It speaks to the gross ignorance of the overwhelming majority of Americans -- or else the deep cynicism of our politicians -- that we even have to address this, but for the nth time ever, here we go!
Unless the world economy crashes or intercessory prayer starts working, no one on the planet has the power to significantly lower the price of gasoline at the pump. Especially not Newt Gingrich.
At a campaign event in Georgia, Newt Gingrich told supporters that he would maaaaaagically lower gas prices because "you can't put a gun rack on a Volt." Shows what the hell he knows.
Solar probably won’t really take off until it makes more economic sense to slap some photovoltaics on your roof than to continue paying your utility company for their dirty, probably mostly coal-fired power. That day has arrived in parts of sunny California and Hawaii, and it's coming to (not-so-sunny) Germany by 2013, reports Michael Coren at Fast Company.
Send your question to Umbra!
Q. Dear Umbra,
How can I get “free,” “environmentally” friendly business cards? I am starting to network with my new credentials, LEED GA and BPI certification. So I need an eye-catching business card.
Dee R.
Philadelphia, Pa.
A. Dearest Dee,
First of all, congratulations. For those who don’t speak eco-acronym, Dee here has become something of a green-building expert, proving her chops as both a LEED Green Associate -- someone with expertise in environmentally friendly construction and design -- and a Building Performance Institute professional, chock-full of knowledge about home energy performance and efficiency. Go Dee!
Regulations kill jobs? Yeah, we've heard that one before.
Cross-posted from the Center for Progressive Reform.
The Economist’s Feb. 18 edition offers a cover package of five articles on “Over-regulated America” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Our British friends want you to know there’s a problem here in the States that needs fixing:
A study for the Small Business Administration [SBA], a government body, found that regulations in general add $10,585 in costs per employee. It’s a wonder the jobless rate isn’t even higher than it is.
You can almost feel The Economist’s pain: The jobless rate should be a lot higher than it is, if the premise about the costs of regulations is correct. Surely if the regulatory burden were actually 12 percent of GDP -- that’s what the SBA numbers say, if you draw them out -- things would be far worse than they are. Ideologically unable to consider the obvious alternative -- that regulations don’t add $10,585 in costs per employee -- The Economist just, well, “wonders” aloud.
Germany just signed agreements with Kazakhstan and Mongolia to mine rare earths in those countries, in an effort to break China's monopoly over these 17 elements, which are essential to clean technology like solar panels and electric vehicles.
You know where your coffee beans come from -- so why not your gasoline? Did your $3.50 a gallon go to prop up our tar-sands-addicted frenemies in Canada? Perhaps that tank of gas was originally shipped out of Venezuela and is propping up Hugo Chavez.
According to this 1971 article from Mother Earth News, British chicken farmer Harold Bate invented a car that runs on animal droppings 40 years ago. Why the hell are we still using oil?
Bate invented a converter that reportedly recycles animal (or human) waste into methane gas -- and he ginned it up from "odds and ends at hand." To be fair, using the converter is a pretty involved process, requiring 300 pounds of manure that has been fermented for up to a week. But on the flip side, Bate estimated it only cost him 3 cents (17 cents in 2011 money) for the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.
Sales of solar panels for Japanese homes are up 30.7 percent in 2011, despite -- or, let's be real, because of -- the economic hit the country took in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
"No."
Still reeling from your failed marriage proposal to Jack in the Box's bacon? (Don't take it personally -- bacon always leaves a greasy trail of heartbreak.) Cheer up, meatlover: You can still make that fast-food-themed forever commitment -- but this time, with a human! And it only costs $10,010. Thanks for saving Valentine's Day, Pizza Hut!
