
Bravo Mayor Chuck Reed! I'm really enjoying your efforts to green Silicon Valley. I recently received the informative packet from sjrecycles.org full of handy recycling tips. Since I'm the one in our home who routinely plucks perfectly good recyclables out of the trash (sigh!), this kind of encouragement goes a long way. Did you know recycling one newspaper every day for a year will save 4 to 5 trees? Now that's inspiring! I just wish we were as far along with our green ENERGY as some of our European brothers and sisters!
How can it be that Germany is the 3rd biggest producer of solar panels? Solar panels are selling like hotcakes over there but its weather is typically DREARY. They don't bask in the sunshine we're used to in our glorious golden state. What gives?
I've been hearing for a long time about Germany leading the way in renewable energy, but it wasn't until I got to my April 5th copy of Economist that I realized how they've managed it. Seems the Germans were way more forward thinking than all the clever people in Silicon Valley. Way back in 1991 they adopted a renewable energy law that provided huge subsidies for wind, biomas and solar energy, encouraging investment in clean technology. But here's the rub: the country and families have paid a price: the price of electricity has grown 5% for typical homes and the cost for the whole country jumped 38% in just one year!!!
The article says enthusiasts consider this "a small price to pay" but the figures make me anxious: with our economy in recession, and belts tightening from DC to HQs to HSHS (home sweet home), what are the chances that we can ever afford to pay the price (politically and economically) to decarbonize OUR power supply and catch up with the Europeans?
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