Partnerships

Monthly Archives: April 2014

Say What?

This kind of action was bound to happen, but it doesn’t make it any less disturbing. Incredibly, this is the message coming from the utility:

“We’re not anti-solar or anti-wind or trying to slow this down, we’re just trying to keep it fair,” Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman Kathleen O’Shea told the Oklahoman. “We’ve been studying this trend. We know it’s coming, and we want to get ahead of it.”

Instead of doing this, the utilities should be thanking solar and wind installers for adding energy to the grid, allowing the utility to manage peak demand (or growth in demand over time) without having to engage in the very difficult and costly prospect of constructing new power plants.

http://www.nationofchange.org/oklahoma-will-charge-customers-who-install-their-own-solar-panels-1397746449

It’s April So the Mainstream Media is Covering Climate Change

Earth Day is April 22nd… so we can enjoy a month (some are now referring to April as Earth Month) of better than usual coverage of things related to our environment. Great. Let’s see if the coverage is wider and deeper than in years past. Tonight, NBC is airing a Climate Change special report by Ann Curry at 7pm Eastern Time. Tomorrow, a nine episode series begins called Years of Living Dangerously, complete with a line up of Hollywood types. It will air on cable TV but it is also available on YouTube for free.

 In spite of the fact that scientists often cringe when the media oversimplifies and misreports subtleties, the gist of what programs like these present are essential to getting “people out there” to tune in to important issues. The days of coddling the population with limited information because, “people get depressed and feel hopeless” when they hear environmentalist doom and gloom are over—well it’s about time. It is past the time for all of us to face the need to move past fossil fuel use. It is time to toughen up and get busy.

Here is a trailer for the nine part series: http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com