2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session 2013 special election arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration international internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

I voted for measures 66 & 67 to hold higher income people and corporations more financially accountable, effectively redistributing responsibility progressively. As a lower middle-class worker, I need the kicker check. Many of my lower-income friends need it more than I do. Ability to pay should be a criteria for taxation. My personal opinion: Leave the kicker alone.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
view in context

In 1976 a scientist named Barry Commoner ran for President. The sole plank on his platform was Energy. He noted, correctly I believe, that Energy Cost, as a percentage of GDP, would strangle our economy.

He outlined a way that PV cell costs could be contained. He drew the analogy with the microchip industry, whose chips in that era had just had just come down in price significantly. He observed that the NASA had placed orders for vast quatities of these chips, used in computers and other equipment needed to put a man on the moon. The semiconductor industry was forced to expand and automate, bringing the cost of computer chips down radically. He suggested that if all Federal buildings were retrofitted with PV cells, the same economies-of-scale cost reductions would follow. Residential and local Business arrays would become way more affordable. And once paid for, the power from these arrays would be free (not a word that oil and other energy companies like to hear)

He also advoctated Distributed power generation as opposed to Centralized, noting the inherent overhead in large-scale, centrally generated power distribution (not to mention utility companies' profit margins). The more local the generation and distribution, he thought, the cheaper the power for everybody.

The Federal Government should invest in this technology. Every Federal building in America should have rooftop PV arrays. It just makes good sense.

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
view in context