Going Green

Our country is going through some rough times.  We are fighting two wars.  We are fighting off a financial collapse. We have recently fought amongst ourselves over our presidential choice.  It is time to say…done.  We have another war to fight which will take complete cooperation amongst all of us. 

            In 1973, my family endured the Arab oil boycott, standing in gasoline lines (when it was available) and watching as the rising cost of natural gas threatened to ruin the dream of restoring our rather large, old house.  We fought it by heating with a wood burner for more than 10 years while I refused to turn on the gas regardless of how cold it was outside.  I cut wood all summer long or hauled it from a local saw mill.  All winter long, I was retrieving that wood from my outside pile and stuffing in the maw of the beast we called our wood burner.  It was always hungry.  My wife and I worked separate shifts keeping the beast satisfied.  Mornings were cold and it wasn’t until midday that our downstairs became habitable without extra layers of clothes. By evening, the hot air had risen, so we could sleep without seeing our breath.  The routine was to be repeated every day between October and May.  A balmy winter day was like a vacation.  One day, my daughter asked me if I could get those “things” to get hot like they had one distant day in her memory.  The “things” she was referring to were our radiators.

            Somewhere in the mid 1980s, my brother-in-law examined our gas furnace and seeing that it was an old coal boiler that had been retrofitted to burn gas, posed the question to me…”Why don’t you have grates made and go back to burning coal?”  We were the third owners of our century-old house and the second owner switched from the original coal furnace to a highly inefficient gas conversion.  I queried, “We can do that?”  “Sure…there must be a foundry in the area that will make the grates for you.”  I had grates made in Mt. Pleasant and began burning coal. Those “things” got hot and everybody was grateful.

            However, I realize that burning coal is hardly going green.  In the meantime, we had begun conserving energy to try to offset our non-green coal.  We had installed 40 new, energy efficient windows.  We had insulated our walls and ceilings.  We traced leaks and plugged them with various forms of insulation.  We also began turning out lights when we left rooms.  We bought a Toyota Prius.  Though, I still feel ecologically unsound, I am doing what I can to offset that coal burning furnace.

            Our country must do the same but on a grander scale.  In 1973, Jimmy Carter was the president and though many from both parties realize Carter’s presidency was largely mediocre, he desperately tried to break the stranglehold of Middle-East oil.  Congress would have nothing of it and we remain at the mercy of OPEC.  Since the turn of the millennium, former third world countries have joined the economic middle class.  China and India, the two most populous nations in the world are experiencing a burgeoning economy which is thirsty for oil.  The $145 dollar/barrel oil we experienced during the summer of 2008 was driven by supply and demand as the major economic powers vied for a limited oil supply.  The Saudis (if you can believe them) claimed to be producing at nearly 100% capacity during mid-summer 2008.  Nigeria was constantly besieged by rebels attacking pipelines.  Venezuela was selling its oil to China as well as the US. 

            It was a perfect storm which caused the financial collapse of 2008.  Bank loan scandals coupled with the high price of oil combined to put the world on the verge of a global depression, triggering increased unemployment, reduced consumer confidence, collapse of the car industry and…the return to more reasonable oil prices.  Supply and demand once again ruled the marketplace.  However, the lives of the populace should not be subjected to these periodic crises.

            On October 4^th 1957, I was in 9^th grade at Raub Junior High in Allentown, PA.  I was enrolled in a Social Studies class in which we discussed current events.  That day, The United Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) parked the first satellite in a low elliptical orbit around the Earth.  It was the first satellite to be launched.  Our government was in a state of panic, having been beaten into space by our cold war enemies…the Russkies.  The US had “convinced” many Nazi rocket scientists to work for us after World War II and Werner von Braun and his colleagues had already been heavily involved in the space race but had just lost the first round with the launching of Sputnik.  We put on a “full court press” particularly with the election of John F. Kennedy and eventually beat the Soviets in the “space race” by landing on the moon in July of 1969. 

            We are now facing a similar race.  I’ll dub it the GREEN RACE.  Garage scientists have been working on green technology for the past decade but the government has not provided adequate backing to make it financially feasible.  Solar energy is available but installation is expensive and depending on your location may not be effective.  Tidal energy is being used for those few who live on the coast.  Wind energy is being fought in Fayette County by locals who, rightfully so, feel that it may impact on the quality of their lives.  Geothermal energy can be channeled to those in areas situated over volcanically active sites.  Automobiles can be run on hybrid technology. (We own a Toyota Prius hybrid and find it to be the best car we have ever owned.  It has cut our gasoline bill $2250 to $4250 annually depending upon the price of gas.  It is the only car we have owned which will pay for itself if we keep it 8-10 years…which we will).  Plug-in hybrids will be available in 2009 and 2010 (depending on makers).  Experimental fuel cell cars are already available and mass production should begin within the next decade. 

            The cost of developing this technology will not be cheap.  It will require a sacrifice from everyone.  However, the rewards for those who buy into the system will help to repay their sacrifice. The taxpayer will have to pay for much of the research and development but those who chose to buy in to the plan should enjoy tax credits for their confidence in the technology.  When we bought our hybrid, we were granted a $500 rebate from the state of Pennsylvania and a tax credit of $2500 from the federal government.  I would hope that President Obama would grant similar tax credits for “going green”. We intend to install solar panels on the roofs should the technology improve and the government provide tax credits.  I realize that living in occasionally sunny western Pennsylvania will never make solar energy financially feasible but I think it important to do my part.  I also realize that my installation of solar panels will improve the salability of our house some (hopefully) distant day. 

            I advised my financial advisor to buy “green” mutual funds…only if Barack Obama was elected.  He advised me that as long as the price of a barrel of oil was low, green technology investments would also remain low.  The mutual fund had plummeted from more than $22.00/shared (when oil was over $145/barrel) to less than $7.00/share largely because of the tumbling price of oil in the fall of 2008.  Green investors are only slapped in to wakefulness when oil is expensive and people panic.  However, I have confidence in Obama to act as JFK did in the 1960s during the space race with the Soviets.  This time, our adversaries are none other than the oil barons of the Middle East and Russia.  The oil suppliers also realize that the days of big oil are numbered and have themselves begun heavily investing in research and development of green technology. Japan is already heavily invested in producing the lithium batteries for hybrid technology.  Now is the time for the US to invest in the future and become a leader in hybrid/lithium battery technology.

            We now borrow money from China to buy oil from the Middle East which at least partly funds terrorism.  Americans are recognized the world over as the hardest workers.  (My daughter lives in France and after a trial period on her first job, her boss matter-of-factly mentioned that he wasn’t surprised that she was doing so well…because “everyone in Europe knows that American ends in I CAN”.) Now is the time to stand up and tell the world that we remain the leaders by becoming the tip of the green spear.  The cost of doing nothing is far more than the cost of doing what Americans do best…being creative and working hard.

Our country is going through some rough times.  We are fighting two wars.  We are fighting off a financial collapse. We have recently fought amongst ourselves over our presidential choice.  It is time to say…done.  We have another war to fight which will take complete cooperation amongst all of us. 

            In 1973, my family endured the Arab oil boycott, standing in gasoline lines (when it was available) and watching as the rising cost of natural gas threatened to ruin the dream of restoring our rather large, old house.  We fought it by heating with a wood burner for more than 10 years while I refused to turn on the gas regardless of how cold it was outside.  I cut wood all summer long or hauled it from a local saw mill.  All winter long, I was retrieving that wood from my outside pile and stuffing in the maw of the beast we called our wood burner.  It was always hungry.  My wife and I worked separate shifts keeping the beast satisfied.  Mornings were cold and it wasn’t until midday that our downstairs became habitable without extra layers of clothes. By evening, the hot air had risen, so we could sleep without seeing our breath.  The routine was to be repeated every day between October and May.  A balmy winter day was like a vacation.  One day, my daughter asked me if I could get those “things” to get hot like they had one distant day in her memory.  The “things” she was referring to were our radiators.

            Somewhere in the mid 1980s, my brother-in-law examined our gas furnace and seeing that it was an old coal boiler that had been retrofitted to burn gas, posed the question to me…”Why don’t you have grates made and go back to burning coal?”  We were the third owners of our century-old house and the second owner switched from the original coal furnace to a highly inefficient gas conversion.  I queried, “We can do that?”  “Sure…there must be a foundry in the area that will make the grates for you.”  I had grates made in Mt. Pleasant and began burning coal. Those “things” got hot and everybody was grateful.

            However, I realize that burning coal is hardly going green.  In the meantime, we had begun conserving energy to try to offset our non-green coal.  We had installed 40 new, energy efficient windows.  We had insulated our walls and ceilings.  We traced leaks and plugged them with various forms of insulation.  We also began turning out lights when we left rooms.  We bought a Toyota Prius.  Though, I still feel ecologically unsound, I am doing what I can to offset that coal burning furnace.

            Our country must do the same but on a grander scale.  In 1973, Jimmy Carter was the president and though many from both parties realize Carter’s presidency was largely mediocre, he desperately tried to break the stranglehold of Middle-East oil.  Congress would have nothing of it and we remain at the mercy of OPEC.  Since the turn of the millennium, former third world countries have joined the economic middle class.  China and India, the two most populous nations in the world are experiencing a burgeoning economy which is thirsty for oil.  The $145 dollar/barrel oil we experienced during the summer of 2008 was driven by supply and demand as the major economic powers vied for a limited oil supply.  The Saudis (if you can believe them) claimed to be producing at nearly 100% capacity during mid-summer 2008.  Nigeria was constantly besieged by rebels attacking pipelines.  Venezuela was selling its oil to China as well as the US. 

            It was a perfect storm which caused the financial collapse of 2008.  Bank loan scandals coupled with the high price of oil combined to put the world on the verge of a global depression, triggering increased unemployment, reduced consumer confidence, collapse of the car industry and…the return to more reasonable oil prices.  Supply and demand once again ruled the marketplace.  However, the lives of the populace should not be subjected to these periodic crises.

            On October 4^th 1957, I was in 9^th grade at Raub Junior High in Allentown, PA.  I was enrolled in a Social Studies class in which we discussed current events.  That day, The United Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) parked the first satellite in a low elliptical orbit around the Earth.  It was the first satellite to be launched.  Our government was in a state of panic, having been beaten into space by our cold war enemies…the Russkies.  The US had “convinced” many Nazi rocket scientists to work for us after World War II and Werner von Braun and his colleagues had already been heavily involved in the space race but had just lost the first round with the launching of Sputnik.  We put on a “full court press” particularly with the election of John F. Kennedy and eventually beat the Soviets in the “space race” by landing on the moon in July of 1969. 

            We are now facing a similar race.  I’ll dub it the GREEN RACE.  Garage scientists have been working on green technology for the past decade but the government has not provided adequate backing to make it financially feasible.  Solar energy is available but installation is expensive and depending on your location may not be effective.  Tidal energy is being used for those few who live on the coast.  Wind energy is being fought in Fayette County by locals who, rightfully so, feel that it may impact on the quality of their lives.  Geothermal energy can be channeled to those in areas situated over volcanically active sites.  Automobiles can be run on hybrid technology. (We own a Toyota Prius hybrid and find it to be the best car we have ever owned.  It has cut our gasoline bill $2250 to $4250 annually depending upon the price of gas.  It is the only car we have owned which will pay for itself if we keep it 8-10 years…which we will).  Plug-in hybrids will be available in 2009 and 2010 (depending on makers).  Experimental fuel cell cars are already available and mass production should begin within the next decade. 

            The cost of developing this technology will not be cheap.  It will require a sacrifice from everyone.  However, the rewards for those who buy into the system will help to repay their sacrifice. The taxpayer will have to pay for much of the research and development but those who chose to buy in to the plan should enjoy tax credits for their confidence in the technology.  When we bought our hybrid, we were granted a $500 rebate from the state of Pennsylvania and a tax credit of $2500 from the federal government.  I would hope that President Obama would grant similar tax credits for “going green”. We intend to install solar panels on the roofs should the technology improve and the government provide tax credits.  I realize that living in occasionally sunny western Pennsylvania will never make solar energy financially feasible but I think it important to do my part.  I also realize that my installation of solar panels will improve the salability of our house some (hopefully) distant day. 

            I advised my financial advisor to buy “green” mutual funds…only if Barack Obama was elected.  He advised me that as long as the price of a barrel of oil was low, green technology investments would also remain low.  The mutual fund had plummeted from more than $22.00/shared (when oil was over $145/barrel) to less than $7.00/share largely because of the tumbling price of oil in the fall of 2008.  Green investors are only slapped in to wakefulness when oil is expensive and people panic.  However, I have confidence in Obama to act as JFK did in the 1960s during the space race with the Soviets.  This time, our adversaries are none other than the oil barons of the Middle East and Russia.  The oil suppliers also realize that the days of big oil are numbered and have themselves begun heavily investing in research and development of green technology. Japan is already heavily invested in producing the lithium batteries for hybrid technology.  Now is the time for the US to invest in the future and become a leader in hybrid/lithium battery technology.

            We now borrow money from China to buy oil from the Middle East which at least partly funds terrorism.  Americans are recognized the world over as the hardest workers.  (My daughter lives in France and after a trial period on her first job, her boss matter-of-factly mentioned that he wasn’t surprised that she was doing so well…because “everyone in Europe knows that American ends in I CAN”.) Now is the time to stand up and tell the world that we remain the leaders by becoming the tip of the green spear.  The cost of doing nothing is far more than the cost of doing what Americans do best…being creative and working hard.