The Solar Sonoma County program, which got its official kick-off last night, may make our area a model for other rural regions that want to expand their use of solar power.

Click here to see a detailed 2-page fact sheet on Solar Sonoma County. (pdf)

John Lushetsky from the federal Department of Energy, where he is the manager of the Solar Energy Technologies Program. As more and more solar panels collect electricity, there will be increasing demand for batteries to store and save that power. John Lushetshy says his agency will soon turn its attention to that aspect of energy independence as well.

Ives Pool in Sebastopol is an example of a local public facility that has installed solar panels to hold down energy costs.

 Gertting people out of their cars altogether is a long-term endeavor, so in the short term, the sebastopol-based Post Carbon Institute is preparing to model an alternate way to reduce fossil fuel consumption through their Solar Car Share program.

Visit the  Post-Carbon Institute to see  what other projects they have going.

 For details about the Solar Car Share project, click here . 

Concerns about “usage creep,” in which tasers are used when other methods might be more appropriate, were raised in the 2005 report Stun Gun Fallacy: How the Lack of Taser Regulation Endangers Lives , published by the ACLU of Northern California in 2005.

Tasers are aggressively marketed by the manufacturer, Taser International. Their latest model, the C2, is designed for personal use (only in self-defense of course) and comes in 9 designer colors.