http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvG2XptIEJk

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The Obama administration is not wasting any time is setting up the political structures needed to fight climate change.  One of his first actions will be to establish a federal cap and trade system to limit carbon emissions.

Two thumbs up to President-elect Obama’s actions to make good on his campaign promises.  Stay tuned for details on his energy policy as developed by his energy policy transition team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U

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Ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America, make no mistake, you voted for change when you elected Barack Obama as President of the United States.  The Obama administration has brought change to the way the White House is run.  It is best demonstrated by President-elect Obama posting weekly videos to YouTube.

President-elect Obama understands that media consumption habits have changed and he is adapting to that change by posting his weekly addresses to internet video sites.  I applaud this effort and I look forward to his administration embracing other forward looking technologies once he assumes office on January 20th, 2009.

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It seems that an experiment with solar panels on residential homes in a community in Japan is working out well.  Not only do all of the homes’ appliances run off of the solar electricity, but they are also able to sell unused electricity back to the utility.

It seems that Japan will be bringing back subsidies for consumers to install solar panels on their homes next year.  I can see that having this technology on a home will siginificantly increase the value of the home.  I can’t wait to see the cost of setting up these systems drop.  Or, perhaps, we should be embracing a new model where consumers don’t own the solar equipment, but rather lease out their rooftops to the utility.  I can also see another model where consumers lease their rooftops to a company that specializes in installing and maintaining these solar generation systems.  The future is oh so bright!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLrUQHE6XgU

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Here are some great tips from the National Geographic Channel.  I really like their tip about adding sand or pebbles to your toilet to reduce the amount of water it uses each flush.  With water prices soaring, I appreciate any tips to conserve water and to save money on the water bill each month.

Feel free to add any tips you have discovered in the comments area below.

“I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now…the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), excerpt from Letters to a Young Poet

Geothermal energy is an abundant resource that has not been fully tapped.  Magma is usually located 25-40 miles beneath the Earth’s surface.  However, in some areas, it is only 4 miles beneath the surface.  Once the magma is reached (through drilling) a liquid, like water, is heated and turned into steam. The steam is then transported to a turbine above ground and released.  The steam rises and rotates turbines which generate electricity.  It is a pretty simple process, but it takes a lot of work to set up the plant to process the steam.  One key advantage of geothermal energy is that it runs 24 hours a day regardless of the weather conditions.

In fact, there is so much geothermal energy available that Google has committed itself to exploring the use geothermal energy in some capacity.  It only makes sense for Google to do so since it is such a large consumer of electricity.  (One of Google’s data centers alone consumes more than 100 megawatts of electricity. This is enough electricity to power a city the size of Tacoma, Washington or 82,000 homes.)  In fact, the CEO of Google recently spoke about his interest to exploit geothermal energy at a recent Commonwealth Club event.  The video of his talk about renewable energy is available after the jump.  (Warning: The video is about 45 minutes long. So, make sure that you have some time available to watch it.)

Although I don’t agree with all of the points in the Google presentation, I am very excited about companies exploring new methods to reduce their consumption and their carbon footprint.  One problem does still remain which is how to transmit all of this geothermal energy to the cities and other areas that need it.  Or, maybe, these geothermal energy plants can be miniaturized and we all can have one in our backyards!  Wouldn’t that be sweet?!