Tons of Stuff

Last week the World Trade Center issue dominated so I had to table several other big topics. Anyway today I hit on a bunch of things still percolating out there and as always they involve some serious frustration. The good thing is the amount of responses I am getting from people out in the industry who share my views. That gives me hope. Anyway let’s take a look at what’s happening…

On the 30/30…

The issue keeps coming up and confusion still abounds. Fact of the matter this shortsighted sham will eventually be adjusted. When a group like the WDMA that usually is against everything that “our” side is for, comes out and expresses its unhappiness, you know this thing is doomed. Here’s the bottom line… when Senator Snowe, or the radicals that helped hornswoggle her into this debacle can prove to me that the climate in Maine is the same year round that it is in Miami, I’ll be on board. That and the fact that years of consensus and work on Energy Star blown to bits is tragic. Funniest part is you go to the Energy Star website and they have to specifically call out that this sham would possibly NOT include all Energy Star windows… pretty pathetic… nice to see that our elected officials are so clueless that they’ll do anything someone tells them, without taking two seconds to properly vet. Also in typical fashion, the NFRC has done nothing to help the window companies adjust to this heinous rule, and have actually hurt these companies because they are now swamped. (Which makes me wonder why said companies cannot sue the NFRC for restraining trade)
Comically if this swamps the NFRC, I cannot wait to see how bad they perform when or if the CMA ever reaches the light of day.

The NFRC White Paper…

And speaking of my all time favorite group….The NFRC published a white paper and the main goal was trying to show that their CMA program has value! 3 pages of horsehockey littered with bullet points and numbering to try and make it look official. The only thing they were missing was graph charts. The classic and typical thing is they make it seem like their program is just there for the taking… you know FREE… when we all know it is not… they are trying to pull a fast one by ignoring the fact that this program will cost the end user significant money (and time)… Bottom line here is they are trying to promote a program that some will say “hey I’d love to use it” but without telling them the whole story… buyer beware. Also the other fact is by doing this paper, they know they are getting little to no traction or acceptance. And once people find out how much this will cost and how time it will take (no matter what they say) people will flee… ABANDON SHIP!!

Solar Farms on a desert makes sense right? Not so fast…

This one is the tops though… everybody and their mother is pushing for Solar these days and on one level a big key of solar success is being able to have the solar farms... and according to a few speeches I have heard if we use the land in the Southwestern portion of the US, we could generate TREMENDOUS amounts of renewable energy. Getting that land was going to be tough and now it was made tougher by none other than California (figures, good ole California!) Senator Dianne Feinstein. The Senator, who usually would promote this stuff, is against putting Solar and Wind in the Mojave Desert and is preparing legislation to stop progress and make that land a national monument!!! Yep leave it to California to have a barren desert as a national monument, maybe that’s where they can place the statues of Tony Rygg and Nelson Pena. So let’s see we’ll protect a land you can’t do anything on instead of using it to create energy… BRILLIANT!
Don’t believe me.. cause its hard to believe isn’t it… here’s the STORY.

So there ya go… frustrated yet? I am not done yet...

Congress… Do as we SAY not as we DO…..

Great story HERE from the LA Times on the fact that Congress has dropped its plans to go carbon neutral in all of its buildings. So let’s see… we’ll stuff all of this crap down your throat but we won’t do it ourselves. Why am I not surprised? These would be the same people who would probably ignore NFRC too (though that's a good decision)

DOE…. Scareeee….

Easily one of the most popular items that appeared in this space recently was the story of the DOE giving 170K to a group that only asked for 130. I heard from people all over… shock, dismay, comedy, frustration, and “it figures” were the type of reactions. But now the bigger thing to watch is how the DOE and the government start to give away money as it regards to “energy”… To me it’s going to be frightening actually. First off some companies get money without even trying because they have big names, then you have all of the sickening cronyism that has basically overtaken the DOE to the point where some folks at the DOE can’t have an original thought without checking with one or another group. So while the administration and the new blood at the top of the DOE push to work on our energy program, color me as one person extremely worried that the money will not go to good use. I hope I am wrong.

World Trade Center

Thank you to all of the posters and E-mailers last week.. good to see people have their passions on demand. As for communist China…. When will the industry that actually cares on this issue (most of us, except a few people that go for the money and pray everynight that it does not come back to haunt them) step up? Will it be through GANA or a gathering of like minded people, but eventually the playing field has to be leveled. Hopefully something will happen soon or do we wait until the Chinese glass story becomes like the drywall issue… because I believe it’s just a matter of time. As for the PPG portion, I stick by my comments and despite the semantic denials the fact remains that PPG licensed people in China to produce their products- you play with that fire….

Video of the week:

Chuck sent this awesome piece in after he read about my complaints of all of the “get out of bankruptcy” commercials on the radio… and man this would be the best program out there! Hillarious stuff... Thanks for the video Chuck!