Since I was talking about this tonight and thought this was a pretty neat idea, I thought I’d pass on this link:  Citizenrē REnU.  Here is a quick blurb from the website about what they do:

Citizenrē REnU program packages solar power for you in a simple and smart way. Plainly put, the Citizenrē Corporation pays for, installs, owns and operates the solar installation. You don’t have to worry about maintaining the equipment or any of the other concerns that come with making an investment into solar power. All you are required to do is pay for the electricity generated from these panels, at a fixed rate that is at or below your current electricity price, for up to twenty-five years.

They claim they’ll have this system ready to go in September, so it’s something to look at if you want a more environmentally friendly way of getting your electricity without paying huge upfront costs.

AlterNet.org just published an article on Drinking Liberally. Our own Salt Lake City chapter even gets mentioned – as one of the unlikely places to find Drinking Liberally (in fact we start the list).

It’s an interesting read, and there’s even information about the founding of DL that I never knew. One of the things I found interesting was the bit about bloggers and their relationship to Drinking Liberally. Bloggers and DL seem like they’d go hand in hand, although that doesn’t seem to be the case here in Utah. I’m no blogger, but after attending the DC Drinking Liberally a few times and seeing how their members used a blog quite frequently, I wanted to give the same opportunity to our members. The bloggers in DC each have their own established blog, but also frequently post or cross-post to the DC DL blog.

I don’t think it’s a lack of bloggers in Utah, it’s just that none of our DL regulars are bloggers. Too busy blogging to come out and converse, I suppose. The tie between blogging and Drinking Liberally just hasn’t happened so far.

Another interesting bit from the article: “For chapters deep in red-state territory, Drinking Liberally serves as an oasis, a place for liberals to escape the dominant conservative culture and meet the comrades they suspected were out there but were hard to find.” This is something I’ve notice from the few red-state DL’s I’ve attended. The meetings not only serve as an oasis, but the members in red states seem a lot more energized.