Eclectic Electric Car in CR and IC

What goes 130 miles per hour, uses no oil and emits no carbon dioxide? The Tesla all-electric roadster which will make a stop in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City on a coast-to-coast journey this Tue. & Wed., July 21 & 22

Where: Kirkwood Community College, Auto Technology Building, Main campus from 7:00 –9:00 pm Tuesday, July 21

University of Iowa Madison Street Services Building (MSSB) in Iowa City, on the corner of South Madison and West Prentiss streets. from 8:00 – 9:00 am Wednesday, July 22

Both events are free and open to the public.

The Renew America Roadtrip™ is America’s first green coast-to-coast trip in an all-electric sports car. The event will help raise awareness of renewable, sustainable, and eco-friendly initiatives and features three electric cars, including the Tesla Roadster. The Tesla Roadster is a $100,000 all-electric sports car. The Roadster is a pure battery-electric vehicle with a range of 240 miles per charge, a 130 mph top speed, and goes from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds. In addition to the Tesla roadster, the Renew America Roadtrip team includes Jerry Asher and his “Spirit of DC” plug-in-hybrid Prius and a beautiful new 2009 Nissan Altima hybrid support vehicle provided courtesy of Nissan USA. The stop is a chance to view the all-electric Tesla Roadster and talk with the crew of the Roadtrip project, which is demonstrating the advantages of all-electric vehicles. The team will be visiting the area and charging up the vehicle on their way cross-country from New York City to San Francisco.


For more details on RAR check out the Web site: http://www.renewamericaroadtrip.com.

For more information on the event, contact I-Renew
Mike Carberry
Executive Director
Iowa Renewable Energy Association (I-Renew)

PO Box 3405
Iowa City IA 52244

mobile: 319-594-6453
office: 319-338-1076

mike@irenew.org
www.irenew.org

Carberry Right: Green is Good

It's the economy, stupid, again

Mike Carberry
Guest Opinion

It's the economy, stupid. This was a sign hung in Bill Clinton's campaign headquarters to keep everybody "on message" in 1992. James Carville put it there. Campaigns haven't changed much in the last 16 years, and we now find the current presidential campaign debate finally turning toward economic issues. Candidates speak of green collar jobs and the new green energy economy to jump start our sagging economy and pull us out of recession.

By 2007, Clinton was quoted as saying "Stopping climate change represents a staggering economic opportunity. Now the task before us is to prove to the world that a response to global warming is not a hardship. It's the biggest opportunity for economic and social mobilization since World War II."

I certainly believe this to be true, and we need to start taking advantage of this staggering opportunity sooner rather than later.

Challenging the deniers

I have been working on energy and climate change issues for a number of years. I find people on a daily basis who are global warming doubters or outright deniers. These people like to debate me on existence of climate change.

I have come to believe that climate change is real, it largely is from man-made causes, that it is deadly serious and that we need to do something about the crisis immediately, but the debate over the science of climate change is best left to scientists.

If the proposed solutions to the climate change crisis are good for state, national and world economies, as well as the environment, they should be pursued with vigor regardless of the underlying cause of the problem.

As Congress debates legislation to confront the current energy and economic crisis, a new report released by The Political Economy Research Institute shows that the U.S. can create 2 million jobs nationwide by investing in clean energy technologies that will strengthen the economy and fight global warming.

"Green Recovery -- A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy" analyzes the potential for a two-year $100 billion green investment program --which would be comparable to the size of the April 2008 federal stimulus package dedicated to consumer rebates -- to be an engine for job creation in Iowa and nationwide.

The program could be paid for with proceeds from auctions of carbon permits under a global warming cap-and-trade program. A global warming cap-and-trade program will drive private investments into clean energy and raise public revenue through carbon permit auctions.

A cap will enable America to reduce global warming pollution to the levels science indicates are needed to avoid the worst effects of global warming. By investing in the green economy, we can create good jobs, increase our energy independence and help to reduce the dangerous effects of global warming.

Other green benefits

In addition to creating 2 million jobs nationwide over two years, a $100 billion initial investment in our clean energy future would:

• Create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption via an economic stimulus refund to taxpayers.

• Create roughly triple the number of good jobs -- paying at least $16 dollars an hour -- as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.

• Bolster employment especially in construction and manufacturing. Construction employment has fallen from 8 million to 7.2 million over the past two years because of the housing bubble collapse. The Green Recovery program can, at the least, bring back these lost 800,000 construction jobs. For the complete report findings, go to www.peri.umass.edu/green_recovery.

At this critical time, we need real solutions for the issues that face all Americans, and by investing in the green economy, we can start the transition to a low-carbon economy. This also will prevent Carville from calling us "stupid" and make Clinton's prophecy come true.

Iowa, A Good Place to Groan

Mike Carberry is a friend, neighbor, and fighter for a better environment, as well as other progressive causes.

Mike Carberry of Iowa City is director of Green State Solutions, which provides environmental and energy consulting services.

The state slogan of Iowa was changed in 1999 to "Fields of Opportunities." When I was growing up in a small Iowa farm town, the slogan was "A Place to Grow."

Both slogans have business, agricultural and educational components to their meaning. Iowa is known worldwide for its agri-business and education systems. Both of these are well-earned, and all Iowans should be proud of them.

But in the past few years, I have seen a darker meaning in our state's slogan. Exactly whom is the opportunity for? For the citizens of Iowa or for corporate polluters? Iowa has become a state that allows large corporations and factory farms to pollute our land, water and air with virtually no repercussions.

Last year, Gov. Chet Culver signed into law the Generation Iowa bill. The stated purpose of this law was to stop and possibly reverse the state's brain drain. Far too many college graduates leave the state. They leave to find good jobs, exciting places to live and a clean, healthy environment for recreation and raising a family.

Iowa has done a good job of creating good jobs, especially in renewable energy. It has also done a good job of creating an exciting place to live through its Vision Iowa and Community Attraction programs. Where Iowa has dropped the ball is in protecting the environment. Without that, Iowa won't be "A Place to Grow"; it will remain "A Place to Leave." Without better leadership from the Statehouse, the Generation Iowa program will be doomed to failure.

Iowa has the worst water quality in the country. Agricultural and industrial runoff infests our natural waters. Pesticides, herbicides, nitrogen, fertilizer and mercury make the water virtually unusable for recreational purposes that require the participant to get into the water. Because of mercury contamination, our fish shouldn't be eaten. Because our wastewater-treatment plants are substandard, we routinely read about sewage bypasses.

The Iowa Utilities Board just approved a coal-fired power plant in Marshalltown. This is a wrong-headed decision when we should be concentrating on energy efficiency, renewable energy and public transportation. States all around Iowa are denying permits for new coal plants, which contribute greatly to global warming and endanger public health. Why can't we stop using last century's dirty energy? We need to put a moratorium on all new coal plants and to start shutting down some of the old ones, which emit the most greenhouse gasses.

Concentrated animal-feeding operations, or CAFOs, are destroying the rural way of life. They threaten health by their odors, the particulate matter they put into the air and the manure spills that pollute land and water. But what do we get from our legislative leadership? A $23 million, taxpayer-financed bill to study hog odor. This will forestall any real solutions to this problem for five years until study results are completed. Here's a news flash: Manure smells like manure. It is not the smell of money. We need a moratorium on factory farms, and we need to support family farms before they become extinct.

As an Eagle Scout and the son of a large-animal veterinarian, I was always taught about stewardship and protecting this beautiful land. Elected leaders need to stop listening to large corporate interests that fund their election campaigns and start listening to the people of Iowa.

I want the opportunity to raise a family in a safe, clean environment in Iowa, not a neighboring state. I love this state, and I want our leadership to prove that they do as well. I want Iowa to be a field of opportunity for all.

Obama and FAIR!s Mike Carberry in Iowa City on Earth Day

Environmental issues and the stump speech from IC. Mike Carberry is the current chair of FAIR! Johnson County's Progressive organization and a member of the Sierra Club.