photo originally uploaded by the chaninator
The mayor of Austin, Texas, today announced the nation’s most aggressive plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, pledging that the Texas state capital and city of 720,000 will go carbon neutral by 2020. The Austin Climate Protection Plan unveiled by Mayor Will Winn should create plenty of opportunities for green tech entrepreneurs, hybrid automakers like Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC), and green building companies. The plan requires that all city facilities be powered with renewable energy by 2012 and that Austin’s municipal fleet go carbon neutral by 2020 by using electric and alternative fuel vehicles. All city departments will develop and implement climate protection plans to reduce their emissions of planet-warming gases.
Thirty percent of the electricity sold by Austin Energy, the city’s municipal-owned utility, must come from renewable sources by 2020. Austin Energy will be required to obtain 100 megawatts of solar power and all new power plants must be carbon neutral – effectively banning coal power in a state where Dallas-based utility TXU (TXU) has enraged environmentalists with its plan to build 11 coal-fired plants. Austin Energy will be required to save 700 megawatts by 2020 through energy efficiency and conservation programs.
Home builders will have to do their part. By 2015, all new homes must be "zero net-energy capable" and energy efficiency in other new construction must increase 75 percent. Austin’s climate plan also calls for community programs to allow individual citizens to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. "This isn’t just the strongest plan in Texas, it’s the strongest plan in the country," said Jim Marston, the regional director of green group Environmental Defense, in a statement. "This is the kind of leadership that makes us proud to live in Austin and hopeful that Texans will accept responsibility for the role we should play in solving this global crisis."
Green Wombat 
“Home builders will have to do their part. By 2015, all new homes must be “zero net-energy capable” and energy efficiency in other new construction must increase 75 percent.”
Why wait till 2015 before we taken action with our homes.
Solar Energy, the Momentum Has Started
Solar energy is the most abundant natural resource we have, and that technology has been around for awhile, but it wasn’t practical from a financial perspective until now. So why should the customer have to pay a premium price for renewable energy when is cost less to produce? When we can provide the average homeowner with the ability to produce their own electricity and keep the saving instead of paying for Commercials, Stadiums and other corporate greed we are making headway in solving our energy crisis.
There is a solution! I recently learned of a company that has figured out how to get Clean, Safe, Affordable Solar Power to the masses, and they do it without requiring any significant investment on the part of the homeowner. That’s right they have taken down the traditional barriers to Solar Power. This company is helping homeowners convert to solar the easy way through a rental agreement. The customer gets a worry free solar system custom designed for 100% of their current consumption of electricity & an electric rate that is frozen at or below today’s rate for up to 25 years. We need to do something; let’s catch the wave that is rolling across the country with Solar Energy. We can be part of the solution and not be part of the problem. This program is an easy way that we can have an impact on the environment and our pocket book. http://www.solarpower4all.com
Putting a stop to sprawl and road building is the real solution that gets to the root of the problem. Sprawl is probably the single largest contributor to global warming and energy use, and road building fuels this. Because America has more than 70% of the population living in sprawl and totally dependent on a car, we waste far more energy than any other country. A major commitment to train systems and transit oriented development is the real solution for America.
Kudos to the Mayor! Forward thinking, and not a mention of the agri-political scam called ethanol!
I lived in Austin for 6yrs. What are they going to do about having trains going North – South of the city or around the central part of Austin. I think that could do a lot of good for Austin. I haven’t been there in a while but always wondered.
rob
I used to live in NYC but thank god I got out. What socialists call sprawl most of us call the American Dream. When they talk about high density housing, most of us think of sardine can living and filthy smelly subways and packed mass tranist. They’ll get me out of my car when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
I’d like to know why these socialists think they have the right to tell others how to live. Remove emissions from cars, sure! But don’t pack me in a high rise nightmare.
Some people like living in high rises in New York. Just cuz you don’t like that doesn’t mean you call them names. The vast majority of this country looks like what you seem to prefer, so why all the complaining?
Sardine living is for some people, sprawl is for others. That’s what makes this country great: the ability to choose how you (and ONLY you) want to live.
“Putting a stop to sprawl” only limits the amount of housing that can be built, thereby making it harder for people to afford to buy their own home, and it ultimately limits the economic growth of a metro area. Eventually sprawl will stop on its own as soon as it becomes economically unfeasible to build new neighborhoods.
The “American Dream” has become a traffic nightmare, and will only get worse as gas prices continue to rise. Oil is running out, and the remaining oil is in countries that pretty much hate us… not a good prospect for continued driving and sprawl. There are many cities in America that are higher density, but not high rises or crowded living. Tokyo and New York City are extreme examples – we are talking about a happy medium of places with buildings no taller than 5 stories such as: the older sections of Boston, Alexandria VA, Washington DC, San Francisco, Miami Beach, and most historic centers across the country… all contain densities of 30-50 units per acre, and are highly desirable places to live, and are selling for very high prices. These are what we need to be building more of connected to great train systems.
When gas reaches $8 per gallon, your cold dead fingers will be automatically pried from your steering wheel!
http://www.NewUrbanism.org
Oil is not running out in fact reserves are higher than they were 30 years ago. Gasoline on an inflation adjusted basis is about half as expensive as it was 30 years ago. The largest exporters of oil to the U.S. are Candada #1 and Mexico #2. Neither of those countries hate us. Mileage is about to take a giant leap with hybrids so that the effective price of gasoline will be going down about 50% on a miles traveled basis. So instead of $2.25 a gallon I’ll be paying $1.25 gallon on a mileage basis. The time will never come when any of us will have to give up our cars because of the cost of fuel. My hands are more secure on that steering wheel than they’ve ever been.
Maybe Jessica wants to live in communities with 30-50 units per acre and she’s welcome to do it. When she finds out what it’s like to be a prisoner in an apartment building without the privacy most of us crave she may change her mind. Maybe she won’t. Who cares. But the vast majority of Americans would like to have at least a half acre of their own and a patch of lawn.
Most of us don’t call this country with it’s beautiful freeways and freedom of travel a nightmare. Most of us love it as does the rest of the emerging world that is building freeways and selling cars at 10 times the rate that we are. Personal transportation has been a desire of humans from the time man first rode horses and always will be because it’s the fastest, most comfortable, and most direct method of travel.
You really are living in fantasy land! You should come out of your Exxon-funded shell and smell the reality. But don’t take my word for it, try these sources which include the Pentagon, senior oil industry people, investment bankers, scientists, etc:
http://www.moneyweek.com/file/18243/why-we-must-take-peak-oil-seriously.html
http://www.peakoil.net/Aleklett/Hause_Peak_Oil_hearing_2005.pdf
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/836
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/files/Energy%20Conversation.pdf
http://www.airliners.net/articles/read.main?id=81
Read all these and see if your cold hands still feel the same!
Texas needs to do away with air conditioners.
You should try reading Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman. We’ve heard the $150/barrel lie for 25 years literally.
But the real issue isn’t oil is it? It’s personal transportaition. You didn’t address a single fact I laid out. And in case you haven’t noticed oil is back down in the $50/barrel range. And it’s a fact despite soaring use reserves are higher than ever.
Lenin??? Stalin??? What planet are you on? Obviously you didn’t read a single link I provided. They were authored by investment bankers and energy advisors to the Bush administration, airline industry experts, oil industry experts, and a report of a recent US Senate hearing on oil and how America is in big trouble. We are not talking about fringe people here. You seem in denial, and we are all sorry about that, and hopefully you can wake up before it is too late. By the way, Mexican oil fields are in decline as are the majority of the world’s oil fields, while China and India are rapidly increasing their oil use… that sounds like we are headed for disaster if we don’t come up with some serious solutions to drastically reduce our oil use ASAP. Oil is currently at $59.71 and will rise rapidly real soon… just watch… last year after hurricane Katrina was a taste of what we will be experiencing soon. You are welcome to keep believing differently, but you will be forced to wake up soon, unless you happen to have your own personal strategic oil reserve in your half acre back yard.
Like I said, you didn’t answer a single fact I laid out nor answer the real questions put to you by myself and others. I read your links and most of them were nothing more than speculation especially the Senate hearing which was nothing more than questioning whether or not we had reached an “oil peak” whose definition was not clear. Even if oil were to rise to $150/barrel, on an inflation adjusted basis, it would cost about as much as it did 30 years ago so I’m not worried.
And like I said the real question isn’t oil because alternative so called “renewable fuels” are definitely on their way and mileage itself will double in 10 years so $150/barrel oil will really be $75/barrel oil.
The links I provided are not “nothing more than speculation” as you say. They are facts from experts. I’m happy you believe that “renewable fuels are on the way”. Just wait by the local pump for them. There is no way on earth that we will ever be able to make fuels out of corn, hydrogen, switch grass, etc to fill all our gas tanks, and still have food to eat. You are definately living in dreamland, and so is everyone else who think “they” will come up with a substitute fuel and we can just continue on wasting gas driving our SUVs all over sprawl land. If you read the Senate hearing closely, there is a quote in there that we have no readily available fuel for mass use even close to the 20 million barrels we use daily in America, not to mention the growing use around the world, and that we are about to be in direct competition with China for the remaining oil.
You obviously have not been listening at all… I never once said anything about wanting to take away people’s cars and make them live in Cabrini Green type dismal high rises. I listed places that are great models for elegant urban living, where wealthy Americans, and many not so wealthy are fighting to get in to live, with many paying close to a million dollars for a small rowhouse: Alexandria, VA; Washington DC; old Boston; San Francisco, etc. These are wonderful, walkable places to live where you are not dependent on a car to survive, and where the residents use much less gas because they can walk to things and they can ride the great train systems. You are welcome to still live in your sprawl until you can no longer afford the gas or the fuel to heat your McMansion, but I am pushing for other options for those that want it. Right now, there are few of these other options available. What are your solutions?
You wouldn’t like my solutions since they are in direct conflict with your pre-conceived solutions. My first solution is more and better freeways so that we’re not locked in traffic jams caused by the socialists who block needed freeways. More and better freeways reduce gasoline consumption dramatically at the same time they reduce air pollution by relieving congestion.
Now since renewable fuels don’t work how come Brazil is nearly 80% ethanol powered?
$1 million dollar cracker boxes are a solution? And you think I live in fantasy land. The only people who think that the American Dream, the envy of people all over the world who are trying like hell to emulate it, is “sprawl land” are “social engineers” like yourself who think you have the right to order people to live like you think they should to solve what you have defined as a problem. The vast majority of people don’t think their beautiful tree lined quiet suburbs are a problem and they like there space which you have defined as sprawl. They raise their kids, cook their barbeques invite their friends and are pretty darn happy.
You’re free to buy your $1M cracker box if you like. The only thing I and the other responders who weren’t censored off this site object to is the gall you have in telling us how and where to live.
You say you don’t want to take away our cars on the one hand but say there is no other solution except high density housing and packed mass transit on the other hand. I guarantee you that I have spent ten times more hours on mass transit than you will in your entire life and that’s why I say NEVER AGAIN!
More roads? That’s your solution???? How visionary. A typical answer from someone who obviously gets their funding from Exxon. Endless road building worked in Los Angeles, they don’t have any traffic congestion do they? Or air pollution, or accidents. And what about global warming? I suppose you don’t beleive that either. Man you are a dying breed. Change is coming even if you don’t believe it or want to acknowledge it. You are like Cheney who was quoted as saying “the American way of life is non-negotiable”… well the truth is that our new negotiating partner is called reality. The reality of global warming from all the burning of fossil fuels, mostly from all our cars and driving. The reality of people in the middle east who will not let us take their oil. The reality of ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells not being able to replace oil. Those are a lot of big issues that you can’t make go away by ignoring them as you seem to do.
By the way, Brazil can live on Ethanol because the majority of them walk and ride buses, and bicycles. They don’t even come close to using cars the way we do.
I don’t know how you can be more hypocritical or more incorrect. First you agree that the chinese and the rest of the third world are buying cars and building roads like mad. Then you say I’m a dying breed. Billions of chinese must be dying with me.
You accuse me of being funded by Exxon and I have no connection with any oil company but when I correctly point out that you live off taxpayer funding and/or “contributions” from like minded socialists the people that run this site censor that comment right off as they have at least 50% of my response so far. I suspect that you are connected with the people that run the site.
I’ve lived in LA have you? I’d rather live there than NYC with its subways any day. And it’s remarkably easy to get around LA. Contrary to what you think the freeway system there works fantasticly well and the stupid trains they built are dead empty most of the time. That’s why they quit building their multi-billion dollar boondoggle which is your idea of a magic solution.
So now your excuse for ethanol as an unreality is that Brazilians don’t drive cars. You have no idea what your talking about at all. The Brazilian government went on a crash program 20 years ago after the first oil embargo to develop ethanol so they wouldn’t be dependent on oil not because they ride bicycles. And the program has worked magnificently.
It’s obvious that facts have no place in your fantasy world and I’m sick of having my responses censored off this site as they’ve done to the other responders whose comments magically disappear after 2 minutes on the site.
As far as global warming, read George Wills column in the current issue of Newsweek and get yourself educated for a change by someone other than Lenin and Stalin.
I’m glad that finally someone figured out how to make housing and energy more expensive in Austin!
I’ve been wondering how Austin was going to truly distinguish itself in a state known as the best state to do business in in the best country in the world to do business in.
Now we finally have this, which I’m sure companies (which employ people) and the 90% of Austinites who are not rich are going to be gleeful about when they get the bill!
I bet companies are going to SWARM – right out of the city to Roundrock or DFW or wherever they don’t have to pay as much for their taxes and energy, just like Dell did when Austin tried to apply all their red tape and taxes to them! (Not Samsung semiconductor, though, I guess the pols finally figured out they were driving away jobs.)
Let’s see, so forcing 30% of all energy purchased to come from sources that are 2 to 10 times more expensive – I bet THAT won’t have any financial ramifications for the poor in Austin!
Also, given the perpetual housing deficit in a city with far above average barriers to home building (and thus supply that doesn’t fully respond to demand), can we guess that # of residential units built is going to a) go up and keep pace with the demand of price-sensitive customers, or b) units built will lag demand and be more expensive than Texans want to pay?
I bet it’s going to be b)! Just like it has been for 30 years! Austin’s housing (both price to buy and to rent) is going to continue to “outpace” the rest of the state! Great for the landed wealthy, but horrible for the 90% of Austin that are not rich!
Socialism sure is great for the rich, who fortunately in this city don’t have to ever come in contact with or hear the complaints of the poor, due to the wonderful outlet and distraction of neighborhood planning meetings!
Of course FreedomOfProperty and John M are exactly right. The real disasters in this country and elsewhere are population growth and the bleeding heart socialists who won’t point to that as the root cause of most of our environmental disasters.
The great global warming swindle
From: Rolf Riehm,
Tiefenthaler Straße 9 A
67310 Hettenleidelheim
Germany / Tel: 06351 – 12 45 68
To the Attention of:
The Maire of Austin
Dear Sir:
I am convinced that all talk about the earthwarming is nothing but a lie!!
I have written a book about the climate change.
I do not deny that it has become warmer by about 10 Degrees Celsius in some spots on earth, such as in Greenland or in Alaska.
But I claim that carbon dioxyde has nothing to do with it!
Carbondioxyde firstly does not exist (only ridiculous 0.04 %), and secondly does not increase the temperature of the earth!!
There is a growing number of scientists who agree with me on this point!
Meanwhile there are several thousand websites in the Internet, which say the same thing as I do in my book. Just enter the following points in your Google:
–Die Klimalüge / the climate lie
–der Treibhaus effekt / the greenehouse effect
–der CO2 Schwindel / the CO2 Swindel
Also, various emissions on channel 4 in UK and on RTL (vom 11. Juni 2007 ) in Germany, appear as Videos in the Internet if you enter the above titles. You can reach them also with YouTube.
If you are interested to read my book, I ask you to send me a “real” e-mail address, to which I can reply and add an annex with my book.
Kind regards
Rolf Riehm
Please note: This book is also available in the German language.
If you are interested, you may translate it into another language! Thanks!
The book was written with word for windows 97 – 2000. But then I have filed it under the “rich text format” (rtf) because it runs more stable!
It has 150 pages and requires about two minutes for its transmission.
The great global warming swindle
From: Rolf Riehm,
Tiefenthaler Straße 9 A
67310 Hettenleidelheim
Germany / Tel: 06351 – 12 45 68
To the Attention of:
The Maire of Austin
Dear Sir:
I am convinced that all talk about the earthwarming is nothing but a lie!!
I have written a book about the climate change.
I do not deny that it has become warmer by about 10 Degrees Celsius in some spots on earth, such as in Greenland or in Alaska.
But I claim that carbon dioxyde has nothing to do with it!
Carbondioxyde firstly does not exist (only ridiculous 0.04 %), and secondly does not increase the temperature of the earth!!
There is a growing number of scientists who agree with me on this point!
Meanwhile there are several thousand websites in the Internet, which say the same thing as I do in my book. Just enter the following points in your Google:
–Die Klimalüge / the climate lie
–der Treibhaus effekt / the greenehouse effect
–der CO2 Schwindel / the CO2 Swindel
Also, various emissions on channel 4 in UK and on RTL (vom 11. Juni 2007 ) in Germany, appear as Videos in the Internet if you enter the above titles. You can reach them also with YouTube.
If you are interested to read my book, I ask you to send me a “real” e-mail address, to which I can reply and add an annex with my book.
Kind regards
Rolf Riehm
Please note: This book is also available in the German language.
If you are interested, you may translate it into another language! Thanks!
The book was written with word for windows 97 – 2000. But then I have filed it under the “rich text format” (rtf) because it runs more stable!
It has 150 pages and requires about two minutes for its transmission.
The great global warming swindle
From: Rolf Riehm,
Tiefenthaler Straße 9 A
67310 Hettenleidelheim
Germany / Tel: 06351 – 12 45 68
To the Attention of:
The Maire of Austin
Dear Sir:
I am convinced that all talk about the earthwarming is nothing but a lie!!
I have written a book about the climate change.
I do not deny that it has become warmer by about 10 Degrees Celsius in some spots on earth, such as in Greenland or in Alaska.
But I claim that carbon dioxyde has nothing to do with it!
Carbondioxyde firstly does not exist (only ridiculous 0.04 %), and secondly does not increase the temperature of the earth!!
There is a growing number of scientists who agree with me on this point!
Meanwhile there are several thousand websites in the Internet, which say the same thing as I do in my book. Just enter the following points in your Google:
–Die Klimalüge / the climate lie
–der Treibhaus effekt / the greenehouse effect
–der CO2 Schwindel / the CO2 Swindel
Also, various emissions on channel 4 in UK and on RTL (vom 11. Juni 2007 ) in Germany, appear as Videos in the Internet if you enter the above titles. You can reach them also with YouTube.
If you are interested to read my book, I ask you to send me a “real” e-mail address, to which I can reply and add an annex with my book.
Kind regards
Rolf Riehm
Please note: This book is also available in the German language.
If you are interested, you may translate it into another language! Thanks!
The book was written with word for windows 97 – 2000. But then I have filed it under the “rich text format” (rtf) because it runs more stable!
It has 150 pages and requires about two minutes for its transmission.