Clara Belli, requiescat in pace

I’ve just been advised that the mother of our Parochial Vicar Father Bryan Belli, Mrs. Clara Belli, has passed away after a prolonged illness. I don’t have the details as yet regarding the funeral and/or memorial service.

Father Belli has been the story of a man coming to Christ and dedicating his life to His service. I truly mourn the loss of his mother yet, as I know he will in the months to come, I also recognize she has returned to God. Of that, I have no doubts.

Heavenly Father, we pray for the repose of souls especially, this day, for Clara Belli. May she share in eternal light and life with you and all the angels and saints in heaven. We ask this in Jesus’ name…

Reid promising to apply the ham-handed Congressional touch to global warming legislation

Driving straight ahead into a decision using information generally recognized to be factually incorrect at best and fraudulently wrong at worst is not a recipe for success. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is saying that the Senate will move on global warming legislation this year, likely later in the summer. (Ed.: I can’t help thinking the reason he’s waiting to do it then is so he can reduce the chances of being hit with the Gore Effect and getting stuck announcing the Dem effort to reduce global warming in the middle of a blizzard.)

The science that’s been actually done on the subject is leaning very heavily toward the conclusion that CO2 increases follow temperature increases and not the other way around. The public is becoming very much aware of this fact as I mentioned the last time this subject was getting national press out of DC. The proposed actions coming out of the Democrat side of this debate are to cap “greenhouse gases” which the science appears to show have less to do with the warming trend than suggested. The only information offered in support of the notion has been debunked. (I’m referring to the now-infamous “hockey stick graph.”)

Reid has said the Senate will deal with an energy bill first, presumably to remove as many other issues on the matter from the discussion before plowing into this. That’s good because we need one. I will be urging my own Senators to make sure true energy planning is at the core of such a bill rather than special-interest quackery but I want to see what’s really being proposed first. I would also point out something about this part of the story:

Reid, who is up for re-election next year, has assumed a high profile on the need to promote “clean energy” sources such as wind, solar and biomass that do not produce carbon dioxide, the predominant greenhouse gas. These are also energy projects popular in Reid’s home state, where several major solar projects are under way or planned.

I would suggest that Reid talk to his own caucus first and get some serious support for such projects from them before he expects it from any of us. (Can you say “Cape Wind”, Senator Kennedy?) I will also judge the seriousness of any proposals coming from Reid and his caucus on the basis of whether or not they include the energy-generation technology that both operates without carbon-dioxide emissions and can actually generate usable amounts of power today: nuclear power plants. I note in the story above, nuke plants don’t rate a mention. They’re critical to the long-term power generation strategy if we want to have a serious chance at getting off of fossil fuels. Any suggestion that we can phase out our coal, gas, and oil-fired power generation plants without implementing new nuclear power plants in significant numbers is just pandering to the enviro-lobby.

I also want to see the US Government get serious about deploying solar energy projects. With all the talk from Reid and crew about solar projects and trying to get the rest of us to implement green-energy initiatives, I’ve noticed that the government doesn’t practice what it preaches. I work in downtown DC a lot and there are a ton of government buildings there. You know what I don’t see? I don’t see forests of solar power generation tech on the roofs of those buildings. It seems to me that there’s a ton of real estate up there that’s sitting fallow, merely reflecting light and transferring heat inside (which then has to be pumped back outside with air conditioners that use up more power). If the Senate would pass legislation requiring all federal buildings to set up solar arrays to collect whatever power they could – even just enough to run the multitude of Exit signs in the building – it would be a help in 2 ways.

First, any power generated locally and used in the building is power they don’t need to draw off the grid. There’s a point of insufficient return, yes, but today’s PV solar arrays are getting pretty good at generating usable power. The second way it’ll help is to reduce the cost of those arrays by getting the manufacturing efforts rolling. If the Federal government orders up scads of solar arrays it’ll make tooling up production a money-maker instead of moral victory. As production tools up and more arrays are manufactured, the cost-per-array will drop. If that cost drops, the cost-per-kilowatt/hour will drop as well, making the deployment of solar arrays cost effective compared with pulling power off the grid. Keep at it and you’ll make it cost effective enough that the average homeowner will be able to set up arrays of their own. The production increase will foster additional research and experimentation as solar power companies seek to improve their product which will lead to better efficiencies, both in the arrays themselves and in the production process.

A rider the Senate can put into that legislation is a restriction against homeowners’ associations and similar groups passing or enforcing rules prohibiting home solar arrays. In the area I live in, I can’t put up solar arrays on my house even though I have a huge surface area on my roof (home and garage) with wonderful southern facing. Even in those places where the HOA’s allow it, the process a homeowner must follow to get the approval for such a project is onerous, to say the least. Congress can smooth out that road for homeowners by denying any such organization the ability to tell a homeowner he can’t put up such an array. (I’ll allow for reasonable limitations in terms of size and the requirement that such arrays not extend past a homeowner’s property line nor block the light to a neighbor’s property. Details can be discussed.)

A second rider they can put in there would be a mandate to local power companies that they must connect such arrays to the power grid to permit excess power to be “sold back” to the grid. Minimum, reasonable requirements regarding proper electrical and building code can be set but if those are met, the power company must perform the connection, no questions.