Wind Power in Anne Arundel County

On Monday, July 19, 2010, the County Council voted to allow residential wind power in Anne Arundel County. Although the bill is modest in scope and contains a number of restrictions on size, location and energy output, it is a big step forward.



I was honored to testify in favor of the bill on July 6th. Windpower is good. It’s good for the economy. The installation and maintenance of windmills creates jobs. Those jobs by necessity have to be local. You can’t outsource those jobs. It’s good for the environment and the Chesapeake Bay because it produces electricity without any waste. If the windpower replaces coal or oil power, it will reduce the amount of mercury, nitrogen and particulate matter entering our ecosystems. It’s good because windpower is local power and it reduces our dependence on foreign regimes or the whims of the marketplace.

One of the issues that came up was the appearance of windmills. The new bill contains height restrictions and other restrictions to minimize the negative visual impact of windmills. I’m of the opinion that windmills represent the future. When I visit my family in Pennsylvania and see windmills on the sides of the Appalachian mountains, it looks like progress. It looks like hope.

In short: wind power is good.

Protect the Future: Vote Chiappelli.

BP Madness

I try not to repeat myself on this blog and I try not to fire off tirades against the Republican party. I'm about to break both of my informal rules.



BP executives were hauled in front of Congress today. Predictably, the politicians loudly stated their disgust with the whole mess.

The good thing is that we at least know who to blame: BP. And the other good thing is that they have been forced to put $20 Billion dollars into a fund to help the many, many victims of the accident.

And in the midst of the largest environmental disaster in American history, members of the Republican party want to apologize to BP for taking their money!! Are you kidding me?! This is not some kind of tax to go for pork barrel projects in the local Congressional districts. This is compensation for people who are directly victimized!

The Republican congressman apologized for his apology later (or flip-flopped as they say). But the scary thing is that it wasn't an accident, it was a talking point. This is a party that truly believes it is wrong for a big corporation to have to pay the victims of their crimes. This is a party which tried to take a political shot at the President and the Democrats for doing the right thing.

This is why I am a Democrat. If you commit a crime, you need to compensate the victim. I don't care if you are a common street thug or BP. Protect the Future. Vote Chiappelli.

BP Oil Spill

The oil spill in the Gulf is a tragedy. What makes it worse is that it is a tragedy that is still occurring and a tragedy that should never have occurred.

I understand that when you run an oil company, you want your oil rigs to pump out lots of oil. But did they really never think that, hey, we might want an "off" switch? I suspect when all is said and done there will be plenty of blame to go around.

I think it's astounding that politicians from both parties have been preaching the same message of energy independence and reducing the need for foriegn oil for THIRTY years now. The problems are so self-evident and the solutions likewise obvious. Why can I still give the same energy speech that President Carter could have given? More importantly, why hasn't anything been done?

I don't know. But I would like a chance to go to Annapolis and see what I can do about it.

If we had taken the hard steps to reduce our need for oil and begun the transition to clean power in the 1970's, then we would not have the need for offshore rigs like the one currently pumping oil into our waters.

I also heard something amazing this week. President Obama took responsibility for the oil spill clean-up. He said "I am the President and the buck stops with me." Whatever you think of the President, can you even imagine any of our recent presidents taking responsibility for a disaster of this magnitude? That's such a mature, responsible response that I don't usually expect from the government. Politicians like to take credit for things when they go well, but they rarely take the blame, especially not when the crisis is still unfolding.

Mr. President, I salute you and I wish you the best of luck in stopping this disaster.

Personal Clean Energy

I've made the point in other posts how important it is to switch to alternative energy, promote clean power, promote energy efficiency, etc., etc.

I think it's important to practice what you preach. So I wanted to share a little about my families attempts to green up our energy.



The most recent step we've taken is to take advantage of the Maryland law allowing consumers to choose who produces their electricity. We've gone with Clean Currents which will allow us to have 100% wind power generated electricity for 10.8 cents/Kwh. It's a two year contract with the rate locked in. If BGE gets more expensive, it makes us look like geniuses. If BGE rates drop, then we get stuck with the higher bill. The important thing is that we made the choice.

The wind power is not necessarily generated in Maryland. In the small print the wind power may be generated in Texas and we're 'offsetting' coal power in Maryland.

Maryland is an energy deficient state. We use more electricity than we produce. I'd like to see Maryland change that. If government creates the right conditions, I believe that the private markets will take care of the rest.



We also recently had a solar hot water system installed at a total cost of $9,462. We used Solar Energy Services (www.solarsaves.net) based in Millersville. They did good work and they were very helpful with our follow-up questions. We were able to take advantage of tax incentives at all levels of government.
-The federal government gave us a tax credit of about $1,500.
-The Maryland government gave us a solar energy grant of $2,000.
-The Anne Arundel County government gave us a one-time property tax break of about $500.

That's almost 50% of the cost of the system. The rest of the savings comes from our decreased energy bills.

Had it not been for the government creating the right conditions for our family, we would not have been able to switch to wind power or install our solar hot water heater.

Incentives matter. Vote Chiappelli: He practices what he preaches.

Earth Day Wish list

Happy Earth Day!

This time of year is always busy for my family and myself. My wife is an environmental educator and Earth week is like the Super Bowl for Environmental educators. We always attend trash pick-ups, tree plantings, festivals, garden-plantings, etc.

I want to highlight three environmental goals which I hope to achieve in the General Assembly. They may seem a little eccentric, but bear with me. In NASCAR when they want to lighten a car by a pound, they do it by shaving 1/100th of a pound from a hundred places. In order to clean the environment, we'll have to do it by shaving pollution and waster from a hundred places.

-Pass the legislation necessary to allow residents to install clean power on their properties and sell the excess power back to the grid. I know that we are in the process of doing this and that many parts of the legislation are already in place. I also know that when we get it right, green power will boom in Maryland. Because if there is money to be made, people will get on board, regardless of ideology.

-Kill sytrofoam. Either by passing a tax on the use, an outright ban, or mandating that it be recyclable. I recognize that styrofoam has value but using it to transport greasy fries from point A to point B and then placing it in a landfill for the next millenium strikes me as a poor use of resources.

-Deregulate the cemetery business to allow green funerals and create an industry that would profit by preserving open spaces. Tax embalming as it essentially pumps the deceased full of toxic chemicals which are then placed into the ground.

And for the Earth Day humbugs out there, go insulate your attic anyway, you'll get a federal tax credit.

Climate Change

I recently finished Tom Friedman's book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" which is about the pressing need for a clean energy revolution.

I also recently read a letter to the editor questioning climate change.

Folks, the science is over a hundred years old. Something like 98% of scientists agree that global climate change is taking place and that humans have caused it. The differences are how fast the changes are going to come and what they are going to look like.

Clean energy and energy efficiency make sense from an economic point of view. For example, my factory and my neighbors factory both make the identical widget and we both get the same amount of money for our widgets. If I can reduce my overhead by reducing my energy costs, suddenly I make a greater profit than my neighbor. Once my renewable energy supply is online, my price for energy is fixed and not dependent on global commodity prices. Oil prices rise and oil prices drop, but the sun is forever.

In other words, you can believe that global warming is a complete myth and it still makes sense to promote clean energy and energy efficiency.

All of my posts up until now have been just words and no pictures. So for a change of pace, please enjoy



...me, wearing a sweater. Enjoy the good weather!

Clean Energy Town Hall

It seems like a lot has happened since my last post. Lot's of meetings, door-knockings, family parties, the Oscars, etc.

One of the meetings which I attended was a Clean Energy Town Hall held at North County High School. It was energizing (pun intended) to be with so many dedicated environmentalists. These were people who knew what the problem was and were working on fixing it.

For instance Dave Wooley-Wilson runs the Green Building Institute in Jessup, Maryland. This institute trains people to conduct energy audits and how to increase household energy efficiency. Energy efficiency may sound boring, but it can eliminate the need for any new power plants.

Several speakers discussed the recent initiatives to increase green power with solar credits, rebates on energy efficient appliances and the ability to choose green power. I have to confess that I just learned about my ability to choose a power provider other than BGE and I'm looking into it. My family has also been able to take advantage of the solar tax credit in 2009 with our new solar water heating system.

The current legislative focus is on passing HB522. Essentially we have different parts of the Maryland government pulling in different directions. One agency is pushing for cheap, reliable power and another agency is pushing for reducing emissions. This bill is an attempt to get all the agencies to push in the same direction.

Protect the future of clean air. Vote Chiappelli.