Our World and Everything in It

Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. (HSC) is about to invest $1 billion dollars for expansion of its Thomas Township, Saginaw County manufacturing facility when “lawmakers offered the largest energy tax credit in the state’s history — $300 million to $350 million over 12 years.” The article on mlive.com also said this job will bring “300 full-time positions and the potential of drawing job-producing solar companies to mid-Michigan.” It couldn’t happen at a better time.

This was a hard won battle between Michigan and Tennessee where HSC plans to open a brand new $1.2 billion facility. Over the next few years HSC will funnel an additional $800 million either to Saginaw, MI or Clarksville, TN. So it looks like the competition is still on.

Now there are more jobs in the works. Dow Corning is a major owner of HSC. So HSC has decided to build a facility to manufacture monosilane gas also next to its Thomas Twp. facility. Monosilane is a specialty gas used in manufacturing thin solar cells and liquid crystal displays. 

Construction on all of these projects is to begin immediately because HSC says they are tapped out for production. Their product is bought as quickly as it’s produced. The Thomas Twp. job will bring total employment to more than 1,500 workers by finish in 2011 and at least 800 to 1,200 construction workers will stay on the site until the work is finished. Yesssss!

Maybe now all will have a little more faith in what we environmentalists have been saying all along and that is to let the green companies move forward. Nurture them if we have to. They are bursting to create product, which will boost the economy. GE has been having a hard time keeping up with wind turbine production and now this leading solar corporation says that they can hardly keep up—a good sign that there is possibly a rainbow on the horizon, a green rainbow.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/business/index.ssf/2008/12/hemlock_semiconductor_splits_i.html

A recent meeting between Obama, Biden, and Gore resulted in a consensus that the time for both delay and denial about global warming is over. They see that “addressing energy and climate policy can drive the nation’s economic recovery by creating jobs across the country in all the states to repower America,” according to ENS.
The ENS article stated: “The plan to Repower America outlines immediate investments in three areas: energy efficiency, renewable generation and transmission.”

? Energy Efficiency: A national upgrade to eliminate waste, save money, and improve comfort. Make every bit of energy we produce work harder for us.
? Renewable Generation: Accelerate the ramp-up of clean, renewable electricity sources through policies that support increased private and public investment in technologies that work, like wind, solar, and geothermal.
? Unified National Smart Grid: Modernize transmission infrastructure so that clean electricity generated anywhere in America can power homes and businesses across the nation. National electricity ‘interstates’ that move power quickly and cheaply to where it needs to be; local smart grids that buy and sell power from households and support clean plug-in cars.

Ur, um, the plug-in cars at this moment in time may or may not be from GM.

With a new administration on the way, the U.S. is about to get much more environmentally friendly. As a matter of fact the environment is a priority on a very crammed transition agenda. As an article in the Washington Post reported: “While Obama said at a news conference last week that his top priority would be to stimulate the economy and create jobs, his advisers say that focus will not delay key shifts in social and regulatory policies, including some — such as the embrace of new environmental safeguards — that Obama has said will have long-term, beneficial impacts on the economy.” Yeah, a lot of new jobs.

Some things to be looking for right off the bat:

Declaring carbon dioxide emissions endanger human welfare.

Rescinding the Bush administration’s decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, (17 states are lined up right beyond California to do the same).

Creating a National Energy Council

Improving Food and Drug Regulations

Not a bad start. Anything has to be better than an administration that consistently pushed science aside in lieu of ideological beliefs or for politically motivated reasons. Hopefully, we are about to see many brand new industries emerge that will provide new construction, new jobs, new investments, and new futures for many people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/08/AR2008110801856.html?hpid=topnews

I was watching PBS news last night and found out a little more about how the foreclosed home situation is being handled. No wonder banks/lenders are in trouble. The waste is unbelievable. It’s called “trashing out a home” when mortgage lenders pay someone to carry everything out of a house to a dumpster. The items are many times top notch household furnishings and electronics. It all ends up in a landfill. What a waste. This pillage should be spread around.

I watched a whole new genre of mover called “trash-out crews.” They go into foreclosed homes and strip the house of all its belongings and send it to the trash dump. You might think that wouldn’t be much, but many upper middle class homes that have been vacated, leave behind much of their high-end belongings too. In some cases it looked as if someone came through and yelled “run for your lives the damn has burst” because food was left out, and toys were still on the floor. There is a large amount of TV’s and electronics like PCS left behind. These items could be put to use in schools.

When the interviewer asked the head of one of these trash-out companies about giving it to charity he said the logistics of hooking up with a charity is slim. They don’t show up, or aren’t on time, or leave things of little value behind so that he has to go back a second time. Unfortunately, he said he tried the eco friendly way and it ends up costing him money. His company is paid by the mortgage companies to pick up perfectly nice items and send them to the landfill where they pay fees to dump the stuff too.

Don’t think this happens much? The same guy with the trash-out company started with 3 employees and now has 73. His trash out crews trash 15 homes per day—high scale stuff from the edge of the golf course homes. It was sickening to see what went into a dumpster knowing the mortgage industry is in serious trouble and wasting like this. To think people somewhere are living in huts on dirt floors, and the amount and variety of things that are getting buried in the earth here is ridiculous. 

I ran across one article that wanted to know where the entrepreneurs are when it comes to trashing out homes? Think about it. It’s a never ending supply of free merchandise that you can actually resell on eBay or Craig’s list, and the bank/lender pays you to pick it up. If you don’t resell it, you store it and in the future you charge the same bank that paid you to pick it up in order to stage the same empty homes for resale using the furniture you took from them in the first place. Think of it as getting paid to pick it up, then put it back.

My first thought was, “Where is Habitat for Humanity?” After all, if an organization like Habitat is going through the trouble of enlisting volunteers to build someone a brand new home, it shouldn’t be an empty home with all this “trash” around.  The same volunteers for Habitat could be working with the mortgage lenders for “clear out” not “trash out” jobs. Imagine presenting someone with a new and “furnished” home.

Is this socialist ideology? It’s certainly “spreading the wealth” around. I see it as recycling whatever, whenever from someone who didn’t care enough to take it, store it, or donate it in the first place. Besides the amount spent on trashing and landfill costs is not that much cheaper than doing the right thing.

I don’t buy it that there is no way to hook this stuff up with charity. There is always a way. If someone offered good money for a solution there would certainly be a way to do it, but then it wouldn’t be charity.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20081022/RE/810220376/1014/RSS02

http://www.maxgladwell.com/2008/10/foreclosure-crisis-where-are-the-green-entrepreneurs/

Well if you are a proponent of offshore drilling because you want to see pump prices decrease even though you’ve been told over and over it won’t alleviate the high gas problem—then celebrate. The quarter century ban will be allowed to expire after congress recesses for the election.

You may be wondering why I’m taking this so quietly? Well it’s because this bill serves as a stopgap and pushes much needed legislation through. As the article in the AP said: “Lifting the drilling ban gives considerable momentum to the underlying bill, which includes the Pentagon budget, $24 billion in aid for flood and hurricane victims and $25 billion in loans for Detroit automakers in addition to keeping the government open past the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 budget year.” It also doubles funding for heating for the poor to $5.2 billion dollars. Good timing for what might be a bad winter.

Plus, by time anyone actually gets around to drilling, we’ll be on to new and better things. Although congress is opening up drilling off both the east and west coast, it’s still up to the states whose shores will accommodate the drilling and pretty much the new president and his policies.

Enough said. I don’t really think this drilling thing will get much momentum. And by the time the public finally realizes how long it will actually take to see any refined gasoline from it, they will be disenchanted with the idea because it just doesn’t suit America’s penchant for instant gratification. Add to this increasingly powerful storms that continually threaten offshore drills and it’s just a matter of time that we deem the whole fossil fuel thing obsolete, especially when some of the really great alternatives debut and a greener economy starts providing many new jobs.

Working for green industries will serve to educate workers about environmental needs who will pass the information along to family and friends. These jobs will showcase the many possibilities and opportunities available besides fossil fuel energy.  And that will be the end of that—a good thing.

Read the whole article: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gB6bi0EyTozdEPy0KGisTQNaS2PQD93CNNRG0

Startech is an award winning environmental energy company that has devised an engine fueled by hydrogen that produces “green” electricity, meaning it leaves no carbon footprint. The electricity is meant for stationary facilities not cars, at least not currently.

Startech has a line of patented products like, “Startech Hydrogen, derived by [their] StarCell™ system from processing a wide variety of wastes in [their] Startech Plasma Converter.”

Get a load of this system!!!

The Plasma Converter System safely and economically destroys wastes, no matter how hazardous or lethal, and turns most into useful and valuable products. In doing so, the System protects the environment and helps to improve the Public Health and Safety. The System achieves closed-loop elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy Municipal Solid Waste, organics and inorganics, solids, liquids and gases, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, industrial by-products and also items such as ‘e-waste,’ medical waste, chemical industry waste and other specialty wastes, while converting many of them into useful commodity products that can include metals and a synthesis-gas called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG).

I know a little about PEM’s, Polymer Electrolyte Membranes, that separate hydrogen from bio-fuels because I’m working on a product for patent, but Startech has one heck of a converter here that looks like it can transform just about anything prior to processing through the Star Cell for hydrogen extraction. 

This is the type of exciting new technology waiting to be unleashed that will not only bolster our energy supply but create jobs. This one converter will trigger all types of spin offs, and as more and more alternative sources for energy become available, prices will drop. That is if we ever get away from the stranglehold of fossil fuels.

Successes like Startech can and will create a whole new and dynamic industry, an industry that has not yet been monopolized. It’s a green industry that offers promise for a truly free market system at least among alternative energy sources, and a great way to dig ourselves out of the outrageous debt we’re about to face.

If ever we needed a brand new “Green Industrial Revolution” that offers many opportunities and that will boost the economy in a whole new way, it’s now and quickly. Think of new stocks available in brand new companies offering great promise for the future that we could all get behind.  I don’t know about anyone else but it’s time for new wealth for a new generation of pioneering Americans and a cleaner, brighter future for our world and everything in it.

http://world-wire.com/news/0809220001.html

Americans may be looking at 4-day workweeks soon in efforts to offset energy costs. Both Utah and Idaho’s state employee are on 4 tens. Some good things are happening as a result of the energy crisis. Not only are workweeks getting shorter, but employees are also allowed to work from home more and more. This can be good. This can be bad.

I can weigh in on the shortened workweek.  I worked 4 ten-hour days back in 1984. The extra two hours were split between morning and afternoon. My schedule started an hour earlier and ended an hour later than usual. So the bad thing was getting up earlier and getting home later. With longer hours, you might be a little more tired at days end also so after-work-projects aren’t likely to happen. But if you’re running your kids around most evenings anyway, this shouldn’t be a problem.

The real problem with 4-day workweeks is latch key kids. If working parents can tackle this problem then the rest of the attributes for working 4 tens are all positive. For one thing, your car is spared the trip. If you don’t use that up running all over town on Friday, then it’s a plus. It was reported that Utah figured all of its employees collectively saved $100,000 in gas money by not working on Friday. One woman said she only saved $72.00 for gas money during the month but finds the extra time spent with her kids invaluable.

From an employer’s point of view, a successful switch to 4-day workweeks depends on associated companies that work a 5-day workweek. Back in the early 90’s I actually worked a 3-day workweek for the same salary as 5 days.  I negotiated that by showing all the work I was doing that really belonged to others on the payroll. I got my way, a 3 day work week with Tuesday’s and Friday’s off, because I was able to show I was not only doing all of my duties in 5 days, but a bunch of other people’s also. Since I was a purchasing agent, and did payroll the 3-day problem came up. Tuesday was a slow day at work, and well Fridays, let’s get real here. I told my employer quite frankly that not much of anything would get purchased on a Friday anyway. Most of those orders will not hit someone’s desk until Monday. You’re not likely to get a sales rep to come around on Friday either. It’s like Friday “work” days dissolve somewhere around noon for quite a lot of professions. Most things are stalled until Monday because someone is usually missing on Friday. My employer acknowledged this. He was notorious for disappearing on Fridays. Monday and Friday off would have been sweet but that would have been pushing the envelope. I acknowledged that I needed to be there for payroll on Mondays. The best thing was when the company decided I needed to work 40 hours again. My wages almost doubled.

Like ABC news stated this morning, now is the time to negotiate for shared hours, shorter workweeks, and/or working from home. I did it when there was no energy crisis, late 80’s and early 90’s. A good employer should have no problem paying for a job well done regardless of the time involved. If you have a job that doesn’t involve other associates on 5 day work weeks, you’ve got a good case for a 4 day workweek. Prove you work faster and more efficient than most and you’ll probably get your way. It’s win win right now.

Once you get used to 4 days, and really using that Friday in an organized way so you can kick back on Saturday AND Sunday, you’ll probably find you do much less running around altogether. The solitary time away from the rat race is priceless. It might be good for America to learn to relax and quit all the running around. It would certainly be good for the environment.  

I can’t believe it, but for whatever reason, DTE is going green. They are poised to invest billions in alternative energy for Michigan and from what I gathered of the Detroit Free Press article in yesterday’s Sunday paper, it is to help jumpstart Michigan’s economy. Actually, it said it was: “boosting the state’s efforts to become a leader in this rapidly growing market.” It can’t be talking about our senate’s recent efforts. It looks more like this is another example of the market driving environmentalism. The company couldn’t have made a more timely decision.

The article went on to say that DTE would invest $3 billion dollars over the next 6-7 years. This hinges on the state passing the mandate to insure 10% of Michigan’s electricity comes from renewable sources. The article reiterated that there are major differences between the senate and house energy bills, and that unless these differences are resolved, Michigan will continue to lose out on environmental jobs. 

DTE recognizes the potential for job growth, reduction in global warming, and energy independence by going green. The company is taking up the slack on wind power in Michigan that the latest round of energy bills through the senate seemed to dismiss. The “bulk of DTE’s multibillion-dollar investments will be in wind power.” The wind farms will be in the thumb region, the western side of the state, as well as, the possibility of a wind farm in Huron County.

DTE said it has begun to make multimillion dollar investments into its venture capital fund for alternative energy sources like wind, solar, and biofuels, but also new technologies and solutions, power storage, and companies that produce equipment like meters that monitor electricity use. This venture fund, formed in 1995, has not been active for the past few years, and is one of the few corporate venture funds available in the state “focused on alternative energy.” 

Recently, I happened to find a 1997 congressional presentation by many companies, including DTE, and from many states relative to alternative energy innovation. DTE presented some pretty advanced technology way back then. I’ve followed one of their investments, a company that produces hydrogen fuel cell extractors. It’s really advanced technology.  

What I find interesting is that these absolutely wonderful alternative ideas for energy presented to our federal congress back in the mid to late 90’s that were either ready to be developed further, marketed, and/or sold, just got shelved for years during the Bush administration. It looks like a big “Green Thumb” kept wraps on new technology entering the general public milieu even though the Texas ranch uses geothermal energy, and I wouldn’t doubt Cheney’s digs are eco friendly too. DTE just admitted their alternative energy venture fund has been on hold. It was obviously waiting on politics and/or the market.

I wonder if this new push to go green by DTE has anything to do with a federal judge vacating the “Clean Air Mercury Rule” as just another way to move pollution around, while demanding that the EPA set new standards for mercury emissions in less than 2 years? That ruling has a direct impact on coal fired plants. That’s for sure. Or is DTE keen enough to see the writing on the wall that a new environmental economy will lure more money and investment into Michigan, a good thing for all business, and in which case DTE is doing what our congress should be doing. Or is another monopoly forming because the possibility exists that any home can get solar panels, or a wind turbine, or a bio-digester for methane gas production, or all three, and provide energy for itself in the future. That paints a pretty scary picture for big utility companies and great incentive to go green first. 

The news suggested yesterday that skyrocketing gas prices may not be a bad thing. I’ve always believed higher pump prices could be the proverbial kick in the shorts for people to pay attention to what’s going on. It’s working. Demands for greater gas mileage and energy saving alternatives has been just the catalyst needed for a whole barage of ideas to burst forth to a tune of $448 billion dollars so far this year, DOUBLE that of last year already.

Venture capitalists are having a field day. There are even some pension plans racing to invest in a green market.  Some of the inventions are remarkable. There are already plastic bottles created from corn by-products so they are totally biodegradeable. And every thing and any thing is being sought after to accomplish either energy production or energy storage, right down to bacteria.

So it is true, out of something bad can come something very good.  

We’re hearing a lot lately about drilling for oil. There are people so naive to think that by drilling in the Arctic or anywhere else we will see an instantaneous reduction in prices at the pump. Anyone with any street smarts should know that an instant price reduction like that means that the whole scenario about oil and availability is a fabrication. Some people evidently think that drilling for oil is like sticking a straw in a glass of chocolate milk when in reality the process of extraction is getting tougher and more expensive as the world’s oil supplies get more elusive.

A quote from a National Geographic article from 4 years ago states:

Others think that by curbing our oil use and developing sustainable alternatives now, we can delay the peak and wean ourselves more easily when the inevitable happens. There are many things you can do to ease the transition, says Alfred Cavallo, an energy consultant in Princeton, New Jersey. And you can have a very nice life on a sustainable system. Of course, not everyone is going to be driving SUVs.

 

This was the idea in 2004, yet in 2008, people in the U.S., some of the biggest fossil fuel hogs in the world are still arguing about global warming, and just curtailing the movement to replace fossil fuels with clean alternative energy sources once and for all.  In 2002, George Bush even admitted that global warming is man made and exacerbated by the fossil fuel industry. Yet the argument against environmentalism continues. Think how far ahead we could have been by now, and how many people could have had new employment with progressive companies in green business.

The Bush/Cheney administration has loosed so many environmental laws and/or ignored them that many citizens in many states are experiencing the result of companies like Halliburton devastating the terrain in search of natural gas and/or oil. Think of humans as giant mosquitoes. We’ve bit the earth in search of oil like blood over 500,000 times. The U.S. alone has approx. 500,000 abandoned/operating mines also. We’re abusing the earth plain and simple. Now we want to keep using coal fired plants and forcing the resulting CO2 emissions from them deep into the earth. Forcing gas into the earth has a bad sound to it, and is not an exact science yet. We don’t know what will happen.

When we think of environment we immediately think of air and water, but the earth is taking an awful hit too. Before we even think to drill more, more, more, we need to gage how much fossil fuel we really need, not what we currently, hungrily devour. And in order to do that we need to establish a baseline, which can’t be done until we restrict all extraneous usage and lower speed limits, car pool, change light bulbs, use a clothesline, shut off our techie equipment–you know, the easy stuff. It’s the least we can do.

Until we’ve done our part, we shouldn’t expect poor Mother Earth to keep doing hers to the extreme. Our world is sick and could use some TLC. Conserve first, drill later if at all.

.http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_the_us_lack_sufficient_oil_refining.html

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0406/feature5/fulltext.html