The Town of Ramapo NY approved $2M in funding for Councilman Daniel Friedman’ GREEN (Get Ramapo Energy Efficient Now).  The program will cut energy use of Town-operated facilities, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

Said Friedman “These funds will go toward the purchase of state-of-the-art technology that will not only reduce the amount of energy needed to power our over two-dozen facilities, but will actually create excess energy that I will work to sell back to the grid for a phenomenal benefit to taxpayers.”

“Currently, the Town of Ramapo is spending about $1.3 million a year in energy costs, and that number is expected to rise given the constant rate increases,” explained Friedman. “This two million dollars will go to innovations that drastically reduce that expense, and the ultimate benefit will be seen through the purchase of solar panels, which I believe will produce enough energy to zero out our energy bills, and create excess energy that we can sell for profit.”

Ramapo’s authorization for funding will be completely repaid with funds saved from the technology purchased through this program. “In addition to the $2 million appropriated by the Town Board, I will personally meet with state legislative and administrative leaders in Albany to push for matching state funds for this program, so that Ramapo taxpayers will see even more savings through the purchase of additional technologies such as solar panels that will bring in even more revenue to the town,” Friedman said.

(Press Release)

Bussinessweek Reports: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reached agreements with China to facilitate uranium exports and air travel as part of efforts to deepen ties.

Harper and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a pact that will give Canadian uranium producers more access to China’s civilian nuclear power industry, according to a joint statement released by Harper’s office. Canada is home to the world’s largest uranium producer, Cameco Corp. No details of the agreement were provided.

“This agreement will help Canadian uranium companies to substantially increase exports to China, the world’s fastest growing market for these products,” Harper said in a statement. “It will generate jobs here at home while contributing to the use of clean reliable energy in China.”

Harper, who is on a four-day visit to China, is seeking to attract Chinese investment in Canada’s natural resources and sell more energy to Asia, while winning business in China for Canadian companies. The two countries announced an investment protection pact Feb. 8.

“I think Canada-China relations are continuing along a very positive route,” Harper said after meeting President Hu Jintao yesterday. “We are reaching a new level.”

Wen, who met Harper in Beijing on Feb. 8, called for discussions on a possible free trade agreement, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. He said China is “ready to expand imports of energy and resource products from Canada” and boost cooperation in areas including renewable energy and the peaceful use of nuclear power, according to Xinhua.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve Southern Co.’s request to build two nuclear reactors in the southern state of Georgia.

If approved, the $14 billion reactors could begin operating as soon as 2016 and 2017.

The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania raised fears of a radiation release and brought new reactor orders nearly to a halt.

The NRC approved a new reactor design for the Georgia plant in December. Utility companies in Florida and the Carolinas also plan new reactors that use the same design by Westinghouse Electric Co.

The planned reactors are remnants of a once-anticipated building boom that the power industry dubbed the “nuclear renaissance.”

President Obama has offered the Georgia project $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees as part of its pledge to expand nuclear power.

Obama and other proponents say greater use of nuclear power could cut U.S. reliance on fossil fuels and create energy without producing emissions blamed for global warming. A new government permit process strongly encourages utilities to use pre-approved reactor designs rather than building custom models, a strategy intended to make construction easier and less expensive.

Ben HAriss at JTA: As concerns mount over the environmental and public health consequences of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, Jewish groups are coalescing around a strategy that supports efforts to extract natural gas from shale rock while seeking to mitigate its worst effects.

In May, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the community’s main public policy umbrella group, will consider a draft resolution on fracking that in its current form acknowledges the potential benefits of a major new source of natural gas while urging greater oversight and government regulation of the practice.

“Our goal is to see energy independence that protects the environment,” said Sybil Sanchez, executive director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, or COEJL, an initiative of the JCPA that promotes environmental stewardship.

Fracking refers to the process of pumping water, sand and chemicals into rock deep below the surface of the earth in an effort to release trapped deposits of natural gas. The controversial technique, which critics allege poisons groundwater and creates significant public health problems near drilling sites, has grown into a major policy debate.

In Pennsylvania, thousands of wells already have been dug to tap gas from the Marcellus Shale Deposit, a vast subterranean rock formation that is believed to hold enough natural gas to supply American demand for decades. New York, which also sits atop the Marcellus, has a moratorium in place on fracking, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering lifting the ban.

At least four Jewish summer camps in northern Pennsylvania have signed leases to permit fracking on their land, the Forward reported last summer.

Mark Wittington Writers: President Barack Obama has suffered the second embarrassment over oil imports within the space of a week. Brazil, whose offshore deposits of oil were sought by the Obama administration, has signed contracts with China for the product.

According to the Washington Times, Brazilian offshore crude may number about 38 billion barrels. Obama went to Brazil last month to put in a bid for the oil, offering loans and other support to develop the oil in an “environmentally responsible matter,” The Hill reported at the time. Republicans criticized that initiative, pointing out Obama has placed roadblocks in the way of domestic development of oil and gas reserves.

  Brazil’s decision comes on the heels of Obama’s refusal to permit the building of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada’s tar sands in Alberta to Texas oil refineries, according to the Los Angeles Times. The decision was criticized by Republicans as well as union officials who point out that 20,000 jobs the pipeline would bring would therefore not be created.

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) sent out invites today to its fans and members inviting them to participate in a February 6’Th “Jewish Environmental and Energy Imperative Declaration.” Why this event? “The Jewish community will set the community-wide goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 14% by 2014,” reads the blog post of this Reform Jewish eco group.

The date of this NYC event is “two days before the Jewish celebration of Tu B’shvat, the New Year for trees.”

National Post Reports: In recent days, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have complained that foreign-financed “radical” opponents of the plan have hijacked the Northern Gateway debate and threaten to slow down the hearings…

Just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don’t think that’s part of what our review process is all about. Our process is there to determine what the needs and desires of Canadians are,” Said Harper.

Harper said he is concerned that the review is now subject to “extraordinary delay, and they’re increasingly vulnerable to foreign money coming in for the sole purpose of delaying the process.

Harper added that he doesn’t object to foreigners expressing their opinion. “But I don’t want them to be able to hijack the process so that we don’t make a decision that’s timely or in the interests of Canadians.”

Late last year, the U.S. government delayed a regulatory decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would have shipped Alberta oil to the southern U.S.

This development has, in government circles, highlighted the need to diversify in other energy markets, such as Asia.

“I think what’s happened around the Keystone is a wakeup call, the degree to which we are dependent or possibly held hostage to decisions in the United States, and especially decisions that may be made for very bad political reasons,” said Harper. “What I think I’d make clear is that I believe selling our energy products to Asia is in the country’s national interest.”

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/17/canadas-harper-american-radicals-hijacking-pipeline-decision/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/02/ajc-urges-obama-to-approve-keystone-pipeline-project/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/02/ajc-urges-obama-to-approve-keystone-pipeline-project/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:59:03 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=5698 AJC urged President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline construction as a vital step for strengthening energy security, particularly crucial following recent threats by Iran to block a major oil supply channel. “As if to emphasize the need for …

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CNBC Reports: The typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981.

Gas averaged more than $3.50 a gallon this year, another unfortunate record. And next year isn’t likely to bring relief.

In the past, high gas prices in the United States have gone hand-in-hand with economic good times, making them less damaging to family finances. Now prices are high despite slow economic growth and weak demand.

That’s because demand for crude oil is rising globally, especially in the developing nations of Asia and Latin America. But it puts the squeeze on the U.S., where unemployment is high and many people who have jobs aren’t getting raises.

The trap has caught Michael Reed of Charlotte, N.C. He hasn’t been able to find work since he lost his computer-support job in 2009. Now high gas prices are claiming more of what he has left. He and his wife won’t exchange gifts this Christmas.

“I try to drive as little as possible so it doesn’t take such a chunk out of my wallet,” he says.

In 1981, when the economy was sliding into recession and oil prices were high because of Middle East turmoil, gas ate up 8.8 percent of the typical family budget, says Fred Rozell of the Oil Price Information Service.

Over the past decade, gas has taken up 5.7 percent of the family budget. If families had spent only 5.7 percent this year, they would have saved $1,300.

Since the West Virginia Coal Mine accident has left dead approximately thirty miners, people in Washington are busy blaming this party and that President for this mess. The tragedy itself notwithstanding, I really DON’T get why people are so excited about this story…

Based on a report in CNN Money (which credits bls.gov with the info), it was in 2008 more deadly to collect waste; work on a farm; or pilot a plane than to work in a mine. Here are the 2008 fatality rates of jobs more deadly than Coal Mining.

Fishermen: 128.9 per 100,000 workers.

Tree Loggers: 115.7 per 100,000 workers.

Airplane pilot: 72.4 per 100,000 workers.

Steel/Structural: 46.4 per 100,000 workers.

Farmer/Rancher: 39.5 per 100,000 workers.

Waste Collectors: 36.8 per 100,000 workers.

Coal Mining: 34.8 per 100,000 workers.

With this information at hand, I have to conclude that it is stupid to politicize this mining accident.

In light of the UN General Assembly where President Obama and others pointed out the excessive use of American energy, let me put a few numbers in perspective.

1)      The left claims that despite the U.S. having only 5% of the world population, the States use 25% of the world energy, which is – according to the left – very wrong. However I look at it differently: a third of the world economy is (generated) in the USA, yet only a quarter of the world energy supplies get burned here, which means the U.S. actually uses LESS energy than its percentage of the world economy.

2)      Despite having only 5% of the world population, the USA has – as said before – a third of the world’s economy. This proves once again that capitalism is the best system for economic prosperity.

3)      If the left, here or abroad, like to use “the 5% of the population” as the gage, they should conclude that the U.S. is the greatest nation on earth, because despite having only 5% of the population, the US government is the largest contributor to most humanitarian missions worldwide, including funding the UN, and people in the States donate privately more than doe people in any other nation.