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2.23.2011

Renewable Energy World Conference and Expo North America

two weeks away…register today and save

On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 3:42 PM, Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America <rewna@rencd-media.com> wrote:
   
 

Save $100 on your full conference registration

Use promo code REWNAPV when registering

 
 

Register in the next 48 hours and save $100 on your full conference registration. Use promo code REWNAPV when registering. REGISTER HERE

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

  • More than 4,000 delegates expected
  • 125+ speakers in the Conference Program
  • 200+ exhibiting companies
  • Competitive Power College (CPC) Pre-Conference Workshops
  • Technical Tour: Green Buildings Tour
  • Powerful Networking Events
  • 2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards

THE CONFERENCE
Conference sessions will cover the latest topics and issues in the industry offering you professional development that you can't get anywhere else.

Keynote Session
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Open to ALL registered attendees

Featuring a special keynote address by Mr. Kurt Yeager, Executive Director for Galvin Electricity Inititative, the keynote session will also include a Leadership Roundtable titled, Getting from Here to There. Featured roundtable participants are Mr. Karl Gawell, Executive Director, Geothermal Energy Association and Mr. James Dehlsen, Founder, Clipper Wind Power.


2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards

Presented by the editors of RenewableEnergyWorld.com and Renewable Energy World North America magazine, these awards recognize the most outstanding projects, programs, technologies and leaders in the wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric sectors. Winners will be recognized during the keynote sessions and awards will be presented during the opening reception.

TECHNICAL TOUR

Special Ticketed Event!
Green Buildings Tour
Monday March 7, 2011 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Space is limited. Registration cut-off date February 25, 2011

The Green Buildings Tour will leave the Tampa Bay Convention Center and travel to the Beck Building in the Heights via water taxi. Attendees will then travel to the Tampa Bay History Center and will take a behind-the-scenes tour. For more information and to register, click here

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

Opening Reception
Tuesday March 9, 2011 at 5:00 p.m
.


Join us as we kick off the 8th annual Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo with a networking reception in the exhibit hall. Attendees will enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks while networking with colleagues and exhibitors.

Special Ticketed Event!
Networking Breakfast
Wednesday March 10, 2011 at 7:30 a.m
.


The networking breakfast takes place in an informal give-and-take format, providing an ideal way to get information and ask questions about industry specific topics. Moderated by specialized industry experts, each table addresses a different topic. Spend the entire time at one table or move around to different tables to gain insight into a variety of issues while enjoying a hot breakfast buffet. Register Here

CONFERENCE TRACKS:

  • Biomass
  • Geothermal
  • Hydro
  • Policy, Market & Finance I
  • Policy, Market & Finance II
  • Solar
  • Utility Integration/
    Smart Grid
  • Wind





REGISTER for North America's
leading all renewable event!





PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS:

Monday, March 7, 2011

  • #101 Capital Investment Analysis for Renewable Energy Projects

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

  • #201 Geothermal Energy 201 and Geothermal in the Southeastern U.S.
  • #203 Renewable Energy Venture Development

For details on these pre-conference workshops and to register, click here

 
   
   
 

CO-LOCATED EVENT
Photovoltaics World Conference & Expo
provides a forum dedicated to the manufacture, distribution and implementation of solar power produced by photovoltaic solar cells.


REGISTER ONLINE & SAVE $100


Register in the next 48 hours and save $100 on your full conference registration. Use promo code REWNAPV when registering. REGISTER HERE

 
 

HOTEL

Or, contact Preferred Convention Services directly:

 
 

ATTEND
Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America brings together more than 4,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors. Don't miss the largest all renewables event in North America. We hope to see you in Tampa! REGISTER>>

EXHIBIT
There is still space left!
Meet renewable energy prospects as well as your existing customers and book your space today!

CLICK HERE to view the floor plan and for more information.

 
     
   
________________________________________________________________________________



You may also contact us at:
PennWell Corporation
1421 S. Sheridan Rd.
Tulsa, OK 74112
USA



--
Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://scottscontracting.wordpress.com


Mortgage Interest Deduction-Guest Post


This post was removed or lost I left the contact name below of the Author.
The mortgage interest deduction helps make home ownership more affordable by allowing homeowners to deduct the interest that they pay on the mortgage for their home when calculating their annual federal income tax.

Guest Post: Contact: ruth@savemymind.info

2.22.2011

$100+ Oil Barrel Break-even in Low Carbon Economy

The billions being invested in renewable energy, nuclear and 'clean' coal will pay off financially if oil is over $100 a barrel in 2020, says the energy and climate change secretary-

UK-Break-even for low-carbon economy is $100 a barrel oil, says Chris Huhne

Damian blog : Oil Reaches Fourteen-Month High, Driving Gas and Home Heating Prices Up
Traders set the crude oil price in the options pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Illustration: Mario 
 



The UK's ambitious low-carbon energy plans will mean energy consumers paying lower bills in 2020 if oil is over $100 per barrel, compared to a fossil-fuelled future. That price is the break-even point, said the energy and climate change secretary, Chris Huhne, today.
I think it is an important number, because it clearly shows why a failure to invest the large sums of money needed into renewable energy, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage would be a false economy.

Here's what he told a conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London today. Bear in mind the price of oil (Brent crude) is $104 as I write:

If we relied on oil and gas, and the price stayed relatively low at $80 a barrel then consumers will pay more under our policies – about an extra 1% on their bills by 2020.

At the oil price reached this month - $100 a barrel or more – consumers will pay less through the low carbon energy policies than they would pay for fossil fuel policies.

And if the US administration is right, and the price is $108 a barrel in 2020, then our consumers are winning hands down.
So, as Huhne put it, when people say the energy policies his government are pursuing are far too costly, the reply is "hang on, what is this other world?" Predicting oil prices is a black art of course, but the question is do you think the price of oil is going to remain flat for the next nine years?

He also made another argument for low carbon energy investment: insulation from oil and gas price shocks. He said:
I asked economists at DECC to look at how a 1970s style oil price shock would play out today. They found that if the oil price doubled, it could lead to a cumulative loss of GDP of around £45 billion over 2 years. [The oil price rose fivefold in the 1970s].

And this is not just far-off speculation: it is a threat here and now. The Office of Budget Responsibility forecast that if oil prices rose by 20% - as they have since October – the total cost to the economy would be £4.5bn.

Oil and gas will play an important role in the low-carbon shift. But in the long term, getting off the oil hook will make our economy more independent, more secure and more stable.
We rightly hear a lot about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and are promised that the UK's economic recovery should include an industrial resurgence based on clean technology. In terms of the three crucial tests of energy policy - low carbon, security and cost - it's the latter that had been least convincing, making the arguments above significant.
One other part of the speech stuck out for me: more startling numbers from China, which just might change the world with its new five year economic plan. China is undoubtedly running fastest in the race for leadership in green technology.

Huhne reeled the numbers off - China's $34bn pumped into the low-carbon economy in 2009 - by way of arguing that even if the UN climate talks look like dragging on for years, some countries were acting anyway. These two stuck out for me:
China will build 24 nuclear power stations in the time it takes us to build one. By 2020, their nuclear capacity will have increased tenfold.
-
They will complete 16,000km of high-speed rail in the time it takes us to go from London to Birmingham.
Does a low carbon future really look so scary?

Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies- free ebook download

free ebook download linkLos Angeles When Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies was published in 2010, it skyrocketed to the top of Amazon.com's charts in both the "energy" and "engineering" categories – a clear hit as a #1 best-seller. Now, just a couple of months later, author Craig Shields is offering an electronic copy of the book -- to anyone -- for free. Why? 
 
As I imply in the book's title, we live in a world in which not everything is possible, and we must make difficult choices as we migrate away from fossil fuels in the direction of clean energy. Craig Shields

“Writing Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies was a great project.  I had fun doing it, readers loved it, and a whole bunch of people bought it within the first week or so,” says Shields.  “Now it's time to move along – but before I do that, why not put it in as many people’s hands as possible?”

Download the free book:
http://2greenenergy.com/renewable-energy-facts-fantasies-ebook/
There is no doubt that the migration to clean energy is the most pressing issue of our time.  Whether our worries are global warming, peak oil, national security, or simply America’s competitiveness in world markets, or our siphoning off another $1 billion in our wealth off to foreign entities every day, 365 days a year, there is definitely room for concern.  In fact, you’ll have to try hard to find anyone who thinks that our addiction to oil and coal is a good thing.  But, looking at the problem in practical, realistic terms, how can we “get there from here?”

According to Shields, “The truth is that we face tough realities. The technologies are constantly improving, albeit at an uneven rate.  And big money and politics make this ten times more complicated than it would have been if we were not talking about energy – home to the largest and most sophisticated business interests on Earth.  As I imply in the book’s title, we live in a world in which not everything is possible, and we must make difficult choices as we migrate away from fossil fuels in the direction of clean energy.”
Book: Renewable Energy Facts and FantasiesThe book is based on interviews with 25 of the world’s top researchers, authors, analysts and industry leaders – a surprisingly large percentage of whom point to these “tough realities” that exist in the technology migration, the economic implications, and the political issues that affect the world energy industry.

Shields continues, “All of us – well, almost all of us – want clean energy.  Whether our concerns are healthcare issues caused by emissions, enriching terrorists, military conflicts, social chaos and injustice, global climate change, or other forms of long-term environmental damage, there is no doubt that we need to put an end to our reliance on fossil fuels.  But it’s just not that easy. We would do well to understand the realities if we are to have informed, relevant discussions as to what we must do as a nation – and as a civilization.”

Though Shields is by nature a modest gentleman, he doesn’t hide the fact that he believed in the book’s success from the onset. “I wrote it for several different groups – each fairly large. There are people who simply want a broad and objective treatment of the subject.  There’s a great deal of science, current events, international relationships, and economics to keep tabs on; that’s not an easy task for anyone,” Shields explains.  “But there is also a significant business audience,” as folks see a multi-trillion dollar industry forming and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to be a part of that too.’”

Green Expo 365 Event Free Registration

Registration is free. Best-selling author and architect Sarah Susanka will discuss “Not So Big: The Doorway to Happy Customers” during the GreenExpo365.com live event March 8 and 9.

Virtual Event Green Expo 365
Sarah Susanka Headlines GreenExpo365.com March Online Event
Best-selling author and architect Sarah Susanka will discuss “Not So Big: The Doorway to Happy Customers” during the GreenExpo365.com live event March 8 and 9. From the ease of their desks, attendees can also see innovative green building products and services and interact with other professionals.
www.greenexpo365.com

Additional Books and Literature  from Ms. S. Susanka courtesy Amazon.
  1.  Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live  
  2. Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) 
  3. Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) 

2.20.2011

Save our Forests


"When the governments failed to reach agreement,
I remained silent;
I was not a climate expert.

When they failed to govern our banks,
I remained silent;
I was not wealthy.

When they sold off our forests,
I remained silent;
I had no trees of my own.

When they failed to prevent the destruction of our planet,
I did not speak out;
I was not an environmentalist.

When they failed to help communities,
I remained silent;
I thought only of myself.

When they failed to help me,
there was no one left to speak out."


To remain silent is to remain complicit, to sell our forests is to make profit without thought for the planet.
To speak out is to hold our governments to account, to keep our forests is to be trustees of the trees.

Stop our government selling our trees: Join the Save our Forests



photo by spodzone@flickr

Republicans Ax the Budget $61 Million

The Proposed cuts sound good in theory while actually doing more harm than good. (Using Simple Math anyone can see)

Did the proposed cuts enacted by the House in the wee hours make any one else sick?  If your are not sick yet your Health may soon suffer. 

The newly elected Tea Party Republican Representatives lead the charge in Hand-Cuffing the EPA and their Pollution Control Measures.  The actions sound good in theory, but actually will create more harm than actual help.
   
Coal and Oil Industry backing- the House Republicans cut the only Regulating Agency the Fossil Fuel Industries are forced to conform to- The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).
  • The Republicans Claim: "The People have Spoken" "we are acting in their best interest."
 Who are they kidding?  Here are Dirty Coal Figures that contradict the proposed cuts and show the proposed cuts only benefit the Fossil Fuel Industry and Contribute the Harmful GHG Emissions that are causing- Climate Change and Global Warming.
  • coal's costs in environmental and public health damage would triple the cost of coal-generated electricity ...best estimates of costs from coal's annual air pollution at $188 billion and costs from its contributions to global warming at $62 billion ($250 Billion Dollars Combined) (quote) 
Using Simple Math anyone can see: 
  • $61 Billion Cut from Budget - $250 billion Coal Pollution Costs =  nets a negative-$189 Billion in Pollution Costs from Coal.
The Proposed cuts sound good in theory while actually doing more harm than good.  With Leadership like this it is no wonder why the US Budget is out of control.  When enacted programs net a negative numbers.  Who in their correct mind frame would continue to enact programs that do more harm than good?  Its not hard to figure out that steps should be made to correct the Actions to create a 
positive cash flow.

There are better ways to Balance an "Out of Control" Federal Spending Budget.

I suggest that future budget cuts should be made starting with the Politicians Salaries.

It seem that they want the Constituents to live on less-They should "Lead by Example" and cut their Salaries.

I think turn-a-round is fair play - Ax and Cut the Elected Leaders Salaries.  The majority of them are responsible for the mess we are in now anyway. Scotty 2/20/11
__________________
-Find Your Representatives-Republican or Democrat, and Let Your Voice BE HEARD! Active Participation is Suggested TellMyPolitician

I used to link and contacted: McCaskill, Carnahan, and Blunt- the elected officials for my area. 
___________________
House passes sweeping cuts to domestic programs
(AP) – 2/19/11WASHINGTON —
{emphasis added by Scotty}
Jolted to action by deficit-conscious newcomers, the Republican-controlled House passed sweeping legislation early Saturday to cut $61 billion
  • from hundreds of federal programs and 
  • shelter coal companies
  • oil refiners and 
  • farmers from new government regulations.

The 235-189 vote to send the bill to the Senate was largely along party lines and defied a veto threat from President Barack Obama. It marked the most striking victory to date for the 87-member class of freshmen Republicans elected last fall on a promise to attack the deficit and reduce the reach of government. Three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure.

"The American people have spoken. They demand that Washington stop its out-of-control spending now, not some time in the future," declared freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.

The $1.2 trillion bill covers every Cabinet agency through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, imposing severe spending cuts aimed at domestic programs and foreign aid, including aid for schools, nutrition programs, environmental protection, and heating and housing subsidies for the poor.

The measure faces a rough ride in the Democratic-controlled Senate, even before the GOP amendments adopted Thursday, Friday and early Saturday morning pushed the bill further and further to the right on health care and environmental policy. Senate Democrats promise higher spending levels and are poised to defend Obama's health care bill, environmental policies and new efforts to overhaul regulation of the financial services industry.

Changes rammed through the House on Friday and Saturday would shield greenhouse-gas polluters and privately owned colleges from federal regulators, block a plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and bar the government from shutting down mountaintop mines it believes will cause too much water pollution, siding with business groups over environmental activists and federal regulators in almost every instance.

"This is like a Cliff Notes summary of every issue that the Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, and the (free market) CATO Institute have pushed for 30 years," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. "And they're just going to run them through here."

The gulf between the combatants ensures that difference on the measure won't be resolved soon, requiring a temporary spending bill when a current stopgap measure expires March 4. Senate Democrats and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are already maneuvering for political advantage in anticipation of talks on a short-term extension that will be needed.

Democrats say Boehner's insistence that any stopgap measure carry spending cuts amounts to an ultimatum that could threaten a government shutdown like the episodes that played to the advantage of former President Bill Clinton in his battles with Republicans in 1995-1996.

The Obama administration upped the ante on Friday, warning that workers who distribute Social Security benefits might be furloughed if the GOP cuts go through.
Across four long days of freewheeling debate, Republicans left their conservative stamp in other ways.

They took several swipes at the year-old health care law, including voting for a ban on federal funding for its implementation. At the behest of anti-abortion lawmakers, they called for an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Republicans awarded the Pentagon an increase of less than 2 percent increase, but domestic agencies would bear slashing cuts of about 12 percent. Such reductions would feel almost twice as deep since they would be spread over the final seven months of the budget year.

Republicans recoiled, however, from some of the most politically difficult cuts to grants to local police and fire departments, special education and economic development. Amtrak supporters easily repelled an attempt to slash its budget.

About the only victory scored by Obama during the week came on a vote Wednesday to cancel $450 million for a costly alternative engine for the Pentagon's next-generation F-35 warplane. It was a top priority of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and passed with the votes of many GOP conservatives who opposed the $3 billion program, more than half of the 87 Republican freshmen elected last fall on promises to cut the budget.

Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the measure and Obama has threatened a veto if it reaches his desk, citing sweeping cuts that he says would endanger the economic recovery.
"The bill will destroy 800,000 American jobs," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., citing a study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "It will increase class sizes and take teachers out of the classrooms ... It will jeopardize homeless veterans, make our communities less secure, threaten America's innovation."

The Environmental Protection Agency was singled out by Republicans eager to defend business and industry from numerous agency regulations they say threaten job-creation and the economy. The EPA's budget was slashed by almost one-third, and then its regulatory powers were handcuffed in a series of floor votes.

Proposed federal regulations would be blocked on emission of greenhouse gases, blamed for climate change, and a proposed regulation on mercury emissions from cement kilns would also be stopped. Additionally, the bill also calls for a halt to proposed regulations affecting Internet service providers and privately-owned colleges, victories for the industries that would be affected.

The 359-page bill was shaped beginning to end by the first-term Republicans, many of them elected with tea party backing.

They rejected an initial draft advanced by the leadership and produced by Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the Appropriations Committee, saying it did not cut deeply enough.

The revised bill added more reductions, and cut $100 billion from Obama's request for the current year, the amount Republicans had cited in their campaign-season Pledge to America.

But a tea party-backed amendment to slash $22 billion on top of the $60-billion-plus worth of steep cuts already made by the measure failed on Friday almost 2-1.

The heavily subsidized ethanol industry absorbed a pair of defeats Saturday at the hands of it many critics, including Rep. John Sullivan, R-Ohio, who won a vote to block the EPA from approving boosting the amount of ethanol in most gasoline to 15 percent.

On other regulatory issues, foes of the EPA won a 249-176 vote to block the agency from using its regulatory powers to curb greenhouse gases. EPA has already taken steps to regulate global warming pollution from vehicles and the largest factories and industrial plants and is expected to soon roll out rules that target refineries and power plants.

The move to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse-gas polluters came from Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who said his congressional district is home to more oil refineries than any other.

"We're in the midst of a massive economic downturn and the last thing we need to do is shoot ourselves in the foot with unnecessary, expensive new regulations that are on business and industry," he said.

Republicans also prevailed in more parochial issues, with Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., winning a close vote to block the government from removing hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, while Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., won a 230-195 vote to block an EPA plan for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay that would cut pollution from runoff from farms and municipalities throughout the Chesapeake watershed.

And Florida agricultural interests won a vote to block EPA rules issued last year aimed at controlling fertilizer and other pollutants that stoke the spread of algae in the state's waters.
On Thursday, the House voted to block regulations governing the emission of mercury from cement plants and to stop the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing proposed regulations opposed by Verizon and other large Internet Service Providers.

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