Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles

I'm looking forward to attending Greentech Media's conference titled "The Networked EV--Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles" on October 20 in San Francisco. 

One criticism that is often made is that the electric grid can't handle electric cars.  The quick response is that charging at night takes advantage of unused capacity and does not require any new power plants.  However, as we make the necessary leap to 100% electric cars, that will no longer be the case.  So the question of how the grid can get ready for this leap is an important one.

Also, many EV's need to have a place to charge during the day, say if someone's commute is too long for a round trip.  So the conference will look at charging infrastructure.

And the conference will feature a debate between Felix Kramer of Cal Cars and someone more skeptical of the electric car future. 

I'm also interested in finding out how many utility companies offer the same very low off-peak (Midnight-7AM) rates that PG&E offers--i.e. 4 cents per kwh plus some fixed charges.  This time of use rate is crucial to making electric cars cost effective, and I would like to see it offered nationwide.

If you are interested in the conference, please sign up at The Networked EV - 2011

Our Volt joins the Moving Planet parade

Viola (the name of our Volt) had fun Saturday, joining the 350.org parade down Market Street in San Francisco with bicyclists, marchers, and other electric cars as part of Moving Planet day.  Our little group of Volts (one other), Leafs, Teslas, and a few others were well received by marchers as well as on-lookers.  We ended up at Civic Center for a rally with several excellent speakers talking to a crowd of around 1,000 people.

• State Senator Mark Leno said we need to bring CO2 down from 392 ppm to 350, "and we've got to do it fast," referring to the droughts in Texas, hurricane in Vermont, and general climate chaos.
• Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club described how the Club and others had defeated 153 coal power plants, including 10 in Texas in one day.  He asked the crowd, "Can we do this?"  (create a clean energy future) and the crowd roared back, "Yes!"
• Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org described the world wide demonstrations going on and declared that it is a lie to characterize environmentalists as white, privileged people.  He said that the movement is composed all peoples, and the ones most affected--e.g. in Ruanda or Bangladesh--are "the people who have done almost nothing to cause the problem"  Click here for more about the worldwide demonstrations.  McKibben also talked about the arrests at the White House earlier this month to get President Obama to block the Keystone XL pipeline and said that "When Obama said, 'Let's be the generation that finally frees us from the tyranny of oil' we took him seriously. . . Now we have to put things on the line" to make him accountable. He ended by saying that we have to "beat back the power of money. . . It's only the power of money that is holding us back now."
• Other speakers included legendary environmentalist Carl Anthony, Mayor of Richmond, CA Gail McLaughlin speaking about their efforts to make Chevron accountable, and Robert Raburn of the BART board and East Bay Bicycle Coalition.

The event was very good, but I do have one quibble--none of the speakers mentioned electric vehicles as an important part of the solution.  I certainly support bicycles, controls on sprawl, public transit, and pedestrian improvements.  But even with all of these positive measures, we still need to convert all vehicles to electricity, generated by renewable energy, if we are to have any hope of cutting CO2 to 350 ppm.  For example, even if we rebuild all U.S. cities to be as dense and transit/bike/pedestrian friendly as San Francisco--which would cost trillions of dollars and take many decades--we would still need to convert all the cars to electric, since 62% of all trips in San Francisco are by auto (source:  San Francisco County Transportation Agency). 

But I don't mean to be negative.  The parade and the rally were very positive steps.  We need to continue these types of events to build awareness of what must be done.

Here are some photos of the event:

Moving Planet Rally at City Hall

Electric Vehicles on parade

State Senator Mark Leno

Carl Anthony and Bill McKibbin (2nd & 3rd from right)

Michael Brune & John Avalos (SF Board of Supervisors) holding 350 sign with Gail McLaughlin speaking

Hot off the press: "U.S. main obstacle to pact on slowing global warming"

This headline comes from an Oakland Tribune article dated September 21, 1991.  We sure have come a long way since then. . . NOT.

The article, by Didrikke Schanche of the Associated Press, states, "The United States . . . says too little is known about global warming and its possible causes and that the estimated costs of compliance with mandatory reductions is too great".  Speaking about the talks in Nairobi Kenya, the article quotes Adam Markham of the World Wide Fund for Nature--"It's not a tenable position for the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter to say there's not enough science available or enough political will to reduce carbon dioxide emission."  The article explains that carbon dioxide from "burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. . . traps heat in the Earth's atmospher much like the glass on a greenhouse roof. . . .Scientists with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. . .predict that if manmade emissions of carbon dioxide are allowed to continue unchecked, gradual atmospheric warming could wreak havoc."

Welcome to the new world that 20 years of failing to address the problem has created.

The problem with the media

Here are two ads that I noticed recently:

From the Oakland Tribune 9-21-11 (The ad was too big for my scanner so I took a photo of it.)

From Scientific American October, 2011.  The same ad ran in the New Yorker in the September 5, 2011 issue.  Scientific American also had a full page ad from BP and a half page from Shell.

What is this all about?  I think there are two reasons Chevron's (and other oil companies) ad campaign:

1.  Following Abraham Lincoln's adage that "You can fool some of the people all of the time", these ads hope to convince the gullible that oil companies are their friend.  The first ad--"Oil Companies should put their profits to good use.  We Agree"-- points to "thousands of jobs" and "boosting small business" as if Chevron were some sort of charity.  Compared to the many more thousands of jobs that could be provided by renewable energy, without the environmental destruction, Chevron's claim is a sad ploy to cover up their bloated profits.  The second ad--"The World needs more than oil.  We agree"--refers to Chevron's natural gas project in Australia as an alternative to oil.  It doesn't mention that the project has serious environmental impacts (as reported by The True Cost of Chevron) and that natural gas, like oil, is a greenhouse gas. 

2.  Even more important than the public relations is the bribe factor.  When oil companies take out full page ads in a magazine or newspaper, that periodical is thoroughly compromised.  That is particularly discouraging in the case of Scientific American, which ran a very good article in Novermber 2009 on renewable energy, but has been rather quiet on the subject since then in spite of the worsening global warming crisis and the advances being made in renewables.

The situation brings to mind the Gil Scott Heron song, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".  We just have to work and build this movement without depending on the sold out media.  It's not impossible.  When I first went to the gay pride marches in San Francisco in the early 1970s, there were many tens of thousands of people at these parades.  They were rollicking, riotous, hilarious, and full of fun.  But you never heard a whisper about the event in the papers or on TV before it happened.  Yes, there was coverage afterwards, but never anything that could be construed as supporting the events.  But the LGBT community, led by Harvey Milk, made itself a political powerhouse that could not be ignored.  Similarly, I never heard of an anti-Vietnam war march being publicized in the media--even when there were 200,000 people in San Francisco at a march in 1972, no one expected the media to cover it in a supporting way, or publicize it in advance.

So the reality is that we need to win this the old fashioned way--by convincing people to believe their eyes (and all of their other senses and their brains) that tell them that the planet is in danger, and that we have to stop using fossil fuels.  The answers are here--solar/wind power, conservation, and electric cars.  We have to elect people who get it, and make sure people do not vote for anyone in the pay of the oil companies. 

We're small now, but as Victor Hugo said, there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.

More good news for electric cars

Add another plus for electric cars--besides saving the planet from global warming, being cheaper than internal combustion engines, ending the need for wars for oil, and being fun to drive--they are also safer to drive.

The Drive Section of the Oakland Tribune on September 17 reported that the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt earned "the highest safety ratings" from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  Both cars have advanced air bag systems, which contributed to the high rating.  The other advantage is that these cars are small, but they are heavy, which means they fare well in serious crashes.  I'm hoping I don't have to experience that, but it is a good feeling to drive a very solid, sturdy car like the Volt.

Collapse of Solyndra

You've probably heard--the solar company Solyndra declared bankruptcy two years after the U.S. Department of Energy gave them a loan guarantee for $535 million.  The first I heard of this was a cartoon in the Chicago Tribune showing a gravestone marked "Solar Energy".  The Republicans are making a lot of noise about this failure, both to take shots at President Obama, and to deride solar power.  Here are three points to consider:

1.  The reason Solyndra failed is that the price of solar power is dropping faster than the company could compete.  According to the SF Chronicle 9/18/11 "Solyndra had production costs of about $4 per watt in late 2009, while its competitors could make cells at $1.25 a watt."  The article also adds "In the first eight months of this year, solar cell prices fell another 42 percent, by the Energy Department's estimate."  So I would read this as great news for solar energy--the price of solar is already competitive with fossil fuels and is poised to dive right past.  I'm hoping that in a few years there will be no reason not to install solar on every home.

2.  While Republicans may deride the Obama administrations funding of Solyndra, it is really the Republican policy of blocking effective action that led to this.  Rather than subsidizing any particular firm, it would be far wiser to put a cap or a tax on greenhouse gases and let market forces pick the best way to go.  Right now we are doing the opposite--subsidizing fossil fuels so their price is much lower than it should be, even without counting all the environmental costs.  It is the Republicans who have blocked every attempt to end subsidies for big oil and coal, and even modest cap and trade proposals.  This led Obama to the risky course of trying to pick a promising technology and subsidizing it. 

3.  An opinion piece in the Oakland Tribune on September 10 by County Supervisor Keith Carson and Karen Engel of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance points out that the East Bay has dozens of "not only solar companies, but biofuel producers, battery manufacturers, fuel-cell developers, electric vehicles, grid management, green builidng, and recycling enterprises."  This is a dynamic and robust industry.  As such there are bound to be many more firms that fail than those that succeed, but the forward direction of these green, sustainable technologies is unmistakable.

Two Cents per Mile

Back in 1969 I had a Dodge Dart that got 16 miles per gallon.  Back then gas cost about 32 cents per gallon, so it cost me 2 cents per mile to drive (32 cents/16 miles).  Pretty cheap, even in those days.

Today our Chevy Volt gets 3.3 miles per kilowatt hour.  PG&E charges us about 6 cents per kilowatt hour for charging midnight to seven AM (including fixed charges to connect to the grid and to read the meter).  So that is 6 cents per kwh divided by 3.3 miles per kwh = 1.8 cents per mile!  Just to keep it simple, I just say that it costs 2 cents per mile to drive.  Really cheap, much cheaper than 1969 when you include inflation!

A Modest Proposal for Oakland's Mayor Quan

Dear Mayor Quan,

When cigarettes were shown to cause cancer, cigarette companies were required to put warnings on the boxes.  Now that we are virtually certain that burning fossil fuels (and thereby releasing CO2) causes global warming/climate change, which threatens all of civilization, why don't we require all gas stations in Oakland to post a warning on their pump.  Something like:

"WARNING:  Burning gasoline adds greenhouse gases to the air, increasing the threat of serious climate change.  The City of Oakland urges you to economize on the use of gasoline and seek alternatives such as public transit, bicycles, and electric cars powered by renewable energy."

Ultimately we need to move beyond fossil fuels as www,350.org has shown, but this warning label would be a step in the right direction.  Such action would probably create a hysterical reaction from the oil companies and their paid global warming deniers, but somebody has to stand up to these anti-science people.  Chemistry doesn't compromise; we have to stop dumping CO2 into the atmosphere.

sent 9-18-11

KIIRA EV ( UGANDA )

The KIIRA EV is Uganda's solution to sustainable transportation for Africa's urban cities. KIIRA EV is a concept car that is 100% electric; It seats 2 people, is styled compact and designed to meet needs of Africa's expanding urban environment. An 18 horse power motor drives the KIIRA EV to a top speed of 60mph. The KIIRA EV was designed by Makerere University at the College of Engineering and Technology's Centre For Research in Transportation Technologies (CRTT). The Vehicle Design Project (VDP) is part of the CRTT that sets the stage for this ambitious venture which will lead to more advanced concepts in transportation technologies. The KIIRA EV is the concept car that ushers in the era of green energy technology to power vehicles for the African continent.

More details will be released in the coming weeks.

Two Of A Kind Roundup

For this month's challenge called Two Of A Kind we made some serious demands that all builders had to adhere to...otherwise they could suffer the wrath of the Headless Buddha ...whatever that means. First we demanded they must build not one, but two things. Second, both things had to match in color scheme and in design. You see, there is a phenomenon that happens at races and car shows. Often we see a prize winning vehicle accompanied by perhaps a trailer, speedboat, motorcycle, snack cooler, or surf board that matches the color scheme and design of the original. Merely building a red car and a red speedboat is not enough to satisfy the demands of the challenge but a red car and speedboat both with silver rally stripes, exposed chromed out engines, and bubble dome windows...now we're talking! What you have then is a cohesive team, a family portrait, if you will that looks as if it was designed and labored over by the same person. Chances are, they were. So with these rules in mind, lets take a look at the entries.

First we have Ace and his...uh...well he...um. You see, its this vehicle...and...uh. Then it sort of does this other thing. Um...you see, we were supposed to build two things and...um. Well, it sort of...you know. Yeah.



 Lets read the rules again. Seems like DrZapp had the right idea with this Hot Rod Caravan. The trailer matches the overall 60's era design and color scheme of the hot rod that lugs it. Neat!



 If you're like me you've probably woken up handcuffed naked to a dumpster with no recollect of what happened and no clue as to where your wallet is. C'mon, don't deny it, we've all been there, right? Right? Anyway, if you're like me you may also really enjoy this sleek yellow and black pickup and matching trailer as built by Legogil.



You take a surf board, plus a hot rod, plus a straight four, plus some dark blue and white and you get this cool duo built by Jonathan Derksen. The refreshing six pack of cokes are a great touch. Jonathan tells us this chopped little creation is yet unnamed and elicits a name from all of us. Might I suggest Zipperhead Snickerdoodle Copperbottom? No? Aw, c'mon!



Speaking of weird names, Shunazaver has aliens on the brain with this Eloyan Motors Extraterrestrial Off Road Rover model ALBERT. This is made complete with Mahjqa style power functions and either a stratospheric/ ionospheric tow sensor or a golf bag...one or the other. My money is on the golf bag.



With a name like Bobofrutx our next builder is probably an interstellar bounty hunter hellbent on chasing Han Solo across the galaxy. Or maybe he's a vending machine that dispenses fruit. Whatever he is, he's a man of very few words, which is fine, as he lets this Land Crawler speak for itself. There's a lot of neat techniques used here.



Strange crop circles have been mysteriously showing up around here and the likely culprit may be this custom '66 Dodge A-100 Alien Crop Circle Maker as built by Lino Martins. Done up in Alien Conquest colors, this van features bubble windows, a light up, spaced-out interior, UFO sound and rampside door and a feature that makes the whole shebang appear to be levitating! Eerie!

You know what else is eerie? How yet again, Nathan Proudlove builds the same thing I've built without planning it...in this case the '66 Dodge A-100 pickup version (which I almost built). This has happened or nearly happened several times already and its enough to get us both a little spooked. Perhaps its brainwaves, similar chemistry, nature, nurture...or maybe even unseen forces at work. Either way, the Canadian style Boler trailer is pretty neat.



New guy Felipe Descomplicado chimes in for the first time with this duo of gear trucks called The Spear and The Mallus. The yellow is the factory standard version while the red and white is the customized edition. The point of the challenge was slightly missed by not designing two things with the same color scheme and overall design, but you can't help but enjoy the neat techniques used. I'd say Felipe will be a good addition to the LUGNuts team.


When any of you disappear for a while I worry like a Jewish mother. Miss a month and I can only assume you've been accosted by bloodthirsty homicidal vampire maniacs. Its what my own mother worries I'm up to almost daily. But thankfully Sangi13 is still amongst the living and totally making up cars as evidenced by this 2012 Sangerati Di Lusso SS with trailer.



Also thankfully amongst the living is Ricecracker and his Mercedes Actros Car Transporter. Its yellow with these black and red wavy things. And there's a couple of cars on it. Yeah. Zipperhead Snickerdoodle Copperbottom. Stratosperic/ ionosperic tow sensor golf bag...OK, phew, I used my 3-5 lines. Lets move on.



Dover is my real life boss at the LEGO store. When not yelling at me to quit dicking around and get some work done for once, he enters a challenge...for once...with this neat truck. Before the ADU was the Alien Defense Unit, it was the Alien Discovery Unit. These good ol' boys were just having a good time, listening to music and looking for life on other worlds when these green skinned hooligans came along in a Dodge A-100 and cramped their style by defacing fields of wheat. (Who, me? I wasn't me, officer, really!) It was all out war after that.



When TechnicFenix13 hears Two Of A Kind, he hears two of almost exactly the same thing. Here we have what looks like a slightly modified 4404 set towing another 4404 set...also slightly modified. There is nothing like a heavy off-road vehicle towing another almost identical heavy off-road vehicle to unknown off-road destinations. Nice view outside the window there. Surely there are no bloodthirsty homicidal vampire maniacs out there.



You take a classic 1957 Chevrolet Cameo pickup truck, lose its usual factory standard red trim and instead give it a twist of lime and you get this sleek creation built by The Big Rafalski. The ice skate blades used on the hood are a nice touch. Ben only had time to build one truck, but in a challenge that demands at least two things what's a Big Rafalski to do?

 

Well, The Big Rafalski recruits the help of...The Big...uh...Ralph-aski. Finally I get to use that joke! The challenge states you can team up with a buddy so Ralph Savelsberg delivers the newer lime and white counterpart with a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado sports truck. Being a true European, Ralph doesn't understand the point of the whole custom sport truck phenomenon but for the rest of us, there is plenty to love about these old and new Chevy siblings.



Yep, its true. Most Europeans love their cars pristine and factory standard while Americans seem to like 'em customized beyond recognition. Curtydc must be an American as evidenced by this pair of custom chopped Deuces. Once again the point is slightly missed by having a pair with different colors but you can't help but overlook that to great style and build techniques.



Spanning both worlds of being American and European and spending half the year in each place is Raphy. Here he asks the question...What wonders could this Porsche Renntransporter hold? Is it a ham and cheese sandwich? A doggy treat? The secret to life itself? Turns out its four more little Porsches crammed tightly in the back. Neat!





Smoke 'em if you got 'em! That's what Lego911 would say with this Toyota Celica ST205 TTE WRC Marlboro sponsored racer. He tells us this car was disqualified in '95 for...smoking in a movie theatre? Selling cigarettes to kids? Demanding a break from work every hour to alleviate the nicotine fits? No, for cheating...which is just as bad, really.



So how does Peter's solo car qualify? Well he teamed up with none other than Dylan Denton with his counterpart, a 1998 Toyota Corolla WRC in the same red and white Cowboy Killer color scheme. Both builders are against smoking, which is good. It seems the only people who smoke anymore are rebellious teens with mullets and rednecks...also with mullets.



 Lego911 would not be lego911 if he didn't post multiple entries. He chimes in much later in the challenge with this neat pair of '76 Fords done up in '76 color scheme. One is a Pinto Cruising Wagon and the other is the Ford Cruising van. The style and composition are taken from an ad back in '76 within the pages of National Geographic.



That was a good retro way to end our challenge but what happens when we look to the future...a future of Alternate Fuels? In this month's new challenge anything goes...anything except gasoline powered cars. My ignorance was already pointed out when it was made clear that diesel is not really an alternate fuel in Europe but rather the standard. Oh well...there are still other options to choose from, everything from solar power, to wind, to chocolate to organic human waste. Gross! A future where cars run on poo...is it viable? Or should we just forget the future all together and go with steam power? We'll just have to wait and see what next month brings us. And speaking of next month, who's going to BrickCon? I sure am. Hope to see you there. Until then, happy building everyone! Oh, and I've never been handcuffed naked to a dumpster. it was all just a ruse to entertain you readers. I hope it worked.

Bill McKibbin in Oakland

Last night Bill McKibbin spoke at the Chabot Space and Science Center about global warming.  You may know that McKibbin is the founder of 350.org, the group that has done more worldwide than anyone to publicize the need to stop burning fossil fuels.  He also led in organizing the recent protests at the White House where over 1200 people were arrested protesting the Keystone XL pipeline to Canada's tar sands.  Obama is expected to rule on the pipeline this fall.  And McKibbin is a prolific author, starting in 1989 with The End of Nature, the first book about global waming written for a popular audience. 

His latest book is  Eaarth, subtitled, Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.  Eaarth (pronounced with sort of an Arnold Schwarzenegger/German umlaut ä sound) makes the point that we've already radically changed the climate by going past 350 parts per million  of CO2.  He referred to the photos of earth from the Apollo mission in the late 1960s, showing a gleaming blue-white planet against the blackness of space.  But now that planet (or at least the climate it had) no longer exists.  There is 40% less arctic ice in the summer, the oceans are 30% more acidic--it's a new world.

Jack and Ayda Lucero Fleck with Bill McKibbin in Oakland 9/9/2011

Rather than recite the many examples in his book, McKibbin listed some of the catastrophic weather events since the book went to press in late 2009. 

• record heat (129 degrees F!) in Pakistan followed by record floods caused by 12 feet of rain in a week where there is normally 3 feet of rain in a year.
• 8 days with temperatures over 100 degrees in Russia, where it had never even been 100 before, and the consequent damage to the wheat harvest driving up wheat prices by 70%
• the drought in Somalia and Texas now going on.  Texas and Oklahoma had their hottest summers ever by large margins
• the rain on September 8 in Binghamton, NY where they had 60% more rain in one day than ever before, and the previous record was set just last year
• Vermont, his home state, where 150-200 year old covered bridges were washed away by Hurricane Irene

And, he added, the 1 degree Celsius increase that we have today, is "just the beginning" with emphasis on each of those words.

He stressed that the climate science models are "clear and robust."  We have to get off of coal and gas or "we will have 4-5 degrees C of warming before the century is out.  And civilization can't deal with 4-5 degrees C of warming."

He stated, "The climate scientists have done their job," adding that there is a consensus among scientists that this temperature increase will happen if we keep burning fossil fuels.  If anything "scientists are conservative, and underestimate" the changes, he continued.

He also said, "Engineering has worked."  i.e. we have the technology to provide renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

So the problem is that "the political method has failed.  We have a 20 year bi-partisan record of doing absolutely nothing."  And the reason is the "power of the fossil fuel industry. . . . Exxon made more money last year than any company in the history of money"  With that money "to block and stall [legislation for reducing greenhouse gases] is the easiest thing in the world."

Three and a half years ago, he and a small group of students founded 350.org, because they realized that we "need a movement to press for real change."  They hit on the idea of using arabic numerals, since these are used worldwide and "cross linguistic boundaries."  Their first day of action, October 24, 2009, sparked 5,100 demonstrations in over 100 countries.  At Copenhagen, later that year, the goal of 350 ppm was endorsed by 117 nations.  But he explained with irony, "They were the wrong nations. . .they were the poor and vulnerable."  In 2010, 350.org organized 7,400 demonstrations--a "global work party" in every country except North Korea.  They were given a boost when the head of the Eastern Orthodox church gave a sermon where he said, "Global warming is a sin, and 350 ppm is an act of redemption."  This year on September 24, the theme of the actions will be "moving planet", focusing on transportation.  (Right down the alley of this blog, but more on that in a moment)

McKibbon went on to discuss why the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrations are so important.  He explained that the tar sands represent "the second largest pool of carbon on earth," next to the Saudi Arabia oil fields.  Burning the tar sands would put another 150 parts per million of CO2 into the atmosphere.  He quoted NASA climate scientist James Hansen, saying that this would be "game over" for the attempt to stop global warming.  So he and another 1200 or so people put their bodies on the line to oppose the pipeline.  He asked, "Who are the radicals?  Not us.  The radicals work for the oil companies--changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere is a radical action.  We are the conservatives, trying to preserve the atmosphere."  He urged the audience to visit tar sands action to learn more.

The question I raised my hand to ask was, "Would you agree that to reach 350 ppm we need to go to 100% renewable energy and 100% electric cars?, and if so, how can we get there?"

However, there were a lot of hands up and the first question also concerned cars.  The questionner commented on President Obama's speech the night before, which called for strengthening the auto industry to sell cars to China.  The questionner felt that was unfortunate.  McKibbin's answer to that was to agree that "simply more of the same is not possible" and that we "need to change course."  My reaction to that answer was that it was too vague; it didn't acknowledge that the auto industry could switch to electric cars instead of internal combustion engines.  The question was an opportunity to point out that the auto industry is not the same as the oil industry and that they could part ways.  So I rasied my hand again.

The second person called on was more of a like mind with me.  She pointed out that she is having her Prius converted to a plug-in and that this was something everyone could do.  McKibbin answered that "we can't solve the problem one house at a time", and that "we need a price on carbon."  Now I agree with both of these statements, but they don't really address the woman's point--we can all start planning now to switch to electric cars (and I would add, solar panels) as part of a massive effort to eliminate fossil fuels.  I also notice that his answer avoided the issue of cap and trade, which I also feel is part of the solution.

Since that question was pretty close to my own, I felt his answer to my question would be pretty much the same.  So I didn't keep my hand raised for the remainder of the questions.

Afterwards I spoke with Bill during the book signing about a comment he made regarding Copenhagen.  He remarked that one of the only good things about the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009 was that people got to see a city with so many bike paths and cyclists, where "bicycle congestion" is a problem, adding that we should all be so lucky.  I said that I thought bikes and transit were important parts of the solution, but he should know that even though Copenhagen has 50% of its trips by bicycle, 80% of its vehicle miles are by auto, i.e people use cars for longer trips.  So even Copenhagen needs to switch to electric cars.  I also offered him a chance to drive our Volt, but he had already done that.  I don't think I convinced him to be as enthusiastic about electric cars as I am, but I'm hoping he will add electric cars/solar panels to the list of solutions he offers.  He did speak favorably of Felix Kramer and Cal Cars, which I also heartily agree with (see calcars.org).

All in all, I was very impressed with Bill's energy, commitment, and articulation of the crisis.  He is clearly an outstanding leader of this movement to save the planet.  I wish him every possible success, and hope to keep supporting him and 350.org.

Report from the Heartland

Just spent two weeks visiting family and friends in the Illinois/Michigan area.  I can't say that the outlook there is very bright--the Republicans are very strong and I heard very little about electric cars, solar panels, or even global warming.  One little bright spot was the following cartoon published August 30 in the Peoria Journal Star, a solid Republican newspaper:

I also learned that the Planetarium director in Peoria is also the Green Party candidate for Congress running against very powerful, and sure-to-win, Republican Aaron Schock.  Still, it's good to know someone is willing to stand up for science (speaking as a former lecturer at Peoria's Lakeview Center Planetarium).