It’s not definite yet, but Logan, Utah has taken a step that could become the blueprint for greener cities all over the west: offering incentives for residents to install renewable energy, in this case, solar. The city acknowledges that the initial investment will be big and return slow- at least financially. But that’s how renewable energy or any other investment works. You pay up front and you reap the benefits over time. Only there are benefits here that overshadow all the others: healthier, cleaner air and decreased use of dwindling, non-renewable natural resources like oil and coal. Other smaller cities like Ft. Collins, Colorado, whose commitment to and vision of a renewable future are a subject in the latest edition of Solar Today magazine (January, not December), have already taken giant leaps in defining America’s energy future, with and without federal or other government support. On behalf of the Utah Solar Energy Association and myself, I congratulate Logan and wish them good luck. Call us!
FYI: Logan also has an abundance of geothermal energy underground they’re not even using yet! My podcasts about geothermal in Iceland is due out in January. Watch for it here!
After 30 years in TV news, I learned one of a number of big lessons. Among them: more than any other so-called deity, weather people are true gods. I maintain that weather is the only useful thing on TV news programs anymore. A good weather person can make or break your entire department. Even the lowest of consultants (redundant?) will confirm you must win the Weather War to win the Ratings War. With growing concerns over global warming, substantiated by 
Maybe I’m still simmering in the afterburn of the holidays. But after thirty years in the news business and five years out, I don’t know how anyone in the toxic world of modern journalism can have a positive outlook at anything. I’ve developed a theory that people with a keen sense of reality are the most likely candidates for depression- medical condition or not. I sometimes consider my time away from the newsroom a recovery period.
Personally, 2007 was a fantastic year for me. New business, new doc, new solar power system. And I didn’t develop environmentally-induced asthma. A lot to feel good about. But like my late father, I have this mutant gene that makes it impossible for me to enjoy anything too long. After all, when you think about it, 2007 was not a good year for a lot of folks nor our increasingly endangered planet. Bush vs. Earth, Iraq, our collapsing fossil fuel-based economy, education, the housing crisis- not much in Washington or within its clammy clutches to feel good about. I’m usually the last and least likely to look at the bright side of things. But 2008 is going to be better. I know it. To begin with, Bush is finally going away (hopefully back under the rock he and Dick Chen-link slithered from). Their parting shots are going to make defending ourselves from the calculated-now-chronic incompetence and corruption an even bigger challenge. But at least we’ve had a lot of practice. Then there’s the election. Sure, there’s not one decent candidate but the good news is ANYONE’S GOING TO BE BETTER. But the best news is America’s emerging from the Dark Age with a new attitude toward Nature, technology, and how we can better use both to save ourselves and everything else. Renewable energy’s future is now. We know something’s going on with the globe’s climate and that we are powerful enough to do something about it whether we caused it or not. I’ve got all sorts of great new projects coming up next year I can’t wait to start that related to renewable energy, Nature and other stuff. My changes in attitude, changes in latitude will be reflected in this blog. So if you’re expecting the same, old grumpy Landscape in 2008, you and I will both be surprised. But one thing’s for sure: 2008 is going to be better. Because I said so.
