The Realist Idealist

My father has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from Evansville University in southern Indiana in 1974.  A lot has happened since then in the energy industry, in the auto industry, and in my family.
I wrote a couple weeks ago about “my energy history,” and how closely tied my family - and [...]

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…for anyone who stops by the site tomorrow.
Can’t wait to resume blogging after the madness of the election ends.  For those that I haven’t talked to, or can’t tell from my Twitter feed to the right, I’m in North Carolina for the final days of the campaign trying to turn out a victory for Kay [...]

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From Wall St. to the Clinton Global Initiative to the UN Summit, I’ve watched with all of you this week as unprecedented economic and political events unfold in the United States and around the world.
Thankfully, in the midst of these very uncertain times, something beautiful is happening tomorrow. Action. And I don’t mean another bailout [...]

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(I first posted this on It’s Getting Hot in Here and Power Vote while at Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
At today’s Clinton Global Initiative, Al Gore said for the first time in public that we are at a point in our world’s history, and in need of such immediate action, that if you are [...]

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As many of you know… and as many of you don’t know… I recently took up work in the clean energy field as the Internet Director/Chief Technology Officer/Strategic Communications guy of the Energy Action Coalition.
James Hansen has testified that Energy Action is one of the only environmentally or energy-focused organizations truly doing what needs to [...]

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I’ve been busy.
(even as I write it, I wonder why it’s necessary to put it out there… we are strange creatures to need to say such things for validation! ;-))
Since my last post here on July 28, I’ve changed jobs, moved my house, traveled extensively (including 9 days in Denver for a Democratic National Convention [...]

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Just above Ben Stein’s column in yesterday’s Sunday Times (telling us that things really aren’t that bad in our nation’s economy …Bueller? Bueller? …anyone?) was a piece by Alan Blinder with the title “A Modest Proposal: Eco Friendly Stimulus”

The gist of Blinder’s proposal can be boiled down to providing “cash” to low-income Americans for their [...]

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“The current race is to see who will control renewable energy technologies, and we are in the race,” Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil told reporters. “We have the human and financial resources, and we have the will.”
Minister Khelil’s statement was made in the recent announcement that Algeria is undertaking a massive initiative to generate enough [...]

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Why and how have banks made half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income?
In keeping with the recent Realist Idealist theme of sharing information that has been incredibly useful in my understanding of the world, its history, its processes, and how things have unfolded (so that we can do something about it [...]

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I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin this weekend, and without knowing exactly how to say this, I’ll simply say that I was completely inspired.  “Inspired” is quite an understatement actually.  I found myself at times with chills running through my body as Isaacson described the various successes and challenges Franklin faced throughout [...]

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