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According to one news source, a Harvard study indicates that passing Cap and Trade would raise gas prices to $7 a gallon. As a Christian who cares about the environment, I’m interested in legislation like this. I’m interested in it failing.

I want to see some sort of Government incentive for using cleaner energy – not a penalty for using the one source of transportation that is widespread in our country. An incentive might allow me to not pay certain taxes for a specified amount of time if I buy an EV. There might be an incentive for energy providers that lowers the tax rate on profits from clean energy. Perhaps the best solution would be to provide a big benefit or prize for creating a new energy technology that is cost effective and could compete with fossil fuel. These are simply the musings of an intelligent person, not an expert by any means.

What I would hate to see is everyday people (especially rural people) have to triple their budget for gasoline. I use a small amount of gasoline by Texas standards, roughly $225 a month (2 vehicles, 4 tanks of gasoline a month @ $2.70 a gallon). If that price went to $7 a gallon, my cost would go to $600 a month. I couldn’t afford that. I don’t have any alternatives. There is no public transportation, and this is Texas, where it is considered “unhealthy” to be outside in the heat (at least that’s what the government says, I like exercising in heat), so walking 4 miles to the nearest grocery store is out of the question. Then there is the problem of the fact that transportation cost on goods would triple as well, meaning that every good and service that I purchase would increase in price. I just don’t see how that is a desired effect.

The kind of change I desire would be better enforcement of current rules, and maybe even to move step by step toward tougher rules on pollution. But mainly, alternative energy just isn’t cost effective. That’s the real problem. As a Christian who cares about God’s creation (the environment), I want to leave as little impact on the non-human world as possible – in fact I’d like to think my actions improve it. But the sort of legislation that Obama is calling for does not seem to match my goals.

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As a Christian who cares about God’s Creation, the environment, I am one of the 38 thousand people in Texas who will be taking advantage of a government program meant to get consumers to junk their working appliances and buy new ones to help stimulate the lagging economy.

Part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment act (aka Obama’s stimulus, or pork-ulus to you Rushl listeners) was to provide money for Americans to purchase energy efficient appliances. Still, should the program really stipulate that you must get rid of a working appliance in order to get the rebate? Don’t get me wrong. I am glad to get a new dishwasher, and glad that I’m gonna get a deal. As a Christian who cares about God’s Creation (environment) I’m all about this stuff. But, the program’s motive seems to be stimulating corporations instead of lowering energy usage. But that’s another story.

The real story is the mess that was the TexasPowerfulSmart campaign to get us to trade up in appliances. They announced that the program would start taking applications at 7am this morning (april 7th). So, at 7:01am the site went down… I tried with no luck to get through until 10am. Then I found their twitter feed. I found out that the site was getting 1700 hits per SECOND!!! the call center was getting 1000 calls per MINUTE!!! No wonder I wasn’t getting through. But, with all of that traffic, they had only given out 2% of the rebates in 3hrs…

Then their website antics started. They started moving the location of the application to where you couldn’t just refresh the page over and over and hope to get through. I found out that you had to start on the home page, and follow the whole set of links (which were updated) to get to the new location of the application. So, at 12 something I got through and got an application filled out. BAZINGA!! I’m gonna save some cash. But, I thought I should call my mother-in-law who was trying to do the same deal in order to get a new air conditioner. She was having no luck. She had been trying to refresh a page, which I told her no longer existed. When I followed my method again, I got right through and filled out an application for her. So, I was able to get through the process 2 times in about 15min. I would NEVER have known to do that if I hadn’t read a blog post chronicling the problems of the site.

It also turns out that the website may have experienced some sort of internet attack (DDos for you techies). That may have been the reason that only 2-3% of the rebates were given out before the site shut down at 11am. When it came back online at 12:15am, the remaining money went out pretty fast, as seen below (from their twitter account):

• We’ve had 19.5 million hits from more than 105K unique IPs as of 10:15a. Your patience is appreciated. about 12 hours ago via web
• Web reservation system is still temporarily unavailable as of 11 a.m. Here’s what you can do: http://texaspowerfulsmart.org/options.php about 12 hours ago via web
• $18,505,975 in rebates are still available, about 10 percent of funds have been claimed. #txrebate about 12 hours ago via web
• Follow us @PowerfulSmart for latest updates. The Comptroller’s phone line has limited capacity and we want you to have the latest info fast. about 11 hours ago via web
• $18,091,315 in rebates are still available, about 12 percent of funds have been claimed. #txrebate about 11 hours ago via web
• The Texas Appliance Rebate online reservation system has been restored to limited traffic: http://sn.im/v0tpr #txrebate about 11 hours ago via web
• $11,948,460 in rebates are still available. 42 percent of funds have been reserved #txrebate about 10 hours ago via web
• $9,041,665 in rebates are still available. 56 percent of funds have been reserved. Keep trying! #txrebate about 10 hours ago via web
• $8,141,120 in rebates are still available. 63 percent of funds have been reserved. #txrebate about 10 hours ago via web
• About $4.6 million in appliance rebates are still available to reserve. 77 percent of funds have been reserved. about 9 hours ago via web
• About $2.8 million in appliance rebates are still available. 86 percent of funds have been reserved. http://www.texaspowerfulsmart.org/ about 9 hours ago via web
• About $600,000 in rebates are available now. 97 percent of funds have been reserved. #txrebate about 9 hours ago via web
• All Texas appliance rebates have been reserved, but you can still join our wait list for a chance to qualify www.TexasPowerfulSmart.com. about 8 hours ago via web

All in all, this felt like some sort of Black Friday adventure, and not a way to help the state cut back on energy demands. In fact, if someone really wanted to get tempers flaring, they could argue that it was prejudiced against low income individuals. Since only internet connections were getting through, one needed a computer and internet to get a rebate. Many rural and low Socio-Economic status individuals do not have access to these items. So they likely received a disproportionately small number of rebates.

Still, as a Christian who cares for God’s Creation (the environment) I really do want to lower my energy needs in order to reduce pollution. This program will help me do it.

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Though there are certainly oil and gas reserves in those areas opened up by Pres. Obama, it remains to be seen how much it actually is. Meanwhile, his climate plan (and green view) seems to have a component of oil and natural gas in the short term at least, while he claims that ‘green’ jobs will power America’s recovery and future. This may seem a bit contradictory to some, but I applaud him for at least recognizing that energy costs affect the economy – and this measure may lower those costs eventually. It does seem that he promised not to do this in his campaign though…

If this is a somewhat politically motivated action, it will not surprise James Lovelock – who recently said that humanity is too stupid to stop global warming. In the war of opinions and data on climate change, it seems that Pres. Obama may attempt to find a middle ground (in the eyes of the international community). Of course, to the American community, that would seem like a hard-line leftist stance. It remains to be seen how tough of a stand this president will take for the environment. As of now, he seems to have caved to pressure from economists and corporations (possibly – who really knows). Will he take a stand and please Gaia theory enthusiasts like James Lovelock? We’ll see.

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I’m not against healthcare for the poor, even if it costs me money. But, I would prefer that the church provide that service. I’m afraid that the government is replacing the church in the role of caring for the poor. James 1:27 This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Personally I am unable to agree with the healthcare bill because I feel that supporting it would be endorsing government to take over a mission given to the church. Now, I know people – other Christians – who take the exact opposite position. They argue that by supporting more government intervention in health care, they are doing their Christian duty of caring for the poor and sick. I respect their opinion, but disagree. I think the church should be the lamp which shines the light of Christ’s love to the world, not government.

I also think that churches (or The Church) should take care of people who need a place to live. Yet, nowadays when someone needs help with a house they go to the government. Tim Geithner recently purposed ending the ambiguity to whether Fannie May and Freddie Mac are really publicly (or government) owned agencies. I also feel like churches should take the lead in caring for the environment. Once again, government will be taking the mission of caring for God’s creation.

To sum up, I disagree in principal with government taking any responsibility or mission away from the church. In my view, God has relationships with individuals and challenges them specifically, in the same way then individuals are responsible for caring for other individuals. We are personally responsible for caring for the sick, the homeless, the environment. The community is responsible only so far as it is a collection of individuals. When individuals share each others burdens, like helping an individual pay for healthcare, the community/society fulfills its responsibility. In my view the responsibility of the community is the sum of the individual acts of responsibility.

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The bill is claiming to reduce carbon emissions by 17%. Is that all? We could just give free CFL lightbulbs to all of the 115 million US households (as projected by the US Census Beaureu) in 2010. Wouldn’t that save just about as much energy/carbon emissions? I think these bills are just more politics from a broken two party system.

What we really need are solutions which will save energy and reduce emissions, not make the cost of pollution more expensive. Raising the cost of pollution gives no incentive to keep pollution down, but it does give an incentive to raise prices – either to cover the cost of the pollution or the increased cost to keep from polluting.

Why can’t we just work on ways to do more with less? It seems that would be the best and cheapest solution.

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The basic idea that Obama’s science advisor suggests is that we should use technology to stave off the radical global warming that “could be approaching” (his words in the article). Holdren’s idea includes creating a device which would launch particles into the upper atmosphere much like a volcano. To be fair, it is widely accepted that a volcanic eruption was in large part the cause of the “Little Ice Age” (data here). However Holdren himself notes that the effects of such a device are unknown.

Anyone who has read even a little bit about Chaos theory (a good book here, and article here) knows that a complex system with many variables is basically impossible to predict. This is because the same patterns can be caused by different sets of variables. So, scientists really don’t know what the effect of this device might be, but Holgren is ready to say that he thinks it is the best bet in the fight against what might be catastrophic global warming.

I would rather see our nation (and Christians in particular) embrace a lifestyle that uses the fewest resources possible, causing the least pollution possible, and only leaving a mark upon human culture, not a scar in the land.

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In response to Obama’s proposed stimulus/bailout (depending on which news channel you watch), the Canadian group “PowerUP Canada” is pushing for a similar deal in Canada. The proposal would nearly match the Obama proposal in funds for green goals, and would have the same purpose. Most of the money would go towards retrofitting buildings so that they are more energy efficient (more from the story here).

Personally, I am glad to hear that North America will be cutting down on pollution and wasting less energy. Though I am an independant (for politcal purposes) I really like what the democrats have proposed so far for this “green” agenda. I can only hope that there will be some sort of major rail (both passenger and freight) included in this stimulus/bailout.

So far so good, from Pres. Obama.

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His choice of accomplished scientists, and experienced Gore workers, leads me to believe that he really intends to get some things going here. He even mentioned that California is the one state that seems to get it right on the environment. That is saying a lot. Will this have implications for the EPA’s fuel efficiency standards that Detroit is currently fighting in California? Hopefully so.

While Obama did mention “taking care of our children’s inheritance” (the earth), he didn’t mention taking care of God’s creation. I really would like to see some politicians use that phrase. I don’t think it would offend most Americans, but I guess he is afraid of alienating “serious scientists” who are doing climate research. I still wish he would’ve used the phrase…

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But what will happen when he breaks this promise?

Yes, I think he will. First of all, if you read the above story, the criticism is because the Bush administration does not want to pledge enough aid, or set strict enough emissions goals. Neither will Obama!! Why? The economy is in the toiled. Every high school kid learns in their government class (which is mandated by the government ironically) that economics drives policy. It makes sense, we are a capitalist country – we look for the bottom line.

“Greens” tend to argue that the earth/climate is the bottom line in reality. But, like always, the environment will be put off as “the next generation’s problem” – after all people need jobs, we’re in a recession!!

My question for all of you Christians out there is this: Should we make decisions based on our ethics (preferably that of Jesus) or on the bottom line?

People can argue all day about how much money to spend on the environment. At the end of the day, what difference are you making? How have you adapted your behavior to care for God’s green earth?

I have started recycling like crazy. We take all kinds of stuff to the recycling bins now instead of to the curb for the trash pick-up. We try to buy only replacements for broken items. I never throw things away, instead I sell them on ebay (yes, I’m a stock-holder) or give things away. The really hard thing that I’m struggling to do now is to put together a list of companies that not only treat the environment properly, but treat people properly -and then do business with those companies…

Credit for the picture goes to chuck perry’s blog

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One article says, that he wants to take away the subsidies from oil companies. He voted to regulate mercury emissions from smokestacks. He voted no to more funding for forest roads and fish habitat. He voted YES on continuing desert protection in California. He voted to end commercial whaling and illegal trade in whale meat.

His website lists his position on some environmental issues. He has voted to try and slow climate change (here). He plans to reduce power plant emissions, and improve efficiency in cars and trucks. He hopes to protect Alaska’s wildlife, and defend clean-air and water. Senator Biden co-authored the plan that provides debt relief to developing nations in exchange for protecting tropical rainforests that are critical to the global climate.

So, it seems that Biden has a record of being pro-environment.

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