The headline says it all: “Berkeley Going Solar-city pays upfront, recoups over 20 years.” Brilliant piece of work there. Let’s discuss the brilliance:
First, congrats to the government for doing something useful, I didn’t believe that was even possible. The city of Berkeley made a goal of reducing it’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and they are on their way to actualizing success. (We’re all hopeful that the planet will still be functional in 2050.) I was thrilled when the government began contemplating creating the goal in the first place. This is quite a few steps forward in the process. They’ve mapped out a way to make it happen. The city’s going solar, they’re helping to pay for it, Berkeley’s about to get a makeover.
How many people said that solar energy is a great idea but it’s just too expensive? You who raged about the distance of price parity and the prohibitive upfront expense of solar panels. You doubting Thomas blog posters who fired up the debate, or took the opposition stance to the possibility of going solar. Berkeley’s taking a $tand- instead of letting the market take care of this extreme enviropolitical structural change, the city’s financial influence will determine outcome and make it a reality- now. Looks like Berkeley will be the first of Bush’s smurf blue step children to wise up, take action, make change, and Obama hasn’t even taken office yet.
The state of California pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. If people still inhabit the earth, two pieces of legislation including the California Solar Initiative and the Million Solar Roofs program provide a framework for the coming changes in the state. The Berkeley FIRST program, the city’s Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology, will provide funding for a solar panel instillation on household roofs, yours and mine, from a bond or loan fund which will return within 20 years via an adjustment to property tax bills. The pilot Berkeley FIRST project commenced this summer, 2008. GREAT news! American money improving America- what a concept. (I’d love to hear some reviews from the locals, but more on that later.)
The lack of awareness on this fantastic step in Operation A Better America is due to the distraction of the current election. My advice for undecideds: Just ask Ken Alex, the California deputy attorney and Berkeley’s Mayor Tom Bates who they are endorsing for President and vote with them. Those two gentlemen and their teams have enabled the first American structural makeover since all of America’s money got spent blowing things up in Iraq. Adding solar panels to improve a city in California instead of decimating cities in Afghanistan, or Iraq, is such a fantastically justifiable expense. With a blown American budget, the American people, myself included, would like to see the action potential of those trillions of dollars that we don’t have that are being spent anyway.
I know what the Red Ones will think, conspicuous government spending, followed by a mighty hand wringing. Perhaps since money will be spent domestically and we will see the results visually and in a manipulation of the domestic expense matrix, the Bigtime-Haves are going to have to start getting used to hanging with the Haven’t-Had-as-Much-Recently group. Solar panels: Call it the first American shopping spree! Like buying a new outfit.
While the ugly duckling phases makes Berkeley the nearly hot new kid on the block, very shortly, the popular kids will take notice in a big way. San Francisco, Santa Cruz, hoity toity Santa Monica among other state agencies have already looked into the Berkeley process. If it goes, it’ll get copied. By stealing the best working ideas, which include putting solar panels on rooftops, the yellow tinge that hovers just above our heads in LA might just being to break up before I’m dead. (Yes, I KNOW it’s better than it was 20 years ago. I lived in Canada, the sky is always beautiful except for Toronto. The bling hanging in the LA sky is, will be, and always has been completely disgusting. There can be no arguement. Make it go away. That, and nothing less, should be the goal.)
