Tag archives: sustainable energy

Freedom Fuel in the USA and Abroad Severing the Umbilical Cord
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   May 3, 2022

On April 14, this column introduced the concept of “Freedom Fuel.” It outlined the potential unlocked by shifting from a planetary fuel system based on fossil fuels to a system based on the wide availability of hydrogen created by electrolyzing water with renewable energy (so called “Green Hydrogen”) at prices below fossil fuel. As that […]

Green is Good! Healing the Biosphere One Step at a Time
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   February 8, 2022

Last week this column skewered the plaintive cry of the character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street when he propounded that “Greed is good.” In doing so we wrapped up the article by quoting one of the most famous and powerful of all capitalists, Chairman and CEO Larry Fink of BlackRock. The firm Fink […]

What Will it Take to Act on the Climate Crisis?
By Robert Bernstein   |   August 31, 2021

Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my! As expressed so well by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, these are the things we evolved to fear. Unfortunately, in the modern world, these are not the things that really matter. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released its latest report emphasizing the urgency of […]

Is the Water Supply Agreement (WSA) with the City a Good Deal for Montecito and for the City? (Part I)
By Bob Hazard   |   July 2, 2020

Last Thursday, the Board of Directors of the Montecito Water District (MWD) voted unanimously to approve the Water Supply Agreement (WSA) with the City of Santa Barbara. Next up is approval by the Santa Barbara City Council. The WSA is expected to go before the City Council June 30. If agreement is reached, city water […]

Gen X’ers NEXT Tech: Windows That Power Buildings
By Joanne A Calitri   |   July 2, 2020

Our town’s innovative business, Next Energy Technologies Inc. (NEXT), a solar technology company with the motto “Windows Power Buildings” is co-founded by Gen-X’ers Corey Hoven PhD, Chief Technology Officer, from Montana and Daniel Emmett CEO from Carpinteria and a Cate School graduate. It was Corey’s research and studies in Materials Science, organic photovoltaics, with a […]

A Price for a Human Life?
By Robert Bernstein   |   June 18, 2020

New York Governor Cuomo said in March, “If it’s public health versus the economy, the only choice is public health. You cannot put a value on human life.” But public policy absolutely requires placing a value on human life. There are about 35,000 automobile deaths each year in the U.S. If we reduced the speed […]

Remembering Stuart
By Richard Mineards   |   April 9, 2020

My trusty shutterbug Priscilla recalls meeting the late cowboy actor Stuart Whitman, who died in at his Montecito home last month aged 92. It was in the early ‘70s when she was an extra in Laurence Harvey’s last movie Welcome to Arrow Beach, which was filmed at the vacant Casa Dorinda, then known as the […]