Continue reading Northeast Biodiesel Groundbreaking August 3, Greenfield, MADear Co-op Power Members and Supporters,
Join us Tues., Aug 3rd, 11 am, for the Grand Groundbreaking for Northeast Biodiesel at our land in the Greenfield [MA] Industrial Park – Silvio Conte Drive (at the end of the road near the Coke plant).
After five years of development, everything has finally aligned so that we can build our recycled vegetable oil biodiesel plant and make a clean fuel alternative to diesel fuel that can be used in any diesel engine or oil heat system.
…and pass h.4595, “An Act to stabilize neighborhoods?” The Senate passed the damn thing months ago–UNANIMOUSLY!!!–as it’s a NO-COST to the taxpayers, common-sense bill that actually affords real protection to those being screwed by our infinitely mismanaged economy.
(NB: the legislative session ends on JULY 31!!!)
We’re looking at around 12,000
Continue reading With all due respect, will the legislature please get off its fat ass48% REDUCTION IN LOCAL AID? A CALL FOR NEW BUDGET PRIORITIES
“We don’t give you very much,” the Republican state senator candidly told the people of Tolland on July 10, standing with the Democratic incumbent representative of the 4th Berkshire District on the podium. It was unclear if he was talking specifically about the FY 2011 budget that had been approved on June 24 or if he was speaking generally about business as usual in the legislature. The town was celebrating its 200th birthday and the mood of the day was festive. If the senator was looking for a laugh, the humor was lost on many.
Democrats are not in a position to counter the statement. They’re in control. The official Massachusetts Democratic Party line, which has been dutifully repeated by incumbents and loyalists, is that there’s nothing that can be done about the painful cuts in the budget. But even as the incumbent legislature and Governor perpetuate an unfair tax system and cut essential services and local aid, they also continue the wasteful give-aways and tax breaks for large campaign donors. Currently in legislative conference committee are proposals to enact new corporate tax reductions of over $140 million/year, on top of the $1.4+ billion in many other give-aways that are routinely renewed. Some of us are feeling the pain. Others are getting a free ride. It’s a deliberate choice.
Meanwhile, recent headlines in the Boston Globe (July 23, 2010) report a 25% increase in personal bankruptcy filings in Massachusetts.
Green Mass Group will be “publishing” an installment series from Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich that originally appeared in Le Monde in 1973. His radical critique and vision for how we move ourselves around is no less relevant today, and perhaps more so.
Thanks to Steven for pointing me to it, and if you just have to read the whole thing NOW, you can do so here.
- The energy crisis
- The industrialization of traffic
- Speed-stunned imagination
- Net transfer of life-time
- The ineffectiveness of acceleration
- The radical monopoly of industry
- The elusive threshold
- Degrees of self-powered mobility
- Dominant versus subsidiary motors
- Underequipment, overdevelopment, and mature technology
The first installment, The Energy Crisis, below the fold.
Energy and Equity
Ivan Illich
El socialismo puede llegar solo en bicicleta.
–José Antonio Viera-Gallo, Assistant Secretary of Justice in the government of Salvador Allende
This text was first published in Le Monde in early 1973. Over lunch in Paris the venerable editor of that daily, as he accepted my manuscript, recommended just one change. He felt that a term as little known and as technical as “energy crisis” had no place in the opening sentence of an article that he would be running on page 1. As I now reread the text, I am struck by the speed with which language and issues have shifted in less than five years. But I am equally struck by the slow yet steady pace at which the radical alternative to industrial society-namely, low-energy, convivial modernity-has gained defenders. In this essay I argue that under some circumstances, a technology incorporates the values of the society for which it was invented to such a degree that these values become dominant in every society which applies that technology. The material structure of production devices can thus irremediably incorporate class prejudice. High-energy technology, at least as applied to traffic, provides a clear example. Obviously, this thesis undermines the legitimacy of those professionals who monopolize the operation of such technologies. It is particularly irksome to those individuals within the professions who seek to serve the public by using the rhetoric of class struggle with the aim of replacing the “capitalists” who now control institutional policy by professional peers and laymen who accept professional standards Mainly under the influence of such “radical” professionals, this thesis has, in only five years, changed from an oddity into a heresy that has provoked a barrage of abuse. The distinction proposed here, however, is not new. I oppose tools that can be applied in the generation of use-values to others that cannot be used except in the production of commodities This distinction has recently been re-emphasized by a great variety of social critics The insistence on the need for a balance between convivial and industrial tools is, in fact, the common distinctive element in an emerging consensus among groups engaged in radical politics A superb guide to the bibliography in this field has been published in Radical Technology (London and New York, 1976), by the editors of Undercurrents. I have transferred my own files on the theme to Valentina Borremans, who is now working on a librarians’ guide to reference materials on use-value-oriented modern tools, scheduled for publication in 1978. (Preliminary drafts of individual chapters of this guide can be obtained by writing to Valentina Borremans, APDO 479, Cuernavaca, Mexico.) The specific argument on socially critical energy thresholds in transportation that I pursue in this essay has been elaborated and documented by two colleagues, Jean-Pierre Dupuy and Jean Robert, in their two jointly written books, La Trahison de l’opulence (Paris, 1976) and Les Chronophages (Paris, 1978).
–Ivan Illich: Toward a History of Needs. New York: Pantheon, 1978
Continue reading Energy and Equity: The Energy Crisis“The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and ugly traffic.”
~James Marston Fitch, New York Times, 1 May 1960
We have written about the “friction of distance”, explaining why travel was more challenging-and communities therefore more compact-in the time before humans discovered the enormous energy sequestered in ancient carbon sinks. Alas, those sinks are not infinite so we must contemplate the return of the friction of distance to the level of the pre-oil days. Fortunately, humans can look to past experiences to reduce the height of the learning curve.
Continue reading Resisting FrictionYeah, I’ve already come out on this issue. But I’d really like ALL of our candidates to come out swinging for the fences when it comes to legalization. Not simply because it makes sense economically, nor because it’s the right thing to do, or even simply because prohibition (and fines) is a total freaking joke that continues to screw kids–like mine, again, goddamnitall–but because it makes sense politically.
Here’s an excerpt from a short article by Josh Green, writing in The Atlantic under the heading, “Do Marijuana Ballot Initiatives Help Democrats Win?”:
Acting on a tip from an Obama official, I found a few Democratic consultants who have become convinced that ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana, like the one Californians will vote on in November, actually help Democrats in the same way that gay marriage bans were supposed to have helped Republicans. They are similarly popular, with medical marijuana having passed in 14 states (and the District of Columbia) where it has appeared on the ballot. In a recent poll, 56 percent of Californians said they favor the upcoming initiative to legalize and tax pot.
The idea that this helps Democrats is based on the demographic profile of who shows up to vote for marijuana initiatives–and wouldn’t show up otherwise. “If you look at who turns out to vote for marijuana,” says Jim Merlino, a consultant in Colorado, which passed initiatives in 2000 and 2006, “they’re generally under 35. And young people tend to vote Democratic.” This influx of new voters, he believes, helps Democrats up and down the ticket.”
Key line, which I’ll repeat over and again: “the demographic profile of who shows up to vote for marijuana initiatives–and wouldn’t show up otherwise. You know, the ones who haven’t exactly been flocking to the GRP…
For goddsakes, let’s not let the Dems reap the advantage on this. We need to be VOCAL.
Continue reading Legalize It, Installment #2Rick Purcell is a long-term resident of Holyoke, Massachusetts, a distinguished community activist, a compassionate health care worker, and decorated US Army veteran who served 10 years of active duty.
He’s also Jill Stein’s running mate for Lt. Governor!
Continue reading Meet Rick Purcell: GRP 2010 Candidate for Lt. GovernorExcept, of course, that it isn’t a performance at all–you won’t find a more forthright, sincere candidate anywhere.
I don’t ordinarily post simple links, but this extensive interview with Jill on Finneran’s RKO talk show is too good to pass up–primarily because of the sound–actually, critical!–discussion of the need to support local agriculture and extend its benefits via farm-to-school and farm-to-etc programs. The type of agricultural policies and programs Jill supports pay off in too many ways to enumerate–they’re win-win-win-win all around. Programs like these are a good start, but what we really need to do is to create structures here in MA that allow small, local, organic farmers to compete WITHOUT relying on federal or even state subsidies. That’s a hallmark of the Stein campaign–and only one of various issues she addresses in this interview.
On June 26, at the Cambridge, MA YWCA Emergency Family Shelter, about 30 people from Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET)
Continue reading Weatherization Barnraising ResultsReduced the leakiness of the building by 12% (reducing the air leakage by 1,500 cubic feet per minute as tested by a pre and post blower door test. Each 100 cfm reduction = 7 therms of gas savings. Thus saving $1,480 for them over the next decade in heating.)
Installed 20 cfls [compact fluorescent lights] (saving probably $11 per year on each one because of the high occupancy of the building)
Installed 3 incandescent exit signs with LED retrofit kits (saving 36 watts per bulb 24 hours a day all year long. Since there were 2 bulbs in each of the 3 signs this will save over $388 in total per year)
Installed 7 low flow showerheads (each saving $42 each in heating the water and $26 in water and sewer charges) $476
Installed 2 programmable thermostats which can save up to 10% on heating if used to turn the temperature down during the winter when no one is home or everyone is sleeping.
We did other work too, but we should save the shelter at least $14,260 in total in energy bills over the next decade.
Thanks for all your work.