Green Is The New Red,

White, And Blue

To the Editor:

2007 seems to be the year of global warming. Press coverage has risen sharply in recent months. The music and film industries have put forth various spokesmen advising we’ll all perish amidst a mixture of scorching heat, elevated sea levels and floods — maybe simultaneously, maybe pretty soon. CO2 contributed by human activities constitutes a small fraction of total green house gases. But this is irrelevant. Solar flare activity appears to track historically very closely with elevated temperatures, and the Sun may better explain the genesis of the present warming trend than does manmade production of CO2.  But this too is irrelevant. To the global warming crowd, the fact is that you are a fossil-fuel-sucking, watt-wasting, gas-guzzling, environmentally insensitive slob. You’d much sooner hop into your V8 SUV and speed to the closest Circuit City to pick up a 2,000-inch (measured diagonally) HDTV and speed back home again and watch 3 DVDs in air conditioned splendor with all your non-energy-efficient lights a-blazin’ than you’d ever try to make do with a single square of toilet paper on your next trip to the facilities. (The irony of this is that the global warming crowd would also do what’s been herein described, and they actually have 2,000-inch HDTVs.) How do you live with yourself?

Well, fear not you energy hog, help is on the way. Practical, cost-effective ways to make use of solar energy are available in the Nutmeg State. Thanks in part to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, rebates and tax credits are available that can cut the installation costs of a photovoltaic system by 50 percent or more. Ongoing revenue streams by way of Net Metering and Renewable Energy Credits offer supplemental financial offsets to the costs of installation. Typically, residential systems are installed ranging from 3,000 to 8,000 watt output, with annual production of 4,500 to 11,500 kilowatt-hours using typical, annualized insolation conditions for this area. Such a residential system would yield immediate benefit in reducing one’s electric bill (easily by 60 percent or more), generate 100 percent payback in 8–12 years, raise the property value of your home, and be a very green thing to do — so the environmental police won’t come knocking on your oversized door.

In commercial installations, like say for example the roof of our seemingly inevitable new town hall, the state reimburses the entire cost of the installation. It would be a welcome offset to the ongoing increases in taxes we all pay in Newtown if our local government would capitalize on these programs and install a shiny new photovoltaic system atop our new town hall to reduce the cost of government energy consumption. And then to offer a tax rebate ($500 per residence?) to all residents who did likewise on their homes.

According to Tom Friedman of The New York Times, Green is the new Red, White, and Blue. Newtown should take the patriotic lead and advance this campaign. Do the right thing for the taxpaying public, for the environment, and for the Global Warming wackos in Hollywood.

Brendan Duffy

4 Chestnut Knoll Drive, Sandy Hook                             May 15, 2007