Flashes: June 5, 2013

• I officially declare the renewable energy certificate market to be theater of the absurd.  Anything that declares that a building with solar panels on top of it is not being powered by solar-generated electricity, while simultaneously telling a homeowner that lives within ten miles of a coal-fired generating plant that their electricity comes from the sun, has no basis in logic or reason.  I need to suspend disbelief more than when I watch an episode of Heroes.

• Chicago has made recycling a priority for over a decade now.  The 19th Ward of the City of Chicago has a residential recycling rate that averages about 22%, and stands at the top of all the wards of the City.  Only in Chicago can we celebrate an 0.220 success rate.  #chicagobaseball2013

• Is it really a surprise that a culture that believes that a pill, a surgery, a diet will allow you to eat all the foods you want as much as you want and lose weight will also believe that the way to a brighter energy future is to tap ever dirtier and harder to process forms of fossil fuels.....or to pump millions of gallons of polluted water into the ground?

• A company named Dynegy is purchasing some old coal-fired power plants....ones that are supposed to be brought up to modern emissions standards....and they are asking the state to give them a variance from these standards because it won't make the deal financially possible.  I can't get a license plate sticker for my 2001 Toyota Prius if my check engine light is on because the car won't pass an emissions test (note: IT'S A PRIUS!  I don't care what's happening the in the engine, I breathe fewer emissions sucking on my tailpipe than I do standing half a block away from an F150).  If the State gives them an exemption, I'm showing up at the Governor's mansion for my lifetime "get out of jail free" card for my Prius to skip any further emissions tests.

Enjoy the journey!