While reading this article I keep seeing what I believe is one of the major obstacles to the adoption of green energy. And, that is keeping the governments out of it.

I think as long as we continue to tie green energy progress to subsidies instead of innovation we will never get off the never ending treadmill that we are currently on.

Alternative energy sources have been around for decades yet most people don’t even know about the different sources or how they could apply them to their application.

It is not a question of are the products ready but one of marketing! There are a handful of solar companies in my city yet, I’ve never seen them advertise in any fashion.

Is this and indication of they already have more work than they can handle or is it simply they don’t know how to market or they are waiting for governments to mandate green energy?

As long as we tie alternative energy to subsidies it will always be held hostage to the political process. Isn’t it about time we take responsible action and educate our friends, our neighbors that it’s here now and show them how they can implement it?

Yeah, I can hear it now turn your thermostat up! Well, we keep the house refrigeration set at 82 degrees far above what is recommended. Yes the house is well insulated and does have double-pane windows as well.

During the summer months my home office would run in the upper 80′s so I always kept fan’s running to push the colder air into the room.

At the beginning of May, I made the decision to cool my house this summer with an evaporative cooler. These units work great out here in the desert south-west, where our humidity is extremely low up until the monsoon season arrives.

I picked up a Champion RWC50, 5,000 CFM widow unit (and no I’m not getting paid by them to write this!) This summer running the evaporative cooler my office temperature stayed in the mid 70′s.

The rest of the house also stayed in the low to mid 70′s when the temperatures where not to extreme. When the outside outside temperatures where in the 107 to 113 degree range, I could see that the unit keep it right around 30 degrees cooler then the outside temps.

Lets look at the energy savings over the previous year.

Clearly the unit has more than paid for itself this year, and next year the savings will be even more appreciated. Next year there is another product I would like to add called Up-Duk.

The benefit of installing the Up-Duk unit is, instead of blowing the cold air out the window it is funneled into the attic providing a cooling effect there as well.

It appears most want massive tax subsidies to jump start the solar industry in order to get more panels installed on homes.

It’s not a bad idea, yet still how many home owners will install them even with the subsides? Very few people today can afford the $10,000 or so after these subsidies have kicked in. Then no one even mentions the maintenance costs associated with keeping the solar panels performing at their peak efficiency.

It looks like the Texas legislature is working on a bill that would raise electric rates to pay for the $500 million it wants to give out in rebates over the next 5 years.

Are There Better Solutions To Solar Power Installations

I believe there is, solutions that address many of the issues associated with getting more systems up and running. The solution is renting solar systems, this does not set will with many of the small business that make a living off of selling and installing solar energy systems.

Rarely if ever do they talk about the upkeep and maintenance required, sure they will tell you how long the panels are supposed to last! Having spent 27 years repairing electrical and electronic systems, I know your going to need periodic check-ups and replacement of parts.

This up-keep of the systems installed could add 10′s of thousands to the overall cost of a system over the life span of the solar system installed on your home. To me it makes more sense to rent these units!

While I believe we should do what we can to reduce green house emissions this agency has laws the will actually fine you and I, “Buy These Green Cars And You Could Be Subject To Civil Fines!”

Not only will they impose a fine on you, but the dealership and the auto-manufature if you buy one.

The law is under the clean-air act. Isn’t it ironic that we have laws that prevent us from doing the right thing, it would be more productive if the government spent more time reviewing the laws it has passed and removing outdated and absurd laws from the books.

Yet, often we cannot blame the politicians; they simply do not know that these laws exist. For example in the State of Nevada due to an antiquated law it was illegal to rent renewable energy equipment. Currently the law is before the legislature.

The bad part is, for what ever reason this year, State and Local politicians will not answer questions posed by the constituents that the represent. This is truly sad, has our governments grown to the point where they no longer care about the people but their own careers?

I would encourage everyone, whether you representative will listen or not to ask the question why do we have laws that prevent us from acquiring automobiles that have already proven to reduce green house emission?

The article from LiveScience titled Oceans Running Low On Oxygen brings up a very important point about the use of fertilizer usage both here in the United States and else where.

Using fertilizer on crops allows us to grow more crops per acre and supply a large percentage of the food consumed both here and abroad. In reading this article it really got me to thinking about the debate “or lack of” about an energy policy.

We have one party saying drill and the other saying we cannot drill our way out of it. While we would all like to go to alternative fuels, such as biodiesel and ethanol, It suddenly dawned on me that we could be setting ourselves up for a far worse situation, then the current one we face now.

So I started doing a little digging, “Source of Half Earth’s Oxygen Gets Little Credit.” Now this is a little shocking, it is one thing to think about our planets temperature rising from green house gasses. Yet in our rush to create alternative fuel sources from renewable resources it would almost appear that we could drive most animal species to extinction!

In order to produce the required amount of plant life to generate enough biofuel it would require the massive use of fertilizer products. Just when you think you have a solution another problems arises.

The more I look into alternative energy, the more convinced I become that solar energy is the right way to go. The more homes we have generating the power they need from the sun, then we can free up the large solar energy power plants to generate the massive amounts of electricity that will be needed to produce the hydrogen as a fuel source.

Solar Energy Power Plants

Should be pressed into use thus eliminating the need to burn fossil fuels to produce hydrogen which reports say would end up placing 6 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere then would have been placed there if you’d just used gasoline in the vehicle.

One thing is sure, we do need oxygen to survive. I’m sure that we could if we put our minds to it come up with a solution to prevent the leakage of fertilizer run off into the steams, rivers and oceans of the world.

As I learned more about what Bio Solar is doing to make green energy truly green. With their product BioBacksheet, which consists of layers of cotton fiber a truly renewable resource along with a nylon resin made from castor beans.

BioSolar has shown that with forward thinking we can actually begin to make solar products that are not harmful to the environment. This should go a long way towards reducing the fluctuating cost of solar products as they will no longer be tied to oil.

Everyday looks towards a brighter future for solar energy, yet we really need to figure out how we can get the technology into the hands of more people.

Read the full story: Nesquehoning to become solar power

While I truly like seeing us move in this direction, I also see it as a tremendous waste of valuable land. It would be far better to out fit the estimated 1,450 homes with solar collectors to generate their own power.

Let us know your thought on this:

From all out ward appearances no one is opposed to solar energy. What this indicates to me is that something possibly pork is attached to the bills they are trying to pass?

Now if we could only get the facts, actually see for ourselves maybe we could understand why our elected officials either voted for it or against it.

With just about everyone I know feeling the pain with runaway energy costs it looks like we’ll now have to wait until after the election or next year at the earliest.

It seems like the same old pattern that has occurred over the past 30 – 35 years will happen again. It appears our politicians are more concerned with getting home to justify their existence to their constituents.

This year I’m sure their audience will not be that receptive after their decision to recess versus getting the job done we sent them there to do! Maybe it is time for the American Public to demand an entire new process of getting legislation passed. It is becoming clear that we have a failed broken system that we can not vote our way out of.

With all this said it appears that the solar energy tax credits will expire and each party will blame the other for letting it happen. Still everywhere I look new and exciting solar products are coming to the market.

I think we live in exciting times for solar energy, we just have to get the word out and make it affordable for the average home owner, not just the utility companies. I encourage you to Join The Solution!

While all moves towards solar energy are great, I personally still see most of these plants as a huge waste of space! When you look at the millions of homes in Clark County, Nevada – Las Vegas – Henderson and Boulder City, we have a tremendous amount of wasted space, I.E. roof tops that could be put to better use.

Yet Nevada state law makes it illegal for the home owner to rent renewable energy systems.

The democrats are convinced that it is all the speculators fault that prices are where they are versus looking at their own action! Senator Dorgan is introducing a bill to end oil speculation, it is just one small factor driven by each Senator’s ability not to compromise on the energy solutions that we need in ths country.

I am sure Senator Harry Reid will be along for the ride on this bill as he claims to be a proponent of green energy, yet even his own state of Nevada makes it illegal for any of it’s citizens to rent renewable energy equipment!

We have the Speaker of the House Nancy venomously saying we cannot drill our way out of this problem. Yet who are we to believe? None of them offer any solutions only more bickering and political grandstanding on the hopes that they will be re-elected.

If this is their vision of a new beginning what is in store for us in the next 6 months. Each of the elected officials in this country are clearly only paying lip service to their constituents.

What We Need Right Now Is A Clear Energy Policy

We have the technology to sample the soil on another planet, yet we cannot seem to invest in the infrastructure needed to keep our worldwide growing population from living in the dark ages!

The Latest polls put it at 75 percent the people who are in favor of opening up areas to drilling! Not that I’m for or against that, we have the technology now to keep it environmentally friendly, oh wait that’s another item that if I buy it, it is illegal to own in my state!

So Let Me See If I Got This Right

It’s illegal for me to purchase a Honda PZEV vehicle in the state of Nevada that gets better milage then my current Honda, all due to the governments own environmental rules. I could be saving gas doing my part to conserve as they demand we should, and I could be helping to reduce green house emissions, but no i’d be a criminal for doing that.

If I was one of the wealthy in the state of Nevada, I could purchase the solar items I need to convert my home to green power, along with having to maintain all of the equipment and hope to recover my costs in the next 25 years or so.

But Alas it’s illegal for me to rent renewable energy equipment, and have someone else insure that it runs perfectly for the next 25 years. Finally I’m beginning to see the absurdities in all of this.

There is talk of change coming to this country, yet I feel the majority of career politicians will not like what they see coming!