What are your Green Ideas for the Next President On Day One?

* increased CAFE standards pronto;
* incentives for commuting by cycling, public transit, walking, car pooling; weatherizing your home; purchasing 35 mpg + rated vehicles; purchasing energy star appliances;
* eliminating single serving plastic drinking water bottles.
* offer incentives for reducing trash to landfill (smaller containers pay lower monthly rate;
* incentives for reduced water usage and installing water catchment systems;
* funding for communities to create more bicycle and pedestrian friendly communities;
* funding for communities to purchase and maintain open space;
etc

The only way we are going to move rapidly to sustainable energy is to fund alternative sources through an aggressive carbon tax. If for instance we would want to continue using coal or oil sands, we need to make sure that an equal commitment is made to renewables, through a significant carbon tax. This way energy companies can fund development and have offsets pay for most of the freight.

The only way we are going to move rapidly to sustainable energy is to fund alternative sources through an aggressive carbon tax. If for instance we would want to continue using coal or oil sands, we need to make sure that an equal commitment is made to renewables, through a significant carbon tax. This way energy companies can fund development and have offsets pay for most of the freight.

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On the topic of energy:

* Massive investment ($billions) in renewable energy infrastructure and research including solar thermal, wind, biomass, and second-generation biofuels, and refueling infrastructure.
* Increase CAFE standards immed. to 40+ mpg
* Federal subsidies/tax credits for plug-in electric hybrid vehicles
*gas tax that would never let gasoline fall below $4 / gallon (reasoning: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/opinion/28friedman.html)

NOT Coal: starts polluting just removing from the ground (pollutes water); does not reduce greenhouse gases. Investing further in coal only delays progress, while adding to the greenhouse gas problem.

NOT Oil-Attempting to drill our way out is not feasible: as drilling opens up in more environmentally sensitive areas (which we lack technology to contain a spill in), accidents will have more devastating consequences (if they even try to clean up, Exxon has still not finished cleaning up after the Valdez, 1989, even with record profits); any new oil drilled for will not reach market for some time, even then will probably have only a 3 cent per gallon effect; does not reduce greenhouse gases.

NOT Bio-mass/Bio-fuels: if we used waste products might possibly play a transitional role, however as most would have been left to act as fertilizer in replenishing the land, it is destructive in the long term; removing land from food production to use in fuel production increases the already problematic and growing food and water shortages; does not reduce greenhouse gases.

NOT Nuclear: hazardous waste piling up, each site posing risks (safety and security); costs estimates do not include long term storage and security costs, no real way of knowing what they will be or for how long; currently not unlimited; countries such as Iran (the list will continue to grow) use nuclear energy as a way to open the door, to what could be unstable countries with nuclear waste/weapons, leading to eventual acquisition and use by terrorists of a dirty/atomic bomb.

*CAFE 40+ mpg NOW (long term alternative fuel vehicles)
*Mass Transit nationally (electrically run)
*Increase vegetarianism: push fake meats; tax meats not from sustainable integrated crop and animal enterprises - livestock use vast resources for the return; tax credits for vegetarian only fast food outlets.
*No incandescent bulbs- (compact florescent bulbs/ LEDs).
*Update national rail system for electric trains
*Remove non Energy Star compliant appliances from sale, then less efficient ones.

Local Sustainable Farms-Land use strategies: not building on the best farmlands; Soil Management (including erosion), Farmscaping, intercropping, crop rotation, integrated pest management, integrating animal and crop enterprises, using cover crops or sod, applying compost or animal manures; plan for profit by diversifying crops/animals; minimizing commercial fertilizers and pesticides; minimizing tillage; avoiding moldboard plowing; buy supplies locally; employ local people; Managing Ecosystems.

Renewable Energy- The Only Real Solution-(Wind, Solar, Wave and Geo-thermal)- government interests over short term corporate interests (national security, reduction in green house gases, job creation)- whether through taxes, tax credits, subsidies, and/or other or by ANY means. The technologies are currently sufficient to substantively reduce/then remove our dependence from oil (foreign and domestic) if we demand massive, aggressive adoption and implementation NOW.

Tax carbon and other noxious air polluting emissions so that the fossil fuel competition to nuclear fission internalizes its waste disposal costs.
Consider fission reactors that consume used fuel to be renewable. That is the designation that applies to combustion plants that consume waste, so it is not a stretch.

Get more federal money back into research for alternative energy sources.

Concentrate on better ways to store energy (hydrogen?, better batteries) - this would make solar and wind power (house mountable micro turbines) more usable at an individual level. Make solar power more accessible to average people - like selling solar panels at the local hardware store, or sell an electric car with solar panels that can be installed on the roof of your garage.

We need to raise mileage standards for cars but there are some issues here that need to be discussed. Raising mileage standards will mean that people will be able to afford to drive which is not really desirable. It would be necessary to add taxes on fuels that could be used to build better infrastructure for light rail, bike lanes and other facilities that would encourage people to drive less. We also need to find a way to offer gasoline to hybrid (or even electric) conversion kits for cars so that people do not have to buy a new car (and throw out an old car) to get better mileage and create less pollution.

Wouldn't it make more sense to dig out the root of the problems, instead of applying band-aids to the symptoms? One assumption we need to question is the necessity for financial incentives. Anyone who thinks money is more important than life requires professional help, which pretty much sums up Western culture. Protecting economic growth is not our number one priority, as it is a major aspect of the problems causing global warming, resource depletion, and the slow poisoning of our life support system.

Increasing CAFE standards is actually ineffective when you consider that half the global warming a vehicle contributes over its lifetime occurs during the extraction of the resources and the manufacturing of the vehicle, even if you could successfully alter people's driving habits within the current system. So even electric vehicles aren't the answer if they're used to continue happy motoring in America, as they don't do anything about the environmental destruction and loss of community caused by sprawl.

We need to approach our use of technologies from a different perspective than that of the Industrial Growth Society and the dominator hierarchies it is built upon.