common sense for the common good

A New Day

November 18th, 2008 by Vihar Sheth

Posted in Corporations, Economy, Government | No Comments »

My high from the election is waning, but my hope is doing anything but, even as evidence against a bright short-term future mounts. My only complaint from the regional election is that two public transportation propositions failed in Missouri. Sucks. Does doing something that’s the exact opposite of right justify stupidity? What next, bailing out poorly managed companies that signed bad labor deals and put out junky products for the last few decades? Oh wait . . .

Obama & Co. seems to be doing as promised thus far. His team seems qualified, though not as new to Washington as I had hoped. Perhaps the Clintonites will add the experience Obama’s detractors thinks he lacks. We’ll see. Their task is monumental.

So, last week, the Oxford English Dictionary awarded ”hypermiling” its word of the year award, 15+ months after yours truly posted “A Mile Case of Hypermiling” on this very site. Check out both links, and kudos to the OED for finally getting its stuff together. I’m kidding of course.

Anheuser-Busch is no more. Half a victim of a crappy US Dollar and half a victim of a crappy foreign growth strategy, the All American Beer is now Belzilian (Belgian + Brazilian). Oh well. While it’s a sad day in STL, the future of this city hangs on so much more than one company. Let’s get over it and kick some ass.

I’m all over the place today. Woo hoo!



Related Posts

Prop C, Baby!

November 2nd, 2008 by Vihar Sheth

Posted in Activism, Energy, Politics, Sustainability | No Comments »

Two days left, for a lot of things, but especially for Proposition C in Missouri. My last post was about the measure as is this one. I spent a few hours this morning canvassing with literature outside the Edward Jones prior to the Cardinals @ Rams game.

I believe the Proposition is polling well, upwards of 70% for it, it ain’t over until it’s over. Keep in mind that while this measure would make Missouri the 27th state to have a Renewable Energy Standard, it would be one of the least ambitious standard in these united states. I don’t say that to insult the effort to make this point: if other states can implement more aggressive Renewable Energy Standards, then Missouri should have no problem implementing a more conservative one.

Remember, the RES in Missouri is to require investor-owned utilities to sources 15% of their energy from renewable resources by 2020. Compare that to the measure on the ballot in California. This one requires the state to sources 20% of its energy from renewable resources by 2010. That’s 5% more energy 10 years earlier. Wow!

So please, vote on Tuesday and vote “yes” for Proposition C. Oh yeah, GObama!



Related Posts

A Cleaner, Greener Missouri

September 23rd, 2008 by Vihar Sheth

Posted in Activism, Climate Change, Environment, Government, Technology | 2 Comments »

I (still) work for a bank. Needless to say, the past few weeks have been tumultuous. Onward and upward. 

With only 47 days left until this country elects its first black president or two people who will further marginalize America on a global scale, we must not forget the other candidates up for election and the issues that will be on the ballot. One issue in particular is the focus of this piece, and that is bringing a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) to Missouri.

I won’t say too much besides that if passed, the standard would require Missouri utilities to gradually increase their use of renewable energy over the next 12 years, ramping up to 15% of Missouri’s electricity by the year 2020. And, if passed, would make Missouri the 27th state to implement some type of RES.

Three organizations are involved in the effort to see this standard implemented:

There’s the team, and a darn good one at that. Remember that this will NOT COST CONSUMERS MORE MONEY. A summary of the Consumer Cost Savings Analysis can be found here (.pdf), and the full report can be found here(.pdf).

Vote or die!



Related Posts

Building Offshore Platforms, But Not For Drilling

August 19th, 2008 by Vihar Sheth

Posted in Energy, Government, Responsibility | 1 Comment »

I have a dream that one day a politician will get on TV and tell people gas prices are supposed to be high, and that there’s a cost to living 50 miles from an urban center. She’ll say that cost is $4 a gallon, and it should be higher. Suck it up she’ll demand.

But, in my dream she also includes an equally sized reduction in health care costs, saying Americans should be able to get preventive care on the cheap so that future health care expenditures are greatly reduced. The dream includes other points as well, but I’d like to focus on the above: $2 antibiotics, $20 gas.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in another flash of brilliantly bright  (I’m blind!) idiocy, said she is open to offshore drilling. The NY Times piece to which I linked includes includes classic posturing from both sides of the aisle, and demonstrates again that Republicans plain just don’t care about other people, and that Democrats plain just can’t help but bend over in times of conflict.

Perhaps my frustration is born from the fact that the answer to our energy problems is so simple in design that it’s hard to see. I’ve written beforethat the America needs not more locally sourced oil, but less oil in general. This isn’t a new concept, but one that’s not easily grasped by people, especially that smart-decision-challenged group of individuals we call our elected officials. I feel a terribly tangential rant coming on about term limits so I must take a deep breath and focus.

Announcements like this one, for the construction of the nation’s largest solar plant, keep me from stroking out, but they are few and far between. Conservation, and the development of new renewable energy technologies (that don’t use food as fuel), are the only right strategies to a better tomorrow. Plain and simple. What happened to the days of reaching for the stars and actually touching them?

That being said, I have mixed feelings about what the next decade will bring. If we put our minds to it, we could develop good enough solar, wind, biomass and efficiency technologies to replace fossil fuels entirely. If we roll over, new platforms will be built because that’s what government of late does - suck pipeline. Most likely both will happen, but if we’re lucky, the last boat of supplies to the shiny, new platforms won’t be carrying drills. It’ll be filled with some rope, our worthless leaders, and a nice, sturdy plank.



Related Posts

The Future of Cities and Housing

August 11th, 2008 by Vihar Sheth

Posted in Economy, Government, Housing, Society | 2 Comments »

Thursday and Friday of last week I attended a conference called “Green Homes and Sustainable Communities”. ’twas very good. My mind was boggled by the great information presented, and while there’s no way to recap both days in their entirety, I will provide a few highlights.

The keynote speaker was a gentleman named Richard Register, who has a company called Ecocity Builders. I haven’t spent much time on the site but if even a fraction of the information he presented at the conference is available online, it will be well worth your while to visit. Plus, his book sounds fascinating. This was the dream part of the conference, but also something attainable within 50 to 100 years if we get our damn heads screwed on properly.

Most of the rest of the conference was filled with case studies of the development of green affordable housing and the current status and future potential of policy in this area. Practical, though both inspiring and frustrating. There are some extremely creative people out there.

One of the most memorable highlights came in the form of a controlled rant by a professor from MIT. The gist of his speech was that there’s a large disconnect between the people who need and could take on new jobs in the “green” economy and the expectations of how the “green” economy is expected to include these people. Basically, he said the skill level of the people who many pundits hope will fill the new jobs in the energy and construction industries is far from adequate. Further, if no education or social assistance is provided the “green” economy will never materialize.

Well, that was just a short look. I’ll right to summarize some other features when I get a chance. At worst, I’ll try to put up pictures from my tour of the Schiff Residences in the coming days.



Related Posts

« Previous Entries