Canada - the wrong shade of green.

[AtomicZombie]

Once again, our so called "green" lawmakers want to take another step backwards....

http://evco.ca/lsev.html

Soon, we will be going back to leaded gasoline and making all catalytic converters illegal. I think I should make a coal burning bicycle just to keep up with the trend here, yikes!

Brad

[savarin]

Looking at the date of the proposal (December) and that 60 days was all the time available to contest/discuss it are we to assume that it is now law?
I like the "Clean Coal" spin. :rolleyes: (not to be confused with your coal powered bike:D) how can anyone with 2 neurons to their name even consider this concept.
I forgot, the majority of the population dont have any neurons available, they have been outlawed by government.

[Patrike]

We get what we pay for -- you don't do enough lobbying for something and you get crap grovernment policy -- not sure about in this case what happened -- big autos doing all the lobbying!

Anyway -- I'm in for better mass transist and less cars all together. If you could switch ever car to electric starting tomorrow -- you'd still have crowed highways and the coal fired plants would be working 120% 24hrs a day never get shut down -- they would probably start up a couple more.

I wonder also about Hydrogen -- you need electricity to make the stuff -- wheres that gonna come from.

I will be a long road to salvation for the envirnment -- if any.

I still hold out hope -- in the movie "the power of one", there is a line where the boy is up against what seems impossible odds, but with optimism he tells someone "even the largest of waterfalls start with one drop of water!" -- something like that.

Later
Patrick

[TheKid]

Electric cars, electric heat, solar panels for providing the electricity. Whatever you don't use, you sell back to the electric company. In addition, do what they do in some european nations. Some landowners with lots of land, like farmers, buy solar panels to produce electricity, and in turn are paid for providing electricity to the population. Electric companies could do the same thing here in North America, instead of having to build new power plants to supply electricity.

[n9viw]

Working "on the inside" as I do, I have learned that solar power really isn't a viable option for a lot of the continental US. Too many locations have sporadic cloud cover, sometimes clouds that can last for weeks, especially in the winter. Also, with the angle of the sun even in the summertime, you don't get the full effect of power out of the panel unless you're situated in the south. With the need for clear skies and a good solar angle, that really leaves only five or six states: Cali, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Too much further north or west, and you're either off-angle or into the cloud cover.

Wind power is a mixed bag. Have you ever stood next to a wind field under full power? It's alarming the amount of noise and vibration those monsters put out. There's a field in Wisconsin along WI-18 just west of Madison that has about fifteen or twenty mills. If you stop your car and get out to listen, you can hear this constant 'whoosh, whoosh, whoosh' of these hundred-foot blades, and the ground literally thrums under your feet. It's quite unsettling. A lot of people have moved away from there, because it's impossible to sleep, impossible to think, without this pervasive noise.

Because of this, wind power usually falls under the NIMBY category: Not In My Back Yard. Nobody wants it, but they all want to reap its benefits. There are wind fields in many heavily rural states, such as Kansas, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Idaho, etc. The problem is, you then have to cable the power elsewhere, because nobody wants to live by them.

"Clean Coal"... what a joke. That goes along with ethanol and nuclear power being "options", too. A friend in the ethanol industry told us about the massive waste of water and power he saw to produce even one gallon of the stuff... he said he couldn't work there with a clean conscience, and has since left to do freelance IT work. Producing ethanol takes in almost one and a half times the power it provides, and it can't even be used straight in most vehicles because it's so caustic. It's classified as an acidic hazard when transported at full strength, and the trucks and rail cars used to transport or store it have to be re-lined at least once a year. The water used to produce it is contaminated by the chemical wash process, and the chemicals used to rinse out those other chemicals render the water so "rotten" and stale that it can't support life.

They've actually started showing pro-nuke ads on TV down here. You've got to be out of your friggin hairy mind if you think that's even an option. I'm sorry, but what happens to all the irradiated water, to all the solid waste from spent rods, all the irradiated steam? You think that just goes... away? NO! It's here, and it's here to stay. All we've done is take natural elements and combined them in a way that's not only harmful, it's PERMANENT. You can't just truck it over to the edge of the earth and shove it off, it's HERE, ALWAYS. Bury it in the ground, spread it on a field, spray it in the air, it's STILL THERE.

AAUGH! When will we learn?!

[KoolKat]

A small wind farm is being built in a rural area close to our city, but already some nearby property owners are protesting them. They don't want the picturesque mountains in the background obscured by wind mills. It's a pilot project, but wouldn't doubt if the locals quash similar projects because they aren't esthetically correct. Some people just want everything without making small sacrifices.

[TheKid]

I've met people in upstate NY who use solar exclusively to power their homes. They work in all kinds of weather, and the angles are adjustable to the various position of the sun when the seasons change. The only complaint I heard was about scraping ice off them during the winter. My cousin's husband built a solar home in northern NJ, and to prevent ice from forming on the panels, they were installed inside the south wall, which was built at a 60 degree angle. He's an engineer with Litton, and the reason he built the house was they were looking for a new home, and decided to take advantage of the tax incentives for energy conservation in the 80's. More tax incentives combined with the exorbitant price of fossil fuels should accelerate development of better energy choices.

[KoolKat]

Just waiting for the solar panel prices to drop. Hope the demand picks up so that technology will be more affordable to the average person. I look forward to living "off grid" some day without having to invest over $ 50,000 just for the basic solar/wind benefits. Not worthy investment unless you plan on living there for at least 20 years.

[Pagan Wizard]

Maybe Brad can figure out how to make one of these?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvB3PiPBozU&feature=related I think that something like this could produce enough electricity to power a single family home. Here is a link for rare earth magnets http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/?gclid=CJagha-6v5MCFQIqswodN1KvCg

[Pagan Wizard]

These look like they could be easier to build, and might have the same potential http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFGiWiXMHn0&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHh5AqQ4_xw&NR=1