Posted on 05/24/2007 8:03:53 AM PDT by SmithL
- In Berkeley's green future, there will be no incandescent lightbulbs, Wedgewood stoves or gas-powered water heaters. The only sounds will be the whir of bicycles and the purr of hybrid cars -- and possibly curses from residents being forced to upgrade all their kitchen appliances. Six months after Berkeley voters overwhelmingly passed Measure G, a mandate to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the city is laying out a long-term road map for residents, business and industry. It includes everything from solar panels at the Pacific Steel foundry to composted table scraps.
While San Francisco, Oakland and other local governments in the Bay Area have approved policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Berkeley is the first to begin spelling out how people would be expected to reduce their carbon footprints.
Some measures will be popular and easy, like a car-share vehicle on every block and free bus passes. But others will be bitter pills, such as strict and costly requirements that homes have new high-efficiency appliances, solar-powered water heaters, insulation in the walls and other energy savers.
"It will challenge people, and it will be difficult," said Cisco DeVries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates and one of those coordinating the city's greenhouse gas reduction efforts. "But if Berkeley's niche isn't leadership on this issue, then what is it? This is what we should be doing."
It won't be quick, and it won't be easy, especially in a city where even the most mundane zoning minutia can become mired in months of debate. Few of the proposals have been approved yet, and some might not be ready for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Carolyn
Yeah, just build a wall around them.
and possibly curses from residents being forced to upgrade all their kitchen appliances.
They got what they wanted, now it’s gonna hit them in the wallet..typical dems/greenies..never look beyond the tips of their noses..the law of unintended consequences strikes again..
As did the former Soviet Union, they should now start cramming 5 or 6 families into a small one bedroom apartment in the name of saving the Earth. It is amazing to see communism take hold right before our eyes.
What absolute BS
CO2 is responsible for either .8 or .08% of all “Greenhouse” gas/heat retention 90%+ is water VAPOR! and most of that is within the first 30’ of the atmosphere closest to earth....
CO2 based global warming is a complete SCAM!!!!!!!
GOD will eventually deal with them.
LLS
This is going to be fun to watch though.
Bah! That doesn’t go far enough. According to AlGore and his friends, even the relatively minuscule amount of CO2 we were pumping out into the atmosphere fifty years ago is enough to cause catastrophic damage to the planet. We need to outlaw ALL fossil fuel use right now! It doesn’t matter if that triggers a worldwide economic meltdown and billions of people are reduced to poverty, we need to SAVE THE PLANET!
Those aren't "residents" at that point, they're inmates. And the landlords will be passing on the cost of those "free" bus passes to whom, exactly? Oh, that's right, there's rent control as well there, so it won't be the tenants. Oh, and their taxes are going to go up also to support this idiocy. Anyone want to be a landlord in Berkeley?
But the accounting details are irrelevant, said Dan Kammen, a professor at UC Berkeley's Energy and Resource Group.
"Berkeley is one of the first cities to do this, and I think they're entitled to some creative bookkeeping," he said.
Get the picture yet? "We know it's going to be an economic disaster so we're entitled to lie to you about it." And as long as it's somebody else going broke, they can do it, too. This sort of thing tends to leave those people in town who can afford to stay - the ones who don't pay taxes and the ones for whom it's chump change to begin with. The middle class is out of luck, but nobody on the Berkeley city council cares much about the bourgeoisie anyway.
Yeah, but in the meantime, they need to be isolated from rest of us sane folk.
I wondered if they were going to inspect everyone’s home, apparently, just when they go up for sale. Where does all the substandard off campus student housing fit here?
Then bulldoze the place flat.
Communists doing their thing...
This can actually become quite ugly. If they can get the right lies out about how great this policy’s working, look for other communities to follow suit. Some communities won’t even wait.
However, many live cash poor lives in rent controlled apts., and older houses. Upgrades in vehicles and electrical systems will be a major burden. I think they may have to roll this back a bit until the technology gets better and a lot cheaper.
Watch what happens.
Even the libs will desert the city and go to the suburbs.
How 'bout a dome?
Airtight, of course.
Berkeley isn’t actually part of the normal world. It is closer to being the world of happy loons.
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