Better be careful Blough, otherwise someone will call you a tree hugging liberal. What do you think of the Green Party? Should the City give more incentives to go Green?

Scott,
If you go back and review the City council meeting in late November or early Dec. I requested the city to bring back information about Green Buildings and how we as a city could implement. KB Homes is already using this, so IF Runkle goes forward I think they should do the same in Simi valley....
I think we really need to improve energy conserving practices when building. There are so many options out there and we as elected need to insist we become more user friendly.

Good work Scott...oh and Merry Christmas to ALL...

This is for real. Everyone who plans to be in the construction business for the long term (from developers and architects down to general and specialty contractors) has already realized that and are doing what they must to learn what the implications will be for them in education, materials and methodology.

Our national future (particularly economic health and independent foreign policy, etc.) will depend on energy independence. We do not overcome our "addiction" to oil and other energy imports by either lower prices nor by raising taxes, but by using mandating today's state of the art technology as a tool for national security at all levels.

Machiavelli:

I think I view this issue differently than the green party. I've read green articles on the emerging green economy in Harvard Business Review, green venture capitalists in the Wall Street Journal, and the LA Times business section. To my knowledge, these are hardly the main magazines and newspapers that write on behalf of the green party, but I could be wrong.

There was a really good article on conservation in the Seattle Times a few days ago. It appears environmental groups are beginning to meet and listen to farmers, ranchers and stakeholders that traditionally opposed environmentalists and voted Republican.

Which areas of the country did Democrats tend to pick up seats nationally? Was it the rural west? If this trend continues Republicans won't be able to rely heavily on the south and mountain west the way they are comfortable with doing in future elections.

I believe that continuing pressure on the environment and energy will force both parties to come up with environmental platforms?

It's not question of if, but when.

I'm don't consider myself a huge environmentalist, nor do I really like major federal regulatory approaches, but I believe energy technology such as solar, windpower, and biofuels among other things could increase the standard of living in this country 5-7 fold for those that seek to harness it's potential.

It could reduce major expenses on companies seeking to leave without laying off one person and increase margins enough to increase government revenue into a permanent surplus without raising taxes a dime.

Of course, I may just be a little too positive on this emerging market opportunity.

I just see a huge increase in the American Standard of living coming as a result of harnessing these new opportunities.

We are only at the beginning. The best is yet to come.

Barbra--

I can't wait to hear more about what Simi city staff comes up with.

Oh, and Merry Christmas. :)

I thought I saw Blough hugging a tree the other day, but then I realized he was just carrying a Christmas Tree.

A quote from Cheney:

"Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound policy..."

Mr. Blough would have us cold int he winter and hot in the summer. How about we go and get some more energy instead of trying to save.

Donald Trump doesn't cut coupons and we shouldn't worry about small stuff. We should go get more energy!

Actually being hot or cold is just in your mind. They have found that by studying so-called "wild children", those raised with out adults around or other children, that these "wild children" did not fell cold or heat. They would actually roll around in the snow naked. They concluded that we teach ourselves and our children to be hot and cold. Think about it, we always tell kids to put on a jacket, etc. Maybe we need to retrain our thinking and get back to nature Mr. Blough.

So, our bodies don't warn us against hypothermia and heat stroke? Perhaps hunger, thirst, and tiredness are also socially constructed.

I just want to add a couple comments as I think there is a misconception building here. First, this really isn't a debate between conservation versus growing out of our energy woes. That debate was something that came out of the late 70's, early 80's.

What I'm really getting at is the marketplace is starting to change and their is potential out there to change the entire dynamic. Let's look at oil/gas. Currently, there is a high barrier to enter this market and compete from global supply chains to relationships with OPEC nations or Russia and refinery regulations and transportion networks. It's really global and big government in nature. Thus, margins are very high as there is really no low end competitor to challenge price points.

Now, let's say a major Biofuels players along with a solar/hybrid player offers an alternative in the marketplace to oil/gas that's cheaper and easy to use. Well, then you have a run-up in profits for these types of companies and oil/gas must reduce prices to maintain competitive in this market. It benefits the consumer to have many options out there, not to mention our economic and national security as well.

In my view, the danger is we have one option in a lot of our choices in this sector. When we have one option, we are one disruption from major economic pain or national security pain.

Your gas price is really determined on whether whether Nigeria can control it's oil employees or Venezuela's dictator is in the good mood or Iran wants to turn rhetoric into reality. To me, that's dangerous to have our economy and national security depend on these people and nations.

If many of us had three different choices of energy at the pump or on our heating bill that were unrelated in price and production, the run-ups we've seen since the Clinton administration approved the Exxon/Mobil merger in the late 90's would be a moot point.

Barbra:

Quick question on the City of Simi commercial and zoning districts. I notice that under permitting, there is really no permitting process that spells out alternative energy land use permitting requirements.

I don't mean to put you on the spot, but consider you way more of an expert on zoning than me. Would it fall under research and development or general manufacturing?

If there isn't one, maybe we could develop something to try and go after these emerging start-ups.

BTW: The city did a great job on the simi valley prospector site. Clearly, our council knows the importance of open source information to attract new businesses.

TOO BAD THE CURRENT PRESIDENT HAS NOT AN OUNCE OF CREDIBILITY ON THIS ISSUE. ANYTHING BUSH DOES WITH ENERGY WILL BE SEEN AS A GIVEAWAY TO BIG CORPORATIONS AND AN ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS.

NOTHING WILL HAPPEN UNTIL THIS MAN IS GONE SADLY. SAY GOODBYE TO THE LAST ANTIENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT.

BUSH=LAME DUCK