Stock market investors need not worry if they are up to speed on Washington's determination to regulate carbon emissions. The best investors in the world over the last 50 years - people like George Soros, Warren Buffet, Henry Kravis and others - have always watched Washington closely, as sectors that are subsidized/pushed can present amazing short term (and long term) opportunities.
One of these current sectors, is the newly developed climate exchange and carbon market. Smart investors are starting to see huge growth opportunity in the U.S. via the Chicago Climate Exchange and Chicago Climate Futures Exchange. The Chicago Climate Futures Exchange is a contractually binding cap and trade carbon market ---and currently has close to 500 members. Our current best estimate is that this exchange could generate revenues well in excess of $200,000,000.
But what exactly does this mean for other related areas? You guessed it. More growth
Friday, July 31, 2009
Austin Energy Rebate Special - This August Only
Green Collar Operations will be running a Attic insulation sale for Austin TX customers this August. Additionally, we are running a super-special for any home over 2000 square feet in Austin TX that needs weatherization - Our cost will be NO COST to you after the rebate that you receive from the city of Austin. Please make sure to tell your friends and family to call us to schedule their FREE weatherization if their home is over 2000 sq ft.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
What Does the Green Movement Mean to You?
What does the green movement mean to you? This may seem like a silly question, but it’s a question I have been asking myself lately. There is really no rite answer to this question; it is simply a way of thinking about the hundreds of different things that have become part of the green movement and what is most important in them. An interesting experiment I did was to Google the terms green movement and my home town and sees what comes up. Here in Austin Texas a Google search of “Green Movement Austin” brings up an interesting series of results.
The first thing that comes up is an article about a concert celebrating the green movement in Austin. If you know about Austin this makes some sense, as the self proclaimed music capital of the world we have concert for just about everything. The sponsor of this green concert was the Yellow Bike Collective, a local group that advocates for bicyclist rites and increasing the ease of transit by bicycle around town. They are a great organization and have done good things for the local biking community here in Austin, but I don’t know that they would qualify as the epitome of the Austin green movement in my mind.
Second on the list is the Travis Count Green Party. Clearly they should be high on the list as they appear to be leaders in the local green movement from a local government standpoint. However I was disappointed when I looked at their sight and found out that none of their top three key values are related to the environment or environmental concerns. Shouldn’t the green movement be about the environment more than anything else? Several of their other key values are environmentally related but are very vague on exactly what their stance is on important environmental issues.
All in all someone trying to find out what the green movement in Austin is all about wouldn’t get a very good picture from the first page of search results on Google. They would certainly understand that there are several local groups supporting bike transportation and delivery to reduce emissions. They will also find responses from realtors to the recent home energy regulations put in place, most of which are critical of the city’s plan to increase energy efficiency. What does this say about our lovely little city that likes to think of itself as a haven for green living in Texas?
I think the Austin green movement is more than these search results would tell you, and I did skip over one brief article that talks about Austin as a leader in the green building sector, but the fact still remains that the information available online largely doesn’t match up with what I think of when I think of the green movement. This is a symptom of an ever increasing ambiguity in the green movement and this problem is only going to get worse. With the predictions for a coming “greenconomy” and more money being pumped into anything that can spin itself as part of the green movement by the day, the race is on to get in on the green goodness.
The green movement, whatever it is, is growing. The zeitgeist of the times is more environmentally minded then anytime in recent history and it shows. I encourage you to think critically about what the green movement is, what it means, and what it should be. Let us not forget in the rush that the green movement is about the environment above everything else.
The first thing that comes up is an article about a concert celebrating the green movement in Austin. If you know about Austin this makes some sense, as the self proclaimed music capital of the world we have concert for just about everything. The sponsor of this green concert was the Yellow Bike Collective, a local group that advocates for bicyclist rites and increasing the ease of transit by bicycle around town. They are a great organization and have done good things for the local biking community here in Austin, but I don’t know that they would qualify as the epitome of the Austin green movement in my mind.
Second on the list is the Travis Count Green Party. Clearly they should be high on the list as they appear to be leaders in the local green movement from a local government standpoint. However I was disappointed when I looked at their sight and found out that none of their top three key values are related to the environment or environmental concerns. Shouldn’t the green movement be about the environment more than anything else? Several of their other key values are environmentally related but are very vague on exactly what their stance is on important environmental issues.
All in all someone trying to find out what the green movement in Austin is all about wouldn’t get a very good picture from the first page of search results on Google. They would certainly understand that there are several local groups supporting bike transportation and delivery to reduce emissions. They will also find responses from realtors to the recent home energy regulations put in place, most of which are critical of the city’s plan to increase energy efficiency. What does this say about our lovely little city that likes to think of itself as a haven for green living in Texas?
I think the Austin green movement is more than these search results would tell you, and I did skip over one brief article that talks about Austin as a leader in the green building sector, but the fact still remains that the information available online largely doesn’t match up with what I think of when I think of the green movement. This is a symptom of an ever increasing ambiguity in the green movement and this problem is only going to get worse. With the predictions for a coming “greenconomy” and more money being pumped into anything that can spin itself as part of the green movement by the day, the race is on to get in on the green goodness.
The green movement, whatever it is, is growing. The zeitgeist of the times is more environmentally minded then anytime in recent history and it shows. I encourage you to think critically about what the green movement is, what it means, and what it should be. Let us not forget in the rush that the green movement is about the environment above everything else.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Nuclear Power
I recently read an interesting set of articles about nuclear power in America. The main push of the articles was encouraging people to adopt nuclear as a low emissions source of energy between now and when reliable renewable energy sources can take over. Following are some of the interesting things I learned that I feel it is important for everyone to know.
1. Nuclear power is incredibly safe, all the concerns about a Chernobyl like event happening here are unwarranted and the accident at Three Mile Island was actually relatively minor. Experts think it is likely that the radio active materials leaked a Three Mile Island were so minimal they did not cause a single case of cancer.
2. Nuclear waste is not the huge problem it is made out to be. It is safe to store, takes up relatively minimal space, and is considerably less dangerous than the waste produced at coal plants that simply gets deposited back into the world.
3. Coal plants actually emit radio active isotopes into the atmosphere and create more radioactive waste then nuclear plants do.
4. Not a single nuclear plant has been approved or built in the United States sense Three Mile Island.
I think these articles make a strong case for nuclear power and that future nuclear proposals should be taken seriously. If we continue burning fossil fuels to create energy until we find reliable renewable energy sources it might be to late to reverse the global climate change triggered by the emissions from coal and natural gas powerplants.
1. Nuclear power is incredibly safe, all the concerns about a Chernobyl like event happening here are unwarranted and the accident at Three Mile Island was actually relatively minor. Experts think it is likely that the radio active materials leaked a Three Mile Island were so minimal they did not cause a single case of cancer.
2. Nuclear waste is not the huge problem it is made out to be. It is safe to store, takes up relatively minimal space, and is considerably less dangerous than the waste produced at coal plants that simply gets deposited back into the world.
3. Coal plants actually emit radio active isotopes into the atmosphere and create more radioactive waste then nuclear plants do.
4. Not a single nuclear plant has been approved or built in the United States sense Three Mile Island.
I think these articles make a strong case for nuclear power and that future nuclear proposals should be taken seriously. If we continue burning fossil fuels to create energy until we find reliable renewable energy sources it might be to late to reverse the global climate change triggered by the emissions from coal and natural gas powerplants.
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