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NYC hopes to steal carbon trading crown from London

Green power is the subject of much debate. The ambitious plan President Obama has may cost American's more in the short term, but is claimed to help the environment and create new jobs as well. Green energy is being looked at closely in America in the form of solar, wind, and wave power.

Part of Obama's plan will see a massive $150 billion investment in green technology in America. With Obama's plan still making its way through Congress, some states and large cities are making their own move towards green power. New York City is looking at the booming green market as a way to help dig itself out of debt. NYC plans to double its current green workforce by creating over 13,000 new jobs in the next ten years.

Part of the new jobs are expected to come from competing with London to become the new center for carbon trading reports Reuters. London grabbed the carbon center crown early thanks to the city training lawyers, accountants, and other experts in green energy before there was a market.

NYC plans to run a boot camp in green finance that will be run by the University of New York's Levin Institute. The program will be open to laid-off workers or future entrepreneurs and is looked at as an already booming incubator for financial start-ups according to Seth Pinsky, president of the Economic Development Corporation.

The mayor of NYC is also calling on Columbia University to help public schools offer students hands-on leaning in energy efficiency. Mayor Bloomberg also has plans to create an Urban Technology Innovation Center for academic research. The center will be paid for by existing city and state funds along with federal stimulus money.

NYC is also looking to put green energy into use in one of the largest energy markets in the country. The city will install wind turbines along coastlines and install turbines on the roof of skyscrapers around the city. Solar energy is also being harvested with a solar project planned for the Brooklyn Army Terminal that is expected to provide power for about 100 homes for a year.

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Great....
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 10/22/2009 10:48:28 AM , Rating: 4
How wonderful... More government jobs that will not have to prove themselves to help increase government spending and therefore increase our taxes.




RE: Great....
By FITCamaro on 10/22/2009 12:08:27 PM , Rating: 2
Pretty much. I'm sitting back and enjoying these state government's spell their own ruin. Because I'd never live in those states and the jobs are moving to places where I would rather live. I personally welcome the financial ruin of the California and New York state governments.

Of course the downside is that with the idiots we have in Congress and the White House, they'll just be given money from the rest of the states to keep them going in their retarded endeavors.


RE: Great....
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 10/22/2009 12:33:16 PM , Rating: 2
yep... As a person who has lived my entire life in Illinois believe me I understand. Neither party has been very responsible, but the Dems. can not even pay their own personal taxes... How are they going to be financially responsible with government spending. Even more scary, since they have control (60 plus seat, something Republican never had), they do not even really have to vote on anything to pass.
My thought is, No lawyer should be able to hold a political office (they can work for who runs the office), and whatever is the highest taxed income in the nation, politicians have to pay 5% more. Example if Bill Gates paid the highest percentage of 55% then all congress would have to pay 60%. Just these two steps would solve a lot of governmental issues.


RE: Great....
By FITCamaro on 10/22/2009 12:58:51 PM , Rating: 2
What we need are term limits. So that the same tired voice can't stay in a seat forever. The problem with changing the rules for politicians is that politicians have to vote for those changes themselves. And very few people will vote to deny themselves a job.


RE: Great....
By The0ne on 10/22/2009 2:15:16 PM , Rating: 2
What we need is a smart sniper that takes out the real bad guys (dem and rep). :)


RE: Great....
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 10/22/2009 2:32:25 PM , Rating: 2
Actually every elected position has term a limit. Minus any voter fraud it's called not being voted back into office. :)

What we need is a smarter voting population. Example, if the people of Illinois want to go with BHO idea, a vote for change. Then no one is this state should have voted for a Democrat, since that is almost always what we put into office.

However, that sniper suggestion is not a bad option either.


RE: Great....
By Lord 666 on 10/22/2009 4:33:46 PM , Rating: 2
In NYC, Mike Bloomberg is trying to remove the term limits so he can run for a third term. Mike has been a great mayor with Rudy even backing him.

While in general I am for term limits, changing the horse mid-water doesn't make sense with the financial situation... especially with the accidental governor still in place.


RE: Great....
By amanojaku on 10/22/2009 5:11:22 PM , Rating: 2
The term limit extension was approved last year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_mayoral...

I don't know where you're getting this "great mayor" stuff. The competition hasn't been all that great; as usual, voting boils down to the lesser of two evils, rather than the greater of two goods. As a New Yorker what sticks out in my mind are the controversies, like the increase in police harrassment as a result of a push to obtain revenue through tickets. One famous story is of a pregnant woman who was ticketed for sitting on subway steps. We don't like people who get in our way, but even this was extreme!

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2003/05/2...

As for Rudy... f*** him. Even Republicans don't like or trust him, which is one reason why he canceled his presidential bid. He wasn't responsible for reducing crime: the two factors responsible were an identical decrease in crime nationally and the efforts of Bill Bratton, the former NYC police commissioner.

Most people remember how Giuliani reduced the city deficit, but I could argue that I can reduce corporate IT spending by dropping SCSI, SAS, FC and other expensive technologies. The result, however, would be a poorly functioning datacenter, which is essentially what happened to the city. Homeless services were cut, so there was an increase in transients walking the streets without medication or supervision. Other social services were cut, as well, mostly affecting the poor, who don't matter to Rudy as many of them are people of color. Yes, there were accusations of racism, which were hard to ignore due to some of his comments. Additionally, most of the money the city generated was from corporate taxes, and that was the result of the dot-coms short-term wealth. He took a $2B USD deficit, turned it into a $3B USD surplus, then turned it back into a $5B USD deficit before his second term ended.

Finally, it's become clear that he's all about money and has few scrupples. His company has represented more than a few questionable parties. His mayoral compaign was nothing more than a financial means to and end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliani_Partners#Cli...


RE: Great....
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 10/22/2009 5:50:37 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, there were accusations of racism, which were hard to ignore due to some of his comments.

You will always have someone claiming racism if you take away things from them... I just love how someone that is on government aid will claim they took away MY money, when they never earned it (unless a vet or something down those lines then they have the right to say MY money).

I'm very much for helping people in need. Some temporary help like unemployment others more permanent - mental issues, handicap, blind and more.... However, I do not like supporting people who do not even try and they have more then capable working bodies. So, when someone cuts spending in wealth fare, before you knock the cuts, ask how many people on wealth fare should be on wealth fare verse just lazy people. In Chicago we have families that have been on wealth fare for 6 generations, never tried to improve themselves. My Aunt was a teacher in the poorest of areas in Chicago. Her classes were 5 and 6 grade levels. Many students would never do their homework. When she asked why, the response was, "My (mother/father) told me it was a waste of time. Getting an education will not help." I'm sorry, but I feel no need to help people that feel this way.


RE: Great....
By Lord 666 on 10/22/2009 5:50:40 PM , Rating: 2
Correct, the term limits were removed last year, but only if he is voted in, will there be a third term My mistake for not being more clear.

My point of brining up Rudy is to show that even someone who is not an ally will support Bloomberg.

Based on previous mayors, Bloomberg is great. Guess you forget Dinkins or Koch or the string of bad leadership in the 70's


RE: Great....
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 10/22/2009 6:25:26 PM , Rating: 2
Which one was the cocaine addict? Voted back in office after his cocaine video party experience was shown nation wide.

That was a real winner there :)


RE: Great....
By Lord 666 on 10/22/2009 7:44:31 PM , Rating: 2
Marion Barry and he was the mayor of DC and currently on the council - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry


RE: Great....
By MonkeyPaw on 10/22/2009 7:19:40 PM , Rating: 2
Well, New York's own governor has basically said that raising taxes on the rich was a huge mistake. It basically drove many rich tax payers to another state, and now they sit in a huge budget crisis. Paradoxically, when Reagan cut taxes on the rich back in the 80s, government revenue increased, and 20 million new jobs were created. What's sad is the tax policy of choice today is to tax the rich more and more to get more government revenue, yet the opposite result occurs. That's the thing with the rich, they have enough money to move, and they are the ones that open new businesses.

quote:
I personally welcome the financial ruin of the California and New York state governments.


While in one sense I agree with you because it shows the results of terrible policies, unfortunately, these states end up using federal stimulus money to prop up their budget crisis. One of the ways that it's argued that the trillions of dollars spent from the Porkulus bill has actually saved (not created) jobs is by merely amending budget shortfalls. It ends up saving a bunch of government jobs, but it's only a temporary fix! As long as the economy is like this, the states are going to continue to suffer. The sad reality today is that unemployment is still rising in the private sector in 49 of 50 states, but less so for government employees.


Nonsense
By amanojaku on 10/22/2009 10:54:16 AM , Rating: 3
I recently worked on a project for NYC that was driven by the need to go "green": it's all BS. Governments are no different from businesses in that one kind of "green" is fasionable because it attracts another kind of "green".

Why do I say it's BS? Because there are things that could be done today that are free:

1) Set up a group policy in AD that turns off monitors; unused desktops in every agency (70+) had a powered on monitors!
2) Enforce a power off policy for desktops; a worker spends 8 hours in the office, but the PC is on 24 hours a day!
3) Turn off lights in offices; most city offices are 9-5ish, but the lights are on 24 hours a day, too!
4) Hire real experts; bogus "security" and "availability" policies result in extra hardware purchases that do not offer any value
5) Coordinate resources across agencies; each agency behaves as individuals units running IT "islands", when resources such as email, AD, DNS, etc... could be shared and result in hardware reduction
6) Get rid of local printers; no one needs a dedicated printer any more, no matter how high up on the food chain

FYI, the city just offed about 10,000 low-paying jobs. I don't see how it has a budget for 13,000 jobs requiring more skills.




RE: Nonsense
By FITCamaro on 10/22/2009 12:11:28 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah here we're supposed to turn off our PCs at night. I largely do. I always explicitly turn off my monitors though because they still use power in sleep mode.

From when we first moved into this building to now, we've slashed energy costs by 50% through better AC management and power policies.


RE: Nonsense
By Yawgm0th on 10/22/2009 4:59:20 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
1) Set up a group policy in AD that turns off monitors; unused desktops in every agency (70+) had a powered on monitors!
2) Enforce a power off policy for desktops; a worker spends 8 hours in the office, but the PC is on 24 hours a day!
I did a contract job last November for a largish company (~10,000 employees) to implement precisely what you describe. All power settings were at their defaults. It's definitely a smart thing for any business to do, but it's a drop in the bucket when it comes to energy consumption. And from a business standpoint, it probably didn't save any money.

As IT departments become larger, they get bogged down by policy and bureaucracy. While this is necessary to some event, it can be too inefficient. By the time the project in question was done, more had been spent on labor than the project would save in five years -- that's using the more optimistic power cost estimate I came up with.

Had the labor been free, the savings still would have amounted to an infinitesimally small portion of the business's revenue.

quote:

3) Turn off lights in offices; most city offices are 9-5ish, but the lights are on 24 hours a day, too!
Anecdotally you might find instances of this, but in my experience most business do turn their lights off at night. It's certainly a no-brainer.

quote:

5) Coordinate resources across agencies; each agency behaves as individuals units running IT "islands", when resources such as email, AD, DNS, etc... could be shared and result in hardware reduction
Sometimes it's not that simple. Consolidation of resources is usually a big saver in terms of hardware and energy costs, but it's not feasible in many cases and can cause IT to be too centralized, in some instances.
quote:

6) Get rid of local printers; no one needs a dedicated printer any more, no matter how high up on the food chain
That's an exaggeration at best. As much as I'd love to get rid of local printers, it's just not practical. There are legitimate business reasons for having local printers -- the first that comes to mind is completely independent of context. If a user prints frequently and must frequently travel a long distance to get prints, the opportunity cost of not having a nearby printer (the user's efficiency) can and often is far more valuable than the small cost of having that local printer.

Ultimately, my point:
quote:
Why do I say it's BS? Because there are things that could be done today that are free:
When it comes down to it, almost nothing is free to implement, and most of the cost savings measures an IT department can implement don't really affect costs much.


Green Finance
By rcc on 10/22/2009 4:06:34 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
NYC plans to run a boot camp in green finance


Green finance: Where you hide the costs and tout the income?




hmmmm ok...
By TSS on 10/22/2009 5:55:01 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
NYC plans to double its current green workforce by creating over 13,000 new jobs in the next ten years.


Oh good. That,s like, 1,5% of everybody currently unemployed! (10,3% current unemployment, around 8,5 mil population in just NYC, 875500 people unemployed).

I should mention as well that that same number (10,3%) was 6,0% only 1 single year ago.

Atleast those 100 homes will have power! Go city that's about as big as my own whole country!

Might i ask, what is the price tag of this little (nay, tiny) endeavour?




RE: hmmmm ok...
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 10/22/2009 7:08:16 PM , Rating: 2
Might i ask, what is the price tag of this little (nay, tiny) endeavour?

About your countries GNP. ;)
Yes, you would be correct in saying it's a waste of time and money. The amount of money needed to run this will mean higher tax... which means lower profits for businesses and therefore they have less money to hire people. They just need to lower taxes and give tax breaks for business to be more green like - Lower amount of gas used to heat in winter months by 5% and receive x bonus tax deduction, use recycled toilet paper and get xxx. These type of programs work. Giving things away never works.


Cap & Trade trading
By knutjb on 10/22/2009 10:49:28 AM , Rating: 2
This is nothing more than taking money from your pocket to fund a trading system that produces nothing. To pay people who produce nothing. So someone else can feel better about themselves for accomplishing nothing.

Nothing will cost a he11 of a lot of money.




By Ordr on 10/22/2009 11:29:15 AM , Rating: 2
n/t




By cubby1223 on 10/22/2009 1:43:06 PM , Rating: 2
For a metropolitan region of about 20 million people it's nothing short of amazing that this $800b spending bill is able to create a country-saving 1,000 jobs every year!




By rcc on 10/22/2009 4:09:00 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Solar energy is also being harvested with a solar project planned for the Brooklyn Army Terminal that is expected to provide power for about 100 homes for a year.


So, it gathers this power in what time frame? A day, a year, a millenia? This statement has no meaning.

Or is it only expected to last for a year? : )




Stop complaining be constructive
By mars2k on 10/23/2009 10:40:55 AM , Rating: 2
Wow.... everything that comes down the pike today gets hammered by a bunch of whiney complaining buzzkills who contribute nothing to the conversation. None of these guys knows anything about the topic they just default to carping about the government or taxes or some other drivel that's rattling around in their heads.

Cut it out guys the world is not flat.

Do any of you happen to remember the exact moment you gave up on life all together? If you're that unhappy then get some therapy.

The story is about how with government seed money we can achieve pre-emminence in a trading sector that is going to grow exponentially over the next decades. Good work New York lets beat the crap out of the Brits.




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