Category: Politics

Apr. 16, 2009

Walking through the crowds of the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party in downtown Sarasota Wednesday made me re-evaluate ideals, partisanship, patriotism and what our country stands for in general. As a laboriously unbiased journalist I always try to see both sides of every issue, and usually do, before making my personal judgment on a matter. As I snap pictures of teens, obviously too young to vote, waving anti-Obama banners and seniors, who probably voted for Eisenhower, holding “stop socialism” signs I think about what we all hold common across generational and party lines.

One of the biggest drives of libertarians is the view that the 16th Amendment — which states, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration” — should be repealed. And this view is shared across party lines.

The 16th amendment was ratified on Feb. 13, 1913. On Dec. 23 of that same year, Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, officially creating a quasi-public central banking system comprised of government entities and 12 regional privately owned Federal Reserve Banks. These Federal Reserve Banks now issue Federal Reserve Notes as our official form of currency, which replaced the United States Notes that were issued by the Treasury Department. The banks officially won, and Andrew Jackson officially rolled over in his grave.

This is our history, and we have to live with the results. We the people allowed the banks to take control of our country, and now they have it. Every American citizen should be furious that our earnings have been spent to support failing banks that greedily bet our money away, but they shouldn’t be surprised. This is an inevitable result of unregulated capitalism and the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules. Conservatives rightly complain that we are passing debt onto future generations, but we have all inherited a debt that will never go way — the rule of banks.

Instead of pointing fingers and accessing blame we need to work together toward common goals. I talked with a man in the tea party crowd named Gaston Larranaga who immigrated to the United States from Uruguay and had recently retired from IBM after 32 years of service. He was holding a sign that said, “Stop the power grab” on one side and “Don’t tread on me” on the other. In his opposite hand he held a pocket copy of the Constitution that he waved at passing cars.

“I became a proud American by choice in 1973 and I had to read the Constitution very carefully,” says Larranaga. “I became aware of a lot of things. For example, when the power is not defined in the federal government, it resides in the states. When you have a federal government like this one, which is telling the states, ‘We don’t care what you say locally; we’re going to make you spend the money whether you like it or not,’ that’s unconstitutional.”

Larranaga, who says he travels with the Constitution and reads it “constantly,” believes that the problem with President Obama and congressional democrats is that they do not understand the exceptionality of our country. “We’re the only country in the world where the rights of the people do not come from the government, they come from the creator,” he says. “Whether you’re religious, Jefferson was supposedly not, but he believed in providence right? In European countries, even though they have social democracies, the rights of the people didn’t come from God, they came from the king. The king had the power from God and he lent it to the people — very different concept.”

Larranaga had me take a picture of him standing next to a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty while he held up a sign that said “Nut Case” with an arrow pointing toward her. A man with a fake severed head on a spike is packing his stuff into the Statue’s truck.

“What they’re doing is attempting to say they’re part of this crowd, which is a very respectful crowd,” he says. “What they’re trying to say is, ‘We’re going to go kill people.’ They have a head on a stake. That’s crazy. They’re trying to impugn the entire crowd. I don’t want to kill anybody. I just want the government to do what’s right.”

What’s right is always up to interpretation. As I talk with Larranaga by the road he holds up the pocket Constitution to a passing car whose passenger flips him off. “Look at that,” he says. “I show them the Constitution and I get the bird.”

These are trying times we live in and no amount of middle fingers, heads on stakes or protest signs will get us out of them. Our insatiable appetite for money has led our country into an ideological traffic jam — and nobody has the right of way.

Apr. 2, 2009

One of Sarasota’s biggest green construction projects yet will be the Greentech Office Park underway at the southeast corner of U.S. 301 and Tallevast Road. The plans for the 27-acre complex include 180,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of retail space and an 86-room hotel.

The principle developer, Sperry Van Ness/Blackpoint Realty, first came up with the idea in 2004 and finally got approval to build in 2008. The commercial real estate brokerage company hired an LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) consultant and will have the project certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as meeting the LEED Gold standard.

The managing director of the company, Anthony Mazzucca (pictured above), coined the term “greentech office park” and wants to create a technologically advanced complex that encourages environmental awareness. “We always had the wetlands preservation in mind,” says Mazzucca. “We could have mitigated some stuff and maybe gotten a better yield out of the project, but we thought it would be interesting to have wetlands on the site.”

The buildings will be surrounded in a park-like setting that will feature wireless Internet and secure power poles to allow business employees to work outside on their computers. “We’ll have tables and a little conference area outside,” says Mazzucca. “The idea is to get people to become part of the hope that the whole park is an office.”

The construction of the buildings is only part of what will make the complex green. The company is in the process of attracting businesses that want to jump on the concept. “Right now this is just the base,” he says. “What we have to do is get people signed up and start to go vertical. We have to work with the people that move in so we can provide the right kind of carpeting and paint and air-conditioning systems that bring in fresh air and filters out pollutants, and the right kind of lighting fixtures, and wire it so all their equipment goes off over night.”

The developers are concerned just as much with the local economy as they are with conservation and efficiency. They have been working with local contractors and trying to use local materials whenever possible. They believe the area between Sarasota and Bradenton is a perfect place to spark business innovation. “We think it’s important that this area becomes a good business corridor,” says Mazzuca, “and it’s important to create areas where businesses will migrate to.”

Of course they would like to see professionals like doctors, lawyers and accountants sign on, but they are also seeking younger, “smart” industries. “We think that what we’re doing with the level of Internet connectivity should be able to attract bio-sciences and life-sciences people,” says Mazzucca. “And because of Ringling College, we would like to see people who are in digital animation and industrial design. That’s what we’re trying to focus on is to keep those people.”

Mazzucca believes Sarasota has the potential to lead the way in environmental innovation. “We have some good colleges here. We’ve got to create more businesses that will keep kids here, and create more things for them to do when they’re here. And the buildings we build have to be more interesting, not just architecturally, but they have to have environment around them. We have to make it conducive for people to ride bikes to work and to walk around the facility while they’re here. Get people to get out.”

Mar. 27, 2009

Energy conservation and green technologies have become all the rage these days, and there have never been better incentives to jump on the bandwagon. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — aka the stimulus bill — that President Obama signed into law on Feb. 17 extended tax credits that reward the use of energy-saving technology through 2010, raised the amount you get back from 10 percent of the cost to 30 percent, and raised the maximum credit available from $500 to $1,500 for efficient windows, doors, insulation and air conditioners, with no maximum cap on solar panels, solar water heaters or geothermal heat pumps.

But there’s a catch: Not every Energy Star product qualifies for the tax credits anymore. Only the highest-efficiency Energy Star models now do, and those products are usually the most expensive. (But they save you the most, too.) The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy created the Energy Star program in 1992 to help us save money on utilities and protect the environment through a product rating system. The program began with computers and monitors and has now grown to over 60 product categories. With the help of Energy Star, Americans saved $19 billion on our utility bills in 2008 — saving greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 29 million cars.

The federal government isn’t the only entity giving out money to conserve. The state of Florida offers up to $500 for solar thermal systems, $100 for solar thermal pool heaters and a $4-per-watt rebate for solar panels, which caps at $20,000 for residences and $100,000 for commercial properties.

The solar panel program has proven popular. The $5 million dollars allocated for both the fiscal years of 2008 and 2009 have already been exhausted. The state is still accepting applications and if the program receives funding for 2010 you can be put on a waiting list.

Forward-thinking Sarasota companies are taking advantage of all those dollars. High-end Italian fashion importer turned environmental warrior Andrew Tanner (pictured above) founded EcoTechnologies five years ago, originally under the name EcoInsulate. He wanted to build environmentally friendly homes that were energy-efficient and storm-resistant. “One of the products we came across was BioBased spray foam, which is a soy-base spray foam made in America,” says Tanner, “all the other products that were being sold at that time that were approved in Florida were petroleum based spray foams made in Canada.”

Two years ago Tanner expanded the company to include EcoWater, EcoAir and then finally EcoSolar. These would all be separate companies, each being a dealer, installer or distributor for different manufactured products, all under the umbrella of EcoTechnologies. “Now we’re using solar hot water systems made in Jacksonville,” says Tanner. “It’s the closest manufacturer of solar hot water panels to us. So we’ve got local distance, made-in-America products that we try to promote whenever possible.”

Tanner says if they go into an existing home and spray Biobased foam on the roof deck and put a solar hot water system up, that home will save 40-50 percent of their energy consumption. They can also spray hard closed-cell foam up the sides of trusses which bonds the truss to the roof deck and makes the house more wind-resistant. “So not only do you get a tax credit for insulating, you lower your insurance premiums.”

Realizing the high upfront costs on many of its systems, EcoTechnologies put together a finance package that makes it easier in these tough times. They give a 5 percent discount for installing two systems at once and there is nothing to pay for a year. “Within that 12 months, they’re getting their tax credits, they get their solar rebates,” from the state — so not necessarily, “and they get the energy savings of that first year. When you combine all of that and then roll it into a five-year payment plan, it’s pretty much the same cost as what you’re spending. You’re using green energy instead of brown” (i.e. dirty) “energy, feeling good about yourself and you’re also adding value to your house.”

Tanner wants renewable energy to become a statewide priority: He and his partners are preparing to head to Tallahassee to lobby for a feed-in tariff in Florida. The tariff is the European model for creating a renewable portfolio standard, or RPS. Gov. Crist, for example, says he wants an RPS of 20 percent met by 2020, meaning he wants 20 percent of all the power we use to come from renewable energy sources.

A feed-in tariff would allow homeowners to sign a contract with utility companies to sell them all the energy their solar panels produce. The utility provider would pay about 32 cents per kilowatt-hour while still charging you only 12 cents, the current rate. This has been proven in Germany to lower costs because it offsets the utilities’ need to expand infrastructure due to demand. The companies just buy the energy you produce.

On March 1, Gainesville became the first city in America to implement a solar feed-in tariff. In the first two weeks, Gainesville Regional Utilities contracted four megawatts of power to be extracted from citizens’ solar panels. “That four megawatts is going to bring $40 million worth of money to the local Gainesville economy,” says Tanner. “In Germany, they’ve found that they’re charging the consumers about $2.50 more a month to provide all these extra jobs and provide all this extra energy. Just the extension of the tax credit to Florida I think is going to create 9,000 new jobs over the next year in solar. And if we had a feed-in tariff we’d create about 40,000 new jobs — within a year.”