The alternative energies of Michigan needs to be harnessed; the sooner the better. There is every indication the Great Lakes are a big plus to the agricultural community in Michigan. The yields are high this year even after a late start to spring in northern Michigan. It is also known that within the next decade the Great Lakes can fall in levels by 2 feet. That loss of water in the Great Lakes would be devastating to economies the states and Canadian provinces.
11:39 PM, September 20, 2013
“Wind technology has, (click here) in particular, advanced significantly,” said
John Quackenbush, chairman of the MPSC. “We are able to get higher
capacity factors and more production out of wind turbines than anyone
thought was possible in 2008.”
In 2012, environmentalists failed
to get a constitutional amendment passed that would have increased the
renewable portfolio standard to 25% by the year 2025. Gov. Rick Snyder
acknowledged after the election last November that while he didn’t
support the 25-by-25 ballot proposal, a higher renewable standard might
not only be achievable, but appropriate as well.
“We will have
reached our 10% goal for renewable energy (by 2015) ... so we will be in
a good position to set higher goals,” he said in a November speech on
energy and the environment....
Other states are finding the same concern a reason to look to alternative energies. For Virginia the idea of seeing offshore drilling rigs next to wind turbines will be a very odd choice.
...Virginia was a crucial state (click here) for both 2012 presidential candidates, and energy was a critical issue in the Virginia election....
...A majority of Virginia voters in the presidential election (54 percent)
say they would encourage natural gas as an energy source, followed by
solar power (50 percent) and wind power (44 percent). Coal ranked fourth
for voters, but 72% agree that “rather than using more coal, we should
move toward cleaner sources of energy,” a view held across political
affiliations including Democrats (94%), Independents (67%) and
Republicans (53%)....
The Warner-Kaine bill is a horribly new method of assaulting the already dangerous climate. It is a crony bill to attract petroleum monies for political purposes.
...The Warner-Kaine bill (click here) would make Virginia’s cut from any potential
revenue more in line with what Gulf Coast states get, but it puts
pressure on the Obama administration to speed up leasing for oil- and
gas-drilling rights, which had been delayed until 2017....
The entire East Coast has the same economy as Florida in that tourism is a significant amount of their economies. Florida does not allow offshore drilling for a very real reason and every state along the east coast needs to take example. We know the petroleum industry employees far fewer people than those that have strong tourism industries.
The petroleum industry is in direct conflict with a strong tourism industry. That conflict causes hardship and needs to be deterred.
Service Class: The Service Class is composed of the following major occupational categories:
- Health care support occupations
- Food preparation and food-service-related occupations
- Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations
- Personal care and service occupations
- Low-end sales and related occupations
- Office and administrative support occupations
- Community and social services occupations
- Protective service occupations
continued..
The service industries are the very basis of a springboard into the creative class in the USA economy. Currently, the creative class employment is only 23.6% of the economy according to the Harvard Business Review.The creative class have the highest pay rates in the nation, but, only provides 28.8% of incomes in the USA. The service industry have lower rates of pay, but, earns 44.1% of the incomes in the nation.
The petroleum industry is proving to be a direct threat to not only life and limb, but, that of 44.1 percent of the nation's earned incomes when it causes damage to those earners.
Alternative energies are not only about a safe climate, it is about the very lives of the majority of Americans. A sustainable economy, one that is free of disruption is required to build wealth. Ask the folks along the "Jersey Shore." The petroleum industry is a rudimentary industry that has never perfected it's techniques to prevent and deter what disrupts the lives of Americans and certainly has no regard for a safe climate.
The petroleum industry should never be embraced as form of viable source of sustainable energy. Drilling offshore for Virginia will prove to be disasterous and any 'income sharing' will be spent on disasters and pollution control, so why do it the first place? The income sharing for these east coast states will never cover all the damages of the industry.
Virginia is the nation’s third largest producer (click here) of marine products with total landings of over 494,028,366 million pounds in 2011 and is only out paced by Alaska and Louisiana. The dockside value to watermen alone was $191,664,734
million. We also rank as the largest seafood production state on the
East Coast. Reedville, VA is the fourth largest U.S. fishing port based
on landings. Hampton Roads was the seventh wealthiest seafood port in
the nation.
Virginia’s watermen harvest 50 commercially valuable species from some
620,000 acres of water. Among these traditional species in order of
economic value, are sea scallops, blue crabs, croaker, striped bass,
spot, flounder and catfish...
The fisheries in the USA are becoming more and more challenged with warming oceans, yet Virginia has a sweet spot to be productive in the face of the dangers facing it.
Currently, in Louisiana, the state is doing back flips to bring back not just the fisheries, but, the community of fishermen and their commercial wholesale dealers. There are state programs in the multi-millions to return this culture to the state.
The shipping docks are sparsely populated because the fisheries are primarily bare and insufficient to provide a living to the only economically hardiest fisherman.
By Matt Smith, CNN
updated 3:43 PM EDT, Mon April 29, 2013
...There used to be (click here) two or
three people working with him; now he's alone. The catch that's coming
in is light, particularly for crabs.
"Guys running five or six hundred traps are coming in with two to three boxes, if that," said Stander, 26....
...About two-thirds of U.S.
oysters come from the Gulf Coast, the source of about 40% of America's
seafood catch. But in the three years since the drilling rig Deepwater
Horizon blew up and sank about 80 miles south of here, fishermen say
many of the oyster reefs are still barren, and some other commercial
species are harder to find.
"My fellow fishermen who
fish crab and who fish fish, they're feeling the same thing," Barisich
said. "You get a spike in production every now and then, but overall,
it's off. Everybody's down. Everywhere there was dispersed oil and
heavily oiled, the production is down."...
Barisich states, "$300 for fuel. $100 of other expenses and I pay the deckhand, I got $150 a day on a perfect day. It don't pay to go out."
This is the year 2013. The entire debate over alternative vs petroleum is completely hideous. The technology is there to eliminate the threat of the Climate Crisis. The idea with a growing population in the USA exceeding 300 million people there should be offshore drilling when these disaster are the known result over and over and over again is the most stupid idea I have yet witnessed come out of the Crony Democratic Camp.
The Democrats in Virginia and otherwise has been held to dance on the head of a pin regarding the petroleum industry and it needs to stop. Colorado is not a tale of Noah, it is a reality in the USA and it is the Climate Crisis that is the issue. Democrats have been mired in 'doing the right thing,' since when has that changed?
The Democrats running for office along the East Coast of the USA have to realize the importance of the service industry in those states, the rich seafood industry and need to articulate the importance of the livelihoods of the people and not the idea drilling is going to solve their problems. Drilling won't solve their problems, it will them worse.
The large white ridge to the right of the image is a front moving through. This water vapor followed from the north and was cold. The temperature outdoors today was in the low sixties and has sustained in the 50s all day. That is in Fahrenheit. It currently is 51.2 degrees Fahrenheit with one mph winds from northwest west. 
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