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What Activists at the Capitol Power Plant Can Learn from CARMA

2010-01-23T03:04:00.000-08:00

On March 2, thousands of people are expected to connect in mass civil disobedience at the coal-fired Capitol Power Plant in Washington, DC. The complaint, which is expected to include NASA climate scientist Jim Hanson, author Wendell Barry, and ecologist Bill McKibben is timed to agree with the final day of PowerShift09, a four-day “National Youth Summit” that aims to bring 10,000 students to Washington to lobby for action on climate change.

The Capitol Power Plant makes a suitable symbolic target. According to the Wikipedia account:
• In 2000, the office of the Architect of the Capitol considered eliminating the use of oil at the plant, but was dissuaded by two coal-state senators: Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
• In 2006, people from Capitol Hill, emboldened by the threat of global warming, met with the Architect of the Capitol to discuss ways to make the power plant more environmentally friendly, for example, by switching fuels. They were told that since the plant is owned by Congress, little would change without a Congressional permission.
• In 2007, Nancy Pelosi seemed to give such a permission, announcing a new effort to “green” the entire Capitol complex. But a plan to reduce the Capitol Power Plant’s emissions has not emerged, and Pelosi has instead pursued a controversial policy of purchasing carbon offsets from the Chicago Climate Exchange.
Oddly, the Capitol Hill Power Plant doesn’t actually generate any electrical power, a purpose that it ceased to perform in 1952. Since then it has provided the Capitol complex only steam and cooled water. Based on the amount of coal burned at the plant, it produces around 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year: about as much CO2 you would make if you horde a Hummer from Washington DC to Los Angeles and back 20,000 times. That makes the Capitol Power Plant the largest single point source for greenhouse gases in within the District of Columbia. But it is still tiny compared to other coal-burning plants in the national capital region.
For example, according to CGD’s Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) database, the Potomac River Power Plant, located just across the river from the Capitol, produces almost thirty times the emissions of the Capitol Power Plant. (Owned by Mirant Corp., the Potomac plant has long been a target of environmental activists because of serious local negative health impacts.) The Robert W. Scherer Power Plant in Juliette, Georgia — the largest single-point source of carbon dioxide in the United States — produces more than 450 times the CO2 emissions of the Capitol Power Plant.
Of course, the leaders of the Capitol Hill protest understand the moderately small size of the Capitol Power Plant’s emissions. Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, wrote that the Capitol Power Plant wasn’t chosen because it produced a large quantity of emissions, but fairly “because it’s a way to get the discussion started.” That discussion is likely to continue. David Wheeler’s Another Inconvenient Truth points out that terrible climate change can only be averted if the rich world and the developing world both move to fast cut emissions. But the developing world, with a huge poverty burden and per capita emissions that are just a fraction of those in the United States and other rich countries, will not act unless the rich world goes first — and that means action to cut emissions in the United States, where vested interests are working hard to perpetuate business as usual.
The Capitol Power Plant protest, while not the first such action, is likely to be the highest profile civil disobedience on climate yet. Other creative, peaceful acts of civil disobedience will almost certainly follow. As Wheeler wrote last December, “the confrontation between complacent institutions and alarmed citizens is escalating, and threatens to become a collision.” When the young people who are now getting ready to head to Washington to take part in PowerShift09 return to their hometowns and campuses next week, CARMA (searchable by zip code) and other public information sources will be ready to help them identify nearby power plants and the firms that own them.

Credit Card System

2008-08-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

Credit card is a scheme of payment which was started by issuing the little plastic card to the users of the scheme. A credit card is unlike to the debit card in that it does not take out money from the user's account after every business deal. In the case of credit cards, the issuer gives the loan of money to the customer (or the user). It is also dissimilar to a charge card (though this name is sometimes used by the public to explain credit cards), which necessitate the sense of balance to be paid in entire every month. In contrast, a credit card permit the customer to 'rotate' their balance of account management, at the price of having interest charged. Nearly all credit cards are the identical in shape and size, as particularized by the ISO 7810 standard.
A consumer is issued credit card after an account has been accepted officially by the credit supplier (often a common bank, but occasionally a captive bank created to issue a exacting brand of credit card, such as Chase credit card, Wells Fargo or Bank of America), with which the consumer will be capable to arrange for shopping from merchants accommodating that credit card up to a pre-established credit card limit.

When shopping is done, the credit card user consents to pay the credit card issuer. The credit card proprietor designates their approval to pay, by signing a receipt with an evidence of the credit card details and demonstrating the sum to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). Also, numerous traders now admit oral approval via telephone and electronic endorsement using the Internet, recognized as a Card not present (CNP) business deal. Electronic confirmation arrangements allocate business dealers to authorize that the credit card is valid and the credit card customer has adequate credit to cover the procurements in a few seconds, approving the authentication to happen at time of shopping. The certification is approved by means of a credit card payment workstation or Point of Sale (POS) system with a interactions linkage to the enterprisers’ acquiring bank. Information from the credit card is attained from a magnetic band of color or chip on the card; the concluding method is in the United Kingdom normally famous as Chip and PIN, but is more officially an EMV card. Other distinctive measures of authentication schemes are used by eCommerce contractors to set up if the user's account is applicable and capable to admit the charge. These will characteristically engross the credit card holder given that extra information, such as the defense code written on the rear side of the card, or the address of the credit card holder.

Every month, the credit card consumer is mailed a report demonstrating the purchases carried out with the credit card, any stupendous fees, and the entire quantity payable. After being paid the testimonial, the credit card holder may disagree with any charges that he or she considers are erroneous. Otherwise, the credit card holder must reimburse a definite least amount percentage of the statement by a payable date, or may prefer to pay a superior quantity up to the whole quantity billed. The credit card giver charges interest on the sum owed (normally at much higher credit card rates than most other forms of debt). Some monetary organizations can organize for regular payments to be taken away from the credit card user's bank accounts.
Credit card reader/writer is used to read the Personal identity number, written on the back side of the card s’ chip. Business credit cards are usually used to deal the business transactions promptly without waiting for cashing out the checks from the banks, the businessmen of the modern age prefers to have all dealings via business credit cards. Credit card offers great opportunities of having quick purchases on the behalf of merchants within the due time of credit card validation. Whenever you go to apply for credit card, you have been given a time period of validation by the credit card issuers. Credit card rates are fixed with the specific interest charges for the credit card consumers accordingly. Chase credit card is very beneficial for the users with its free alerts service to administer the accounts via emails, voice mails and text messages. It is also alerted the chase credit card holders about the due dates of payment and validation dates. There are numerous world wide banks which offer the special services for the student credit cards with less charge to facilitate the students. The students too may benefit the credit card offers easily , presented by the different banks of the world.

SEO Instructions

2008-08-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Text requirements:

Keyword/key phrase must appear in the article not more than 4 times. It must be in the first and the last paragraph. It is possible to use words of the key phrase in the text, but do not overload an article with keywords. Use synonyms. IT MUST BE NATURAL!

Keyword/key phrase must be throw up with a bold font!

It is desirable to use so called long-tail title. Extend the title.
E.g. the basics of research paper writing. Keyword – research paper

4. The article must contain 4-5 links. But clickable words are not random – those must be other keywords! The link must be relevant! For instance, if the key phrase research paper is clickable; the link must lead to the article ‘the basics of research paper writing’. Do not use two links leading to the same page in one article!!!

5. One of the links in the next must lead to the home page. Use the most ‘popular’ keywords for that link!