Tag: solar panels

CEO Mary Barra & General Motors Make Sure The Greenius Is Rewarded For His Many Years Of EV Advocacy

Categories electric cars, environmentLeave a Comment on CEO Mary Barra & General Motors Make Sure The Greenius Is Rewarded For His Many Years Of EV Advocacy

That’s me on January 16, 2017, with my brand new Chevy Bolt EV Premier edition in my garage at home. I paid $47,000 in cash for that car as a #YearOfJoe gift to myself after a decade of environmental work and achievement.

Last week, as part of the little known and unadvertised “Bolt Buyback” program GM quietly created in response to the recall of all their 2017- 2019 Bolts, Chevy paid $37,900 to buy this car back from us. They then sold us a brand new 2021 Bolt EV Premier for $28,500.

Yeah. They did. Let me tell you about it.

Continue reading ➞ CEO Mary Barra & General Motors Make Sure The Greenius Is Rewarded For His Many Years Of EV Advocacy

Exxon/Mobil To Fund Solar Financing Bond For Torrance Homeowners

Categories carbon producers, climate change, election, environment, environmental legislation, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, politics, recycling, solar power, Sustainability, water conservation, Yes We Can!2 Comments on Exxon/Mobil To Fund Solar Financing Bond For Torrance Homeowners

img_1046In a deal brokered by the city’s newly commissioned Citizens Environmental Task Force, Exxon/Mobil, owners of the Exxon/Mobil Refinery in the City of Torrance agreed today to fund a bond that will make low cost financing of solar energy systems for home and apartment owners.  The loans for solar power, authorized under California’s AB 811, are added as assessments to a homeowner’s property tax bills and are passed on to the new owner if a home is sold.

Without Exxon Mobil’s funding of the financing bonds the program would not have had the money to offer loans in Torrance.  The city had no money in the budget to make the program possible and no plans to find any in the midst of the on-going economic crisis.  But Exxon/Mobil had no such money problems.  “We’ve had one record profit quarter after another,” said a spokesperson for the oil company.

“We are so cash rich at the moment that we’re spending money all over the place while everyone else is forced to cut back.  We know carbon taxes are coming and we won’t always be floating in a sea of profits we made at your expense.  So it seemed only logical that we give a little back to a community we’ve released an awful lot of carbon in.  Hell, that entire property our refinery’s on will probably be a superfund site after they force us to stop producing our fossil fuels.“

Continue reading ➞ Exxon/Mobil To Fund Solar Financing Bond For Torrance Homeowners

The Further Adventures of The Solangelist

Categories climate change, environment, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability1 Comment 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.

Continue reading ➞ The Further Adventures of The Solangelist

The Greenius Reviews His Solar Bids

Categories environment, green lodgings, renewable energy, solar power, Sustainability3 Comments on The Greenius Reviews His Solar Bids

(written on September 19)

The Kaweah Cottage we’ve been staying in was designed to accommodate solar panels.  The Cottage is perfectly situated for unobstructed power generation and James Seligman, the owner and our host has everything – including the wiring – in place for a solar system – everything that is except the financing.  It’s not going to be cheap, but eventually he’ll get it done.  That’s just another thing James and I found we had in common.

I really enjoyed meeting James and getting to spend some time talking with him.  He’s a righteous dude, a fellow Mac user, filmmaker, peace lover and progressive environmentalist, just like your pal the Creative Greenius. 

Continue reading ➞ The Greenius Reviews His Solar Bids

Shove That Coal Back In Its Hole – The Greenius Goes Solar

Categories climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability1 Comment on Shove That Coal Back In Its Hole – The Greenius Goes Solar

I’ve had it.  Your Creative Greenius has reached his tipping point.

The more I learn about the latest news on climate change and how much time we really have left to do anything about it, the more I feel like like the late Italian political theorist, Antonio Gramsci, who wrote in his Gramsci: Letters from Prison,

“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence,but an optimist because of will.”

And it is that will that makes me declare that enough is enough, damn it.  New evidence is presented every single day of the weekit’s time to act decisively now.  But we are not living in sane times.  We are living in the Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs era. that would convince any sane person that

With greenhouse gases pouring into the skies and building up faster than the deficit with each passing day; with the price of coalelectric rates soaring up up up across the country; and with sell-out lizard brain politicians pimping oil as they croak out, “Drill here! Drill now!  Hell, drill my wife if it means I’ll get your vote!”; the Greenius is taking matters into his own hands and going solar.

I can’t wait any longer.  It’s either go solar, or go postal and believe me, nobody wants a Rambo Greenius.  I’m dangerous enough with a broom in my hands.

Continue reading ➞ Shove That Coal Back In Its Hole – The Greenius Goes Solar