Re: We're going BIG, and we're taking your voice to D.C.

Dear friends,

When we started our campaign to take on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we knew they had deep pockets. We knew they'd fight back. And we knew it wouldn't be easy.

But we also knew that no amount of money can stand up to an engaged, educated, and passionate group of people. That's why we're thrilled that this campaign is growing daily--in depth, breadth, and creativity.

Over 6000 business owners and tens of thousands of supporters have already declared their opposition to "business as usual" at the U.S. Chamber. We are thrilled with this early surge--but we still need many more people on board to really tip the balance of power.

To get big enough to make a big impact, we're going BIG. Really big. And we need your help.

On Monday, April 18th many of the 10,000 college students attending the Powershift conference in Washington D.C. will take to the streets outside of the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help us really underscore the connections between money, politics and climate legislation. Since the U.S. Chamber is right across the street from the White House we hope that this huge action will be a wake up call for legislators, business people (and Presidents too).

You can join this wake-up call from your own community with a simple action: send us a quote today.

Help show that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C. is out of touch with the clean energy future that our country truly needs. 

We're collecting quotes that complete the sentence "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Doesn't Speak For Me Because ___________________." 

Please take two minutes to submit a quick quote on this page. We'll select the best quotes, print them on big signs, and bring them with us to the rally outside of the U.S. Chamber headquarters in D.C.

Of course, we'd love it if you joined us there in person--but if you can't make it, we'll bring your voices directly to the U.S. Chamber for you.

Onwards,

Phil Aroneanu for the whole team at 350.org

P.S. If you know local business owners who aren't yet part of this campaign, please forward this letter on so we can build this groundswell. Many thanks!

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Scott's Contracting

Green Me UP-Scotty

scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://scottscontracting.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/StLHandyMan
https://www.facebook.com/GreenMeUPScotty

Roof System-Generates Clean Photovoltaic Energy

If you are considering a new roof, you should consider a white roof and a solar system on that roof at the same time. A cool roof reduces building cooling requirements by lowering the temperature of the roof and the building underneath. This means cooling equipment savings and in many cases the ability to run less air conditioning or purchase smaller air conditioning units.

You may even increase the life of your roof. By lowering the roof temperature, roofing products may last longer due to less thermal stress over time. Our non-penetrating design means less opportunity for leaks from your new roof.

While it makes great economic sense, a cool roof also makes an important statement about your commitment to reducing your building’s impact on the environment.  One clear environment benefit comes as cool roofs reduce the “heat island” effect in cities, lowering average outside air temperatures. Lower the outside air temperature and you need even less cooling. In fact, U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu said that “whitening the world’s roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all the world’s cars for 11 years.”

Find Photos and Additional Information on Cool Roofing Systems at: Scott's Contracting Web Site

Politician Joke

Diapers and Politicians should be changed often, both for the same reason- EDs Rentals

Shared via Facebook

It's almost here - the DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle

DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle: Making Renewable Energy a Reality for Everyone.

I N N O V A T I O N
Spring 2011
DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle: Making Renewable Energy a Reality for Everyone. The shingle that powers your home is almost here. In the meantime, we wanted to update you on some exciting news in solar technology. You're part of a growing movement that's looking to switch to clean, renewable energy. And Dow has been busy turning solar potential into solar reality. Click here to find out how solar is growing across the U.S.
A Few Facts on the DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle System: It works like a residential shingle – in both its installation technique and in the roofing protection it provides. It generates solar electricity by integrating solar cells into the design. In other words, the shingle is the solar panel, and the solar panel is the shingle. It's going to be on rooftops before the end of 2011 in select U.S. markets. We will keep you posted on its availability. Solar Power Is More Affordable Than Ever In addition to being easy to install, the DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingles are more affordable than you think. Everyone in the U.S. qualifies for a 30% federal tax credit. These credits are still available, plus there may be state and local incentives in your area to make your initial costs even lower. Not to mention what you will save on your electric bills once your house is making its own energy. For more information on how your state is working with solar power, check out this article in Fortune magazine: "The Most Powerful States for Solar." Vote Solar Putting Solar on the Agenda The Vote Solar Initiative is a political action group committed to driving renewable energy initiatives at the state and local level. Dow recently sponsored their yearly Equinox conference and fundraiser, helping them to raise solar awareness in communities across the U.S. Click here to visit their site and see how you can participate in your community.	Dow Is Bringing Solar to the People Dow Solar is leading the way into solar energy for everyone. We're working with builders, roofers, legislators and solar advocates, plus we're participating in events that promote cutting-edge solar technology. Here are some of the events we're involved with or sponsored: Affordable Residential Solar Power Is Hot at the International Builders Show DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingles brought home the "Best of Show 2011." Dow was honored for overcoming the technical challenges of seamlessly integrating photovoltaic cells into a shingle that blends into the rest of the roof. For the first time, solar roofing can be functional and beautiful, too. Since our solar shingle can make residential solar power an affordable and clean energy reality, it's no wonder why AvidBuilder called it one of the top 10 products of IBS 2011. You can watch the video here. Dow Helps to Expand Solar in Colorado with CoSEIA CoSEIA is the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association, and Dow was the lead sponsor for their annual conference. Over 450 solar industry leaders came to the conference – from as far away as China – to discuss the future of solar. CoSEIA works to advance solar policy, remove market barriers and improve education and outreach. Click here to visit CoSEIA and see what they are doing to bring solar power to the people. Sharing Our Innovations with Other Revolutionary Thinkers at TED Dow was proud to sponsor and be one of the six companies invited to participate on a panel discussion at the TED Innovation Lab. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a nonprofit group dedicated to bringing thought leaders in related fields together to make Ideas Worth Spreading. Dow's Global Director of Research and Development, Dave Parrillo, attended the panel moderated by Thomas Goetz, Executive Editor of WIRED magazine. The subject was how innovation is sparked and nurtured. Click here to learn more about TED.
Let Us Know. Click the survey image below to take the poll.
Wrap Up You're part of a growing community that wants to make solar energy a reality. And the best way to make that happen is to share. Send your friends, customers and fellow solar enthusiasts here to receive our e-communications. And as we get ready to bring the POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingles to market later this year, staying on our email list will ensure you will be among the first to get updates on where, when, how and how much. Stay tuned!

®™Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") or an affiliated company of Dow Dow Solar – 1605 Joseph Drive – 200 Larkin – Midland, MI – 48674

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Scott's Contracting

Green Me UP-Scotty

scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://scottscontracting.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/StLHandyMan
https://www.facebook.com/GreenMeUPScotty

The liberals' plan: Gut defense and tax, tax, tax | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner

The pundits are fond of saying that Republicans are deeply divided over cutting federal spending. House Speaker John Boehner, the story goes, is barely able to ride herd on rowdy Tea Party freshmen, who want deeper cuts than House GOP leaders.

There's been less discussion of the deep divisions on the Democratic side. How deep are those divisions? As President Obama prepares to reveal his budget priorities Wednesday, just take a look at a new document called the "People's Budget."

It's the product of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of the most liberal Democrats in the House. It's not a small outfit; the caucus has 76 members, about 40 percent of the 192 Democrats in the House. Many are quite prominent and some were until recently in charge of the most powerful House committees: Reps. Barney Frank, John Conyers, George Miller, Charles Rangel, Rosa DeLauro, Jerrold Nadler, Louise Slaughter and others.

In other words, the Progressive Caucus -- about three times bigger than the moderate Blue Dog Coalition -- is no fringe organization.

The "People's Budget" is the liberals' answer to House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's 2012 budget proposal, which is "leading us down a road to ruin," according to caucus co-chairmen Reps. Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison. The "People's Budget," Grijalva and Ellison claim, would eliminate the deficit in just 10 years (Ryan's plan would take more than 25 years) while expanding, not cutting, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. "This budget saves the American people from the recklessness of the Republican majority," Grijalva and Ellison write in a letter to Rep. Chris Van Hollen, senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

How can such fiscal miracles be accomplished? By tax increases that would make even some top Democrats gasp. Perhaps the most extraordinary is the caucus plan to raise the Social Security tax to cover nearly all of a taxpayer's income. Right now, the tax is imposed on the first $106,000 of earnings. For people who make more than that, the caucus would tax a full 90 percent of income -- no matter how high it goes. The caucus would raise the Social Security tax that employers pay as well.

The caucus would create three new individual tax brackets for the highest incomes, topping out at 47 percent. It would also raise the capital gains tax, the estate tax and corporate taxes. It would create something called a "financial crisis responsibility fee" and a "financial speculation tax." And of course it would repeal the Bush tax cuts.

As if anyone needed reminding, the "People's Budget" is proof that the liberal idea of budget balancing is tax, tax, tax. If you're looking for spending cuts, you'll find just one really big one: national defense. The liberals would end "overseas contingency operations" -- the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- starting in 2013. They would save more money by "reducing strategic capabilities, conventional forces, procurement, and research & development programs." In other words, they would gut the United States' ability to defend itself, today and long into the future.

What would the liberals spend money on? The "People's Budget" is essentially a newer and bigger stimulus bill. Grijalva and Ellison pledge to "invest $1.45 trillion in job creation, early childhood, K-12 and special education, quality child care, energy and broadband infrastructure, housing, and research and development," along with billions more for stimuluslike road and other transportation programs.

Overall, the plan shows the gaping divide between the Progressive Caucus and the Obama White House. Back in his Chicago days, Barack Obama might easily have signed on to something like this. Now, as a president desperate for the support of independent voters in 2012, he can't.

Instead, the president will deliver his spending priorities this week in terms of deficit reduction, because that is what independents want to hear. But by doing so, Obama risks further irritating an already-anxious Democratic base.

Some strategists will argue that the "People's Budget" is good for Obama because it lets him position himself responsibly between what he will call the excesses of Ryan and the Progressive Caucus. But caucus members make up a big portion of the president's support on Capitol Hill. Obama needs their constituents -- the caucus represents more than 50 million people -- not just to be on board but to be enthusiastic in 2012. The "People's Budget" just makes Obama's job tougher.

Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blogposts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/04/liberals-plan-gut-defense-and-tax-tax-tax#ixzz1JK0JRpdC

The liberals' plan: Gut defense and tax, tax, tax | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner

Join Me to Protest Ameren UE's Nuclear Reactor Agenda

Protest

Ameren Shareholders Meeting

 

Thursday, April 21 · 7:30am - 9:30am

 

Powell Symphony Hall, 718 N Grand Blvd, Saint Louis, MO

Ameren Missouri is holding their annual Meeting of Shareholders to vote on several issues pertaining to their governing laws.

 

The anti-CWIP law states that investor-owned utilities, like Ameren, are not allowed to collect money from ratepayers for costs associated with new power plants until they are producing electricity. 

 

This law saved Ameren ratepayers $400 million after the completion of the 1st nuclear reactor in Callaway County. Ameren wants to repeal part of this law. Know the talking points and make a difference.

 

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Find Additional Information on Ameren UE and Nuclear Energy

Ameren UE's Greed Missouri Nuclear Agenda

When Did Progress Become a Partisan Issue?

Political debate over the direction of United States energy and technology policy is obviously nothing new. But in recent weeks, two news items jumped out for me from the usual political cacophony:

News item 1: Republicans introduce bills in the House and Senate to repeal the 2007 federal law requiring 25-30 percent more energy-efficient light bulbs starting next year. Republicans in four state legislatures also offer bills to exempt their states from the mandate.

News item 2: As the new majority in the House, Republicans have replaced the House cafeteria’s compostable cutlery and cups, introduced under ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Green the Capitol initiative, with the previously used plastic and polystyrene versions.

It’s one thing to disagree about tax incentives for the wind and solar industries, subsidies for the extraction of fossil fuels, the future role of nuclear power, the strictness of building efficiency standards, or countless other issues that will determine our energy future. But it seems like quite another thing to actually turn back the clock on progress already made.

“It’s just symbolism, but symbolism of the worst kind,” says Alan Salzman, CEO and managing director of clean-tech funder Vantage Point Venture Partners, of the compostable cutlery replacement. “While they’re at it, why don’t they put a nuclear plant in the basement?” One Congressman, Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer, was equally sarcastic with a Tweet: “I can hardly wait for the lead paint.”

What exactly is going on here?

In President Obama’s State of the Union address in January, he spoke of the U.S. need to “win the future” by stepping up our investments in education and technology R&D, including clean-energy technologies. Let’s see—America embracing the leading edge of innovation, leading the world in new technologies, as we’ve done in so many other tech revolutions throughout history—can any politician really be against this?

Apparently so.

Take the humble light bulb. Yes, the good old incandescent bulb is a venerable icon of Yankee ingenuity – the transformative product of one legendary American’s forward-thinking vision and above all, hard work. (It was Thomas Edison who famously said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”). The incandescent bulb was perfected by Edison (the concept had been around for 50 years already) in 1879. Isn’t it time to move on?

Former President George W. Bush seemed to think so when he signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 into law, after it had overwhelmingly passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support. That law included new efficiency standards for light bulbs as well as transportation and buildings, training programs for green jobs, funding for smart-grid initiatives, and many other measures. Contrary to the oppositional rhetoric now being thrown around, the law does not “ban” incandescent bulbs—it sets new efficiency standards that are easier to meet with newer compact fluorescent light (CFL) or especially light-emitting diode (LED) technologies.

That’s how you win the future – establish a policy goal for the common good, then let innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors fight it out to create the best, most cost-effective products to win in the marketplace. LED lighting, one of the five top trends spotlighted by Clean Edge in our Clean Energy Trends 2011 report released last month, is now a red-hot industry sector. Vantage Point alone has five LED-related startups in its portfolio: Bridgelux, Huga Optotech, glo AB, Light-Based Technologies, and a stealth company currently called Superbulbs.

But, cry opponents, Americans don’t want to be told what kind of light bulbs to buy. Well, the market has already rendered its verdict here. More than 70 percent of Americans have replaced at least one incandescent bulb with a CFL or LED, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll in February, and 84 percent say they are satisfied or very satisfied with the results. Walmart and Sam’s Club have sold more than 350 million CFL bulbs—somehow, I don’t think all the buyers are climate-change activists. In the USA Today/Gallup poll, 61 percent of Americans say the 2007 law is good, while just 31 percent say it’s bad. And light-bulb manufacturers overwhelmingly support it, too.

Some may point out that we’ve seen the ‘turn back the clock on progress’ theme before, citing President Ronald Reagan’s decision to remove Jimmy Carter’s solar PV panels (recently restored by Obama, after much public pressure) from the White House roof. But historical research shows that this story did not quite happen the way it’s usually told—that Reagan came into office in 1981 and ordered the removal as one of his first official acts.

The Reagan White House actually received solar power for more than five years; the panels were removed for roof maintenance in 1986 and not replaced—without any fanfare or making of political hay. Not to excuse the move, but at the time, the price of oil was below $10 a barrel ($20 in today’s dollars), climate change was an obscure scientific theory, and China didn’t have a more than 50 percent share of the global solar PV manufacturing industry (or much of a market for anything). The world is very different in 2011, and embracing progress should be more important, and less controversial, than ever. Especially with the U.S. now officially slipping to third in the global clean-energy market behind China and Germany, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

In the end, I think, it’s all about framing the issues. To borrow some favorite symbols of the anti-progress movement—if you ask people whether they believe in a ‘nanny state’ that makes all your choices for you, or whether they’re willing to sacrifice convenience or pay higher prices, they’ll say no. But ask about saving energy, encouraging innovation, and creating American jobs in the industries that will define global competitiveness in the 21^st century, and you’ll surely get a different response.

I know that the anti-progress naysayers have their reasons and motivations, and that partisan politics can always yield some bizarre results. But who really benefits from moving the nation backwards? Are the incandescent light bulb and plastic fork industries really critical to our future? “One of our favorite phrases at Vantage Point,” says Salzman, “is ‘invest in the inevitable.’ Does anyone think that fossil-based resources will get less expensive over time? Or that your grandson or granddaughter won’t be driving an electric car, powered by a smart grid? I want us to lead in the 21^st century industries, not the 20^th or 19^th century ones.”

Why is it so hard for some people to agree with that?

Article Cross Posted--Wilder is Clean Edge's senior editor, co-author of The Clean Tech Revolution, and a blogger about clean-tech issues for the Green section of The Huffington Post. E-mail him at wilder@cleanedge.com and follow him on Twitter at Clint_Wilder.

Scott's Contracting

Green Me UP-Scotty

scottscontracting@gmail.com http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com http://scottscontracting.wordpress.com http://twitter.com/StLHandyMan When Did Progress Become a Partisan Issue? | Renewable Energy News Article