To the City Council of Mill Valley re Marin Energy Authority
Submitted by open4energy on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 20:25
Important notice to all our readers.
On February 19th open4energy published a formal apology and retraction of the letter to Matthew Hymel. We have left this page on our web site so that what we said, and then found to be incorrect, can be clear for all our readers!
On February 21st open4energy published a formal apology and retraction - revised opinion of the letter below.
To the Council Members
I am the publisher of a technical web site - http://open4energy.com - and also live in Mill Valley.
We are possibly the strongest advocates for the leadership in Marin to lead California, the USA and eventually China, Africa and all the developing nations (where the ultimate issue on global warming sits) that a committed people can make a difference, save energy, and demand clean energy.
As was said at a recent meeting of the top execs in the country on smart grid technologies, green does NOT mean sacrifice, and green IS economic prosperity.
The question I believe we face is how best to achieve this goal, and will working with MEA actually deliver this to us?
The information we publish is used by home owners and small businesses to save energy. The new technologies of the smart grid are a complex issue indeed, for we are migrating from one generation of centralized proprietary electricity generation and distribution, to a next generation of distributed generation and open standards of access.
Not many people have a proper comprehension of the complexity of the USA synchronization project, to sample the national grid 30 times each second, to perfectly phase the electrons on the wires in the USA, and save 15% of our production costs. And this is but one of a number of equally exciting initiatives. PG&E are fortunate to have found a person as competent and talented as Andy Tang to manage this transition.
I attended the meeting at the Civic Center on Tuesday and was shocked at the misleading information presented. I am all for good debate, but what we had on Tuesday was unwise and self serving. Good solutions do not need this type of material to be approved!
I have written to Matthew Hymel of the Marin Administrators Office setting out my indignation at the political manipulation of the residents of Marin by Mr Charles McGlashan, chair of MEA, and member of the Board of Supervisors.
A public copy of the letter can be found here.
I am enclosing a copy of the opinion I have submitted to the Marin IJ and other publications for your respectful attention. As we step back from the "green emotion" discourse, please can we listen to our wise experts who are telling us that this is not a good idea?
If we each used the technology available today, and took a little time to engage in the basic energy savings practices available now, we could individually save between 15% and 35% of our electricity consumption. Ask 10 friends how many Kilowatt hours they used last month, and you will know the real issue we have. This is not the time to be looking at some offshore oil company to feel good about ourselves.
This is the time to be using our resources to educate each other, turn things off, replace the light bulbs in our homes, and install the smart monitoring systems available today to mange our thermostats.
The final insult to me was the phone call from a concerned resident at 7:30pm on Tuesday evening, asking me if I knew why all the lights in the Civic Center were still on?
Our full opinion titled Politicians calling PG&E a Bully? is posted in our forum Home Energy Saving - State & Local Government Programs.
A shorter version titled Deflecting MEA's flaws was published in the Marin IJ on Saturday 6th February.
On February 19th open4energy published a formal apology and retraction of the letter to Matthew Hymel. We have left this page on our web site so that what we said, and then found to be incorrect, can be clear for all our readers!
On February 21st open4energy published a formal apology and retraction - revised opinion of the letter below.
To the Council Members
I am the publisher of a technical web site - http://open4energy.com - and also live in Mill Valley.
We are possibly the strongest advocates for the leadership in Marin to lead California, the USA and eventually China, Africa and all the developing nations (where the ultimate issue on global warming sits) that a committed people can make a difference, save energy, and demand clean energy.
As was said at a recent meeting of the top execs in the country on smart grid technologies, green does NOT mean sacrifice, and green IS economic prosperity.
The question I believe we face is how best to achieve this goal, and will working with MEA actually deliver this to us?
The information we publish is used by home owners and small businesses to save energy. The new technologies of the smart grid are a complex issue indeed, for we are migrating from one generation of centralized proprietary electricity generation and distribution, to a next generation of distributed generation and open standards of access.
Not many people have a proper comprehension of the complexity of the USA synchronization project, to sample the national grid 30 times each second, to perfectly phase the electrons on the wires in the USA, and save 15% of our production costs. And this is but one of a number of equally exciting initiatives. PG&E are fortunate to have found a person as competent and talented as Andy Tang to manage this transition.
I attended the meeting at the Civic Center on Tuesday and was shocked at the misleading information presented. I am all for good debate, but what we had on Tuesday was unwise and self serving. Good solutions do not need this type of material to be approved!
I have written to Matthew Hymel of the Marin Administrators Office setting out my indignation at the political manipulation of the residents of Marin by Mr Charles McGlashan, chair of MEA, and member of the Board of Supervisors.
A public copy of the letter can be found here.
I am enclosing a copy of the opinion I have submitted to the Marin IJ and other publications for your respectful attention. As we step back from the "green emotion" discourse, please can we listen to our wise experts who are telling us that this is not a good idea?
If we each used the technology available today, and took a little time to engage in the basic energy savings practices available now, we could individually save between 15% and 35% of our electricity consumption. Ask 10 friends how many Kilowatt hours they used last month, and you will know the real issue we have. This is not the time to be looking at some offshore oil company to feel good about ourselves.
This is the time to be using our resources to educate each other, turn things off, replace the light bulbs in our homes, and install the smart monitoring systems available today to mange our thermostats.
The final insult to me was the phone call from a concerned resident at 7:30pm on Tuesday evening, asking me if I knew why all the lights in the Civic Center were still on?
Our full opinion titled Politicians calling PG&E a Bully? is posted in our forum Home Energy Saving - State & Local Government Programs.
A shorter version titled Deflecting MEA's flaws was published in the Marin IJ on Saturday 6th February.
