Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Green Growth: How the Eco-Stimulus Can Generate Jobs

February 13, 2009 by John David Van Hove

ARC1DomeBy Cascadia Capital CEO Michael Butler and Senior Vice-President

Part I, Picking the Winners

We are living in the Age of Uncertainty. Nobody knows how bad the economy really is or how long the pain will persist; nobody knows what type of stimulus package we need or whether a stimulus will actually work. And nobody knows where clean technology innovation is headed, given the current tumult in the capital markets.

Despite financing the future for hundreds of emerging growth companies over the past 25 years, I admit to not having all the answers today, at a time when that would be immensely helpful.

But I do know that the current stimulus package – with approximately $90 billion worth of energy-related spending and tax breaks – has the potential to boost certain sustainable industries and renewable energy sectors that have enormous job-producing potential, and that these good-paying and high-value positions will enhance economic growth both today and tomorrow.

An Extended Keynesian Injection

Unlike the New Deal stimulus, this 21st century eco-stimulus offers us an extended Keynesian injection because new green companies and new clean industries will be created from the ground up while existing – but still maturing – segments of the New Energy Economy will expand and extend their reach.

The businesses and sectors that stand to gain the most from Washington’s legislative initiative will be the ones that can best harness public and private sector capital flows to generate a fairly quick payback. Every enterprise in the clean tech world is looking for stimulus money, but if you can’t break even on a cash flow basis anytime soon, there’s little sense in approaching lawmakers on Capitol Hill for financial aid.

Energy Expenditures

Congress is still not officially signed off on the size and composition of the stimulus. So, my informal, conservative and real-time dollar break out, which is subject to change as legislators crunch the numbers, currently looks like this:

  • Energy Efficiency and Transmission – $50 billion
  • Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extensions – $13 billion
  • Tax Breaks for Large-Scale Renewable Projects – $11 billion
  • Energy Efficiency Improvement – $9 billion
  • Renewable Energy Manufacturing – $1.4 billion
  • Department of Defense Energy Upgrades – $4 billion

Yet even as the legislation is hammered out before going to President Obama for signing, it’s possible to identify three potential winners that will have a tremendous economic – and job-creation – impact on the post-petroleum era.

First, the solar and wind power industries. These sectors are struggling today because debt funding and critical tax equity take-out financing has dried up; but I believe they could experience a reversal of fortune if Congress includes a refundable tax credit in the stimulus package (See Part II, following this story).

Taxing Matters

Amending the tax code in this way makes sense because the refundable tax credit would be a financeable arrangement and go directly to the solar and wind developers, who created a combined 30,000 new jobs in 2007 and 2008.  With the right tax policies in place, the solar energy sector alone could create 440,000 permanent jobs and spur $325 billion in private investment by 2016, according to Navigant Consulting.

The second potential eco-stimulus winner will be the green building industry, which represents a mammoth opportunity and offers a powerful

long tail in terms of new employment possibilities.

Building for the Future

The numbers tell the story in a stark way here: There are currently 120 million homes, 5.1 million commercial buildings and legions of government office structures in the U.S. today. These structures account for approximately 40 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions and consume 60 percent of its raw materials, so if even a reasonable percentage of them were retrofitted and became more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, we’d be setting a major economic multiplier in motion.

The material science sector could especially benefit from a green building stimulus surge if it develops and markets products like clean cement and other building products; and the software industry could also prosper by creating automation services and systems to manage the homes, offices and buildings that are working toward greater energy efficiency.

A Jolt of Prosperity

The third stimulus beneficiary will be the nation’s outdated and outmoded electricity infrastructure, which needs to be upgraded with intelligent and breakthrough digital technology that will boost efficiency and reliability while lowering cost.

A number of skeptics talk about how daunting this overhaul would be. And they are right. The current electricity grid feels like a 19th century creation rather than a 21st century innovation. And it’s a jumble of fraying old wires, decaying transmission stations and antiquated analog equipment that is holding the nation’s global competitiveness back.

But this effort would be well worth it. A recent analysis by the Grid Wise Alliance reveals that $16 billion in smart-grid disbursements over the next four years would serve as the catalyst for projects worth $64 billion. These projects would create nearly 300,000 direct and high-value jobs between 2009 and 2012; and 150,000 of these positions would be established before the end of 2009. In addition, the Grid Wise report indicates that 140,000 indirect jobs would be generated between 2013 and 2018 as a result of smart-grid investment.

A Rising in the Valley

Smart grid innovation and infrastructure improvements would – in the same way as green building retrofits – help the software industry play a much-needed role in clean technology. And, with information technology hitting a plateau, Silicon Valley could reinvigorate itself by embracing a modernized electricity grid through two-way communications devices, smart meters and advanced control systems that take all the gathered energy information and manage it in real-time.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal spending programs struggled to reverse The Great Depression for almost a decade, and it wasn’t until the United States geared up for the Second World War that the economy finally righted itself.

A New New Deal

I believe Barack Obama is more fortunate than Roosevelt because the nation is on the brink of a New Energy Economy today. If Congress and the new President choose eco-stimulus programs and policies wisely, we may see prosperous and peaceful new horizons sooner rather than later.

Michael Butler is Chairman and CEO of Seattle-based Cascadia Capital, LLC, a national investment-banking firm that is helping sustainable industries finance the future; Jamie Boyd is a senior vice president at Cascadia.

The above opinion piece is from independent writers and is not connected with Greentech Media News. The views expressed here are those of the authors and are not endorsed by Greentech Media.

Source: Greentech Media

Posted in Business Development | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Harameins Universal Model Receives One of its Largest Confirmations | The Resonance Project

January 17, 2009 by John David Van Hove

Nassim Haramein for more than two decades has been claiming that black holes are the source of creation, not the result of it.  His model early on permitted him to predict that black holes would be found at the center of all galactic formations.  In many cases Haramein produced large controversy stating that black holes were most likely there prior to galactic formation, or even star formation, and that even our own sun and the atomic structure that makes up our reality is centered by black hole dynamics, or what he calls the spin horizon of a white whole/black whole.  Eventually, telescopic evidence supported the fact that all observed galaxies seem to be centered by super-massive black holes as Haramein predicted.  Initially astrophysicists attempted to explain the presence of these black holes by describing the evolution of galaxies as gathering mass until black holes form at their center but further observation demanded that the galactic central black hole co-evolved with the galactic bulge plasma dynamics and the galactic arms.

Now, as recently reported at the American Astronomical Society, a study using the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico and the French Plateau de Bure Interferometer has enabled astronomers to peer within a billion years of the Big Bang and found evidence that black holes were there first.  This is a fundamental confirmation of Haramein’s theory described in his papers as a universe composed of different scale black holes from universal size to atomic size.

This may be one of the most exciting confirmations as of yet, as it leads directly to a continuous creation process where our universal black hole produces what we call super-massive black holes, which produce smaller ones we call stars, which in turn produce smaller ones we call atoms.  In Haramein’s model, black holes are formed by density gradients in the geometry of spacetime itself, which generates spacetime torque, in turn curling the manifold – like water going down the drain or the slight gradient in air density that produces hurricanes and tornadoes. This results in the extraction of a percentage of the energy available in the vacuum structure, like the air coming up the drain, producing what we experience as mass and electromagnetic radiation (a layman’s explanation can be found in What is the Origin of Spin?). In various sections of his scientific papers (given below with page numbers), Haramein described these processes and a scaling law is given to define the scale relationships of this creation dynamics.  Further, Haramein gives a calculation in his Scale Unification – A Universal Scaling Law For Organized Matter paper (see equation #4 through #16) where he demonstrates that the nuclei of atoms can be described as mini black holes, replacing the need for an ad hoc strong force with no source of energy to define its strength with the gravitational force of a mini black hole extracting energy from the vacuum.

In the same conference, Dr. Elizabeth Humphreys reported that stars have been caught in the act of being born extremely close to the super-massive black hole near the Milky Way core.  This contradicts the standard model that would predict that these stars would get ripped apart by the strong tidal gravity produced by the nearby black hole.  It is evident that the mechanism that allows such young stars to be present so close to a super-massive black hole is not clearly understood by the standard model. However, it is predicted by the continuous black hole creation model of Haramein’s theory.  Stars could only exist in the vicinity of such tidal gravity if they harbored a black hole themselves.  Of course it’s implied that all stars are born out of black holes, and are themselves smaller black holes, including our sun.  In Section 4 of the Scale Unification paper, Haramein and his colleagues give powerful evidence of such a black hole at the center of our sun. This is as well described in a section of the special features (YouTube video) of the “Crossing the Event Horizon: Rise to the Equation” DVD set.

Resources:

Posted in Science & Technology | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

Toward A New American Infrastructure

January 9, 2009 by John David Van Hove

By Julia Levitt

866900112_4a859b1c1a.jpg

Yesterday I sat in on a press teleconference with the three co-chairs of the bipartisan coalition Building America’s Future: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The main topic of discussion: the results of a national poll, paid for by their group, which suggest that U.S. citizens across party lines overwhelmingly support infrastructure improvement, and that most would willingly approve a one percent increase in taxes to pay for the work.

The conference call involved a lot of hopeful rhetoric. The Governor of California cited the hefty investments his own state has already made in improving schools, housing, roads and levees, and future improvements in the states’ prisons and a high speed rail plan, and commented that he looks forward to developing public-private partnerships that will not only help get these programs running, but that will help sustain them over time.

Mayor Bloomberg stressed the role of local governments in choosing which infrastructure projects are right for their districts, and allocating funds accordingly. New York City, he said, will be spending $10.4 billion of its own funds on infrastructure improvements this year. But if federal money is allocated, he said, it must be allocated wisely. “If all we do is spend money on the same old things for the same old places, that would take away the opportunity to use a crisis to instill change.”

And though infrastructure improvements are an important part of the economic stimulus plan forthcoming from the Obama administration, Rendell cautioned, the plan for infrastructure will need to continue into the future long after the stimulus programs are no longer needed. Rendell called for a ten-year commitment – and dedicated federal budget — for rebuilding nationwide infrastructure, and acknowledged that the process would likely come in phases.

Repairs to crumbling bridges, roads and levees, for example, are “shovel-ready” projects that don’t require the months for environmental impact assessments and permitting that new projects demand. Because they offer state governments the ability to turn federal money into jobs and projects most quickly, these projects will be the likely first recipients of the stimulus package funds. To ensure that there will be funding in place for new projects that require lengthier approval processes like high-speed rail connections (not to mention, I would add, projects such as smart grids that will likely take even a few years’ more of engineering, planning and scientific evaluation) we should be planning now to continue supporting these initiatives well into the future.

The other main point of the conversation was the issue of transparency and accountability in government, buzzwords that have held constant in American politics — from early in the presidential primaries to Wednesday’s announcement that Nancy Killefer will fill the newly created position of chief performance officer — and which I’m sure we’ll continue to hear well into the year to come.

Although we at Worldchanging agree with the broad points outlined by Building America’s Future – certainly we should harness the opportunity before us to repair and rebuild our broken and outdated infrastructure; and certainly, there should be a mode of accountability in government – I need to state that a poll reporting such overwhelming numbers in favor of investing in our infrastructure which has been paid for by an organization whose website is www.InvestInInfrastructure.org should be taken with a handful of salt (You can see a summary of the survey online here). That said, I still think that it’s safe to say that the question is not “should Americans invest in infrastructure,” nor is it “should those investments be tracked to ensure transparency and accountability.” The answer to both those questions is yes.

The real question is, what kind of infrastructure are we going to build? There are so many opportunities out there to rebuild in a forward-thinking, sustainable way that it’s understandably difficult to know where to begin.

When it comes to pouring concrete, our allies at Transportation for America are speaking out in favor of repairing existing bridges, roads and highways before we invest in new highway projects. And whether federal money should now go to new highways at all is in serious doubt, considering our need to wean the country off fossil fuels, and the negative social, psychological, economic and environmental consequences of long commutes in traffic, and the fact that studies have shown that new lanes of highway will only increase transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions (PDF). Improving existing roads to create complete streets that support cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians, however, will encourage alternative, healthier modes of mobility that our neighborhoods need.

And the ways in which we invest in the built environment will play an important role also. Suburban development in the United States – the large, single-family homes on large lots that we’ve seen much of since the end of World War II – is extremely costly when it comes to providing utilities and other municipal amenities to residents: as noted in this Brookings Institute study (PDF), development on lots of one acre in size is estimated at $90,000 per home. So choosing where our infrastructure dollars go will also ideally mean choosing how we develop our land.

And, as we discussed in a recent feature, now is the time to invest money in projects that will ultimately pay off in the long run by saving energy or replacing sources that currently come at an unsustainable price. Obama has shown he understands the need to do this in the built environment by pledging to retrofit federal buildings for energy-efficiency – large up-front investments that will create jobs today, and will save millions in taxpayer funds in the future. Other investments in infrastructure that is literally smart – smart grids, and the Smart Garage concept under testing by RMI — where our vehicles will interact with buildings and utilities to store and distribute power with les waste.

What I see emerging here are two major needs as President-Elect Obama and the members of Congress decide which projects deserve federal stimulus, and how best to meet the goal that many before me have stated: turning crisis into opportunity to rebuild a more sustainable America. We encourage leaders, like those at the helm of Building America’s Future and others, to develop a system for accountability that will ensure that the projects we choose are held to the highest standards for quality, efficiency and environmental effectiveness that we know. And we encourage Americans to be watchdogs themselves, staying informed so that they understand what solutions are possible … and why the best time to embrace the possible is right now.

Source: WorldChanging.org

Posted in Business Development | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

I.O.U.S.A. Film Review and Resources

October 20, 2008 by John David Van Hove

The critically-acclaimed documentary film I.O.U.S.A. was conceived of, co-written and executive produced by Agora Financial’s Addison Wiggin. In July 2008, the film was acquired by The Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

It was featured in a Live Premier with Warren Buffet, Pete Peterson and David Walker in 400 theatres around the nation on August 21st, 2008. If you missed the event, you can read a transcript of the national town hall meeting here.

“From September 30, 2007 to the end of this past fiscal year on September 30, 2008, total federal debt grew by $1.0 trillion, from 9,007,653,372,262.48 to $10,024,724,896,912.49, which is an 11.3% annual rate of growth. The federal debt as of October 16, 2008 is now $10,331,139,000,845.92. So in just 16 days since the end of the last fiscal year, the federal debt has grown by an astounding $331.1 billion, which is a 75.5% annual rate of growth. It has taken just 16 days to borrow one-third of what the government borrowed in all of last year.”- Daily Pfennig

Ron Paul: “We can’t afford to pay all these bills, and if we just pay for these bills by printing money, it will destroy the currency – and that will be a much, much more painful reaction than us just tightening our belts and living within our means.”

Warren Buffett: “I do think that piling up more and more and more external debt and having the rest of the world own more and more of the United States may create real political instability down the line and increase the possibility that demagogues come along and do some very foolish things.”

Resources:
56 Trillion Dollar Deficit
Agora Financial
Bureau of the Public Debt
Debt Numbers Overwhelming
I.O.U.S.A. (Film)
Life and Debt (Film)
Money as Debt (Film)
On Passage of Bailout Bill
Review at NH Film Festival
U.S. National Debt Clock

Posted in Business, Economics & Money | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

What About Me (Film) – From the Producers/Directors of “One Giant Leap”

September 25, 2008 by John David Van Hove

What About Me? (DVD)

What About Me? (DVD)

Reviewed by the ORGANIZER of the Ashland Resource Center:

The community came out in force for a fundraiser/benefit for EarthDance and the local premiere of a new film produced and directed by the creators of “1 Giant Leap” – an incredible, masterpiece of a film laced with music from cover-to-cover.

Following the success of their first double Grammy nominated film & album, What About Me? is the latest offering from 1 Giant Leap. This visionary project took Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman to over 50 locations as they explore through music, the complexities of human nature on a global scale, and aims to reveal how we are all connected through our creativity and beliefs, but most of all through our madness.

Covering universal topics such as God, Sex, Death and Money, What About Me? features an incredibly diverse collection of collaborators from Noam Chomsky to Will Young, Maxi Jazz to Tim Robbins, Billy Connolly to Michael Stipe, Eckhart Tolle to Baba Mal, among many others.

Encompassing a TV series, film and album, this is a poignant, emotional and entertaining time capsule of humanity at its most inspirational.

Resources:
1 Giant Leap (Trailer) and Website
Ashland Resource Center Review
EQ.TV Profile Page
What About Me (Trailer) and Website

Posted in Consciousness, Music | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Launching a Local, Regional & Global Resource Center

September 21, 2008 by John David Van Hove

Ashland Resource Center

Ashland Resource Center

I’ve always enjoyed networking people, projects, programs, media, organizations, businesses and people since way back in the mid-seventies after reading the “Whole Earth Catalog.”

On September 1st, 2008 I intend to formally launch the ICResource global, regional and local networks. These have been in development over the last year along with another half-dozen networks for clients and internal developments.

Posted in Resource Centers | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Living Deeply (Book) – Institute for Noetic Sciences

September 19, 2008 by John David Van Hove

Living Deeply

Living Deeply

Reviewed by the ORGANIZER of the Ashland Resource Center:

By Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D., Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D., Tina Amorok, Psy.D

“There is a huge and rising hunger on the part of just about everybody for authentic experience and reconnecting with what’s deepest and best in ourselves in an ever accelerating and complex world.” –Jon Kabat-Zinn

Last week I attended an evening lecture by two dynamic and brilliant women from the Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS), the organization founded by the Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell after his journey to the moon. Since then they’ve been studying and researching the science of consciousness and spiritual experiences. This is a profound synthesis of ancient mystery schools with modern science.

Their current book, “Living Deeply: The Art & Science of Transformation in Everyday Life” explores, compiles and analyzes some of their decades long research and discoveries from such great teachers as: Ram Dass, Stanislav Grof, Sylvia Boorstein, Jon Kabat-Zinn, George Leonard, Noah Levine, Rachel Naomi Remen, Huston Smith, Starhawk and many others.

Resources:
Ashland Resource Center Review
Living Deeply (Book & DVD) – Purchase Now!

Posted in Consciousness, Science & Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Miracle of Ozone – Flood Your Body with Oxygen by Ed McCabe

September 1, 2008 by John David Van Hove

Reviewed by the CO-ORGANIZER of the Ashland Resource Center:

Resources:
Ashland Resource Center Review

Posted in Health & Wellness | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

You Are Not A Victim – Be “Response-Able”

August 1, 2008 by John David Van Hove

FROM SUCCESS EDUCATION COURSE
Audio

You Are Not A Victim – Be “Response-Able”

You must know and understand that you have a choice at all times, that you create your own reality and are not a victim. You must be willing to acknowledge both the internal and the external aspects of the seven aspects of sovereignty, and achieve balance in all these areas. You must acknowledge that education is the key to unlock the door of a successful life.

You must factor yourself into the new paradigm development plan with education, training and human development at the core. There is no project or business development that can ultimately succeed without both personal and professional development. True holistic education and training has been sorely undervalued and largely unavailable to the general population, and as a developed society and nation, we’ve paid dearly for the mistake. Remember, freedom and ignorance can never co-exist.

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

You must examine your belief structures and end self-deception and denial. This involves telling the truth, for the truth shall set you free. It means a thorough reflection, self-examination and assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Where there is strength, the integration of those strengths with what you do and who you are. And where there is weakness, the healing and development of those aspects of yourself.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates

This may involves embracing the shadow, or unconscious aspect of yourself. This may also involve looking at your self-worth and self-esteem issues. This may involve your physical or emotional health and well-being. You must deprogram the mind control systems that dominate our information systems today, and free your own mind. You must retire political correctness and the good opinion of others over your own thoughts.

You must release the prejudices and preconceptions that have kept you a slave in your own mind. You must release feelings of insecurity, expectations and false attachments.

“The people who are the most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.” -Gilbert Chesterton

You must break through all fears. Fears such as – not understanding, making a mistake, fears of the government, of the IRS or Revenue Canada, of going to prison, of offshore investments, of losing money, of death and taxes, of being yourself, of being seen, of public speaking. There are so many kinds of fears but they are all rooted in the same fear of death or survival.

“Fear leads you directly into the path of that which you fear.” -Anonymous

“If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.” -Raymond Inmon

You must experience yourself as worthy and break through old family patterns that keep you from living an abundant and prosperous life. You must experience courage, faith, kindness, contentment and joy to reach your goals for a happy and successful life.

Deepak Chopra stated in his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, a book that I highly recommend everybody read, “Success is the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease.”

In summary, your human and community development includes:

  1. Breakdown and breakthrough experiences
  2. Knowing that you are always at choice
  3. Knowing that you are responsible to create your own reality
  4. Knowing that you are not a victim
  5. Embodying the seven aspects of sovereignty
  6. Achieving balance in your work and living
  7. Acknowledging education as the key to your personal development
  8. Examining your belief structures and ending self-deception and denial
  9. Telling the truth
  10. Taking a serious look at yourself through reflection, contemplation, self-examination and assessment
  11. Assessing your strengths and weaknesses
  12. Embracing the shadow aspect of yourself
  13. Deprogramming mind control systems, media and other limiting thoughts
  14. Reevaluating political correctness and the approval of others
  15. Releasing prejudices and preconceptions
  16. Breaking through all fears
  17. Experiencing yourself as worthy of receiving and having a successful life
  18. Dismantling old family patterns that imprison you
  19. Being courageous through the course of your living

Posted in Audio Course, Success | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Enhances Overall Health & Vitality

June 1, 2008 by John David Van Hove

Posted in Health & Wellness | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Older Posts »