Sam Young is a thirty-year old web developer from West Glover who is running as an independent for Governor of Vermont. His focus is getting young people involved in the political process, and re-localizing Vermont's food and energy economies.

Here's a great article on his campaign and personality in the Barton Chronicle :
http://www.samyoungforvermont.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view...

And here's a nice video from the opening fund-raising dinner for his campaign, which Rob Williams and I attended on June 23 in West Glover.

Quick facts on Bio-Diesel:
An acre of soy (the main source of bio-diesel today) can yield 50 gallons of fuel-oil per year.
An acre of an algae-lagoon can create up to 20,000 gallons of fuel-oil per year.
Certain strains of algae are more than 50% oil by volume, and algae doubles in volume every 24 hours. EVERY water treatment plant and farm could be diverting "waste water/sludge" into an algae -lagoon. The waste feeds the algae, along with sunlight and the right temperature range. Algae then fuels the operation and creates a valuable local energy-source.

I am grateful to have had a recharging experience last week. I spent 5 days with the Carbon Shredders at the Bonnaroo music festival, signing people up for the "Low Carbon Diet." Thanks to my employer, Green Mountain Coffee, I was able to take this as "paid volunteer time" that didn't take away my vacation time.

We were given free admission and booth space next to Bonnaroo's Solar-powered Stage and we went out with clipboards to sign people up for our online energy-conservation program.

Sometimes the answer we struggle to find is right under our nose.

So it is with modern wood-fired gasification heat/hot-water systems, which can cut your winter heating costs by 75% and keep your fuel $ in the local economy with sustainably-harvested firewood, WITHOUT increasing your pollution impact. This is part of the puzzle for how Vermont can become energy independent TODAY.

Vermont needs to become energy and food independent. We have plenty of wind, solar, biomass, and hydro-power resource-potential to meet our needs. We have plenty of agricultural and water resources. We have plenty of smart and motivated people. What's missing? The problem is that most of us are too busy paying the bills to create real political action and the people in charge of course want to preserve the status quo that put them in charge.

Fact: Our household is saving $600 a year and 4,000 pounds of C02 because we now drive a diesel car that gets 49 MPG.

Fact: Replacing food-crop-land or clear-cutting forests to grow ethanol or bio-diesel crops is NOT a good transportation solution.

Fiction: Bio-fuels by default compete with our food supply and therefore bio-fuels mean more expensive and more scarce food.

This is another undeniable reason for optimism. There are literally thousands of projects like this happening around the world because of people who see possibilities and make them happen.

All Things Considered, March 25, 2008 · Boston is planning a unique composting center that would help with some of the city's energy needs.

This is a thoroughly researched documentary about the origins and realities of our monetary system.

Find out why Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and others fought against a private central bank and warned us of the perils of our current situation. Find out why Lincoln and Kennedy were both assassinated. They were both attempting to have the US government begin printing US currency, instead of letting the a private central bank/FED control the printing of money.

Each of the 2000 cows on the Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport, Vermont produces enough methane to keep two 100-watt light bulbs burning perpetually.

Blue Spruce Farm's total electricity yield last year was 1.2 million kilowatt-hours.

Vermont had around 600,000 cows last time I counted, or the potential to generate 360 million kw hours of Cow Power electricity annually.

The rising cost of fossil-fuel energy is only half of the story. There are many solutions to a renewable-energy economy that are already proven, not to mention concepts with huge potential being developed. The bottom line is that clean-alternatives will become marketable and available to the extent that we demand them.

The question you have to ask yourself is this: how expensive do my gas and power bills have to be for me to look seriously at renewable energy and efficiency?