Green the Economy with Your Tax Rebate

Are you due to get a tax refund or an "economic stimulus rebate" this spring?

Why not spend it on energy-saving improvements or other steps to reduce your carbon footprint?

The Bush rebate of $1,200 for a working couple might not pay all the cost of a solar-powered hot water system but it would go a long way for less intensive, smaller-ticket items!

A few ideas for the typical Massachusetts home:

1. Purchase an energy-star appliance
2. Purchase a "kilowatt interrupter" that prevents the phantom energy consumption from electronic equipment that usually stays on night and day - or - quick tip: plug electronics into a power strip in an easy-to-reach location and just switch off the strip when you leave the room!
3. Purchase a share in a local Community Supported Agriculture farm - you will eat well all year and help keep farms and farmers in your town
4. Purchase a rain barrel and hook it up to drip irrigation equipment - contact Denise Zambrowski, Franklin's Recycling Coordinator at 508-520-4910 or come to Earth Day at Beaver Pond on April 19th to order!
5. Better yet, "Go Native!" Choose native, beautiful drought tolerant plants for your home (and dig up the ones that are NOT!) - Come to hear a presentation on "xeriscaping" at Earth Day on April 19th!
6. Purchase all Compact Flourescent Lights for your outdoor lights - or a solar outdoor system
7. Replace older indoor thermostats that do not have auto set backs with new ones to save on your heating costs
8. Purchase carbon offsets for family reunions, large parties such as weddings, and your organization's next event. When you travel on business or pleasure, support hotels that are reducing energy consumption and water use.
9. Buy re-usable water bottles and jugs for everyone in your family and break the plastic bottle habit! If you are asked whether you want bottled water or tap water when eating out, choose the local, filtered tap water. Plastic bottles are not only unnecessary but are filling landfills and littering our oceans.

Here are some more expensive projects that could save even more when you're making major household investments:

10. If you remodel your existing house, invest in solar heating for hot water and electricity! Sell your surplus power back to the grid!
11. When replacing older windows, invest in the best "low-e" insulating windows.
12. The next time you buy a new car, test drive a hybrid car! In addition to the Toyota Prius ...



... and the Honda Civic, shop the Hybrid Camry or the Hybrid Nissan Altima!

More ideas and how much you can save!

What If?

What would life in the United States be like if all carbon-based fuels were rationed, not on the basis of available supply, but on the basis of carbon emissions?

What if power plants were held to a cap on carbon emissions and shut down when they used up their cap?

What if gasoline were rationed not by price but by carbon per gallon?

What if American business and citizens were thus forced to use non-carbon based fuels for power generation, transportation, construction, and heating?

Is it any more equitable to ration by price instead of by carbon pollution?

There might be…

** rolling blackouts by power plants as they reached their carbon limit…
** public health consequences, economic disruption, and social dislocation if there is no public transit and limited carbon fuels available for transportation of food and consumer goods
** the price of clean energy fuels would rise as demand rises, making another stress on the economy

How fast could local and regional governments build public transit that would replace less efficient family cars?

How would industry ship its products using carbon-neutral transportation?

The "Locavore" movement would take off like a shot! Farms, CSA, “victory gardens” all over America – we would all need to learn to grow new crops as climate warms and precipitation changes

How many years will it take to shift to a system of carbon credits to protect the atmosphere?

If, in 2008, we pass laws that would force a reduction in carbon pollution from all sources by 15% within FIVE YEARS – or 20% in 10 years - and announced the future carbon cap enforcement plan, what would start happening?

*** Automakers would build engines that use flex fuels or plug-in electrics in vehicles that are designed to be efficient from inside out… trucks and truck engines must be held to equally tough standards…
*** All possible trains switch to electric, with improvements made in diesel engines as all transportation needs to shift to cleaner mix of carbon fuels…
*** Nuclear power plants might regain favor, raising all of the existing issues about long term nuclear waste security, fuel transportation, etc.
*** Wind farms would become more profitable and face fewer hurdles if they promise a clean, non-rationed power supply to the residents and businesses in the immediate vicinity…
*** New buildings and existing factories would attempt to generate their own power on site
*** Solar generation projects (local and large scale) would start up
*** Incentives to create new Hydro power stations would put further stress on rivers and streams where fish passage is already threatened. New hydro projects must include fish passage that is designed for future climate change impacts to allow species to adapt
*** Energy efficiency would be implemented across the board: manufacturing, transportation, construction industries
*** Owners of forests would be given credit for carbon sequestration

How many years do we have to decide?

What is the alternative?

Rationing by price… in a dirty world… with massive climate changes altering daily life around the globe

Why is no one talking about it? Scientists and we in the green movement need the support of elected officials and industry leaders… advocates of "change now" cannot be too far on the fringe if we want to be effective.

This is about saving the Earth… our world… everything in it and on it… not just the American economy, jobs, the shoreline, property values, animal life… people all over the world and life on Earth.

check out:

www.LightsOutAmerica.org
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
8:00-9:00 p.m. nationwide