdote in there about Bloomberg sitting in Gracie Mansion whining loudly about how he wanted an important cause to work on after his mayorship ended and he wanted it NOW. So one of his aides, who had just happended had lunch with the Sierra Club’s director, put in an emergency call and got him in to a quick meeting with the mayor. Within an hour, a stunned director walked out with a $50 million funding commitment for a national campaign to shut down coal.
John Revolta
I believe that Murrrrrdochhhh owns National Geo the Magazine, but that the Society is a separate entity. So far.
Bess
@Uncle Cosmo:
Solar is getting so cheap that the ideal roof may be one that slopes east/west. Overall you’ll get about 10% less electricity but your solar day will be greatly extended. You’ll get more output earlier and later in the day.
That’s important if you don’t get a good payment for electricity sent to the grid. It means that you can cover more of your personal consumption without storage.
If you live somewhere that uses time of use (TOU) billing you may save more money. As south-facing solar knocks the pins out from under midday electricity costs it will make sense to have more of your personal generation on each side of the midday price slump.
A few years back Germany had enough solar installed that their mid-day wholesale electricity price on a sunny day dropped to the level of late night/off peak electricity. That left the most expensive electricity of the day in mornings and late afternoon/evenings.
Fake Irishman
@Eric U.: Gas is lot cleaner too (yes, yes methane leaks, fracking etc etc can be problematic)– doubly so if they use co-generation for combined heat and power. When I ran a small newspaper in upstate New York, I covered one of the first businesses to install a CHP plant. (Harbec Plastics) The local Utility looked at them like you and I might regard an alien from outer space. Eventually, they worked out a net-metering agreement. It was really radical at the time, now stuff like that is almost routine in the Northeast. The next year the zoning board, after a lot of hand wringing, approved the business’s plan to install a 250 KW wind turbine. It was quite a striking visual driving up Route 104 and seeing that thing loom up. 15 years later, wind power is common place too.
Bess
@Uncle Cosmo:
Regular air exchange heat pumps have become so efficient that for most people it no longer makes sense to install ground-source heat pumps. Check out the cost and power needs for “mini-split” heat pumps.
MomSense
@Kelly:
Most of LePage’s ideas come from the Koch brothers and that explains why they are so terrible.
trollhattan
@Oatler.:
Frank handled Tipper for the rest of us.
Bess
@Chet Murthy:
All I remember about Tipper is her wanting record albums to be labeled for “adult content/language” as a guide for parents of younger children. That seems like a reasonable request to me.
Tipper was, IIRC, a drummer in a rock and roll band earlier in life. (Once the drummer of an all-female rock group called the Wildcats. – Wiki)
Perhaps there was more. Never trust my memory….
efgoldman
@lollipopguild:
You don’t get to make all that money and buy up all the properties he has by being stupid.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“execrable”? I’ll give you irritating, but you’re going to have to convince me to ratchet up to “execrable”, and on what the many things were besides the labels on albums.
Eric U.
@Bess: putting in a couple of mini-split units is on my todo list. I always wanted ground source, but retrofitting forced air systems to an all-electric house is not easy and doesn’t make sense.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Fake Irishman: Mike Grunwald, one of the more underrated reporters out there,
I thought his book on the Stimulus should’ve been required reading for progressives. It came out in 2012, just as MSNBC was ramping up it’s progressive line up (something else was happening at that time…) and I figured Grunwalkd would be all over Olbermann and Maddow. If they ever mentioned the book, I missed. All I remember seeing was a half a segment, maybe three minutes, with Ed Schultz, who clearly had not read the book, it seemed as if he were seeing the questions given to him for the first time. Of course, now I wonder if Ed Schultz has ever read any book.
Fake Irishman
@Bess: I think David Roberts at Vox (formerly of Grist) has written about this feature of heat pumps, but no link — sorry.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
if a post gets et, not into moderation,but vanishes, is that a forbidden word, or the demons of WP?
efgoldman
@Redshift:
Yet, the people who run large businesses look at alternative energy and see huge savings. Their profits have no ideology. There are good *financial* reasons why coal is never coming back – nobody’s going to buy it. It’s cheaper now for coal fired plants to convert to natural gas, if they’re not decommissioned altogether.
The heads of companies may be RWNJ assholes, but cost and profit are what rule.
efgoldman
@schrodingers_cat:
The same way courts can find jurors who haven’t heard of the most notorious cases.
This is ‘Murrica; guaranteed to have an idiot class.
??? Martin
We’re also an ideal candidate for solar given the size of our south facing roof, but we’ve conserved so much we could never pay it off. A high power bill for us in SoCal is $45. That would change once we buy an EV, though.
gene108
I am impressed by how countries are sticking by the Paris Agreement. When Bush,Jr pulled the USA out of the Kyoto Protocols, it set doing any international work on global warming back a decade.
Seems like the Paris Agreement is holding together a lot better.
??? Martin
The problem is that the country measures the wrong things. kWh prices in CA are a little less than double that in Texas, but we’ve been investing so much in conservation here for the last 40 years that our average bills are quite a bit lower. Texas uses almost 3x as much electricity per capital as CA does.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes
Uncle Cosmo
@Bess: Highly skeptical of your claim. It takes one helluva lot less energy to move heat from a 50-55 F heat source (>2 m underground) than from ambient air at 25 F. Or to move heat into a 50-55 F heat sink than into ambient air at 90-95 F. That’s just the Laws of Thermodynamics.
If “Regular air exchange heat pumps have become so efficient” relative to ground-source versions it’s likely because no one has made much of an effort to improve the latter, not because there’s no improvement to be had.
But I will check out the “mini-split” HPs anyway.
efgoldman
@??? Martin:
Of COURSE they do.
It’s Cleek’s law all the way down.
Uncle Cosmo
WHY THE FUCK IS MY COMMENT IN MODERATION???!?!?!?!?!?!?
Bess
@Fake Irishman: A lot of methane is released when coal is mined and when it is crushed before burning.
Bess
@efgoldman: Three large coal plants (two in NJ and one in Mass) closed on the day Donnie took himself out of the Paris accord.
(It appears that the rest of the country will continue working to cut CO2 even if Donnie won’t.)
Quinerly
Pence in Des Moines. “I’m proud to be with a president who cares more about Des Moines than Denmark.”
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m sure it’s my age showing, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Which isn’t saying they don’t exist. Only for giggles, care to share your list?
Southern Beale
Last week Sen. Bob Corker of TN told a local Kiwanis club that he advised Trump to ditch Paris Accords because he was worried that the Sierra Club and Greenpeace would sue. Can’t make this shit up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: Just read the comments here (or on any other left of center blog). Someone is guaranteed to be “liberaling” wrong in some way. Hell, some of us even own TVs.
Edited slightly.
amygdala
@Quinerly: What’s Pence’s opinion about a president who’s more concerned about Moscow than Minneapolis?
Chet Murthy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Growing up in Texas, she was part of this mass of moral scolds, telling young people how to live their lives, why we were doing it wrong, we were sinful, going to hell, etc, etc, etc. In retrospect, and upon reflection, (ha, gonna walk it back, ain’t I?) she was just scolding about rock-n-roll albums. But in my memory, she was part of a much larger movement. And she gave them cover, b/c she was the wife of a prominent Dem.
As it turns out, they were completely morally bankrupt, as we learned over the ensuing 20+ years. I’ve never forgiven her for sticking her goddamn nose in where it didn’t belong. She should have been policing pedophile Catholic priests (and evangelical rapists of little girls to boot). And left us kids the hell alone.
[Perhaps it helps explain, that I grew up in the Bible Belt. Where 50 girls in my middle school got pregnant a few years after I graduated. Where a couple of kids were found shot in a pickup truck south of town. Drug-running. And this was in the 80s. Godbotherers and hypocrites, all of them.]
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: Uh, well, agreed, we’re all scolds. But I thought that it was -political- or -civic- scolds, as opposed to moral ones. I mean, it seems like, on the left, there are certain bright lines about personal rights, and as long as you stay clear of them, your private life is your own.
Living in SF, I know that lots of people do things in their bedrooms that I’d *never* do.
So what? What these (adult) people (other SFans) do in their bedrooms, it seems to me, is something that all people on the left are OK with, as long as it doesn’t involve abuse or crime.
Maybe that’s not what you meant by moral scolds.
NobodySpecial
@Bess: She was very much signaling on the inappropriateness of the hippity hop. Typical Blue Dog reaction to those people having a separate culture, don’t you know.
Jim Parene
@NobodySpecial: I thought the same thing when I found out the Fox/Nat Geo purchase. I am plesently surprised.
Another Scott
@geg6: I like the idea of on-home solar, but electricity in our neighborhood isn’t terribly reliable. (Not as bad as the Maryland suburbs of DC used to be, but bad enough – trees falling over on power lines, etc.) AFAIK, almost all on-home solar systems are designed to put power on the grid, so if the grid goes down so does your power. So, we’d probably want a standby generator, also too.
Maybe, someday, Tesla’s PowerWall and the like will be cheap enough to be an easy choice, but I don’t think they’re there yet. $6200 + installation for 14kWh (about half a day’s consumption for a normal 3 BR home) is still pretty spendy…
We’ll probably get a plugin hybrid before we go the solar route, but I would certainly like to move that way before we retire.
Cheers,
Scott.
Meyerman
I put 5kW solar array on my garage in March 2014. I have had one electric bill per year since then. (In January I am just a little short of break even.) Over the other other months, I am up about $800, so I am now sending $50 a month in electricity to a neighbor. Renewable energy credits have already paid off most of the cost of the system. By the end of the year, I will have have my capital investment back. And then for 6 more years, I will collect SRECS. I know that if I was more virtuous I would have retained the SRECS so that utilities wouldn’t have access, but I consider it risk premium since the state (MA) could pull the plug on the program at any point.
Chet Murthy
@NobodySpecial:
I am reminded of when Spike Lee was asked to contribute to a Vogue (? Elle?) issue on black culture’s influence on fashion. He said something like “the history of black culture and fashion is one of *Theft*”. Started a firestorm, but also a widespread acceptance that a massive part of what makes American culture distinctive, came from black people and the black experience. And, yeah, from Pat Boone to Elvis, stolen.
I remember (again, back in the 80s) reading about Clapton and the white supremacist groups that would make up songs about him and white supremacy (to be clear, I’ve read that he had nothing to do with it). Those songs, of course, were R&R and Blues songs. Dimwits, didn’t know what culture they were appropriating from.
Tipper didn’t realize that “her culture” was descended from black Americans, too.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: Not to thread-jack or throw cold water on people who are doing the hard work in the trenches, but…
Do remote GOTV phone calls do anything, really?
What’s the starting list? Is it reliable Democratic voters who always vote? (If so, why call them?) Is it irregular Democratic voters? Is it just registered voters? Newly registered voters?
We almost never answer the phone unless we recognize the number. We always vote.
I’m someone who gives to candidates all over the country (at times). Calling to ask for money doesn’t work – we never give money over the phone. Calling only annoys me.
So, what’s the rationale for remote phone banking and the like? I know that everyone isn’t like me and J. But does phone banking do anything except give volunteers an outlet to somehow “help”? Does it actually help turnout (except in those very rare cases when someone wants to vote but has no transportation and didn’t request an absentee ballot in time)?
What’s the skinny?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Quinerly
@amygdala:
Good one!
Another Scott
@??? Martin: One of J’s cousins or something has a McMansion somewhere around Dallas. They somehow have had electric bills up to $1k/mo. They complain about it in family gatherings, but just shrug it off like “what are you going to do?” – as if it’s normal.
It’s astounding.
Cheers,
Scott.
Shantanu Saha
When I was buying my house last year and found that the HVAC needed to be replaced, I did the logical thing and replaced it with a geothermal heat pump. Now this year I’m pricing rooftop solar, and if I can get the right deal, I’ll jump on it. Between the low cost financing and New Jersey SRECs I’ll be getting, I figure I’ll be paying less for PV+GT together than I would have paid for gas heat alone, even without the tax credits that should reduce my federal tax burden to $0 for the next 5-6 years. And when my Prius finally keels over and dies in a couple of years, it’s either a plug-in hybrid or full electric car for my family. Being virtuous has never been so profitable as it is now.
J R in WV
When we built a little place in SE Arizona, we were about 2 right-of-way miles from the nearest power transformer – or about $30,000 for the local power co-op to install grid-based power service to the new house. On the other hand, they paid new customers who did NOT sign up for their power service a bonus for not increasing their base power requirement – $6,000 check pretty much as soon as you signed up to not get their power service! That was a great deal.
Then at the time there was a big federal tax credit based upon the installation price of your solar photo-voltaic system. So our power bill is zero, and our running cost will be the replacement of the batteries in 4 or 5 more years. We’ll be using the Tesla batteries when we do replace the current lead-acid deep cycle batteries.
Here locally our trees prevent solar installations from paying off – but there’s a reason we live in the woods – it stays cool long into summer. So we don’t run our A/C until (usually) late into summer, once the leaves come out. We did run it for a few days when it was very sunny and warm before the wooded shade kicked in. We replaced all the incandescent bulbs with new fluorescent bulbs, and then with LEDs. Right now there are only a few FL bulbs left. That’s made a difference in the power bill already!
Shantanu Saha
@J R in WV: would wind power be feasible in your neck of the woods?
Bess
@NobodySpecial:
The hippity hop was bringing language that we hadn’t heard in our music before. Words and attitudes.
Tipper’s point, IIRC, was that a parent shouldn’t have to buy an album and listen to it just to make sure that their young children weren’t being exposed to adult stuff. She was not saying that the music should not be made or sold to anyone who wanted to hear it. Just set a flag for parents.
We go even further with movies. And we censor words on TV and radio.
Bess
@Another Scott:
That’s only some inverters. They manufacture inverters that allow you to install battery backup as well. If the grid goes dark your house is switched over to your battery bank.
If outages are frequent then a small battery pack might be a good buy. Enough to keep the critical stuff going.