Venezuela Takes Another Green Step, Ends Blackouts
As my own heavily Democratic State government in Sacramento sells out to the lighbulb lobby, ditching plans to faze out energy wasting incandescent lighbulbs, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela announced that industrial and commerical establishments will follow the country's residences in replacing all lights with green flourescent bulbs. The Venezuelan government buys the bulbs and has them installed through local community organizations. The Califnornian idea was to just ban normal lights, and offering no subsidy to help the poor find or buy them. Instead it appears the "comprimise bill" is to just wait until 2018 for progress. Scientists estimate if every American installed replaced just one bulb in their home, we'd save the equivalent of 1 million cars on the roads in carbon emissions. So easy it's stupid. Instead the democrats pander to the corn ethanol industry in Iowa...
BY RONALD SUAREZ RIVAS – Granma daily special correspondent
ZULIA, June 17. — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced the start of a new stage in the country’s “Energy Revolution,” with the goal of substituting almost 27 million inefficient light bulbs for energy-saving ones in the commercial, industrial and public sectors.
Chávez said it was necessary to change consumption patterns, which often tend to waste electricity and fuel, and affirmed that the efforts underway nationwide are aimed at protecting the environment.
The campaign to change 26.7 million bulbs began on Sunday; it will cover the 13 states with the most industrial power.
After the replacement of 53.2 million incandescent bulbs in Venezuelan homes, electric power authorities reported that maximum demand went down by 1,400 Megawatts.
In states like Nueva Esparta, Amazonas and Delta Amacuro, where outages were frequent, no blackouts have occurred for months, during which time the improved service has benefited many homes.
“Since the Energy Revolution began last November, the Venezuelan people have begun to shatter paradigms of energy usage,” affirmed Manuel Deza, coordinator of the energy program.
The example of the Termozulia plant, which features reduced emissions into the atmosphere, is another of the Energy Revolution’s components. The program also projects replacing oil with natural gas for electric power generation; replacing air conditioners with more energy-efficient ones, and using renewable sources of energy.
posted by leftside at
10:55 PM
3 Comments:
theres no need to publish this comment"
Leftside, I'm writting to you instead of answering through a comment in my blog because theres already enough commenters there attacking your stance that it doesn't make sense for me to raise the fire. I would rather write you to your email address but couldn't find it. I have many people from the left who criticize the stances I make in my blog, only a few of them make those critics in a respectful language and you are one of them. What I'm trying to say here is that I respect you as an opposer of my stances.
During my first years of university I was very entusiastic about socialism (never Chavez style, but rather a more democratic style). We are living in a very poor and hurt country and something must be done about it. Many of us keep with the left ideals in our hearts, and some others, dissapointed about the use Chavez has given to those ideals give up. We want to see alternatives to savage capitalism and to liberal democracy but we dont want models that imply savage capitalism but from the state and a dictatorship focused in one person. Betwen my friends, those the government calls burgeois and CIA agents, I don't think theres even one who fully supports Irak war. We are also against Imperalism and many things american, we are tired to see how some people from the US think that the way US is, is the way the world should be, or from those US citizens who are not agree with the curse of its country, the way the world works. I'm pointing to you directly to the racism issue. In United States everyone is white (caucasian), brown, black, native, mix race, hispanic, assian... and they openly declare their race origins. The race is a very notorious issue, cause of many discriminations, over other issues like class. In Venezuela this works totally different. For start no one here is asked about their etnicity (I knew that i was "caucasian" about a year ago because of an American I met). Upper the hills in the poorest slums and down the hills you can find people of all skin colors possible (means they are poor "whites" and rich "blacks"). In terms of the canon beauty, being too white its ugly and even anti-venezuelan. I was always the "transparent" girl who needs to go to the beach. We have a myth called "cafe con leche" (coffee with milk) .. accourding to that myth, some us have more coffee (dark skin) and some of us more milk (like me) but at the end, we all are coffee wih milk. I never said that whites have it rouger, but this government does promote the hate against the white people. The funny thing is that some of my friends who are not white skinned at all care called it white by the government and its kind of weird. The hate betwen races is never natural and always created. Ask the germans about the jew, ask Rwanda (and England) about the tutsis and hutus. The hate is never justify and even when theres the need of a social reivindication to blame the present generations of the mistakes from the past its only a way of divide and not build a country. If there is racism here its more related to class than to race itself, and putting a race last name to a class resentment is to make that resentment grows. And if you still have doubts just look at Chavez, he has darker skin and about 70% of the people voted for him the first time, including many burgeois" white skinned. If you hear comments about Chavez or anyone dark skinned, there are only jokes and we joke even on funerals about everything. Same as they call me transparent, we call dark skinned "negritos" (blacky or something like that). You are looking at the etnicity issue with the eyes of an American who has seen a lot of hate based on race on his daily life, please before believing that the world works exactly like that, make an effort to understand out culture, and dont base that effort only on Chavez or any other political leader from the opposition speeches, neither of them holds the truth, only parts of.
About the CIA suspicions, just like I said, many of us are not pro-yankees and no one of us would like to hear that we are being financed by the CIA or any organization on which the United States or any other foreign government haves influence. Right now actually, we dont need a lot of finantial support. For the street demonstration we pick up money from the students to buy things like the painting for the hands (although many students have their own painting) and a truck to lead the demonstration, that its payed, also with money from the students. Thats pretty much it, for the assemblys and all that we have our campus and its free for us. I'm telling you this because I'm not only another girl who goes to the protest without knowledge of how those protest are being made. I'm a personal friend of many of the leaders and stay in permanent contact with them. I know how things are. And thats why I find particulary insultive those accusations of being manipulated from the CIA. We are smart enough to think for ourselves. About the flowers and protest symbols we have taken examples about other protests across the globe and came with new ideas among our discussions. No agency told us "give flowers to the police", we watch TV, we read. The flowers idea was fully aplyed only on one demonstration. The medicine faculty students donate (with their own money) a lot of carnations and that was it. Don't criminalize our protest by such terrible suspicions.
I know you have faith that a better world can be built, but believe me , my president is not the alternative. You are supporting a person who has hurt many peoples live in a very deep way, including the ones he was supossed to help. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, I know its impossible. I'm trying to make you understand that I don't make my stances because I'm a white middle class girl, I'm not defending my own interest and want the rest of the country to f.. up. I'm beyond there and its insulting the way the government and many socialist wants to label me.
Thanks for writing Julia, I am glad to hear you haven't lost your idealism about a better world and I understand the frustration of being pigeon-holed. Thanks for the information about the movement's organizations and tactics. I never meant to imply the CIA was directing this movement from behind the scenes and you all were just puppets - neither does Chavez. I hope however, that you and your mates can understand the impression all these things (and the presence of the CIA boss in your midst) can cause. That is why I keep pressing for a clear denunciation, and would encourage not mimicking things you've seen in Europe used to topple (far less democratic) governments.
I am a socialist, as such I believe that profit in providing for society must forever die. Maybe I wish there were someone else leading that struggle in Latin America, but today it is Hugo Chavez. He is not perfect and there will be mistakes but the poor are doing so much better. Have you seen the (Chamber of Commerce) statistic that said the poorest class (comprising 58% of the people) have doubled their incomes in 3 years! This does not even take into consideration the improved access to health care, education and other basic needs and services.
The example of the Termozulia plant is excellent. An for profit company from abroad built the add-on to the plant, Man Ferrostall. The bolivarian revolution, much to my relief, still relies on private, capitalist pigs to build their projects. In your utopian socialist world, where would these private, for-profit companies go?
And you'll be glad to know that the evil, corporate, blood-sucking capitalists donated computers and hi-speed internet access to the local schools through a government-partnered initiative. Who's going to fund those kind of initiatives when you eliminate private property and private ownership of companies like Fidel did in Cuba?
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