Whelp, I’m a MELP Whelp

I’ve recently been accepted to Vermont Law School, in their Master of Environmental Law and Policy program. The plan is to start in January ’14 and finish in August ’15. This is very exciting, and I really feel like I’m moving toward achieving my ambition to have meaningful conversations about energy use and the environment with people that can effect change.

Getting going has been a bit of a slog. There was a great deal of inertia to overcome, and hesitation about starting something new when I’m not 100% secure in my job yet. Other things on the horizon have actually propelled me to start this endeavor now, so that at least some things in my life are certain over the next year. (I’ll likely post about those as they come to fruition, so keep hitting F5!)

The first course is Public Law and I’ve started reading the textbook: pretty interesting stuff. I’m enjoying the chapter about the branches of government, though I do have to run to the dictionary a fair bit. The second course will be Environmental Law, for which three books are required. I’m not sure how we’ll get through three books in seven weeks, but then I’ve never been in grad school before so I’m in for all kinds of fun I imagine.

Maryland Homeowners Go Out Of Their Way To Go Out Of Their Way

It turns out that you’ve got to get up pretty early to pull the wool over the eyes of D.C. suburbanites, even when it’s for their own good.

A staffer at the Natural Resources Defense Council reports that some residents of Rockville, MD oppose a light-rail system that’s been planned for their King Farm neighborhood. They feel that there’d be no benefit in a light-rail, or rapid transit bus, system. The NIMBYists are happy to commute, shop, and play in the usual way: by car. They’ve started or joined more than one coalition in order to maintain the status quo. Community residents have stated that a light-rail track running down the middle of their conspicuously wide median would be an underutilized, visual blemish. “Nothing doing,” they say.

Thing is? The community was planned around the light-rail that they don’t want. In fact, King Farm received several awards and accolades for its forward thinking and use of public space.

The community developers dropped the ball on this one. If they had a) built the transit system in conjunction with the now-occupied homes, shops, and public buildings; or b) shared with prospective buyers the intent to put in a line at some point down the road (no pun intended) this would be a non-issue. As it is homeowners feel hoodwinked, award-givers are feeling gunshy, and the decision has been bumped up to the the Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley. +1 for bureaucracy.

Even though the developers should’ve done a better job of communicating their design and intentions, it’s very likely that the residents will ultimately pay the price (this time: pun intended). Public radio’s Marketplace recently ran a story sharing some anecdotal information that homes & properties within walking distances of public transportation have been largely insulated from the collapse of the housing bubble. By ‘insulated’ I mean prices for homes near public transit are between 140% and 200% of their driving-distance sprawling comparables, where h0me prices have fallen significantly.  You can listen to the story here.

Thanks to @TreeHugger, NRDC Switchboard, and APM Marketplace

 

An Open Letter To the Last Two Years, And To the Next Twenty

When my engineering position at a research manufacturing company was eliminated a few years ago, I took it as an opportunity to explore the possibility of doing something in a field about which I am passionate. One need only glance at the projects on which I’ve volunteered my time to see an environmental thread: restoring it, preserving it, protecting it. The word that kept rattling around in my head was sustainability. This led to thoughts about energy, and the rattling vocab increased immediately to include generation, storage, distribution, and conservation.

So I found myself in a pickle. I realized I was passionate about doing something in a field in which I have zero experience, paid or otherwise. I looked for a few careers supporting the environment (BLM, Parks & Forests, etc) but I never felt so exhilarated as when I considered working with energy. But what to do? That’s a question I’m still trying to answer 104 weeks later. I’ve applied for countless hundreds of jobs that I wasn’t even close to qualified for, and several dozens of jobs for which I should’ve been a shoe-in. I guess, like any good bird in the oven, I’m just not done cookin’ yet.

I realized pretty quickly that I’d eventually like to help craft & guide energy policy at the state or federal level. Admittedly, this realization was largely based on my love of Aaron Sorkin’s “The West Wing” (insert pause for laughter & pointing). There are no entry-level policy jobs, and I wasn’t selected for a competitive unpaid legislative internship with my Governor’s Energy Office, so I figured I’d use my physics & math degree to find an analyst position in order to learn about how energy works, from societal and commercial perspectives. The thinking was that I’d start with a narrow vision of the industry, and expand my vision over time until I could grasp the big, overall ideas and then start policy-making. No analyst jobs yet.

In another attempt to get my foot in the door I enrolled in a Home Energy Auditor certification prep course. You know these folks: they come to your house, set up a blower door, find the holes where your windows are installed, make sure that your combustion appliances won’t kill you in your sleep, and provide you with tax credit forms for any work that you have done. Turns out that my knees won’t allow me to crawl around in attics checking for insulation depths.  An upshot is that my CAZ Testing Procedure (link) has been read over 1800 times, so I feel pretty good about that.

I started this weblog a few days after being laid off as a way to identify that (or those) aspect(s) of this energy issue that interest me the most. With no experience I’ve had to teach myself what’s out there, what’s relevant, and what’s doable. I’ve read books, informationally interviewed folks in the sector, and continued to volunteer my time where I could. I’ve been able to narrow my focus to the following statement:

I want to be part of the discussion – the one we have as a society, as a people. My position is that economic viability, personal comfort, conservation, and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive goals.

It may end up that this blog is my best way to engage in the conversation about conservation. I don’t think that’s true, though. I’ve been looking & learning for two years now, and have made significant progress in my understanding of what’s important. I have a lot to learn, and a lot to give. Interestingly it’s cyclical: more of one leads to more of  the other.

If you know anyone who is looking to fill an entry-level position in the energy industry with a degreed, experienced professional please pass along my contact info to them & their contact info to me.

Next time: backwards thinking in a forward-thinking community.

Jacob’s Birthday Poem

Happy birthday, Jacob.
Another year the same:
Presents bought beat those made,
Cuz ‘made’ is pretty lame.

If you find cards-crafted
In your booty pile
Make sure there’s finger-pointing
At those with ‘crafty’ style.

You know as well as I do
That, to buy stuff, there’s still time;
And that is why I paid a bum
Three dollars for this rhyme.

I hope your birthday wishes
Come to full fruition,
But if you need to you can
Sell this poem for tuition.

Là breith sona dhuit!

The NERF Timeline

Sixty years of Nerf. They had a good run.

Late 1960s	Parker Brothers invents Nerf®
1972	Kinder, gentler football games played across America
1991	Hasbro buys Parker Brothers
Feb 2011	The Guardian newspaper reports that Saudia Arabia may’ve oversold oil reserve estimates
May 2011	Hasbro sees +13% revenue on increased sales of Nerf® darts, footballs, and related equipment by people enjoying the mild late-spring temperatures
July 2011	Outdoor toys gather dust while people crank up their air conditioners to stave off another temperature-record-breaking summer
2016	Production costs force Hasbro to raise prices on Nerf® toys by 20%. No one notices due to the riots in Holland over retroactive cancellations of a few hundred thousand flood insurance protection policies.
2023	Hasbro sells off its entire Nerf® line to the adult film industry, which is doing surprisingly well. While many had hoped for a flurry of innovation, screenwriters and directors show their usual lack of, well, anything meaningful and end up making another “Iron Man” movie.

Thanks to @PeakOilNews and climateprogress.org

Life, Liberty, And the Pursuit Of the kWh

Earlier this week the British Parliament released a report detailing a possible framework for Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs). These are analogous to Renewable Energy Certificates that U.S. companies currently trade, but TEQs are designed for end-user consumers as well.

In their press release the report’s lead authors state:

The report proposes an electronic energy rationing system called TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas). Under TEQs, units of ‘energy credit’ are distributed free to all adults. Surplus units can be bought and sold, meaning that there is no upper limit set on the number of units owned by one person.

What first caught my eye was the liberal use of the words “entitlement” and “access”. By 2020, the report states,  fuel rationing could be a way of life for all Britons (and presumably other developed & developing countries); TEQs are meant to ensure that end-users can access the energy to which they’re entitled.

I like the way this framework is set up because it could allow governments to move away from cash subsidies for green purchases like hybrid cars or ENERGY STAR televisions (cars & TVs being other entitlements of course). Instead of offering cash back or tax rebates, consumers might be credited with a few more TEQ credits. Consumers would use less of their existing TEQ allotment after their purchase so the balance in their “energy savings account” would see both immediate and long-term increases. These extra credits could be sold at a competitive price or saved for a rainy day (pun intended).

I also appreciate the authors’ insight into what motivates consumers to do more with less. “What motivates people to carry out a difficult task is, above all, confidence that the task is an interesting and worthwhile one.” This proposal, then, is less about a policy and more about a framework for driving consumer creativity. That appeals to me greatly, as all energy policies (in a market-driven economy) are supposed to have a built-in obsolescence.

The report is available here [pdf]. Thanks to @PeakOilNews.

What Kind Of Energy Auditor Are You?

I can’t say enough about how pleased I am to be back home in Colorado. This is a place I truly care about: not only this state but this community. A few months ago I started attending city council meetings and introducing myself as an ‘interested citizen’ – both to be involved in local affairs and to network. I’ve learned a lot about chickens, to be sure, but I’ve also been hit with some interesting ideas about my career path (or rather, career implementation).

A few Tuesdays ago a rep from Historic Greeley, Inc informed the council that her not-for-profit had received $125,000 from the Colorado Historical Society and was preparing a sustainable restoration of the First Baptist Church of Greeley.  Well, certainly “sustainable restoration” caught my ear, and I introduced myself to her as soon as she stepped away from the mic. I told her my plan to become a nationally-certified home energy auditor (my BPI Building Analyst Professional training course begins April 12th by the way) and asked if her team had completed an energy audit and if so, if it was performed by someone on her staff or if she had contracted it out or…. I don’t remember exactly how she deflected my question but she did it deftly and she suggested we exchange contact info, promising to contact me to contact me within a few days with more information. She e-mailed me today.

She suggested I contact the folks at Denver’s Colorado Preservation, Inc. I spoke with Jane Daniels, Preservation Projects Manager, for about 15 minutes and it was a very productive conversation. She told me that they’re mostly an education and advocacy group – they don’t take control or ownership of historic buildings and restore them. At the end of the conversation she suggested a few Denver firms that I might get in touch with to learn more – in essence she pointed me toward architectural firms that cater to restoration projects.

For the most part, not-for-profit energy advocacy groups focus on low-income housing;  given the choice I would rather perform energy analyses & audits for historical preservation projects, and I’d love to work for a not-for-profit. Unfortunately it seems like these two ideas are mutually exclusive. I have yet to come across a not-for-profit group providing energy consulting as part of a preservation. Have you heard of anything like this?

In Search Of A Green Hard Hat

Had a very productive meeting with the local Veterans Affairs rep this week; we discussed topics as diverse as my enrollment in a LEED or LEED-like certification-prep course, the recent completion of my application for VA Health benefits, and my job as a Paraeducator. If you live in Weld County, CO and are a veteran – or if Kristi Cronin is indicative of VA reps everywhere – you need to schedule an appointment.

I had prepared for our meeting by reviewing the types of certification available. The LEED certification looked interesting, but mostly because of the LEED AP (Tier II) specialization in neighborhood development. A brief introduction to each type of certification follows:

Green Industry Expertise Certificates

Certification		Where Used		Notes		More Info
LEED Associate		Primarily new construction		Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design		USGBC LEED Overview
LEED AP		Specialized experience		LEED Accredited Professional		GBCI LEED AP Credentials
BPI Certified Professional		Existing buildings		Building Performance Institute		BPI Overview
RESNET HERS Rater		Home efficiency		Residential Energy Services Network		Intro to RESNET

During our meeting Kristi pointed out that it would be exceedingly difficult to find a job with only a LEED certification and no experience, and that finding an entry-level position with either BPI or RESNET would be much easier. For this reason, she said, I likely wouldn’t get any funding for LEED training. I could, however, get funding for a course that would net both of the other certificates at the same time — pretty fancy!

The $2200 tuition would be largely covered by federal grant money and I would be required to pay for a text book, a clipboard, and a hard hat. That last one caught me a little off guard. After we parted I jumped online and searched for a recycled or re-used hard hat (seems appropiate given the work I’d do inside of it, no?) but I didn’t have much luck. My mom  – bless her heart – told me that the DirecTV installation guy left his hard hat behind and that she would ship it to me. I’m grateful for the offer, but I don’t know anything about its history so it might not be safe, regulation-wise. The leading contender for my inspection hat is the industrially-named MK2 from UK company ethicalworkwear.com. Their products are all made from at least 25% recycled material; I’d prefer to find a domestic producer but hats available in the U.S. are made of 0% post-consumer (aka “100% virgin”) material. It could be that there is a significant difference between the UK’s EN397 Safety standard and the U.S.’s Z89.1 standard, but otherwise it seems like recycling & reforming HDPE is an idea ready to catch on. That million-dollar idea is on the house, btw.

So, what to do with any of these certifications? To answer that I went to a link Kristi gave me: http://online.onetcenter.org/. It should be no surprise that the Energy Auditor occupation caught my eye; this starts the path that most likely prepares me for a career in government working on energy policy. I have that end-goal in front of me quite a lot, and I think that is why the hard hat caught me unprepared: I wasn’t expecting one to lead to the other. Dues’re can be funny that way.

Miscellanea: Two interesting finds while researching this article include making a flower pot from recyclethis.co.uk and green hard hat-wearing activists from treehugger.com.

Low-Carbon Videos (It’s OK To Watch With Both Eyes)

I’ve been rummaging a bit and have found a few sites with eco-friendly shows or segments, meaning shows or segments about eco-friendliness, that I’d like to pass on. If you know of any more please don’t hesitate to share in the comments.

1. Ethical Man (BBC) British journalist who journals his attempts to reduce his footprint for a year, including convincing his family that they don’t need a car. Not everyone is amused.

2. Building Green (PBS) Originally on PBS and now on hulu.com, it details a fellow building his dream house using low-impact & sustainable materials and practices.

3. GardenGirlTV (www) Sustainable living (and garden-growing) in an urban environment. A bit focused, but if you’re looking for tips on that new box garden then Patti is your gal.

4. Red Hot & Green (HGTV) Home renovation using a lot of natural materials. Low-flow toilet, meet bamboo counter.

5. Wa$ted (Discovery Channel) Those who waste without regard will wish they’d went another way. (Ahem, sorry.) Each segment consists of educating average consumers (and thrower-awayers) by showing them their collected trash. Reactions make the show.

Bonus. 3-2-1 Contact (PBS) This perennial show exists today only on dusty VHS tapes, Amazon.com, and youtube.com. Not an eco show directly, but this and Mr. Wizard ignited my interest in the physical sciences. Gimme an “S”! Gimme a “C”!

And make sure to watch ’em on your eco-friendly television set.

Pre-Friendly Video Conversion

The Palm Prē is brand spanking new, and it has a lot of potential in the field of ‘convergence’. Once you’ve sung yourself hoarse with all those songs from Amazon.com and iTunes, you’ll surely want to watch some videos so we’ve teamed up with the folks at everythingpre.com to provide you with a brief overview on how to best use the rest of your 7GB.

The idea of re-encoding a video file (tv show, movie, birthday party, whatev) is to shrink its size enough to make it easily portable but not so much that it becomes unwatchable. We’ll reduce the video a bit (we don’t want any tracers or artifacts), the audio a lot (not even headphones need Dolby Surround),  and hopefully end up with a pleasant variety of small-footprint video distractions.

What you’ll need:

1. A video on your Mac OS X, PC, or Linux computer
2. HandBrake video conversion software

How much time you’ll need:

Less than 10 minutes, start to finish, for a short video; 2+ hours for a full-length movie. Double these times for 2-pass encoding (explained in Step 5 below)

Difficulty:

Disclaimer: This walk-through assumes that you already have a video file on your computer. It’s certainly possible to convert your DVDs using this same software and a similar procedure, but how you get the movies off of your DVD is between you and the DVD distributor.

Note: The screenshots below point out the various sections of the software but should not be taken as literal guides. For example, it has been shown (so far) that only FFmpeg-encoded .mp4 videos can be decoded by the Pre despite the fact that the screenshots show H.264 .avi files. The pictures will be updated in short order.

Step 1: Load HandBrake. If you plan on converting, compressing, or in general re-encoding a lot of files then it may be worth your time to set up a  Preset to save you the trouble of selecting the same options each time.

The HandBrake Start Screen

Step 2: Select the video file you wish to convert. Do this by clicking Source then Video File. As mentioned, it is possible to grab a movie directly off of a DVD but that is beyond the scope of this walk-through.

Select a video from the Source button

Step 3: Select the Destination File by clicking the Browse button. While browsing, be sure to change the File Type as needed, currently only .mp4 files are proven to work correctly. Note: the File Format drop-down box will change automatically.

Choose a Destination path and name (be sure to confirm file type)

Step 4: Change any Picture Settings as needed. Here you may specify video Width & Height.

Since most videos will be watched in landscape mode it may be desirable to specify a width of 480 pixels.

Anamorphic: Strict will keep the same aspect ratio and frame size as the original. It’s very likely that the Pre can resolve any size difference internally but that hasn’t yet been confirmed.

If you select Anamorphic: Loose and Width: 480 the software will keep the aspect ratio of the source file, but force the video width to 480 pixels.

If you choose Anamorphic: None y0u can specify both Width and Height but the screen will look stretched or squished if you don’t choose the right values.

Specify the width and/or height if you'd like

Step 5: Select your desired Video Codec, determine a Target File Size, and select 1- or 2-pass encoding. We’re currently testing to see if there are any unpublished supported video codecs, but for now we know that H.264 is supported. H.264 is listed as a supported codec on Palm’s website but only the FFmpeg codec has been proven to work. We’re looking into it.

If you want a video file to be a specific size then enter that value and the software will choose settings accordingly. If you choose this option, it’s best to not adjust too many other options.

Check or uncheck the 2-Pass Encoding checkbox. A definition for multi-pass encoding is here [afterdawn.com] but basically the software looks more closely at each frame and makes high-action scenes look better; the drawback is that the ‘closer look’ means it could take twice as long to compress the video file.

Choose your CODEC

Step 6: Select audio properties. This image is edited to show all of the drop-down options at once. These options are largely a matter of preference; audiophiles won’t accept anything less than CD quality (1,411kb/s) but most folks won’t notice too much difference at bit rates less than the average mp3 file, 128kb/s. To learn more, see the Wikipedia entry on Sound quality. Understand that, for a video file with sound, the audio component is often ⅔ of the entire file size. Reductions here can go a long way toward reducing file size.

Choose your audio properties

Step 7: Hit Start and go away for awhile. A DOS command screen will pop up showing you the progress as well as the pass (if you’ve chosen more than one).

It's working, honest.

Step 8: Well, you’re done, really. Connect your Pre and move or sync your video file(s).

Thanks for following along during this walk-through, and thanks to forum members Deihmos & kenspy for help with confirmations, and to members garion & hchavarria for suggesting that anything compatible with the iPod should work, and to member MarcoC2 for suggesting that a FireFox extension is available. Don’t hesitate to send me a tweet or leave a post on the everythingpre forums, or send me a PM through that site. Happy watching!