It’s time to incentivize innovative private clean energy companies to promote a strong economy & good jobs as we transition toward more renewable energy & less fossil fuel.

Renewable Technologies

• I support hydroelectric power as a great source of renewable energy and much-needed water storage.
• I support photo-voltaic solar and wind power. I have had solar on my roof since 2002.
• I support solar thermal for water heating. All building should have solar thermal for augmenting the water heating heating process.
• I support solar power plants that run steam turbines using solar concentrators.
• I support solar concentrators for photo voltaic.
• I support almost any form of alternate energy that will work. I am a scientist and engineer after all, and find new energy generating technology fascinating.

Non-renewable bridge technologies:

• We need natural gas and nuclear power as bridge technologies until we have more power storage, better batteries, and more renewable energy.
• Natural gas produces about 50% less CO2 than coal and other hydrocarbons.
• Nuclear power is very clean and we should use it safely.

Energy Storage

• We do not have sufficient energy storage, which is a fundamental problem. Battery technology is not ready for our needs and relies on rare earth metals found in countries with unfriendly hostile totalitarian regimes.
• The mining of rare earth metals is another environmental disaster in the making.
• We need to prioritize energy storage technology.

Transportation

• Automobiles should be constructed of aluminum and carbon fiber. This can save 25% of automotive fuel usage. If we combine lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber cars with hybrid technology, we can achieve our goals. Using known technologies, we can make great improvements.
• Also, we need integrated mass transit in the SF Bay Area. This is the fourth largest metropolitan region in the USA, and we do not have functional mass transit.

Heating and Cooling (HVAC)

Heating and cooling of buildings can use 20% of the power we have. We need heat pumps that operate at coefficients of performance (COP) above 6. Residential usage can rely on CO2 based heat pumps, and commercial can use NH3 (ammonia), which is more efficient and can be handled by professionals. Of course we must insulate building very well, e.g. R80 and triple pane windows. Using known technologies, we can make great improvements.

Electrical Grid

We need to upgrade our electrical grid to support more electrical power for cars, heat pumps and distributed clean power generations.

Citizens Climate Lobby

I support the Fee and Dividend energy plan and H.R. 763. I introduced language similar to it as an update to the environment plank of the CAGOP party platform this last year. It did not pass but I will introduce it again.

Forest Management

We need to practice fundamental forest management: (1) We need to harvest lumber to thin the forests. (2) We need to remove undergrowth by allowing grazing or by manual intervention. (3) We need to have controlled burns.

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