bobferris's blog

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors recently voted to reverse their long-standing opposition to offshore oil drilling.  As a Californian who was around in 1970 and a former resident of Santa Barbara that position makes my heart stop.  But it is not surprising coming from a Republican dominated board in an election year that features this option as a platform element.  It is truly a shame that this iconic area that suffered so much from monumental oil spills should somehow forget the pain they endured nearly forty years ago.  » read more

Having watched energy policy debates for decades now, there are certain patterns.  The first is that gas prices always spike right around the time that energy policy is being discussed.  So we all becoming unwilling lobbyist for the oil companies because our pain at the pump drives us to entertain options we would not otherwise consider (think offshore oil drilling). » read more

It is a sunny day here in Vermont, but I like most in America am down in the dumps.  And I think a lot of it has to do with our current crisis in leadership.  We have little pride in what the presidency has become and scanter confidence that Congress is going to do anything that will help America become the great world leader we once were.  And no place is this more evident than in energy policy. » read more

This morning Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont recognized the actions of the Carbon Shredders in a floor statement.  This group founded by three partners involved in the Greenopolis effort--Seventh Generation, Green Mountain Coffee Roaster and Yestermorrow Design/Build School--brought together groups and organized them using David Gershon's Low Carbon Diet Book (see Green Tips on this site).  So really this is an honor for this group of players as well as the Greenopolis site.  Way to go everyone!  For more on this story see: » read more

I have a service station in my view shed so I see who comes in and out and who needs gasoline the most.  And each and every morning in the warmer months I see lines of folks filling up commerical lawnmowers. » read more

Today there was an announcment that a railway company in California was going to have to pay $102 million dollars in fines because their employees started a brush fire.  Good, justice is going to be served, but are folks thinking about the opportunities here? » read more

For the past week or so folks in the Northeast have been dealing with air pollution from the Ohio Valley--mainly from coal-fired power plants and industry.  Those of us with respiratory issues pay the price for this notion that what goes up will not come down--only it does.  » read more

Now we have rock snot or didymo in our precious Mad River!(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymosphenia_geminata).  Darn.

While each of us in our own backyard is facing something similar in our waterways such as zebra mussels, physteria or just plain pollution, I am sadden by the presence of this pesky diatom and the thought that my wife was just swimming in the river right before the big announcement.

I am sure that there some that will write all of this off as a natural phenomenon. » read more

After living in rural Vermont for a couple of years and living in and among the very farmers who put food on our tables, I have come to appreciate how really important that connection is between farmer and eater.  Food has become more of a celebration and an element of community.  And it enriches on so many different levels.  I wonder why we ever let that slip away from us.  The warm handshake of a caloused hand cannot be substituted by sanitary gloves lit by artificial light. » read more

My great-great, etc. grandfather was a fellow named Lewis Morris.  And Lewis was a principled guy who roughly 232 years ago signed a document that materially changed his life and the world.  He and the other signers of this declaration were tired of being oppressed.  They saw a wrong in their world and publicly and at great personal risk drew a line in the sand. » read more