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[slimjim]

Recently I have been hammering Efficiency Maine on Facebook for their unfair tradition of excluding OWBs from their subsides program, with your help, we may be able to persuade them to add OWBs to their approved list, Please take the time to search them out and post your experiences with your OWB as well as your thought on fair subsidies!

[Smokeless]

Yes
 Just want you to know where the money comes from to pay for these grants and subsidies.  A few cents is scraped off of everyone's electrical or nat. gas bill every month. That adds up to a very large pot at the end of the year. 💲💲💲💲💲💲💲

[Sloppy_Snood]

I still find it amusing that these organizations still promote compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL).  While they indeed are more power efficient, they utilize MERCURY for proper functioning.  Since your average Joe will not recycle the bulb properly and just throw CFLs into the trash, that Mercury is going to just going to end up in the soil and water. 

Brilliant thinking brought to you by the U.S. Federal government and your state and local follower governments.  Sad.

[mlappin]

Personally as a farmer I think subsidies should end altogether, especially the farm program. It’s changed a little but the guy thats farming 5000 acres is getting more than the guy thats just starting out and those gov payments just make it harder for the small guy as they usually tend to just drive rents artificially high. If the guy that’s farming 5000 acres can’t make it without those payments then he needs to step aside and give somebody else a chance.

On the other hand, might as well use em while they exist as at least your getting some of your tax dollars back.

[atvalaska]

Subsidies=control

[hockeyguy]

Subsidies=control

That sums it up!

[dukethebeagle]

hey slim i got a question 4 u.my uncle is looking for an indoor boiler and empyre is out of the question.
he would rather have a conventional than a gasser
we live up across the border and people bring up conventionals quite often
my quesion is we looked at one in maine called thermo-control.
on there site the say for sale only for commercial use but u think they would sell if it was going
cross border.we live near newport vt on the qc side.
is there any problems with sale when they leave the state

[userdk]

Well the EPA regs. say that they can still be manufactured and labeled for residential use provided they are strictly for export.

[Strawbale Builder]

I think that instead of state-by-state subsidy programs that taxes individuals only to give back to other individuals a better overall solution would be for everyone to push for a carbon tax. I know tax Is a dirty word to some folks, but this would be a tax on corporate polluters only not on individuals. The way it works is fossil fuel companies that produce coal, oil and natural gas would be taxed at the mine or well according to the amount of carbon dioxide that will be released into the atmosphere upon consumption of these products. But the best part is that 100% of this corporate pollution tax would be returned to taxpayers. No gimmicks, no subsidies just a check once a year for the same amount to every taxpayer in the country whether you are Bill Gates or Jane or Joe average. This would accomplish some very good things. Number one, it will raise the price of fossil fuel and put it on a more equal footing to renewables, including biomass. Consumers could use their pollution tax check to defray the higher cost of fossil fuel or more intelligently to invest in the biomass for heating and hot water, and solar or wind for electricity. This would stimulate manufacturing and create good jobs in the US and Canada. Eventually that pollution check becomes clear profit and disposable income to help stimulate other parts of the economy. Don't forget to spend that extra money locally!

[Sloppy_Snood]

Carbon tax philosophies are stupid. 

The "green" windmill farms, solar arrays, etc. cost over 10 times to manufacture relative to its equal internal combustion engine counterparts.  Why in the world do you want to punish mines, oilfields, and natural gas companies (i.e. Petroleum producers) for Carbon Dioxide "pollution" by adding yet another tax on these PLENTIFUL resources!?? 

Can I counterpropose an equal tax credit for AIDING plant life growth with increased carbon dioxide emissions?  Believe it or not, increased carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere contribute a rather small amount to the global warming hoax and actually benefit plant life.

Rant over.

[schoppy]

Well it finally happened, our corrupt government has sent one of it's own to infiltrate this website. It's either that or some one has hypnotized Strawbale Builder. I don't mean to insult you Strawbale but please don't insult me either. How can anyone think that government collecting more taxes can be a good thing. Does anybody think that taxes on corporations/businesses isn't passed down to the consumer? I work for an electric utility, we have had presentations on the carbon tax and it would drive utility rates through the roof. Solar/wind/biomass, do you know why there are subsidies for these? Because they cannot be profitable if forced to stand on their own. Who pushes for wind energy? General electric who makes the turbines that's who! When government collects more taxes they create more levels of bureaucracy and it goes on and on and on until we're $20 trillion in debt and climbing. Who suffers when the price of fossil fuels increase? Middle Americans that's who. Why do you think OPEC is flooding the world oil market, to drive our domestic companies out of business because they know we don't need them anymore. 

We are lost as a country if we don't reverse course, follow the wisdom of our founders like Thomas Jefferson and send the worthless piece of c**p we have for a president and the liberal socialists packing. 

Other than that I really don't have an opinion on the issue!     

[stratton]

Right on..... Well said

[ijon]

If I hear carbon footprint one more time I will puke.

[slimjim]

Ok, so here is the way we can all help to end this hyporcracy. First, search out these organizations like our Efficiency Maine program on social media like Facebook, friend them, ( keep your friends close and your enemies closer ) follow them and whenever they use those subsidies to advertise their products, simply ask why it is that they promote one alternative energy over another. Here in Maine, Efficiency Maine has and  always will promote pellets and heat pumps, they have never given high efficiency wood boilers a good look! Use that against them! Tell the world on their own advertising that these folks are corrupt, that they pick and choose the winners that they want. If this were not so then why would they not promote a true Zero carbon fuel that has met ALL of the US federal EPA guidelines in just a few short years instead of products like pellets that

Take lots of energy in fuel to produce, harvest, trucking to the mill, drying, grinding, bagging and shipping to your local retailer, can you say CARBON FOOTPRINT.

How about heat pumps, have you ever thought about where and how that electricity was produced or where and how the heat pump was manufactured, no carbon footprint there, nothing to see here folks, move along!

Outdoor Wood Boilers

Manufactured right here in North America under strict EPA guidelines

Zero Carbon fuel that you cut from your own land or purchase from a neighbor.

Cordwood gives off exactly the same amount of carbon rather it rots in your woods or you burn it in your stove.

You control your own heating cost by choosing how you get your fuel and who from!

These are but a few of the truths that we can infiltrate their advertising with to educate the consumer,  I would welcome any more thoughts or ideas, I'm on Facebook, Richard Emmons, friend me on there and let's get these SOBs

[mlappin]

The last thing this country needs is higher energy costs with manufacturing jobs still leaving the country in search of cheaper labor and energy.

Latest rumors spreading on the farm forums is the EPA will next make reman kits illegal to manufacture here or import for older engines that do not meet emissions standards. I have an entire fleet of tractors that would quickly become scrap metal if the engine bites it. Some of these are actual heirlooms as they have been in the family for generations. They all are still used and much to the chagrin of local shops they all can be repaired easily in our shop without needing a laptop and $5000 worth of diagnostic software.

I’d have 13 tractors that would need replaced, not to mention three in the process of being restored that would be junk. I’ve priced a new one out at AGCO’s tractor builder site, the one I quit when I got over $300,000 and wasn’t done yet and that tractor wouldn’t even replace our big four wheel drive.

If something like that would happen it would be the governments way to make sure only the big can survive while the small family farm is left begging for scraps.

Carbon credits, renewable energy, etc etc is just the governments way to get even more people on the government tit as it’s all subsidized in some way, shape or form.