Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

The EPA is out of control - be prepared for anything

Keep your eye on the actions of the EPA. This organization is seriously out of control.

Obama’s America: EPA Officials Visit Man For Sending Email

On May 24, 2012, in big government, by TWB

About a month ago, EPA regional official Al Armendariz made news when a YouTube video of him describing the way the agency handles oil and gas companies surfaced. In it, Armendariz said an analogy he liked to use about enforcement was how the Romans used crucifixion to keep smaller towns and villages under their thumb. Since then, Armendariz has resigned his post at the EPA. Case closed, right? Wrong.

A local North Carolina man named Larry Keller didn’t particularly like the analogy that Al Armendariz used, so, along with thousands of others assumably, he set about to contact Mr. Armendariz to discuss his views on the oil and gas industries. One of our basic rights and privileges in a free society is to be able to petition our government for a redress of grievances without fear of repercussion from said government simply for voicing our grievance.

Keller proceeded to try and contact Mr. Armendariz by Googling him. His domain was a subset of Southern Methodist University, he was directed to contact a Dr. David Gray who is the Director of External Affairs for the EPA. Keller wrote a simple, one sentence email to Dr. Gray which said simply, “Hello Mr. Gray-Do you have Mr. Armendariz’s contact information so we can say hello?”

On May 2nd, just a little over a week after the Armendariz crucify comments had flared up, two special agents from the EPA and a local police officer showed up at Mr. Keller’s home. Here is the story in his own words:

On Wednesday, May 02, 2012 at about 1:45PM two Special Agents from the EPA and an armed police officer who stood 6’6” tall visited our house in Asheville, NC. Their visit was a total surprise as we had not received any communications requesting an appointment. The agents presented very official looking badges and asked if we could sit and chat awhile. We moved to the back porch and took our seats with the exception of the armed officer who stood by the door to the house the entire time.

It's not easy being green

A burning Chevy Volt lighting up the landscape illustrates some of the dificulties in achieving an all-green sustainable lifestyle. The path of development has never run smoothly and that is why pioneers get used to scoffers pointing out design flaws.

Creating a green economy with green technology is not all that different from the creation of a digital economy in the years following the Second World War.

Early digital computers were inefficient and unreliable like today's wind generators and all-electric vehicles. They were the butt of many jokes just like today's efforts at capturing wind energy and all-electric transportation.


I was involved in the commercial development of several generations of early digital computers and I know that government support was instrumental in the very early days of computer development. As I recall, however, there was no big push on the part of the government to get us to discard our calculators and pencil and paper. Computers took over the workplace and the homefront when they became MORE CONVENIENT than the alternatives.

I feel there will be a place for wind generators and all electric vehicles when they become MORE CONVENIENT AND COMPETITIVE than our current generators and vehicles. This may only occur in specialized sitations, but I feel we will see working installations with excellent customer satisfaction eventually.  Right now, we see too many failures like this:

The efforts of our current administration to shove untested ideas down our throats will only result in discrediting their motives. The unfortunate examples of crony capitalism like Solyndra, General Moters, and these later failures:

Evergreen Energy-Which has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying it’s "impossible to maintain operations" due to funding shortfalls. This announcement comes after the company received $5.3 million in "stimulus" funds.

Abound Solar Manufcturing of Longmount, Colorado received a $400 million federal loan and laid off 70% of its workforce in March, 2012.

Amonix Inc.-A manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the "stimulus", will lay off about 200 employees only seven months after opening a factory in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home State of Nevada.

Beacon Power Corp-Sought bankruptcy protection last year after they received a $43 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

Ener1 Electric-A car battery manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy last Thursday, three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

The nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste counts nearly 20 energy companies that have gotten federal loan guarantees or grants that have run into financial trouble ranging from layoffs to losses to bankruptcies. An outside consultant hired by the White House said the Energy Department's loan pool includes $2.7 billion in potentially risky loans and suggests the agency hire a "chief risk officer" to help minimize problems.

To watchdogs, the pattern of firms awarding bonuses only to file for bankruptcy raises questions about how well the Energy Department chose its winners, and how thoroughly it kept an eye on them once selected.

If we are going to see a green economy, perhaps we should see more open and competitive bidding.

Attack Watch, the gift that keeps on giving

In his drive to emulate the success of past tyrannies, Obama has resurrected the concept of an official snitch squad and has created AttackWatch.com where loyal citizens can report on their neighbors who resist the Great Leap Forward to complete government control.

Progressives no longer have to suffer in silence as their neighbors snicker about progressive dreams of an oncoming utopia in which all will receive rewards according to their needs and those that have will be sharing their wealth whether they want to or not.

All of the wannabe occupiers can now report on those spoilsports who insist on exchange instead of encouraging debt. They can go to Attack Watch and get even with those who made something of themselves through hard work and sacrifice.

Comrades, turn in your neighbors now! They may be plotting to unseat the One.

Stupid in America

This week, Fox News ran a story by John Stossel called Stupid in America.

This graph shows what many of you have suspected all along. that the US education system is broken. The price of education has tripled in the last 40 years, but the test scores have barely changed.

You can see that the increased spending has produced no change in standardized test scores.

An abbreviated video of John Stossel's show is below. In it, he compares typical unionized schools to charter schools. You can begin to appreciate why parents do everything possible to get their kids in a charter school.

The charter schools appear to focus on quality of education while the unionized schools focus on preservation of teachers benefits.  Watch the video and see what you would prefer for your children.

Observe the excuses made by the people in the education system defending the fact that there’s no products coming out of the “standard” education system.  

One public school educator responds to Stossel's questions this way::

Stossel:“City schools are terrible because of unions like yours.”

Educator: “Our test scores are not what we (pause) choose to focus on.”

Stossel: “But how do you know if they’re learning anything?”

Educator: “I know my kids are learning when I look in their eyes.”

You might well ask yourself, "How will a possible employer be able to tell if they learned something?”

A longer version of the Stupid in America video is here.

Use all of your skills to offset tough economic times

Manufacturing jobs may have left the country but there are still jobs in service industries as well as in creative design occupations.

You can scramble around looking for jobs like you used to have or you can take stock of your skills and assess the opportunities to put them to good use.

Look at the situation as one of potential exchange. Someone needs something done, can you do it and get some worthwhile exchange for it?

If you keep your eyes open for opportunities to help others in some way, you are likely to stumble across an opportunity that you will not find in the want ads.

The other side of the coin is to look at what your former customers are doing now instead of buying products or services from you. Small businesses that are still operating after four years of economic uncertainty have figured out what customers are willing to pay for and have adjusted their product offerings accordingly.

If you do not have useful skills or products that are in demand, perhaps it's time to regroup and figure out what skills and products are needed and wanted and do whatever is necessary to produce what is wanted.

Keep on refining your offerings even when you achieve a measure of stability because we may be in for many years of increasing uncertainty.

Try to develop multiple sources of income.