Don't let the White House door hit you on the way out...

Just before Clinton left office, he went on a mad dash to designate vast tracts of federal lands as national monuments. The intent was to protect the areas from being opened to oil and gas exploration before the W administration took office--and done in a way that would be almost impossible to rescind. Now W is doing something similar, but in opposite, by easing environmental standards on global warming gases, drinking water safety, and mountaintop mining.

From the article:

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.
Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.
"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration's penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom. He called the coming deluge "a last-minute assault on the public . . . happening on multiple fronts."

Innovate or die

Chrysler and GM will most likely merge sometime within the next several days. The federal government is saying that it wont provide any money to facilitate the merger. In reality, the two companies will need billions of dollars in government aid to make this work. And they'll get it. Since the government won't allow these companies to die--and they shouldn't--we should make sure that the new GM/Chrysler is forced to innovate (namely through high fuel efficiency standards) since there wouldn't be as much incentive otherwise.

State of the car

So the Mercedes survived the trip from Vermont back to North Carolina to end the book tour. The heat definitely works, the air conditioning does not. Even with giant jugs of grease in the back, it gets absolutely no traction in the snow (which I discovered all to well while fishtailing on I-89 in whiteout conditions on Tuesday night). Both headlights are now working, though one is still pointing to the sky. A mysterious rusty piece of the car fell off somewhere in a Massachusetts parking lot, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference in mileage or performance.

Home

So, the book tour is over. I made a mad dash through Seattle, hitting the University Bookstore, in town, and Village Books in Bellingham, Washington over the weekend. Then I flew east, where I hit Phoenix Books in Vermont, and finally St. Michael's College. At the Seattle Store, I totally packed the house with Kenyon friends, and relatives (and Kenyon friends' friends, and relatives' friends and relatives). In Bellingham, a big, random crew of avid book readers showed up. Groups of avid book readers scare me, because they ask deep questions, and take books really seriously. I'm always afraid they're going to say something like, "We've seen David Halberstam speak here many times--and you, sir, are no David Halberstam!" But serious book readers are also known to like a good Dick Cheney joke--so I threw a couple out to them in Bellingham, and that seemed to warm them up to me.

The Phoenix Books stop was filled with familiar faces--largely because I begged nearly all of them to come. It was the perfect place for the final bookstore stop on the tour. It's owned by Mike DeSanto--the northeast's Chi Running guru. I still don't know what the heck Chi Running is, but apparently Mike does.

Then finally, I gave a talk at St. Mike's College, "Your Fries Give Me Gas." Packed auditorium. Expectations were high. One of the student organizers said to me before the event, "Now, you're going to talk about all of the corporate greenwashing that's going on, and really get into stuff on the environment, right?" This took me by surprise, because I was thinking I'd just crack a couple of Dick Cheney jokes (which students also like) and get the hell out of there. So I changed the tone of my talk into an environmental one. The only problem is that I don't know much about the environment. I only know a bit about the people, places, and subjects I researched for Greasy Rider. Hopefully that sufficed for them. Sadly, no cute blond co-eds threw themselves at my feet afterward--as I had kind of hoped--so I'm not sure if I was all that inspiring.

Vote

En Route Home to NC

No posts Wednesday.

Radio interviews

The challenge with some--but not all--radio interviews about the book is that the interviewer basically introduces me as the wacky guy who drives a grease powered car, and then starts the interview by saying something to the effect of, "Hey wacky guy who drives a grease powered car, say something wacky!" The people listening then say, "Oh, how funny. Listen to that wacky guy. I guess I already know how wacky he is, and he's admitting that he made it across the country in his car--so it looks like I don't need to read the book." It's then my job to steer the conversation toward the real message of Greasy Rider, about sustainability, and tease listeners with tidbits of information about Fort Knox, the Google headquarters, wind power in Minnesota, the Great Green Home, and all of the book's other investigations. If I don't, my radio conversation always stays put on the wacky adventure. Here's the piece that Vermont Public Radio ran today, for instance. It's a thoughtful interview, and I've always been a big fan of the interviewer. He asks some great questions, but it's clear he thinks Greasy Rider is solely about the cross-country trip--and in this case, I do a terrible job steering the conversation.

By the way, VPR is in the middle of its fall fundraising drive. If you live in Vermont, don't forget to contribute.

Colbert's Convenientest Truth

Drivers driving much less...but will it last?

In August, Americans drove 15 billion miles fewer than during the same month in 2007. That's a 5.6 percent decline. At the same time, the use of public transportation spiked.

But the average price of gas is down a dollar in the past four weeks. So will people still keep riding buses and trains? The answer appears to be yes. For now. Commuters are looking for any way to save money, given the economy, and driving less still saves them money--even with gas prices lower.

As the turbine turns

The US added enough turbines to power 400,000 more American homes in the second quarter of this year. The wind industry in the US is expected to grow 45 percent for 2008.

As far as job creation goes, the article says "eight new wind turbine component manufacturing facilities opened in the U.S. this year, nine were expanded and 19 new facilities were announced."

What the future holds due to the current economic freakout is anyone's guess, though.

Everything will be Albright

Last night I was in Portland, OR to speak at Powell's Books. The branch of the store I went to is in the Hawthorne district of town, an extremely hip (and hippy dippy) area, where bikes are parked all over the place on the sidewalk, and crowds of people are walking between all of the stores, and sushi restaurants, and the Ben & Jerry's. So I'm thinking, "Perfect. This is totally my spot! These are my peeps! They'll come out in the thousands to listen to me! I'll be the voice of reason! I'll talk about policy and the environment! They'll be enthralled! I bet they're craving a speaker like me to come, and spread the liberal hippy gospel! I mean, what the heck else better do they have to do tonight?"

Then I arrive at the store, and look across the street at the billboard of the Bagdad Theatre. It reads "Madeline Albright. Tonight!" A mass of folks are lined up outside. Need I say any more?

The crowd that did come to Powell's to listen to my talk wasn't too bad, considering, and they asked a lot of good questions. And Powell's is a very impressive store. I enjoyed checking it out and spending some time there.

Guerilla marketing

So I've been thinking of different ways to give the book free publicity. Here's what I've come up with so far:

1) Trash a hotel room during the book tour. The headlines would be something like "Author of 'Greasy Rider' Pulls a Johnny Depp in TravelLodge." Maybe the newspaper would even run my mug shot. I don't know if I should go with the angry-and-disoriented-tousled-hair-Nicholas-Cage-look, or the Tom-Delay-smile-into-the-camera-like-you're-arrested-all-the-time look.

2) Climb the crowd fence and tackle Al Roker, live on the Today show. I'd have to be wearing a big Greasy Rider shirt, or at least yell "Greasy Rider, buy the book!" when I get close enough to his microphone.

3) Start dating Jennifer Aniston. She's available, isn't she? I'm not sure if Dr. Wife, MD, would like this one so much--but she'll benefit from the book's windfall profits. (She should really keep this in mind if she picks up a copy of US Weekly and sees pictures of me cavorting in a Speedo on the beach with Jen. )

4) Start wearing a rainbow colored wig, buy end zone seats for every big NFL game, and unfurl a huge sign for the cameras that says "Book of Greasy Rider" during every field goal try or touchdown.

5) Claim to the national media that I'm Sarah Palin's much-referenced-but-never-identified friend with "alternative lifestyles." (I don't think Dr. Wife, MD, would go for this one, either. Or better yet, I could claim that I WAS Palin's friend with "alternative lifestyles" but got cured after going to a special school. )

Any other suggestions? Feel free to send them to me, or even better, to Lindsey at Algonquin.

Wal-Mart's environmental conference in Beijing

Wal-Mart announced during an environmental conference it's holding in Beijing that it's going to begin applying higher labor and environmental standards for many of its Chinese suppliers.

The company also announced that "within China, Wal-Mart would aim by 2010 to cut water use in half in all stores, design and open a prototype store that used 40 percent less energy, and reduce energy use in existing stores by 30 percent. “People will judge us,” (CEO Lee Scott) said, “based on the results.”

Wal-Mart gets it. If they reduce water use in half, and reduce energy use by 30 to 40 percent, they'll save millions and millions of dollars. (Consider that in the US, they're the largest private consumer of electricity.) And the move is great for their image. It's a win-win.

Also from the article: “Meeting social and environmental standards is not optional,” Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s chief executive, plans to say at the Beijing summit, according to his prepared remarks. “I firmly believe that a company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labor, that dumps its scraps and its chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honor its contracts, will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products. And cheating on the quality of products is the same as cheating on customers.”

Good point. And makes a lot of sense from a PR standpoint. I do find it interesting that nothing is mentioned about the morality of employing 14-year-olds, who have to work in dangerous, unhealthy conditions, or of poisoning the rivers and drinking water of the people who live near these factories. I realize that "the business of business is business," but as Americans, aren't we supposed to be better than that? (Whoops, there I go again, caring about the sanctity of the lives of other humans. I guess that's the liberal hippie in me coming out.)

Last night's event

Thank you Kenyon College Alumni Association. You helped a lot in putting people in the seats at Books, Inc., last night in Mountain View, California by spreading word of the event. The first person in the audience to show up was Isaac, who graduated from Kenyon nearly 50 years ago. He's a former professor at Berkeley (I think). Extremely interesting guy--and he laughed at all of my jokes during the talk, which made me like him even more. Books Inc., is the "West's Oldest Independent Bookseller." Their store in Mountain View is in an ideal location for walk-in traffic in the evening (talk about carbon friendly), and a few people who wandered inside during my talk ended up sitting down and listening.

The Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football vs. Greg reading Greasy Rider

So who won the battle for the hearts and minds of Boulder last night? Definitely not me.
As I stood before the crowd at the Boulder Bookstore (and I use the word "crowd" very, very liberally) I kept silently repeating to myself: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"
The folks at the book store were exceedingly welcoming. The store is right on the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. Really nice place.

Al Gore on 30 Rock

In case you haven't seen it. The drunk David Schwimmer is funny, as is Tina Fey (as always). You have to respect people who can laugh at themselves. Even if they do live in energy-sucking 10,000 square-foot mansions in Nashville.

Interview with Northeast Public Radio

A recent interview on the environment and Greasy Rider on Northeast Public Radio.

Reader comments

Of the billions of e-mails Greasy Rider readers send here, there were two recent ones that were especially notable. One was from a guy who read about the new campus the Business School at Stanford is building. It's set to cost a little over $305 million when complete, and the whole thing will be platinum LEED Certified (which is the highest green building seal of approval). The extra costs to make the place LEED certified will pay for themselves within a decade. Meanwhile, they'll be drastically reducing energy use, water use, and solid waste, and drastically imroving air quality over normal buildings. So the savings they'll reap over the next many decades will be immense.

Another person sent this message: "A number of the things you get into with regards to current design and construction practices, (i.e geothermal heat, LEED accreditation, rainwater collection for irrigation) are items that I have encountered on recent MIT and Harvard projects. It’s great stuff and very effective. MIT has even gone with utilizing gray/rain water in the toilets at the Stata Center (they have had to leave signs above all of the toilets to explain the unappealing, slightly tinged, brown water to the users). The ongoing Harvard Allston Science Facility construction projects are filled with these ideas and implementation of energy saving methods and renewable sources. An interesting note, Harvard has gone with a European architect for the design."

European architect? Are you kidding?

Anyway, universities and colleges get it. They receive awesome PR for going green, but more importantly, they save millions and millions of dollars. They think long-term. Unfortunately, corporations don't have the luxury of thinking long term. That's why we have to provide incentives for them to think that way--and in the long run, they'll be more profitable.
This isn't rocket science.

Proof the sustainable economy works

One of the points made in Greasy Rider is that we need to give innovation on renewable energy and sustainable stuff a kickstart--through government incentivves. Here's an article on how they've done just that in California, creating 1.5 million new jobs, and losing less than 25,000. The result is that it put $44.6 billion in workers' pockets.

Uh-oh

My talk tomorrow night in Boulder, Colorado is going to take place right in the middle of the Denver Broncos game on Monday Night Football. I'm thinking of buying cardboard cutouts of people and putting them in the chairs in front of me. Stay tuned.