I was really hoping to hear two things today at the National Clean Energy Project : Building the New Economy online summit:

• That the lowest hanging fruit on the energy independence tree *is* unquestionably the American home. Improving the efficiency of the American home should be a primary concern of anyone interested in achieving national energy independence. Legislation and incentives need to be offered directly back to the American citizen to accomplish this task universally.
• De-coupling and localized point-source generation need to become the second major part of this dialogue. The days of very large corporations generating very large collections of energy may not be over, but the American people need to the liberty to create human-scale power generation projects. Small is beautiful.

Both of these sentiments were voiced by President Clinton. For this I am grateful. Carbon-caps, using natural gas as a large scale transition fuel, smart-grid technology, and Wal-mart’s efficiency improvements are all nice, but they don’t have an immediate or palpable effect on me or my family.

American’s really need to reach back a little bit in time and realize that they’re part of what ever community they happen to live within. These communities are the basis for a Local Sufficiency movement that could be in the best interests of its constituent membership.

Seattle Metro Bus

One of my favorite mailing lists just got a letter which I really enjoyed. Seems that there are some regional endeavors to help people live car-free/car-light and this city-by-city approach should really help people leverage the experience of the neighbors who may have good methods for dealing with specific challenges in those areas.

Living car-free/car-light in Seattle for instance meant that I had to routinely deal with crowded bike racks whenever I needed to cross Lake Washington. Routinely there was a queue that formed in the morning at several of the west side bus stops. There were several options for bike riders who wanted to get to the east side.

• Wait in line, eventually you’ll get a bike slot
• Buy and ride a folding commuter bike and carry a copy of the Metro policy which allows you access to the inside of the bus with a folded bike
• Ride around the north end of the Lake
• Ride across the I-90 bridge
• Ride a “dead-head” or “EB” bus to the arm-pit of Redmond

All of these options worked for me at various points in time, however, it took me years of riding over the bridge, or around the bridge, to come up with that brief list of options and for me to understand how each might affect the rest of my day.

Each region, each city, has its own challenges and if you’ve just moved, for instance, welcome back to square one.

I wonder what it would take to get something like this for every major metropolitan area and its surrounding region in the US? What would happen if people started exchanging information about getting what they needed from their local and regional transit authorities as well as the tribal knowledge that’s so important to success in this kind of social endeavor? Maybe a regional, state and national scorecard on how citizens are actually becoming oil independent? Some great possibilities.

It took us longer than anticipated to get the garden beds into place last spring. I think both of us were a little let down, but they are in have been productive since we planted them. Even after our vacation at the end of August we came back to a backyard filled with growing fruit and greens when we expected that we’d return to desiccated plants in dry garden beds.

This year our biggest producer was beans. Tess planted a third of a bed with bush and climbing beans and they’ve been producing big, tasty fruit since before we left in August. She just got back from school and the two of us went outside for a moment to pick some for dinner. There’s still quite a bit left on the plants that will get bigger as long as there isn’t a hard frost before we pick them.

The other plant that did really well is the arugula. It started to bolt last week but we’ve still been picking greens from it and making slightly more bitter salads since. It was tasty while it lasted, but I imagine that we’ll be tilling it under sooner than later. Maybe Tess wants to collect some seeds.

We’ve also planted some cold tolerant plants (collard, more beats, and kale) in some of the unused bed space and the sprouts are just now showing themselves.

This is possible the only good video response to the Virgle April Fools joke that I have been able to find so far. Worse its a commercial used to inspire people to buy more computers. Sigh …

“Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.”

Yes indeed, I was able to scrape my sorry butt out of bed this morning at oh-so-dark-thirty (2:30 AM) and set out in my truck to find dark sky. I made it up near Stampede Pass and ended up pulling off the road and sitting on the tail gate in my sleeping bag. There weren’t many (or at least I didn’t see to many) but the ones I saw were bright. So, knowing that the morning I was really happy about seeing the Lyrids I’ll sign off and get some sleep. Man I’m beat.

I’ve been collecting signatures to help ensure that Washington State’s energy future is more sustainable and independent. If we’ve talked, you’ve probably heard me say something along the lines that humanity’s energy future will be increasingly localized and less dependent on long lines of transmission. There are still some big-energy dinosaurs out there tooting the horn of nuclear power generation or carbon combustibles, but they are missing the point that this kind of fuel is finite, dangerous, and ultimately too expensive when considered against the balance of human needs. But we can forgive them, they are probably making money hand over fist as the price of these non-renewables shoots through the roof of the common Joe’s budget.

Anyway, this is my plug to get out there and if you’re a Washington voter at the very least sign a petition for I-937. If you agree with me and want to see at least 15% of Washington’s commercially produced energy coming from the long list of renewable and sustainable sources by the year 2020 then this initiative is for you. If you’re not sure, then sign the petition so that we can get it on the ballet in November. You can debate the details between now and then. If you disagree that’s ok too, you can sign the petition and then vote ‘no’ in November baring some event that leads to greater enlightenment.