Green Friendly California

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2009 – Known around the world by its emblematic orange and blue, the U.S. Coast Guard added “green” to its operations as part of yesterday’s celebration of Earth Day.

Thomas Granito, from the Coast Guard’s environmental management office, discussed ongoing green initiatives adopted by the service in a “DoD Live” bloggers roundtable April 21.

“I have been with the Coast Guard for more than 25 years, and I’ve seen how the service is becoming greener, as is much of the rest of the world these days,” Granito said. “In the past, the Coast Guard was more concerned about maintaining compliance with federal regulations. Currently, the Coast Guard continues to shift from compliance to sustainability — basically ‘greening up’ the Coast Guard.”

Only environmental personnel participated in site cleanups in the past, Granito said, but today things are different. Changes in management, organization styles and a more responsive and flexible attitude, similar to what the Defense Department has done in recent years, have led to changes in the way the Coast Guard operates, he added.
Many of the Coast Guard’s roughly 600 facilities are going green, Granito said.

“For example, the Coast Guard Academy at New London, Conn., developed a sustainability initiatives network for recycling and using electronics and related items,” he said. “This initiative helped them win a White House award for reducing electronics materials. The Coast Guard Academy was also the first military academy to participate in a program called recycle-mania, in which colleges get together to come up with recycling initiatives.”

Granito also cited initiatives adopted at Station Emerald Isle, N.C., where recycled products such as gypsum board have been used in the station’s renovation project. This unit also has replaced traditional air-conditioning systems with more-efficient geothermal HVAC systems, he noted.

Other services have helped the Coast Guard in its search for green initiatives, Granito said.

“As far as following what some of the other agencies are doing, we’ve always got an eye out to see what they’re doing,” he said. “I know that our vessel folks are usually keyed in to what the Navy is doing, and our aviation folks are always clued in to Air Force and what they’re doing.”

> > >WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Despite plowing billions of taxpayer dollars into the ailing U.S. renewable industry, there’s been little sign of new life in the sector, says the head of one of the largest manufacturers in the business.

And without a federal mandate requiring an increasing percentage of electricity to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, the U.S. industry is likely to remain in a funk for at least another year. said Randy Zwirn, Siemens Energy.< < <

EXCUSE ME!

Come on folks, the last thing we need is more mandates. It is time for the Government to get out of the way and let private industry drive this bus. President Barack Obama signed into law a nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package, right or wrong it’s law now. That stimulus package contains nearly $15 billion in tax credits for the renewable industry, and tens of billions of dollars in grants, loans and loan guarantees.

The article mentioned above goes on to state that although there are billions of dollars in renewable energy production tax credits available, many of the biggest financiers have limited tax liabilities in the current economic woes to offset and can’t or haven’t stepped up to take advantage.

Too Bad! If the big boys in private industry like Siemens and General Electric don’t reach out and grab handfuls of that cash the new breed entrepreneurs will. Individual Americans, raised with the “can do” attitude and “Christian work ethic” will step up and better ideas will come into play. The grass root movement already started to wean the United States off of fossil fuel and into renewable energy will prevail, with or without the government’s unwanted involvement.