Friday, August 22, 2014

Defense = $600,000,000,000. Peace = $10,000,000,000

perhaps investment is a better response to violence than violence. Offer the first 100,000 fighters to surrender their arms and themselves a bond worth $10,000. (or ?) Much less costly than flying an f-22 at $15-40,000 per hour. Where are our capitalist friends when we need them? Just selling bombs and planes and bribing our Congress? original, now edited, to roundtable@wamc.org

Monday, August 18, 2014

Tongass National Forest, Alaska

Director Daniel Ashe, US Fish & Wildlife Service RE: Tongass National Forest I taught at Mt. Edgecumbe HS (BIA) in Sitka, 1970-72. That area was one of the most unspoiled, beautiful places I have ever been -- except for the devastation that I witnessed from the clear-cut logging areas, Japanese pulp mills and floating cigarette butts at the high tide line there on the Pacific beaches even then. There is enough logging in the lower 48. The wildlife there is rare, unique and extraordinary. Please use your office to stop any idea of development or capitalist land use there. As you know, Human incursion has already made "wild nature" practically impossible. This is one place where it is. Thank you for protecting our wild lands. Vane Lashua, Beacon, NY 845-337-9435

Restoring peace and order

Nothing justifies violence against anonymous neighbors (people, stores, neighborhoods) during a protest. Accidental breaking of a window or two is understandable. Protesters' looting and burning makes no sense. The victims of this are neighbors. Whatever happened to "sit-ins"? Let the police arrest non-violent protesters. That'll show the perpetrators -- the police or authorities, if that's what you want to believe -- and the news media what it's all about. If the mayor simply had sent NO police to the protests and/or had simply let the protests go beyond dusk, midnight, whatever, what would the outcome have been? Police and National Guard do not "restore peace and order" with armor and teargas.

Friday, August 15, 2014

"... ultimately facilitate deployment of EGS nationwide.”!!!

Two very promising announcements

See also: "Play Fairway" ... New York, PA, ...

Energy Department FOA for Initial Phases of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Field Observatory (due Oct. 1)
On July 17 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a funding opportunity for up to $31 million for the initial phases for an Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Field Observatory. DOE explains EGS technology and the vision for the field observatory in a media alert here. “The research and development (R&D) at FORGE [Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy] will focus on techniques to effectively stimulate large fracture networks in various rock types, technologies for imaging and monitoring the evolution of fluid pathways, and long-term reservoir sustainability and management techniques,” according to DOE. “In addition, a robust open data policy will make FORGE a leading resource for the broader scientific and engineering community studying the Earth’s subsurface. These significant advances will reduce industry risk and ultimately facilitate deployment of EGS nationwide.” You can read the full Funding Opportunity Announcement, or visit the FORGE website.  Contact DE-FOA-0000890-FORGE@netl.doe.gov for FOA-specific questions. Full Application Submission Deadline: 10/1/2014 8:00 PM ET.

DOE Solicits Renewables Projects in $4 Billion Loan Guarantee Program
Via DOE–On July 3, 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE), Loan Programs Office (LPO), released a final solicitation for innovative Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Projects (REEE) and will make as much as $4 billion in loan guarantees available to help commercialize technologies previously unable to obtain full commercial financing. “This program supports renewable energy technologies that are catalytic, replicable and market ready. It is a tremendous opportunity that will greatly assist the EITF and its stakeholders in the financing of large-scale Renewable Energy Projects on U.S. Army Installations,” said Ms. Amanda Simpson, EITF Executive Director. See also the Detailed Announcement and the REEE Solicitation (PDF).

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Dammit! Do it!

Response to RE article: Like the development of the internet in the '80s, NASA's quest for the moon of the '60s, the interstate highway system of the '50s, the manufacturing dynamo of the '40s or the Hoover Dam of the '30s, a research and development program would inspire a new knowledge- and skill-based flood of jobs. It would be based on a new vision of the possibilities of an unlimited and constant energy source that can be tapped practically every- and anywhere on earth -- right beneath our feet. There is no magic--yet, no super engineering, but there are huge potential profits. Chevron, ExxonMobil, Halliburton and literally hundreds of American companies know how to tap it; GE knows how to harness and express it; Calpine knows how to manage it; IBM knows how to make it smart. We just have to decide to make it happen. Automated coal mining equipment could put us down a couple of kilometers and drllling could take us the rest. Heat, not oil, gas or coal, is what we -- and our climate -- can profit from.