Schreiner’s Media Landscape

August 15, 2010

Solar Power Growth in Utah Finally Paying Off? Major Developments Prove The Sun is Too Big to Fail

Filed under: Earth, Environment, Legislature, Obama, Power Grid, Salt Lake, Schreiner Productions, Solar, Utah, coal, conservation, mining, politics, renewable, video — Ken Schreiner @ 9:48 am

It’s been four years since we went solar. It started with Solarius Precarious (pic left), our 2 kWh, sun-tracking array in November 2006 (it went on-line in March 2007). We expanded our commitment in January 2010 with the installation of our solar hot water system (video below). During this time, we’ve felt strangely alone. Not only do the vast majority of people not share our beliefs, commitment, and investment. Many of them still consider us stupid, crazy, and perhaps even dangerous.

After a couple of years endlessly talking about and promoting solar energy- part of my role as director for the Utah Solar Energy Association which I left in 2009 after three years- I’ve pretty much stopped. In conversation or at parties, I still get the blank disinterested looks, the angry eco-terrorist-in-our-midst reactions, and more than anything, the I-just-don’t-get-it capitulation. It’s at that point I cease my ramblings and return to the subjects of other people’s kids, movies, celebrity scandals, and the other stuff most people seem to care about.

Throw in the lousy economy and a president who seems to have abandoned his commitment to clean energy and solar appears to be a dead issue. But a couple of developments the past few days have me encouraged again. First,

the Salt Lake Tribune ran this article today about the growth of Utah’s solar industry. There are woefully few articles about the subject here despite the fact that we are one of the best places in the world to have solar. FYI: I

was featured in one of the few in the Deseret News last year (pic from the article at right). Things have definitely improved in Utah from when I got here in 2006. But the change has been glacial, mostly because of the ruling

Republican Party’s blind allegiance to coal, the fossil fuel lobby, the bad economy, and lack of effective renewable energy industry lobbyists.

Second, my commitment, promotion, and knowledge of solar power may have scored my biggest renewable energy video gig. I can’t give out details yet. I’ll know more this week and report it here. All I can tell you is it’s big- really big. That’s why I’m so excited about solar again. Not just for me but for the entire planet. Things are indeed changing for the better. And it makes me want to talk about it again- even if I still get the blank looks and have to talk about other people’s kids first.

April 21, 2010

Corruption in Utah Legislature, Carl Wimmer Create Credibility Problem for Tea Party

Filed under: America, Legislature, Utah, dualism, gun, politics — Ken Schreiner @ 9:04 am

“I often watch my children as they sleep, and I let my mind wander into the future. What will they become? Who will they be? What will their future hold? It is this last question that disturbs me.”

- Utah State Represenative/Tea Party activist Carl Wimmer

Angry White Men with Guns a.k.a. the Tea Party and all the other fledgling angry white man organizations are big in Utah as you might expect from the most right-wing state in the union. But what’s interesting here is that members of perhaps the most ethically-compromised and morally-selective political body in America, the Republican-run Utah state legislature, are not only sympathetic to the racist, pro-violence, anti-freedom-for-anyone-except-me cause. Some actively support it, even as they represent the very people the Tea Party ostensibly abhors.

Case in point: the furor over former state rep Kevin Garn who resigned after revealing his relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Right after he tearfully stepped down in a bizarre address to his fellow lawmakers/lawbreakers- who creepily rewarded him with a standing O- his entire email account was shut down and emails deleted. The Republican legislature surely knew a criminal investigation of statutory rape would ensue. Heck- THEY MADE THE LAW. But another law they made was one exempting the legislature from any email retention policy like the one THEY PASSED FOR ALL OTHER STATE EMPLOYEES.

So it’s ironic that legislators like Republican Carl Wimmer are members of the Tea Party and other hate groups. And you don’t have to do a lot of research to uncover the hypocrisy. How about this quote from Wimmer’s little diatribe about “liberty” or whatever:

We have elected leaders who have become drunk with power and the love of self. With the single stroke of a pen, our liberties are slowly tarnishing and eroding away. This is why I ran for office. This is why I help found The Patrick Henry Caucus, and this is why I am involved in the Tea Party and 9/12 movements.

If Wimmer cannot see the irony and hypocrisy in this statement, then he truly is as stupid as he appears. And if the Tea Party accepts this kind of liar and hypocrite into their ranks, it speaks volumes as to not only their credibility, but their REAL intentions.

February 12, 2010

Breaking Irony: Utah Republicans Fight to Keep America’s Energy Industry in the 19th Century

Filed under: America, Legislature, Obama, Oil, Power Grid, Solar, Utah, coal, geothermal, mining, nuclear, politics, renewable, wind — Ken Schreiner @ 12:56 pm

The recent Treehugger report on how states are being manipulated by the coal industry and other fossil fuel interests includes special recognition of Utah’s Republican-dominated and easily-manipulated-for-the-right-price legislature. Not only are Utah’s Republicans upholding the most lenient lobby laws in the country, opening the door for virtually unlimited perks and other activity even Illinois would call corruption. They do it in the name of “freedom.” Now that’s irony.

These clowns’ version of “freedom” would have all Americans- not just Utahns- enslaved by coal, gasoline, oil and other fossil fuel products. They would defend the current energy system that enriches our enemies while exposing our nation’s power sources to terrorists, Enron-style criminals, and foreign monopolies. All this while ignoring the fact that Utah has some of the greatest supplies of renewable energy- solar, geothermal, biomass, wind and all the rest- in the world. So why would they fight renewable energy and recommend that President Obama do the same?

Because renewable energy companies are not willing or able to grease the greedy palms of Utah’s cash-hungry government wonks. What the renewable energy industry in Utah is practicing is something we used to call “integrity. ” Utah’s Republican legislators would be well-advised to read some of the swill they’re passing off as legislation before passing it before the eyes of people much smarter and honest than they are.

August 12, 2009

Utah Four-Day Work Week Saves Energy, Money, Employees are Happier; Where are the Republicans to Bash It?

Filed under: Legislature, Oil, Solar, Utah, coal, conservation, geothermal, mining, nuclear, politics, renewable, wind — Ken Schreiner @ 11:09 am

Utah’s not known for being a hotbed of conservation, workers’ rights or anything that looks like a Democrat, Easterner, federal agency, woman or non-white person thought of it. But one such idea looks not only like it’s working but that Utahns actually like it.

It’s the four-day work week for state employees that started one year ago and has now been shown to do what it set out to do: save energy, money, increase productivity and make Utah an even better place. It was the idea of outgoing governor Jon Huntsman who just became ambassador to China. Huntsman was popular among Democrats and most Republicans. But the wacko, right-wing faction of “conservatives” led by a host of clowns never really liked Huntsman because he wasn’t as far right on the spectrum as they require (somewhere between Francisco Franco and Genghis Khan).

To be fair, Utah’s Republican-led government has been admirably fiscally responsible and helped create what is a great place to live, work and play. Where they fail us is in the fields of energy and the environment(continuing to push coal, nuclear and gas use when we have incredible renewable resources and the air here keeps getting worse) and social issues like abortion, homosexual rights, immigration, liquor laws, to name just a few.

I hope Utah’s Republicans step up this time and take credit for doing something that is progressive, environmentally, economically and socially, and improves the efficiency of an already-highly-efficient state government. They may like it so much they stop attacking those who came up with the ideas and take Utah in the direction it should be going- instead of back to the ’50s- the 1850s.

And I hope that Gary Herbert, the former lieutenant governor who’s now the big kahuna, remembers why we elected Huntsman governor and does the right thing by Utah voters.

May 12, 2009

Mike Noel, Paria River ATV Lawbreakers Should Be in Jail

Filed under: ATV, Bush, Legislature, Nature, Sierra Club, Utah, conservation, dualism, forest, sprawl, water — Ken Schreiner @ 8:59 am

It’s funny how right-wing radicals get all warm and gooey when they talk about law and order and defending America. Yet when they themselves deliberately break the laws of this country and dishonor the rights of the majority and get away with it, the irony is not the only thing lost on them. So is America.

So it is that Utah state represenative and national embarassment Mike Noel and some other self-important Kane County muckity-mucks led a charge of 500 lawbreakers on their ATVs this past weekend up the Paria River in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to protest the federal government’s prohibition of motorized vehicles in this sensitive and scenic wilderness area. The U.S. Attorney is now reviewing the photos, tapes and other recordings made of this organized assault on our public lands. But if the the feds were doing their job, the time for mass arrests was Saturday. If it was Amy Goodman driving  up the Paria River, you can bet she’d still be sitting in Kane County Jail. As it is, the lawbreakers are running- and driving- free.

Though they probably don’t realize it (and likely can’t pronounce it), what Noel and his fellow criminals are practicing is not only crime but ANARCHY. While Noel and his idiot elite support the U.S. Attorney in promising to prosecute BLM land lease protestor Tim DeChristopher, they obviously don’t believe they are doing anything wrong or, more importantly, hurting anyone else.

This is where they are most wrong. The Paria River is protected because IT’S FOR EVERYBODY, NOT JUST THEM. In a democracy, when a few lunatics trample, or in this case drive over, the rights of the majority, IT’S CALLED CRIME. Or as it was more recently known, the Bush Administration. When they drive through this or any public land, they are destroying it. There are already lots of other places in Utah and the American west for these criminals to play with their toys and destroy whatever they want- including themselves.

Which brings me to a solution that may satisfy everybody: At the rate that ATV riders are currently dying in accidents, let’s open up the Paria River and every other public land to ATV traffic. And set a minimum speed limit of 50 m.p.h. Hey, I’m trying to help here…

February 24, 2009

Obama Stimulates Salt Lake; Becker, Huntsman Work It While GOP’s Butts Still Filled with Heads

Filed under: America, Bush, Congress, Legislature, Obama, Salt Lake, Utah, politics, renewable — Ken Schreiner @ 10:46 am

Who would’ve guessed that Salt Lake City would be one of the major recipients of the federal rescue cash flowing out of Washington? But that appears to be the case as Mayor Ralph Becker’s returned from Obamaland with sacks of cash for roads, renewable energy and other goodies.

Surely, Utah’s Republicans are stewing over Becker’s coup. They, like a lot of the Loser Party’s more bitter losers, have been publicly wringing their hands over the end of free market capitalism as THEY know it with Obama’s New Big Deal. Some of the losers have been pressuring Republican governors to turn down the cash and some of those even bigger losers, like Mark Sanford of South Carolina, are actually agreeing with them.

Meanwhile, GOPer governors like Utah’s Jon Huntsman (and role model Ah-nold) are not only welcoming the Democrat-sponsored largesse. He’s simultaneously pushing for gay rights: again, right in the face of Utah’s Republicans who’ve been forced to muzzle their lead attack dog- state senator Chris Buttars- not for being a hateful bigot but for vomiting his anti-homosexual bile out of turn.

All of this, combined with the new NYT poll showing America approves of Obama’s actions, make it clear that Utah’s and America’s Republicans are not speaking for the majority of the country’s citizens. In fact, they look like a tattered band of vanquished gang members struggling to regain their turf by setting the entire country on fire.

I know because that’s exactly what they’ve been doing for the past 15 years. More proof that some people  just don’t change- even though they should have a long time ago. They still don’t realize that their divisiveness, belligerence and arrogance are making true unifying moderates like Obama, Becker and Huntsman look like real statesmen.

What a concept.

February 22, 2009

Chris Buttars’ Ironic Crusade: Utah Legislators Hail Hollywood- Hold the Homos

Filed under: California, Legislature, Utah, documentary, dualism, media, politics, religion — Ken Schreiner @ 11:26 am

One of the great things about the Radical Religious Right (just connect the tops of KKK and you get RRR) is that they provide an inexhaustible supply of irony and hypocrisy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the current debate over homosexual rights in the Republican-dominated Utah legislature. In yet another flaming example of money-based ideology and shaking someone’s hand while stabbing them in the back with the other, Utah’s elected “leaders” are bashing gays and lesbians while courting an industry those people helped create and are instrumental in running.

David Geffen, Barry Diller, Isaac Mizrahi and other openly gay media moguls are probably laughing their- no, not going there- off right now as Utah Republicans push a bill giving the film industry incentives to produce here just as the same political geniuses allow boneheaded bigots like Chris Buttars to slobber about homosexuals being “more dangerous than al-Qaeda” and an “abomination.”

Forget that the party disciplined Buttars for spewing his hate to a documentary producer in violation of the party’s secret agreement. The GOPhers admit “agreeing” with most of what Buttars says and clearly support his political position while merely slapping him down for not following instructions to keep their institutionalized hatred in the closet.

If I was a Hollywood executive, crew member or big star- many of whom are already boycotting Utah after the LDS church’s active support of California’s anti-gay Proposition 8- I wouldn’t take their stupid incentives unless they made homosexual rights part of the bill. I mean, if you follow Chris Buttars’ logic, why don’t we just invite Osama bin Laden to visit Utah and stay free at Grand America?

In the meantime, the Republican Party here continues to alienate the very industry they court. That’s HURTING UTAH’S ECONOMY and local media companies like me who fuel state commerce. HOLLYWOOD GETS IT, UTAH’S REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS DON’T. It’s political hardball, something Utah’s Republican legislators understand and love to play. But what they don’t get- and maybe never will- is that when it comes to human rights, justice and freedom, it’s not just about money. Cash is just the weapon, not the war.

And that’s why this a battle they will lose.

February 19, 2009

Chris Buttars’ Anti-Gay Ravings, Prop 8ers Don’t Represent Utah

Filed under: Legislature, Salt Lake, Utah, politics, religion — Ken Schreiner @ 11:01 am

Caution: Lunatic legislator loose. His name is Chris Buttars, a Republican from suburban Salt Lake. This is a guy whose crusades include requiring store clerks to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”, keeping as many non-whites as possible out of Utah, and preventing homosexuals from marrying or basically doing anything other than hiding in the closet.

In his latest interview, Buttars says gays are more dangerous than al-Qaeda. This kind of statement would normally be only attributed to a radical Christian, “recovered” homosexual or member of al-Qaeda. But this is a state legislator. You can imagine what the REST of the legislature is like.

Who Buttars exactly represents besides himself has been a question floating around the state for years. But it sure isn’t the people of Utah. Every poll done recently shows most Utahns support equal rights for homsexuals. When it comes to gay marriage, they’re not as supportive but that’s in line with the rest of the country’s opinions.

Buttars keeps getting elected, which says just as much about the people who live in his district as him. But as we’ve seen with dangerous demagogues like Joe McCarthy, Jerry Falwell, and Rush Limbaugh, there comes a time when the elected bodies, organizations or other groups they’re associated with tell them to shut up or get rid of them entirely to preserve the “integrity” of the institution these elitist, egotistical idiots claim to represent. Unfortunately, people still listen to Limbaugh- but probably only because their radio dials are stuck after decades of not moving.

Maybe that’s why the Republican Party and radical Christian Right are shrinking so rapidly. But what appears to be happening is instead of getting rid of the so-called leaders, the members are getting rid of themselves. Works for me. But with Buttars, the legislature can no longer simply ignore the ignoramus. They must clearly take action to stop him from embarrassing Utah any further than the Prop 8 debacle already has. Otherwise, our state will lose what credibility and influence we have left.

Or maybe just a little Valium would help. Like a bottle or two.

January 30, 2009

Blagojevich Impeached: Illinois Just the Poster Child for America’s Cultural Political Corruption

Filed under: America, California, Legislature, Utah, dualism, politics, religion — Ken Schreiner @ 10:00 am

I was born in Illinois and lived off and on there for about 32 of my 55 years. The brand of corruption practiced there is not much different from that I’ve witnessed in the seven other states I’ve lived in, not excluding the federal government. It’s just more widespread. And Rod Blagojevich is just the latest public official to be figuratively hanged by a political system operated by people who would do exactly the same things he did given the chance. That’s all this is: political infighting.

While the rest of the country, especially the high and mighty here in Utah (the Prop 8 state famous for its special brand of selective “ethics” and intervention in other states’ moral issues), wag their fingers at Illinois and cry “shame,” they all know their own governments are engaging in the same backroom machinations right now. Only the names and stakes may be different.

Government ethics are a hot issue before the Utah legislature right now after the last few years of obvious conflicts of interests, money exchanged right in the capitol building and an entrenched Republican majority thumbing their nose at the taxpayers and reformers who stand dumb-struck and discouraged by the arrogance.

No one here actually believes our legislature, which appears to represent the interests of some sort of Bizarro Utah, will do anything to alter (or is that “altar”?) the quid pro or status quo. But we do know they will continue to self-righteously ridicule Illinois, California and other morally-inferior provinces for their sins while ignoring the famous and ironic biblical admonition:

Luke 4:23. And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

January 27, 2009

Utah Microbreweries Get Long-Deserved Writeup in New York Times

Filed under: Legislature, Utah — Ken Schreiner @ 10:43 am

cutthroat200badgeOne of the first things I noticed about Utah when I moved here in summer of 2006 was that it actually had locally-produced beer. GREAT beer. You could go to any grocery store and pick up a six, eight or twelve-pack of any one of a number of products from Wasatch, Uinta, Squatters or several other Utah breweries. I’m a particular fan of Squatter’s seasonal Bobsled Brown Ale and Uinta’s Cutthroat Pale.

The honors, medals and international acclaim bestowed upon Utah’s beer makers are many. But perhaps the most important endorsement of all comes with a huge article about Utah’s beer producers in the New York Times. One of the things that attracts tourists to any destination is the availablility of the things they love. Alcohol is obviously one of those things. But until recently, the Utah Legislature and Mormon-dominated social hierarchy have resisted giving up the tight control they exercise over the alcohol industry here. The LDS Church forbids drinking alcoholic beverages.

But alcohol laws are going to be a major issue in the new legislative session that began Monday. Tourism has become a huge industry here but visitors are usually stunned to hear about the arcane and often just-plain bizarre regulations of booze. But with the blessing of the Church, the legislature is expected to reform many of the existing laws- albeit while introducing even more arcane ones.

Regardless, getting beer in Utah is not difficult and, when you’re ordering local, it’s worth it. From the way things are going, not only are its availability and demand going to grow, but the quality will improve as well.

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