Greenius Is Fired Up Over Obama’s Green Economic Recovery Bill!

environmental-progress-399-x-695President Obama Steps Up To Save The Economy & The Climate While Republicans No Longer Relevant

I wholeheartedly applaud, support and endorse President Barack Obama’s signing of the $787 billion economic recovery bill just moments ago.  I cheer his rapid action less than a month after taking office to start getting us out of the Bush Depression – both literally and figuratively.

This bill is not only the most sweeping economic recovery package in our nation’s history, it’s also the greenest.

Fortunately for all of us, climate change guru, Joe Romm of Climate Progress, has already done the heavy lifting and outlined just how green and positive this new bill is.  Read:

Here’s What’s Green In It

The Greenius Plan For General Motors

We Must Destroy GM In Order To Save GM

I’m afraid the time has come to pull the plug on GM’s life support so we can plug into a whole new kind of Motors much better than General.  I’m talking about electric motors.  EVs.

hitman22And I’m talking about killing GM the way GM killed the electric car.

With extreme prejudice.

With a bullet to the brain.

The brain of GM will never feel it.  The brain of GM has been dead for a long time now.

Here’s what I’m proposing:

Shouldn’t We ALL Be Going to PowerShift 2009?

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I know I should be in Washington DC in two weeks to help take over the capitol on behalf of green jobs, clean energy and ending our carbon-based economy.

I know I should be there contributing, blogging and shooting pictures, marching and lobbying and networking with my green brothers and sisters in arms.

I know I should be there with the 10,000 young people who are gathering in Washington to hold our elected officials’ feet to the accountability fire.

“I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.” – Al Gore

The Curious Case of the Torrance Enivornmental Commission

scoop1I attended the first 2009 meeting of the Torrance Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation Commission last Thursday night and it was curiously different from anything I expected.

First of all, I was the only member of the public who attended the meeting. Secondly, the energy level, enthusiasm and sense of urgency I’ve experienced at other environmental meetings was nowhere to be found among the Commissioners. Maybe they all wished they were watching the Lakers-Celtics game that night instead…

Your Greenius already knew the Lakers would beat down Boston, so my focus was fixed on what was going down in the room.

Wising Up About Energy Use

efficient-homeYour Creative Greenius has been working hard around my home and office to cut my needless electricity use.  Not only do I power down my computers at night, but I now have four different power strips that get shut off too.  The difference that’s made in cutting my “phantom energy use” has been serious in cutting my bill from SCE, not to mention my personal carbon footprint.

I also spend time volunteering for the South Bay Environmental Services Center in which I try to spread the energy savings and conservation message to everyone I come in contact with.  All intelligent people know that if we practiced energy efficiency seriously in the United States we could save billions and billions of dollars and cut our greenhouse gas emissions by huge amounts.  If you hear someone arguing against conservation and efficiency you know you’re talking to someone who is easily proven wrong.

But what if we each knew exactly how much energy every electrical appliance we plug into our wall sockets actually used? And what if we knew exactly how much each appliance cost us?  Think you might use that knowledge and your lizard brain and start to use your electricity more wisely?   Is it possible you could actually practice some cognitive behavior?  Maybe you can’t do that in your personal relationships, but I bet you can if it saves you money on your electric bill.

Electrified Blondes in Convertibles For Everyone!

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I have seen the future my friends and it looks exactly like a 76 degree January day filled with beautiful people driving gorgeous plug-in hybrid and plug-in electric cars.  Come with me now as I take you there…

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And do not let anyone tell you that you must wait for this tomorrow, because you don’t.  It is already here today.  Your Greenius was there and I have the photos.

Inside The Green Task Force

main_imageFor more than a year now in this blog I’ve been researching and reporting on climate change, energy and transportation issues and related environmental stories covering them on both a personal and a global perspective.  I haven’t been breaking any hard news, I’ve just been spreading the news that doesn’t get enough attention and adding my take on top of it for the majority of my readers who don’t have the time to dig as deep as I do.

hh125I have to admit I’ve shared a pretty dire world view when it comes to the current and coming impacts of climate change.

That’s what happens when you start each morning reading blog’s like Joseph Romm’s Climate Progress and following the work of Dr. James Hansen and the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change.

But during this same past year, I’ve also been attending the meetings of the South Bay Cities Green Task Force.

I’m there as one of the only independent citizens – and of course as the Creative Greenius, but I’m mostly there because I’m an aspiring policy wonk and I eat the content of these meetings up.   The truth is, I’m unabashedly fascinated by and truly interested in the work they’re doing.  And the work they’re doing brings California’s leading edge fight against global warming right into my neighborhood and into my home.  It is, as the cliche puts it, where the rubber meets the road, and the road is the street I live on.

The Further Adventures of The Solangelist

As we move into the final month of the year 2008 I keep looking up at my rooftop longingly.

Even with the extension of the solar tax credit which came as an unexpected bonus along with the $700 billion bailout and the big increase in how much you can claim, I still think dipping into my cash reserve to the tune of $29 grand for the up front cost of my solar system would be loony tunes at the moment – and with the economy putting us into this Not So Great Depression I’m not really interested in adding that much in debt in order to pay for my panels.

Ten Things President Obama Needs You To Know Right Now

chicagoskylineWhile the rest of America has been transfixed by the spiraling, ever-worsening economic crisis, the auto industry bailout and the Obama transition team leaks about Hillary Clinton and John McCain’s new roles in the Administration, I’ve been in Chicago engrossed in meetings with people I promised I’d never admit having met with.  So lets just say I went for the blues and the BBQ.

music_bluesAlong with the pulled pork I enjoyed finding out that these Chicago guys are smart enough to know what’s really going on out there and sharp enough to know they’ve got to get the rest of the country up to speed before January 20th rolls around.

It’s not like they gave me any secret briefing information or anything.  And it’s not like they told me what to write – not in so many words anyway.  But if you’d like to help the President hit the ground running – and be able to keep up with him along the way – here’s what you need to know.

There Is Only ONE Choice Today – UPDATED!

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This is my garage door at 6:30am this morning, election day 2008. That’s my American flag to the right.  And that’s both my message to one and all and my prediction for tonight’s results.

Nuff said.

I’ll be voting this morning at the Rotary Building in El Retiro Park where my lovely and talented wife is working for the L.A. County Registrar of Voters in a 6am to 9pm shift with no break.  That’s what Real Americans do here in the great Republic of California.

When I get back I’ll be making GOTV calls for Barack Obama.  After that I’ll gather with friends and we will celebrate.

Tomorrow the real heavy lifting work begins.

Join us below the fold for photos taken this election day.  Send us your I Voted pix and we’ll add them!