NY Electrical Utilities Stalls Growth of Independent Electron Producers!

According to Melissa Everett, the Sustainable Hudson Valley organization rarely steps into the complex world of policy, but right now they are doing that.

The solar energy industry in Central Hudson’s territory – the mid-Hudson Valley – needs our support. Here’s the story. There has been a “cap” on the amount of solar-powered electricity that customers can sell back into the grid – so-called “net metering,” and that cap has been reached.

Sustainable Hudson Valley and the New York Solar Energy Industry Association have petitioned to the Public Service Commission for an increase to that cap, from 1.2 megawatts to 3.0 MW.

Right now, at a moment of fast-growing interest in solar, interested homeowners are being told that they simply cannot recover their investment by spinning their meter backwards – a big problem. Legislation is moving through the New York State Assembly to raise the net metering cap much more, so this situation is especially damaging and ironic.

Central Hudson – which received the “Utility of the Year” Award from NYSEIA for its responsible dealings with the renewable energy industry – has indicated that they will not oppose this administrative proceeding, but support is needed to make sure the matter moves smoothly through the regulatory process.

Melissa is sending out a copy of the letter sent to the PSC by Sustainable Hudson Valley. If you agree that this issue is timely and important, please take a moment – now – to contact Melissa and ask her what you can do to help.

Melissa Everett, Ph.D.
melissae@earthlink.net
Executive Director
Sustainable Hudson Valley
PO Box 4112
Kingston, NY 12401
845-331-2670
http://www.sustainhv.org

Summer Rayne Speaks Out on Nukes... The day we've ALL been waiting for... the sun will come out...

Summer Rayne Oakes, currently featured posing with a Tango in the May not-so-green issue of Vanity Fair, the same electric car Georges Clooney drives around Los Angeles, writes on her blog:

"If as much of the $73 billion dollars in R&D subsidies for nuclear power that the federal government has spent in the last 60 years was put towards clean, benign, renewable technologies, we’d be in a much better position in protecting our health and our planet. I’m looking forward to lobbying and working with my political representatives in envisioning a smarter path in this critical time of action."

Might this mean Summer has a call in to Congressman John Hall?

Thanks to Green Apple Guide author Ben Jervey, we also heard from Bill McKibben this morning, a keynote speaker on April 14th down in Battery Park for the Step It Up Sea of People rally, where the NoNukes concert was held back in 1980.

"If you want to hand me $2 billion to build a nuclear reactor, I can show you two billion things to do with it that would get you a lot more carbon bang for the buck, mostly to do with conservation. Spend that money going around your state and refitting every industrial motor to make it three times as efficient. Go stuff insulation in every old house in your state. Take your $2 billion and go to Wal-mart and buy compact florescent bulbs, and mail them at random to everybody in the phone book, and you'd get more bang for your buck than building a nuclear power plant."

I need to remind Bill that florescent bulbs were "so... ten years ago" and horribly toxic to the environment in both manufacture and disposal, much more so than incandescent, and that the SOLUTION today are LEDs, solid state... tunable, recyclable, while getting the same lumens for 6% of the juice of CFBs.

The ONLY reason Utilities and Wal-Mart are NOW "pushing" CFBs is to take attention away from LEDs... because they "know" the minute the price of LEDs drop... and they quickly will, because the manufacturing process is a lot simpler, mainstreamed... the Utilities are plum out of luck... Major cities have already been switching ALL their traffic lights over to LEDs... to a savings of not only electricity, but massive electrical bills.

LEDs... PVs... solid state batteries... it's ALL the same electronic engineering chemistry... it's all nano next-gen "now"... not in ten or twenty years... we're talking the retrofit of the WHOLE planet... to have "zero" footprint... with electronic devices that have their toxicity easily controlled cradle to cradle (3M... McDonough) That's the rEVolution they are trying to steer away from mainstream attention... they don't want someone to come along and put it all together... they don't want the marriage of polymer and electronics... they don't want a green empire to spell the end of electricity as a commodity... nobody will want to buy the milk if they can get the cow for free... the cow in this instance is the sun.

April 14th - Back to Battery Park!!! 12 Noon

"Here in NYC, I want to fight for better energy efficiency and conservation, to reduce our demand on IP. And, realistically, a very, VERY small percentage of NYC's electricity comes from IP--by mandate a full 80% of the city's PEAK load (the hottest, more energy hungry summer days, that is) must be generated w/in the city. Most of our juice comes from all those natural gas plants scattered around our crusty waterfronts. So I hope that we can, as a city, reduce our demand on IP to a big 0. And I think that's quite possible."
~ Ben Jervey

www.seaofpeople.org

ben@greenappleguide.com

SEA OF PEOPLE

On April 14th, 2007, activists and citizens throughout the country will be gathering for a national day of climate action, a landmark day that might well be the largest environmental activist event since Earth Day 1970. I've been working with friends from Solar One, Transportation Alternatives, the NRDC, the Lower East Side Girls Club, Code Pink, the Church of Stop Shopping, Swear on our Friendship, the artist Eve Mosher, and literal dozens of other amazingly motivated individuals to create an event on scale with our city's size, impact, influence, and creative vitality.

Step It Up 2007 is nationwide campaign that aims to deliver a clear and powerful message to our congressional leadership: CUT GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION BY 80% BY 2050! The campaign will culminate on Saturday, April 14th, a national day of climate action, when Americans, representing voting districts throughout the country, will voice their support for this bold and necessary commitment by gathering together and making their voices heard in hundreds of local Demonstrations.

Sea of People will go down as such:

Rally at 12 noon in the lawn at Battery Park, with brief comments about the importance of climate change legislature from many diverse fields--science, politics, the faith community, youth, business, and a very special address by the revered environmentalist and longtime global warming activist Bill McKibben, he responsible for the entire Step It Up movement!

After the rally, all participants will march north in two lines, connected in Battery Park, along the 10-foot elevation line, or the potential "future sea level" line. We're asking that all attendees WEAR BLUE to help make our SEA OF PEOPLE an even more symbolic and powerful action.

WE STILL NEED PLENTY OF VOLUNTEERS to help make this event the powerful statement it's been conceived as.

If you're interested in helping out, please email us at

volunteers@seaofpeople.org

If you plan on attending (and I do hope you will),

please RSVP here:
http://events.stepitup2007.org/events/show/103