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UCLA School of Public Policy held, and will hold again, public workshops on "sustainable transportation". But getting there at 4:00 PM on a Friday mega-rush hour proved impossible for the keynote speaker, attempting to fly in from Germany (our airplane-friendly skies and easy continent-hopping is unsustainable, some say). Me, driving a supposedly sustainable Toyota RAV4-EV in the jam of rush hour resulted in an unbelievable, if not unsustainable, 1.5 hour delay in my arrival. But the Toyota RAV4-EV, which didn't need a charge to get back home, was happy to power-up at the Broxton Av. Garage in Westwood, which also sustained Paul Scott's "SunPowered" Toyota RAV4-EV. Even though you don't need a charge, it's a good idea to use the charging stations, it keeps the idea of Electric cars alive just a bit. Even on unsustainable fridays.
| Everything that used to be a parking lot at UCLA now contains huge, inscrutable buildings around which dart GEM-style electric golf-carts. The school of Public Policy, located in the old Mangement Science Building, is there somewhere, but don't know if I could find it again. I'm not the only one more than an hour late, it does not matter because David S. Freeman, the old-reliable iconoclast and energy efficiency pioneer, is speaking about sustainable energy independence in our society. Fending off nuke-power advocates, end-of-the-world peak-oil fanatics, anti-solar and just plain dumb questions. But does he understand that the price of solar hardware has been going up at the same time that the cost of doing the paperwork has skyrocketed, making it more difficult, not easier, for ordinary folks to put in solar, as Freeman correctly advises? Seems Mr. Freeman, too, is coming out with a book about energy independence or autonomy. So easy to do, if not for the donations of the oil companies that corrupt bribed politicians. Changes are slow, but coming, Freeman claims, even at glacially-frozen places like the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power (LADWP) ... Which needs, IMO, removal of top staff and new staff structure, more oversight by the Board, and the Board's new energy policy filtering down the chain of command. For example, DWP staff were secretly returning Toyota RAV4-EV to Toyota, behind the Board's back, claiming they were "defective" and needed crushing. Until Citizens uncovered it, and staff perfidy was exposed. Then the Board saved most of the RAV4-EV and also negotiated a breakthrough purchase option for their RAV4-EV. Now to get the remaining 5 dozen Toyota RAV4-EV into the hands of solar PV customers, to use for living the oil-free "PV-EV" lifestyle, and diverting some of the money that once went to gas to help pay for their solar system. Increasing the ROI from only 9-11% to more like 40%, or more. Not to mention DWP's failure to even have a solar reservation system from 2003 to 2006, and their funnelling of 94.5% of all solar resources into 11 big jobs done by comfy big operators in one 15-month stretch from 2004-2005, while hundreds of would-be solar customers were disappointed by arguably inept Dominick Rubilcava and the rest of the former, do-nothing Mayor Hahn LADWP Board...some say, nothing but "...a revolving ATM for corrupt contractors," which the new, honest Board is spending its time uncovering and fixing. Just one example uncovered by Commissioner Patsaouras is the padding of subcontractors bills with "cost plus" profit for the ptime contractor (!). So, Things are changing for the better at LADWP, but it needs a good administrator (like Freeman, one is forced to think) to reverse years, and decades, of bad policies under former corrupt L.A. governments. One example, when restoring a part of Owens Valley, Board President Nahai, rephrasing the words of DWP when Owens Lake was drained ("...take it"), said "...take it back!". Some folks have agreed to take note of our campaign to tighten up the ZEV mandate, forcing GM to bring out the serial-hybrid Volt prior to 2012 using existing Nickel Metal Hydride ("NiMH") batteries. Now if only they hold the "sustainable transportation" seminars in a way that allows you to get to them on time... |
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