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June 2010

Gas Attack

Gas drilling threatens to damage the US environment as much as oil drilling

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Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government and True Independence

Meet some of the characters from my next book – Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America, published by Penguin 1st August 2010.
I traveled around America meeting these extraordinary people and writing about their lives. Above all I wanted to find out WHY they live off the grid. In this film you will find author Carolyn Chute, explaining why she lost trust in the system — because she had little money, a hospital refused to let her in to have her baby – who was stillborn as a result. Meet author Alan Wiesbecker, who wrote In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer’s Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road. He is now living on a beach in Mexico.

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Mobile

Let’s go Boondock

If you are in an RV, Boondocking is the only way to go—it’s cheap, eco-friendly, and adventurous. And remember, an RV does not have to be an expensive, purpose-built home on wheels – all you really need is a bed, storage space and preferably a way to cook food and power your cellphone.
What is Boondocking?
It’s living off the grid in your RV – usually on a short term basis – not connected to hookups like electricity or water. Much of the time, its free.

Where do people Boondock?

Everywhere. Even parking in your friends or parent’s driveway is boondocking.

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No Math Island

Denise de la Cerda lives off the grid out of choice.


I visited her during my research trip writing Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America.
Denise still has her tattoo business in Manhattan, but as soon as she can she leaves town and heads for her Connecticut woodland.
She bought it 3 years ago for about $70,000, owner-financed. Since then she has built a small house and a tiny cabin on stilts.

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New Jersey solar incentives the best in US

New Jersey is the sunniest state in America, offering solar energy incentives for residential systems that can pay for themselves in as little as three years.
The state is second only to California in the number of homes outfitted with solar technology, drawing so many applicants for generous rebates in May that the Board of Public Utilities has put new requests on hold.
New Jersey is the only state to mandate a Solar Alternative Compliance Payment, essentially a penalty a utility must pay if the company does not reach its SREC target. To make that goal, utilities buy these green-energy credits from consumers and businesses.
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Flee the City – join the Field Lab

John Wells lives in a shack he has grandly titled the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy And Sustainable Living Field Laboratory.

When I visited he told me he had wanted to leave his glitzy fashion photographer world behind, a world of “mounting debt and an overwhelming feeling of being trapped in the life you have chosen.” He was looking for a simple life but a comfortable one

Tension in the world, an unstable economy, high fuel prices, and mind numbing popular culture all added to his feeling of utter futility.
“For me, the real tipping point was the death of my father last year.  That made me sit down and take a serious look at where my path has led me.”
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Land

Service charges for off-grid buildings

SEATTLE (AP) – Why should off-gridders pay the same rate for County services as those who are on the grid?

King County in Washington State is figuring out whether buildings that go off the grid must still pay for the regional wastewater system they don’t use.
The Bullitt Foundation has proposed a building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood that would collect, treat and reuse all the water on site.
The county currently requires such innovative projects to be hooked up to the county system.
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Water storage barrels

Water storage just got easier. Tuff Tech has unveiled a range of flexible water storage barrels.

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Spooky Cambridge eco-homes

For the next two  weekends a few private households in the ancient University town of Cambridge will be creaking open their doors for an eco-home tour (you need to book).

People will be traipsing through a family living room near Wisbech, to admire the solar panels as much as the wood paneling. The owners, Sarah and Paul Bearpark will explain from their nineteenth century Pulpit  how and why they installed energy saving measures, which ones were most cost-effective and what they plan to do next.
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