Cap and Trade Basics

Good News Virginia there is a Solar Clause

It seems that the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has been successful in obtaining 15 million dollars in stimulus funds to supplement individual and commercial sustainable energy. They expect the rebates to be around $2,000 per kilowatt up to 5 kilowatts for PV, $1,500 per kilowatt for wind up to 5 kilowatts and $1,000 for solar thermal. The rebates will be retroactive to June 26, 2009. This is all in the planning phase and I am waiting for confirmation from the DMME on this. i have talked to the head of the program and he says that they have 4 people to administer almost 90 million in grants, so the program roll out has been a challenge, as has getting answers from both the feds and state on vexing issues such as if the rebates are taxable (magic eight ball says "most likely") and state recapture of delinquent accounts. There has also been alot of issues due to the fact that because of Virginia's inattention to alternative energy, there are very few qualified installers in the state and they are trying to avoid a bunch of johnny come lately's try to install these systems.

The particulars of the program have not been announced, but I will keep in contact with DMME and be updating as information becomes available.

Depressing State of Affairs

In the past week I have had a chance to talk personally with both Tom Periello and Bob Goodlatte. I posed the same question to both.

I said, "I am a small business man with fifteen employees that provides health care to our employees. We have faced double digit inflation consistently in costs and I am forced to argue with insurance bureaucrats for services that should be covered."

I asked' "Is it possible or will you sit down with the reasonable people in the other party and truly work to come to a statesman like compromise on the reform of our insurance system to help those of us struggling with the system."

I was told by both Goodlatte and Periello that the chance of any real workable significant legislation to change heath care was doubtful. Goodlatte and Periello both said that the congress was to polarized to make any grand compromises. Periello said that the best he thought we could get was a symbolic change or an very incremental one.

What a depressing state of affairs!

CEED Update

I will be giving a presentation on Passivhaus construction techniques at the Gereau Center for the folks that will be working on the CEED. There may be room for other interested folks, if you have an interest in attending, email me and if there is extra space I will send you an invite.

Passivhaus Testimonial

Check this out co-housing folks

AEP Update

I had a long conversation with Carol Huffman, the net metering director for the local Roanoke area. I made my suggestion about allowing folks to opt in for support of local generation buy back subsidies. She was polite and said she would "pass it along" to Ohio (home base). She pointed out the AEP was concentrating sustainability efforts on those states that mandated it. I pointed out that as the largest coal fired utility in the western hemisphere, they had a special responsibility toward mitigating climate change. She then went into the company line of their commitment to "clean coal" and their pilot sequestration projects. I told her that while I support anything they do in this area, that does not relieve them of supporting local generation. I tried to make the point that this would be a win-win, as the local producers could get a reasonable return on their investment from on site generation and AEP would get good public relations as being the utility to go beyond the state mandate and that it would be at no cost to them.

We will see, more if it develops.

Let's Look Again at Clean Coal