New England Marine Renewable Energy Center (MREC) director John Miller took a rapt audience on a photographic tour of the latest efforts to generate power from ocean tides, waves and wind, in a January 14th Cambridge, MA talk sponsored by the Boston Area Solar Energy Association (BASEA). To hear an audio recording of Director Miller's talk, click here (40.4 MB mp3 audio download).

New England is at the end of the energy supply chain (far from most of its energy sources), said Miller, with an aging and unreliable grid, and high energy prices, a barrier to renewed manufacturing here. Solar energy will be a part of the solution, said Miller, but solar energy is intermittent in New England, and the transmission lines will be long from the Southwest, where large-scale solar arrays may be feasible. The high energy load (demand) of the dense east coast urban centers is, however, very near the energy of the ocean, Miller pointed out.

Compared to the 28 gigawatts (GW) of peak electricity load in New England, Miller estimated there was the potential for over 100 GW of peak offshore wind energy, 10 to 30 GW of wave energy, and about 0.5 GW of tidal energy generation in this region. In other words, if fully developed, total marine renewable ocean energy sources could exceed the peak electric demand in New England, according to his estimates. In addition to these potential marine energy resources, New England has the universities, institutions and intellectual power, and the deep water ports and manufacturing and construction infrastructure, to be an advantageous place for ocean renewable energy development, said Miller. Developing this marine energy potential could spur $2 billion a year in regional economic activity, Miller estimated.

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On December 26th, China announced the fastest passenger train in the world, running the 1,069 kilometers between "Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour," Agence France Presse (AFP) reports. ("China unveils 'world's fastest train link'") The train can reach a top speed of 394.2 kilometers / hour, a Chinese transport official told the Chinese news agency Xihnua. To view one of a number of videos of the train available via YouTube, click here.

Work on the project began in 2005, says AFP, showing how fast high speed rail can be implemented when it has serious governmental support. The Financial Times reports that this 4 1/2 year Chinese rail project cost $17 billion dollars. That's only a few billion dollars more than Boston and the federal government spent on the two mile long "Big Dig" highway tunnel project, and about what the Obama administration will spend in seven weeks for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. "In September, [Chinese] officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed [rail] lines by 2012 in a massive system overhaul as part of efforts to spur economic growth amid the global downturn", AFP reports.

Over dinner just before Christmas, web publisher Arianna Huffington, former Senate Banking Commitee chief economist Rob Johnson, and others cooked up the idea of a viral campaign to encourage people to vote with their money against the big banks, by simply moving their money to smaller, local community banks. The idea turned into Move Your Money, with a goal "to help limit the power of the big banks and create a more sane, stable financial system."

The group just published a new website, www.moveyourmoney.info, and turned out a promotional video based on clips from Frank Capra's populist classic "It's a Wonderful Life," in which Jimmy Stewart stars as the head of a small local Savings & Loan Association struggling against the conniving banker, Mr. Potter. The Move Your Money website has a very helpful tool that allows you to enter your zip code for a list of the local community banks in your area that are FDIC-insured, have a bank rating of "B" or better, and are not owned by any of the large national banks.

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After a comeback based on "taxpayer lifelines and other support from Washington," the six largest banks "have already made more than $50 billion in the first three quarters [of 2009] and are on track to deliver a year of hefty profits -- and bonuses -- that could rival those of the boom years", reports the NY Times ("Doubts on Regulation and Renewal Hang Over Wall St." (1/1/10)) The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs "expects to award its employees $23 billion in bonuses -- the most in its history", says the Times ("With Bigger Bonuses, An Upside for Banks," 1/1/10)).

Alongside immense bonuses for bankers, the banking industry has repaid the American public for its lifeline to the banks by cutting back on lending to consumers and businesses. "The banking industry has throttled back lending for the last 15 months, draining more than $3 trillion of credit from the economy", reports the Times. ("Doubts on Regulation...") Wall Street has also "beef[ed] up its financial lobby in Washington to win big concessions. Among other things, the industry is working to ease rules governing derivatives and to weaken a proposal for a consumer financial protection agency", says the Times.

The recent United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as "COP 15," ended in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 19, without a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, in private meetings that bypassed UN discussions, the U.S. and the four "BASIC" bloc countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) wrote a so-called "Copenhagen Accord" that did not commit countries to specific greenhouse gas reduction targets. The Accord was neither accepted or rejected by the UN climate meeting, merely "noted." The Accord has been heavily criticized by numerous environmental groups and developing nations.

(Listen to the audio reports by Living Planet (12/24/09) and Sea Change Radio (12/23/09) and see the video report by the Guardian (London) summarizing the outcome of the Copenhagen conference. See also Deutsche Welle, "UN climate summit 'takes note'' of Copenhagen Accord"(12/19/09); Greenpeace's interim report on the Copenhagen Conference; Friends of the Earth on the Copenhagen Accord; and ExpressIndia, "US-BASIC 'Copenhagen Accord' disappoints poor nations", (12/19/09).)

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In a packed launch party at the Northampton Brewery November 30th, Pioneer Valley Local First unveiled its new Local Business Guide / Building Sustainable Communities, a free guide to over 200 local and independently owned businesses in our region. PV Local First is hoping to encourage Pioneer Valley (MA) residents to "Think Local First" and support local businesses when they buy goods and services.

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What will it take to sustain our communities, our regions, our country over the long run?  That’s the question we tackle here at Sustenance, with news reports and analysis, links to important websites, articles and resources, and audio reports. 

Over the long run, for Sustenance, we hope to help build a new politics of sustainability.  To that end, we will be sharing with you the new practical experiments and innovative thinking emerging in:

• local and organic agriculture,
• alternative energy and energy efficiency,
• sustainable economics, oriented towards the satisfaction of real human need, not the exponential expansion of desire and consumption,
• energy efficient housing,
• healthcare for all, with a focus on ideas like “single payer” healthcare that are not getting an adequate hearing,
• manufacturing, with a focus on green industry, a restoration of the American manufacturing economy, and the production of durable and recyclable goods,
• transportation, with a focus on public transit and low carbon-footprint vehicles, and
• water, keeping it a clean and publicly shared resource protected for generations to come.

But most of all we hope to discuss what it might take to link these innovations in a new culture and politics of sustainability that can transform our communities, our regions and our country.

Sustenance is based in the Pioneer Valley region of western Massachusetts -- the towns of the Connecticut River valley in our state. We have a particular interest in the practice and politics of sustainability in this region, and in the Connecticut River valley to our north and south. But we won't confine our interest and reporting to this region or even to this country. If all politics is local, all politics is now global as well. Wherever you are, we'd like to hear from you.

To send a comment, or to subscribe to our email updates, email us at:  publisher@sustenancetoday.org.

-- Rudy Perkins, publisher

 

 

© 2009, 2010 by Rudy Perkins • Site first published 7/5/09 • Photo credits and copyright unless otherwise noted: Rudy Perkins. Sustenance opening percussion theme composed and performed by Hollie Marron and Deb Reed.

Site last modified 1/18/10

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