Tax Credits for Green Initiatives

I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about this topic. I don't. I only know about a few of the credits that are available, and I don't know all the pros and cons involved. So I'm just going with my gut feeling here.

And along with a general animosity towards the Italian Sausage sandwich I shoveled into it a few hours ago, my gut is telling me that tax credits geared towards the adoption of green initiatives are a very positive thing.

Here's a good example. I've been wanting to put in new windows here at our new place, but I've put it off because of the cost. Even doing the installation myself, the cost has been prohibitive, given that the money could be used for more pressing matters. But now there's a tax credit worth up to $1,500 which you can nab by installing approved energy efficient windows and doors. You can take 30% of the total cost of the job right off your tax bill, up to $1,500. It's a credit, not a deduction, so you get the full dollar value in your pocket. It's essentially a 30% off coupon. That's huge! The window job has now vaulted its way to the front of the line.

So I get a large discount on a job I wanted to do anyway, and afterward I start saving money on my utility bills. Win win...and win. I use less energy, my carbon footprint drops, and a little less bad is perpetrated on our unsuspecting planet. As more people take advantage of the credit, the savings effect swells geometrically. A lower power demand countrywide makes power generation with renewable energy sources, which are generally less predictable than coal powered plants, more feasible. Less reliance of carbon spewing power generation technologies further reduces carbon emissions. Like sharks to chum, once we Americans get a taste for the blood which is energy independence, we will feast to completion.

People, first and foremost, think with their wallets. Expensive green initiatives will never catch on. You have to couch them in terms of saving money. That's the quickest way to get people to hop on board. Then make sure they enjoy the ride and we can make real progress.

The Rings of my Life

I'm going to lay a little low tonight and express love for an ever present gem in my life: rings. I have been wearing rings for as long as I can remember. Some adjectives I would use to describe my ring style are expressionistic, domineering, silver, sparkly (but not in the diamond sense), puzzling, and colorful (mostly shades of green...so really one color). Interesting..Hmmmm..I don't know what any of that means, but please if you have any inclination of the meaning behind Kate's ring style let me know. I prefer to buy my jewelry from art sales. It's so humbling actually meeting the person who put their heart into making the jewelry you are wearing. I love supporting the artists and buying one-of-a-kind items. My favorite ring is the simplist I've probably ever worn. It's a one inch wide 14k silver band that my dad gave my mom on their 5th Wedding Anniversary. My mom gave it to me 10 years ago and it's been around my left thumb ever since. I love my parents very much and I've been living far from them for most of my adult life and this ring is a nice comforting reflection of them that's with me always.

The Electric Car, From Cingular?

I've always been enamored with the idea of a fully electric vehicle.  Hybrids are cool, but most of them don't accomplish much in terms of real world fuel savings.  The technology had promise, but I think it got lost when the world went green.  Suddenly being environmentally-conscious was cool, and any technology displaying even the remotest savings was heralded as savior.  The gloss of green, requiring the least inconvenience, was more important than actual results.  So the hybrids that actually produced these, but were ugly (by necessity) to some people, like the Insight and the Prius, were eclipsed by hybrid versions of existing models.  The hybrid civic for instance.  Or hybrid SUVs.  Hybrid SUVs?  That's like a hot fudge ice cream sundae with Meuslix sprinkled on top.

This post is sounding a bit negative, but I don't mean it to be.  I started it like I did as a counterpoint to what I'm really excited about now.  A fully electric vehicle, and a truly functional network to support it.  This guy named Shai Agassi started a company in 2007 called Better Place, to build an electric car grid based on a concept most of us are familiar with.

A quick explanation.  The grid works like a cell phone network.  Better Place makes deals with electric power grid operators across the country to place charging stations as densely as possible.  It then negotiates with these operators for preferential rates on the power they dispense.  Having done that, they build all electric vehicles and sell them for an extremely low price point, creating demand.  Their goal, ultimately, isn't to make money on the sale of the cars.  In some cases they may, like cell phone providers, give the cars away for free.  They'll make their money selling the electricity used to charge the vehicles.  The consumer gets a free or very inexpensive vehicle in exchange for signing a contract promising to pay so much per month for electricity.

In the end, Agassi sees the per mile price of electricity being a good bit less than gasoline.  So it's a win, win, win.  The consumer wins, Agassi wins, and the planet wins.  I think it's the first truly workable solution to break the world's dependancy on gas.

And if it works other companies will likely start building their own charging station networks, competing with Better Place, driving costs to the consumer lower and lower, while driving battery and vehicle efficiency steadily higher.  Already two countries have signed on to roll out the plan and the cars are going into production.  This is not a pipe dream. It's happening, and I can't wait to buy my first Better Place vehicle.

Plus, the whole system makes "Roll Over" minutes (mileage) really funny.