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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (136105)	4/7/2010 8:50:56 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541945

St. Louis votes for better transit, despite Tea Party campaign by Jonathan Hiskes (Despite or because of?) 7 Apr 2010 1:22 PM Here’s some good news: St. Louis citizens want robust mass transit, and they’re willing to pay for it. Despite a Tea Party opposition campaign, St. Louis County voters on Tuesday approved a half-cent sales tax increase to stabilize and eventually expand the region’s ailing transit network. The measure passed by a monstrous 24 point margin. The St. Louis Tea Party focused its energy on defeating the civic project, calling the campaign a test run for defeating Democrats in this fall’s midterm elections. So it’s a setback for them. But it’s good news for those wanting to get around the St. Louis metro area. The “proposition A” measure will restore bus lines that had been de-funded, pay for more frequent buses, prevent future cuts, and, eventually, expand the reach of transit further into area suburbs. The future cuts would have been drastic—about 50 percent of service and 650 jobs, beginning in June, according to Metro Transit Executive Director Robert Baer. Even more interesting, voters defeated similar tax increases in 1997 and 2008. In Los Angeles, too, voters approved a very similar tax on themselves in 2008—a half-cent sales tax increase to fund a large-scale electric rail system. And now they largely support Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to build the network in 10 years instead of 30. People want this stuff. grist.org

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (136105)	4/7/2010 8:54:14 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541945

She doesn't even mention the brine problem. But one picture says a lot, if you put it in its proper context--these lovely scenes are in the middle of a desert, using water that is largely shipped in from the Delta in northern CA or from the Colorado River via dams: We can do anything, lol, even grow an unlimited amount of grass in deserts.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (136105)	4/7/2010 11:40:18 PM
From: Bread Upon The Water	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541945

Check this out. hyflux.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (136105)	4/8/2010 12:21:28 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541945

Talking about water and energy.... Of Water, Electricity and the Time of Day By KATE GALBRAITH March 26, 2010, 2:30 pm If consumers do less of this at peak usage hours, both water and electricity can be conserved. But will they do it? Water accounts for an astonishing percentage of electricity use — 19 percent in California, for example — partly because of all the energy needed to pump it. Can people be persuaded to change the hours that they use water, and thereby reduce their water utility’s electricity costs? A pilot study conducted last summer in Palm Desert, Calif., suggests that they can. The study, financed by the California Energy Commission, asked participants — who were paid $25 a month — to reduce their water use at “peak” times. A peak time refers to the hours when electricity use is at or near its daily high, and therefore especially expensive. For Palm Desert, those hours are noon to 6 p.m. The participants were given so-called “smart water meters” that recorded their water use at 15-minute intervals. Crucially, the meters also enabled participants to see how much water they were using — information that is unavailable to most households. The results were striking: at peak times, participating homeowners used less than half the amount of water as those in the control group. The homeowners’ total use also ended up being 17 percent lower than the control group’s. Abby Figueroa, a spokeswoman for the Coachella Valley Water District, which includes Palm Desert, said her agency was “really happy” with the conservation results. Water is, after all, a precious commodity in the desert. “It means that long term, if we can encourage people not to use water during peak hours, it’s also going to help with overall conservation,” she said. Bob Colson, a Palm Desert resident who participated in the study, encountered some bumps along the way. Initially he cut back watering his lawn from twice a day nearly every day, to several times a week. A chunk of it turned brown in the blazing desert heat. “It was embarrassing when newspeople came over with cameras,” Mr. Colson recalled. So he resumed watering it six days a week — but carefully avoided the peak by turning on the sprinklers in the evening, and again around 2am. He also used the sprinklers for shorter amounts of time. The lawn revived. Mr. Colson estimates that by changing his sprinkler patterns, as well as doing the laundry at off-peak hours and urging everyone in the family to take shorter showers, his household cut peak-time water use by 20 percent. Fifty-three homeowners participated in the study, along with a small number of businesses and landscapers. For the commercial categories, the results were less pronounced. The study did find that homeowners’ actions cut the water district’s peak electric use slightly, but whether or not the agency will build on this aspect of the study is unclear. More immediately, according to Ms. Figueroa, there will be an increased effort to combat leaks. In the study, 30 percent of households were found to have leaks that lasted 24 hours or more. Some of them involved a hose left running, but others were serious problems that needed fixing. “We were surprised by the number of people with leaks, and we think this is really something we want to follow up,” Ms. Figueroa said. The water district may also try to give people more information about their water usage, so that they can use the resource more wisely. “There’s so much more that we can tell people,” Ms. Figueroa said. For Mr. Colson, the lessons have endured even after the pilot ended. “We’re really watching the time we take in the shower,” he said. greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com