Sunday, November 7, 2010

Streetsblog Capitol Hill � The Car Loan Loophole: How Auto Dealers Dodged Financial Reform

Streetsblog Capitol Hill � The Car Loan Loophole: How Auto Dealers Dodged Financial Reform: "It isn’t just the financial reform bill that has left the real little guy, the car buyer, exposed to the avarice of auto dealers. Americans are at risk of ending up indentured to their car purchases because they can't escape from the car system itself. While the car is often presented as a vehicle of opportunity, getting people to work and new life chances, in reality it locks people into a costly lifestyle, creating more inequality in America than almost anything else besides access to quality education. While that’s a topic for another post, it is a key reason why transit and bikeable, walkable communities are so desperately needed -- to create a loophole car dealers can’t drive through."

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mind Boggling Forest-Gobbling Biomass Boondoggle � Climate Connections

Mind Boggling Forest-Gobbling Biomass Boondoggle � Climate Connections: "To understand the magnitude of this assault, consider the recent developments in Ohio: The states’ Public Utilities Commission (aka “PUCO”) is on track to permit a whopping �2442 megawatts of electricity to be generated from burning wood as a substitute for, or in combination with coal. Estimates are that this will require around 26 million tons of wood per year. Just to supply this amount of wood for the first year of operation alone, would require harvesting 5 times the current annual growth of all public and private forests in the state. In fact the plan is to truck in woodchips from surrounding states as well – as far away as Florida."