Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20161205

This comes as thousands of descend on Standing Rock to form a human shield around the water protectors. We really think about the treaty, it makes me think, why did i do it i did to serve my country when the government did all of the things, the hurtful things they have done to my ancestors. Amy we will speak with dave archambault, chevy Standing Rock sioux tribe, tara houska of honor the earth, and with remy, navy member and member of the Navajo Nation. People have been protesting at banks, demanding they divest from the Dakota Access pipeline. Dapl to protest the institutions [indiscernible] amy all that and more, coming up. Welce to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In north dakota, water protectors resisting the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline have scored an historic victory. On sunday, the u. S. Army corps of engineers denied Energy Transfer partners, the Company Behind the pipeline, a permit to drill underneath lake oahe on the Missouri River officially , halting construction. The pipeline is slated to carry crude oil from the bakken oilfields of north dakota, through south dakota, iowa, and into illinois, where its slated to link up with another pipeline to carry the oil down to refineries in the gulf. The project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock sioux in north dakota, members of more than 200 indigenous nations from across the americas, and thousands of their nonnative allies all concerned the pipelines construction will destroy sacred sioux sites, and that a Pipeline Leak could contaminate the Missouri River, which serves as a water supply for millions. Standing rock protester maurine archambault celebrated the news. We are slowly getting there, like winning this in, but there are going to be a few battles were going to have to go through whenever we are going to win this thing. Amy we will go to north dakota for more on the Standing Rock sioux after headlines. The Washington Post is reporting Donald Trumps protocolbreaking telephone conversation with taiwans leader on friday was an intentionally provocative move that has been planned weeks in advance. Taiwan president tsai ingwens call to trump on friday marked the first communication between leaders of the United States and taiwan since 1979. China lodged a diplomatic protest with the United States, saying the one china policy was the bedrock of relations with the United States. China considers taiwan to be part of its territory, not an independent nation. This is Chinese Foreign minister wang yi. Taiwans engagement is a petty action that cannot change the china structure, but international community. I believe it wont change the longstanding one china policy of the United States government. Amy trumps call with the president of taiwan has also raised new questions about his business dealings. There have been multiple reports that representatives of the Trump Organization have traveled to taiwan in recent months to explore possible deals including building Luxury Hotels near taiwans main airport. Donald trump has nominated former president ial candidate dr. Ben carson to serve as secretary of the department of housing and urban development. Carson has been vocal critic of huds fairhousing rule, which requires local communities to assess patterns of income and Racial Discrimination in housing. Dr. Carson has described the rule as a mandated socialengineering scheme. He said this is just an example of what happens when we allow the government to infiltrate every part of our lives. This is what you see in communist countries. Meanwhile trump is reportedly , broadening his search for a secretary of state. New candidates being considered include former utah governor jon huntsman, former u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. John bolton, retired admiral james stavridis, and democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia. Other finalists are said to include exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson former massachusetts , governor mitt romney, former new york city mayor rudy giuliani, and senator bob corker of tennessee. Michigan has become the second state to conduct a recount of the president ial election. Early this morning a federal , judge ordered officials to being recounting ballots today at noon. The order was made following a request by green Party President ial candidate jill stein. Donald trump won michigan by under 10,000 votes out of 5. 5 million cast. A recount is already underway in wisconsin. Meanwhile, dr. Steins efforts to force a recount in pennsylvania were dealt a setback when a judge ordered petitioners to post a 1 million bond. Stein is holding a press conference outside trump tower today at 10 00 a. M. To discuss next steps on the recount. In oakland, california, at least 33 people have died after a fire rippedhrough a converted warehouse hosting an electronic music concert on friday. The death toll is expected to continue to rise. It is already the deadliest fire in the citys history. The fire broke out in what was known as the ghost ship, an artist collective that housed many Young Artists and musicians. Mourners have been gathering to remember those lost in the fire. They were amazing. You know . They were amazing. I am sorry for everyones loss. The people i didnt know. It is just i cant it is mind blowing. It is heartbreaking. Amy cuba has concluded nine days of mourning after the death of fidel castro. On his ashes were entombed near sunday, the remains of cubas independence hero jose marti in the cemetery in santiago de cuba. Cuban president raul castro , Fidel Castros brother, talk about his legacy. He demonstrated, yes, it was possible. It was possible to overcome the obstacle, any threat to her challenge to our undertaking of building a socialist cuba are likewise, guarantee independence of sovereignty of the fatherland. Amy attendees at Fidel Castros funeral included former brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da silva. I see your right now much sadness. I know it fidel represented here in santiago for the cuban nation, throughout the whole world, for those who struggle for social equality, for those who struggle for dignity. Amy that is the former brazilian president. In news from austria, a Green Party Politician has been elected president defeating the head of the antiimmigration freedom party. The freedom partys Norbert Hofer was attempting to become the first freely elected farright head of state in europe since world war ii. The party was founded by former not the party members. Green leader Alexander Van der bellen who won 53 of the vote celebrated his victory. I will try to be an nminded, liberal minded, federal president of the republic. Amy in other news from europe, italian Prime Minister matteo renzi has announced he will resign after his plan to reform the constitution was rejected by voters. This leaves italy in a state political turmoil. The rejection of the referendum was hailed as a victory by several antiestablishment and antiimmigrant groups in italy. In news from louisiana, the naacp and other groups have staged a series of protests after authorities released a man suspected of shooting and killing former nfl player joe mcknight in a possible case of road rage. The suspect, 54yearold ronald gasser, who is white, was released without being formally charged even though he admitted shooting mcknight, who is africanamerican, multiple times. Police said they are still investigating the incident. Jurors in South Carolina are scheduled to resume deliberations in the case of michael slager, the white Police Officer who was caught on video shooting 50yearold African American walter scott in the back as he ran away. Killing him. On friday, the jurors twice informed the judge that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. One man has said he will not vote to convict the Police Officer. Over the weekend, federal authorities in texas reportedly released nearly 500 women and children from the nations two largest family detention centers. Legal advocates say most families were released without travel plans, and volunteers worked with a local church to open shelter space early saturday morning. The move followed a ruling friday by a texas judge that bars the States Department of family and protective services from issuing child care licenses. Advocates say conditions at the facilities are equivalent to prisons. The judgment effectively invalidates the licenses now used to operate the faculties, which are owned by geo and corecivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of america. Human Rights Groups have called on the Obama Administration to end the practice of detaining families before the end of his administration. An american priest assassinated in guatemala in 1981 has moved a step closer to sainthood. On friday, the vatican declared reverend Stanley Rother to be a martyr. Rother was killed by a rightwing death squad in his church rectory. He died on the same day u. S. Backed guatemalan troops killed 13 people and wounded 24 others in the same town where he was shot. Stanley rother is the First American to ever be declared a martyr by the catholic church. In washington, d. C. , an armed North Carolina man was arrested sunday after walking into the popular pizza restaurant comet ping pong and then firing at least one shot. For weeks rightwing websites have been spreading conspiracy theories about the restaurant claiming Hillary Clinton and other prominent democrats were running a child sex ring from the restaurants backrooms. The fake news story became known as pizza gate. The North Carolina man, Edgar Maddison welch, told police he traveled to d. C. To selfinvestigate the story. He has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. In other news, president elect donald trump took to twitter early on sunday to slam the latest episode of saturday night live. He wrote just tried watching saturday night live. Totally biased and not funny. And the out baldwin impersonation just cant get any worse. Sad. Trump wrote the message shortly after baldwin poked fun of Donald Trumps use of twitter i just reach we did the best tweet. Well, what a great, smart tweet. Mr. Trump, were in a security briefing. I know, but this could not wait. The young manamed seth command seth amy on alec baldwin responded sunday, to trump on twitter. Baldwin wrote on twitter realdonaldtrump. Release your tax returns and ill stop. Ha. And some residents of the chevy chase neighborhood in washington, d. C. , are welcoming their newest neighbor, Vice President elect mike pence, by hanging rainbowcolored flags from their homes. Pence is living in the neighborhood until inauguration day. This is alison fenn one of pences neighbors. Given the governors stance on gay rights issues, it seemed like a really crucial message to make that Everyone Needs to be supported in a rather than feel threatened. I think we have a fun little disagreement with his stand on this and just want to not only brin it to his attention, but to make others feel support and might otherwise feel threatened. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and , peace report. Im amy goodman. In north dakota, water protectors resisting the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline have one in historic victory. On sunday, the u. S. Army corps of engineers denied Energy Transfer partners, the Company Behind the pipeline, a permit to drill underneath lake oahe on the Missouri River officially halting construction. The pipeline is slated to carry crude oil from the bakken oilfields of north dakota, through south dakota, iowa and into illinois, where its slated to link up to another pipeline to carry the oil down to refineries in the gulf. The project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock sioux in north dakota, members of more than 200 indigenous nations from across the americas, and thousands of their nonnative allies all concerned the pipelines construction will destroy sacred sioux sites, and that a Pipeline Leak couldontaminatehe Missouri River, which serves as a water supply for millions. The growing Resistance Movement is the largest gathering of native americans in decades. In a Statement Issued sunday, Joellen Darcy, the armys assistant secretary for civil works, said although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock sioux and Dakota Access, its clear that theres more work to do. The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline. Darcy also indicated the government will undertake an Environmental Impact statement for this section of the pipeline a lengthy process that takes , months, if not years. The armys announcement sunday came as thousands of native and nonnative military veterans gathered at Standing Rock, ready to form a human shield around the water protectors, who have faced an increasingly Violent Police crackdown that has cost the state of north dakota more than 10 million. In response to the armys announcement, Energy Transfer logistics,d sunoco which is slated to operate the pipeline if it is built, issued a joint statement accusing the white house of taking a purely Political Action and saying the companies are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around lake oahe. Well, for more, we go directly to Standing Rock were we are joined by Standing Rock sioux chairman dave archambault. Chairman, welcome back to democracy now first, respond to the latest news, the action of the u. S. Army corps of engineers. I think it is something that is his stork, like you had said, and it is something it takes a lot of courage for decisionmakers to come up and make the right decision, to make the right choice in this matter. We have been talking about this with the corps of engineers for almost two years now. We have been letting them know that we have problems with this pipeline because it not only threatens our water, it threatens our heritage and culture and our environment. We as a people have a right to stand up for this. We expect those feelings from the very beginning. We expect those with the company. We expect those feelings with the senators of the state, the congressman of the state everybody knew that Standing Rock was opposed to this pipeline because of the threat that has on our people. We had a lot of support. When this decision came down by the corps of engineers, finally, for the first time in history, over centuries, somebody is listening to us. In order to listen to us, they have to make the right decision. It takes a lot of courage to do that when youre up against an oil company who tries to dictate to the federal government what has to be done and when it has to be done and where it has to be done. Amy were you surprised . Yes, i was very surprised. Something like this has never rolled in our favor ever. I am just thankful for all of the people who gave support, all of the people who contributed in one way or another. And believed in this and state with a peaceful protests all along. I think that was what helped us over the edge. We maintained our position as we were peaceful and prayerful, and we tried to do the best that we can to build awareness for everyone. I want to thank you, amy, for all of the work you have done as well. To build awareness. Amy chairman, the army corps of engineers has denied the permit to build the pipeline under the missouri, which it needs, but Energy Transfer partners says now it does not need this and they are moving full steam ahead. Theyre going to continue building. Is this possible . No, it is not possible. If they continue to press the government, theyre going to shut the whole program down. They will shut the whole progress or graham down and there will be no pipeline. That is not possible. The Company Knows they need easement in order to move forward. This is just another example of the corporate world forcing its hand on a people and on the government. This has to stop. They have to realize the laws are there and if they can start to break laws, they force their hand on everybody, they threaten but their investors at risk and nothing will happen. Amy the armys assistant secretary for civil works Joellen Darcy said in a statement, the best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipelines crossing. What would that mean, chairman . I would say get it off of our treaty lands. We know within our treaty boundaries, though sites are sacred. What places are sacred to us. If they just rerouted i had a discussion with kelcy warren and he felt dust if we have the discussion early on, this would not be the final route. But because they will with the desperate the investors money at risk by building without a permit, he has nowhere else to go so he is going to try to force this project through at this site. Sometime were going to have to put people before money. Amy do you now expect the government to undertake a full Environmental Impact statement and what would that mean . The difference between an Environmental Impact statement and an environmental assessment, the assessment only looks at the least impactful route for the environment. With the eis, you take into consideration people. What we have here is a people the first people that occupied this nations land. We were always here before anyone else. That is something special. That is meaningful. And because we were here, we have every right to oppose this pipeline because we feel this pipeline was threatened would threaten not only our water, better heritage, our culture, our environment. We have to say, dont do that to us anymore. You did that to us for 200 years for the interest of energy independence, national security. We pay for that. We continue to pay for that. Today we are asking you to stop, dont do that anymore. Someone is finally listening. Amy last week, donald trump expressed his support for the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline. And it medications prevent, trumps Transition Team said his support for the pipeline has nothing to do with his personal investments. Between 500he have thousand dollars and 1 million invested in Energy Transfer partners, although the trump spokesperson recently claimed trump has sold off his shares in the company. What about this . And what does this transition of power mean for the pipeline . Could this just be reversed when donald trump becomes president . I see it as an opportunity for Indigenous Peoples, for tribes to start a relationship with president elect and help them understand what is important to the first occupants of this nation and what we have paid for. His wealth is built off of our backs. And he does not realize it. Yep to help them understand it. We have to help them understand it. And this decision made by the corps of engineers is the right decision. You have to come at one time, but money aside and say, what is it that the people want . What is it that we can do to make lives better for this country . Lets look at the years to come, the 50 years ahead and find out what we can do to make sure that there still is life here. We have a huge opportunity in front of us to help president elect understand our issues. I look forward to a conversation just like i had with kelsey worn. I have nothing personal against the president , nothing against kelcy warren, nothing personal against the senators and the congressman of this state of north dakota or the government. They have to realize that we are here and we have always been here and were not going anywhere. There are some things that are precious and important to us and everybody has to understand that and we are not opposed to pipeline construction. We are not opposed to economic development, energy independence. Just dont continue to do it and expect us to pay for it. So when this pipeline breaks, who is going to pay for it . We will be the first one to pay for it. We have been patient hang for this nations wealth, safety, and security from day one. Amy chairman archibald, what happens now at the resistance camps . They have swelled to thousands. You have the Dakota Access pipeline saying theyre moving ahead. What is next . The pipeline is not going to move ahead. Enjoympers that are there the winter with their families at home. The winters are going to get harsh. It is time. They had a purpose and that purpose was served, that was to help us build awareness and show the support and stand with us. Today, it is a beautiful day. Good day. Is a they have to realize that. We are no longer needing the purpose of they set out to do. It is ok. The company will not build beyond the easement that isnt given to them. They can go home. Amy chairman archibald, you are among the hundreds of people who have been arrested since the resistance grew. What happens now with the sheriff, with the Police Actions that have become increasingly violent from the Water Cannons to the sound cannons to military equipment 10 million, we understand, has been spent at least on Police Activities . What we have to do is we have to try to rebuild relationships that were harmed. You have to understand, i live here in this community. When this all disperses, the water protectors leave, the energy partners, the pipelines thee, and were left with residual effects. So it is important for us to try to continue to establish relationships with the state and with the surrounding communities. And that includes Morton County and the sheriffs department. Now, i do believe there was an opportunity for the sheriff to better handle the situation. There was a better opportunity for the governor of the state to better handle this situation. Harmed path they chose relationships, so we have to try to reestablish and rebuild those relationships. Amy chairman archibald, i want to thank you very much for joining us from the Standing Rock sioux reservation. We thank you for this update. Of course, we will continue to follow what takes place. What do you say to those who say ey are not moving, they dont have faith that the pipeline wont go forward . Theyre staying at the camps . They have to continue to pray. They have to start taking the lessons that were given at this camp. What did we learn at this camp . Is what is and peace going to help us be successful. It is not the violent acts that build awareness. This the moral high ground that Everybody Needs to take. If they want tuesday, it is going to be at their own risk. Theres really no need for them to stay. They can go home and enjoy this winter, enjoy the holidays if they celebrate them, with eir families. I am sure their families are yearning for them. It is ok now. I understand their mistrust of the government and for this company because from the we askedothing the copy to voluntarily to stop, but they would not stop. I understand how they feel, but it is ok. The company did not get the easement, so that is going to be a process. A long, drawn out process. Even ithe company tries to reverse this and even of the president trieto reverse it, it is not going to happen this winter, so it is ok for them to go home. Amy i want to thank you again, chairman dave archambault, chairman Standing Rock sioux tribe speaking to us from Standing Rock in north dakota. When we come back, we will speak with one of the many veterans who have come to protect the water protectors. He comes from arizona, navajo, his grandmother a navajo his grandfather a navajo code talker. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , decracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On sunday, the u. S. Army corps of engineers tonight Energy Transfer partners, the comedy behind the Dakota Access pipeline from a permit to drill underneath the Missouri River officially halting construction. The announcement came as thousands of native and nonnative mitary veterans dissented on Standing Rock, bound to form a human shield around the protectors who have faced an increasingly Violent Police crackdown that is injured hundreds of people and caused cost the state of north dakota more than this is navy veteran 10 million. Rob mchaney. I am here because i saw in television what was taking place and i saw it on bbc, nonamerican news, because they were not showing it. There are doing things to people there that we dont even do in town that. I cannot stand by by taking a nose for this country and see what is happening here and not stand up for it. Amy u. S. Army corps of engineers had originally said it would close access to the main resistance camps today, december fifth, setting up a possibility of a major showdown between the department of the army and other branches of the was armed forces. But instead on sunday, the army announced it was denying the pipeline permit. This is native American Veteran aidan bearcat reacting to the news. This lifted my heart. We came down here from Washington State to support. Hese very water protectors we came in yesterday expecting the worst, but this is the best news i have heard forever. The best news for native people, native country, the whole United States all of the people. Water is so precio. Amy for more we are joined by , remy, a navy veteran and member of the Navajo Nation who has been at Standing Rock for the past five and half months. He is a Movement Artist and member of the indigenous Veterans Council at Standing Rock. Welcome to democracy now your response to the army corps of engineers announcing they will not grant a permit for Energy Transfer partners to build the Dakota Access pipeline under the missouri . I am kind of skeptical about the ruling. I think everyone at camp is cautious as well. Were just moving forward with. Ontinuing to really winterize until the project has ended, we will continue to move forward in the same fashion we have been all along. Amy so you are a veteran with the army it was the army that made this decision to deny the permit. Your thoughts about that . I think is great that we have some sort of solidarity with the other armed forces that were here. And the ones that are doing things in washington and other places. It is great that we have this generationement where we are able to reach across all of the armed forces. Amy how did sandra veterans extended for Standing Rock come together . How money would you estimate have dissented on the resistance camps . Eventually was this project was put together by Phyllis Young and wesley clark. Phyllis have put out a call to wesley and he answered. And with him came over 2000 veterans to Standing Rock. Amy not to begin fused with the general who ran for president . Wesley clark, jr. Camplmost 10,000 people at in support of our movement to stop this pipeline. This is maybe a little offtopic, but in you tell us about your grandfather, what it meant to be a navajo code talker . To clarify that, that was my grandmothers brother. In our culture, i call him he was a navajo code talker. Winnininstrumental in the world war ii, the code that was never brokeng. Coming here and seeing other members of the armed forces that have gone through other battles and persevered is something that i take with me and ive always had with me. He was a holy person. His prayers are songs and traditions remain with me and have kept me here and protected me while i have been here in Standing Rock. Amy how long have you been there . I have been here over 5. 5 months solid, but originally, one of the original people who answered the call from Standing Rock, from another tribe, he actually invited us out over seven months ago. Amy i want to go back to something you said when you talked about the two people who founded this veterans stand for Standing Rock, and you talked about wesley clark and you said it is wesley clark, jr. So he is the son of the retired u. S. Army general wesley clark who ran for president , who organized the veterans to come to Standing Rock . That is correct. He came out, reached out a couple of weeks ago. He wanted some on the ground organizing that was happening, so he reached out to me. He wanted somebody who is trusted and also a veteran. Having been here so long, we made a connection. Through phyllis, we of been able really bring together this this number of people. Were looking at probably around 3000 veterans that have answered the call. Amy it is fascinating that it is wesley clark, jr. , is formally sr. The Supreme Commander of natos military forces. Remy, the plans right now, are biggests at one of the ones they have been with the thousands of people there . Today was really ground zero, but now all of that changes with the denial of the permit. So are you planning to go back home . In arizona, what are the struggles you face there around black mesa . Until the project has ended, were not planning to go anywhere. This is similar to some of the struggles we encounter in arizona. On our reservation, were surrounded by six qualifier coal fire plants. It is not by accident, it is by design. We have Natural Resources and indigenous coulters. The corporations that profit from it. It is because of our coal on our reservation that we made progress possible. We provide electricity and not only arizona, but nevada and southernof california as well. We make progress possible, yet we dont get to participate in it. Some of our elders dont have Running Water or have electricity in some areas of our reservation. That is something that brought me here to Standing Rock because it is a different location, but it is the same fight. Ultimately, when you look at this, it is all indigenous land. I see this as a natural transition to come here and offer what i could in service of the Standing Rock sioux tribe. Is one of gabbard those veterans who came out, the Hawaii Congress member . Yes, she did. She answered the call as well. You have congresspeople who are really in solidarity with us as well. It was great to have her come on board and get involved. She was well received. She does a lot of great work herself. We welcome her with open arms. We support her and her bringing the message not only to hawaii, but the rest of the world and her followers. Amy finally, remy, how has this changed you, the standoff at Standing Rock, which you have been a part of for many months now, going through the summer to the snowcovered camps . It has changed me quite a bit because i see how the indigenous veterans have come here in support. Jr. s to wesley clark, call, we have had many who have stood up to bullies, held off police. Using this knowledge that they had got from the state. These are techniques that we have been given. We have been able to really use that against the statetself that is oppressing us. Were also using that to support and further the message that this pipeline must end, and we should be able to respect indigenous bodies. And, really, you have seen a , the pride that comes with serving our country. Again, this is our land originally. We offer our service, it is really an extension of what we have always been in harmony with , with the land. We do whatever it takes to protect it because it protects us. It gives us life. Water is a part of that. And these elements, they are all lifegiving elements. We respect it and protect it. We have been out here in solidarity, not only with the Standing Rock people, but in solidarity with mother of itself. Amy remy, thank you for being with Us Navy Veteran and member , of the Navajo Nation. He is a Movement Artist and organizer who helped organize veterans stand for Standing Rock. Thousands came to north dakota this weekend. This is democracy now stay with us. [music break] amy one of the bands members was among the more than 33 victims of the tragic warehouse fire in oakland, california. She was 22 years old. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On sunday, celebrations erupted at Standing Rock after the u. S. Army corps of engineers dakotaed a denied the access Pipeline Company a permit to build the final segment of the 3. 8 billion project that would study a possible reroute of the pipeline. This is Cannupa Hanska luger. I think this sort of opportunity here, the thing that is happening here is that we recognize that we have agency. We have given a lot of our power to other entities saying, please, help us, please, save us. When we come together as living things come as people, suddenly, we recognize we have power. That is what this country was posted be built about. That is what we were supposed to be promised from the corps. , we areis president human beings. We are the people. We are the living things here, you know . Hopefully, that will move forward and can be shared. If you look down the road, there lights as far as the eye can see. People of coming to recognize we have agency, we have power. When we come together, we realize it is easier to share [indiscernible] is easier to share than it is to take away, you know . I just got a kiss from that guy. This is easy. I just stood here. Amy the what alternate routes would be considered . What will the process of an environmental state look like . Can this decision be reversed once Donald Trump Takes Office . What is next for the Resistance Movement . To answer some of these questions, were joined by tara houska, National Campaigns director for honor the earth. She is ojibwe from couchiching first nation. She joined us on our show both times we were in north dakota. Welcome back to democracy now where were you when the news came down yesterday and what is your response . I was actually i got a that the some of call from the white house had taken place. I really got into my vehicle and went out to camp. I happen to be in service. I was driving down highway six bank highway 6 instead of 1806, which is blockaded. Grassroots organizing reaching the highest levels of government. Specific to this project, were seeing the decision not to grant an easement under lake oahe and n into an of our military statement. Amy the chairman says there is no way that can build right now, that they will move forward. Is not surprising to hear Energy Transfer partners say those things sing as they openly said the attorney state of the permit was of her malady and the judge said is clearly not of her malady now, is it . That kind of have this very arrogant attitude of what they believed to be [indiscernible] Energy Transfer partners is planning to proceed without a permit would be a flagrant violation of the law. I would want to know, what is the administrations response to protecting the land, protecting the Public Interest . That is what the Environmental Impact statement is about. If federal marshals are going to be sent out. Amy what about this rerouting idea . The rerouting of the pipeline and the Environmental Impact statement process . One part of the process willd with an eis consider alternate routes, no build option, all of these Different Things that should have been done in the first 1200 for now is 1200 mile pipeline. Im hopeful that this impact statement is done and done effectively and done allencompassing, which is what theyre supposed to do them and itping it sounds like will be on the one little tease instead of a cumulus impact statement. That is unfortunate the continue to use i hope it opens to more litigation to taking that part of the process. Amy what happens with Donald Trump Administration when he becomes president , who has said he supports the pipeline . Can you just reversal of this . Yes. Does thisreality of victory is a momentous occasion of feeling the power of the people, but at the same time, we are very aware that the next president coming in is in support of the Dakota Access and will probably just cancel whatever Environmental Impact statement is in progress and attempt to push this pipeline through. It is really incumbent upon us to remain vigilant to recognize the power that is within us of organizing and coming together. This wasnt just Indigenous People, this is people from all nations that came together in support of the water and support of future generations because this is an issue that affects us all. Amy does the Energy Transfer partners lose something by not building by january 1 . They do. They said so far we have cost them 100 million, that the demonstrations against their project has cost them dearly. It is reality that this will eventually become if they cant reach the generate first held that lines are forced to push this project back, i hope many of their funding partners, which we have looked at and we know theres a full list of them and people of ghana done direct action, nonviolent direct action at those places, dont support a project that negatively impacts so many people. It is indigenous lands. This is sacred sites being destroyed. No investor should want to be part of a project like that. Look to Renewable Energy. Amy finally, what are you saying about the resistance camps . There are thousands of people who are there. The chairman of the Standing Rock sioux tribe, dave archambault, says now you can go home and enjoy your winters at home because this pipeline at this point cannot move forward. Do you feel the same way . Think know, i feel like i the response of the administration from president obama was under pressure. They put out this army corps letter saying they were treating Indigenous People as trespassers. They said theyre going to subject us to local law enforcement. More people came. The veterans all showed up. Thousands and thousands of people to effectuate this change. So knowing the Trump Administration is coming in, despite it is not over, i think people might need a break. Some folks probably need to go home and regroup after such violations have happened post up really, violent altercations on behalf of the police. I think we need to remain vigilant at the same time and know this could happen in just a few short months. Amy tara houska, thank you for being with us National Campaigns , director for honor the earth. She is ojibwe from couchiching first nation. She has been living in north dakota for many months. Youre not at the resistance camp, youre at honor the earth support house. Are there is there anyone else in jail now who was arrested for protesting the Dakota Access pipeline, the jailed being in man dan, where you are . Theres a woman who remains in incarceration. She was originally charged with attempted murder and now they have dropped that and are charging her with a felony discharging a weapon. Amy tara houska is also an indigenous lawyer. Protesters across the world have been demanding banks divest from the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. We nodapl our coalition, were here today december 3 at the Wells Fargo Branch in bellingham, washington, to protest the institutions investment in the sun cola just ask Energy Transfers and energy iner equity, reviews her decision to support the destructive fossil fuel economy in general, and the Dakota Access pipeline in particular. Amy this comes as an report exposes the ruby finances county Dakota Access pipeline, as they say, published by the analysis in the Sightline Institute that has the weakness of the project. Missing the generate first deadline opens up the possibility be Pipeline Company may lose its contracts with Oil Companies. For more we go now to seattle, washington, where were joined by clark williamsderry, director of Energy Finance at the Sightline Institute. He is the coauthor of the new report, the rickety finances behind the Dakota Access pipeline. And were joined by michael vendiola, a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the bellingham nodapl coalition. He helped organize a Standing Rock solidarity action on saturday calling on wells fargo and other banks to divest from the Dakota Access pipeline. We welcome you both to democracy now lets begin with clark. Summarize your findings. Whitey talk about the rickety financing of the Dakota Access pipeline . That is a good question. One of the fundamental findings of our report was that the oil market has changed dramatically since the pipeline was first proposed in early 2014. Back then, oil prices were at 100 a barrel or more in Oil Production in north dakota was rising. They kept rising and rising. Said oile forecast prices would remain high and will production in north dakota would remain robust. It almost as soon as the companies signed up its first set of shippers, for his commitment from oil companys to ship to the pipeline, you started to see the oil market collapse. He saw prices fall from 100 a barrel to 50 a barrel and is that happened, Oil Companies in north dakota started to pull back. They were not drilling as more as much. They started losing money in the bakken region. You saw a decline in reduction. You are raising a 20 drop in the oilen region since prices started to collapse. It is still declining by percent or two every month. If those declines continue, it is not clear the pipelines capacity will be there been a bunch of pipelines built and improved with a lot of the Refining Capacity in the region. There is capacity in the region. The dakotaapacity of access pipeline just may not be necessary. Amy and that poses a real risk to the company. Amy gender reversed deadline. What happens of oil shippers, negotiate contracts . Lawyers for the Dakota Access pipeline has said that theyre committed shippers have the right to terminate the contracts if the company does not meet its generally first deadline. We dont know. We heard a few things suggesting it is just an informal deadline but it argued clearly to the courts that this is an actual contractual deadline. If some of the shippers were to pull out of the Dakota Access pipeline at that point, you can see it would start to create a financial disaster for the company. Depends on really those contracts. You can imagine some of the oil shippers might be thinking, well, production down with prices down, maybe this would be a great time to pull back from our commitments for the pipeline. Investors in those companies should be encouraging the oil shippers to pull back and take a second look and think about whether it makes sense to the long run in a region where Oil Production is falling, you dont want to make a seven to 10 year the member to keep shipping oil to keep shipping oil through the pipeline. You will just wind up wasting money. Come onhael vendiola sunday the decision came down by the Obama Administration, the army corps of engineers, to deny the easement under the missouri. Your response to that and what your plans are now from the United States to canada . Sure. We are excited that the Obama Administration has made this decision, but were also wary of policy that is put forward. We are in alignment with the Standing Rock sioux and the sacred stone camp, and were going to be following their lead and seeing as this progresses, you know, we signed treaties with the federal government. We know that those treaties can be betrayed. This is just another socalled agreement that is put forth which could be turned over as soon as another president comes in. Our strategy right now is to follow the lead of water is life. That is what we are organizing under, the banner put forth by the Standing Rock sioux and the sacred stone camp. To be cliche, we are trying to hit them in the pocketbook. Amy which are the banks your targeting, michael . Our action this past saturday was against wells fargo. Were looking at chase bank, u. S. Bank, bank of america. We have a list of 17 banks that are investors within Energy Transfer partnerships and putting the Dakota Access pipeline together. Amy the canadian Prime Minister has Just Announced that the government has cleared the way for kindermorgans transmountain expansion project, a pipeline. Your response and how you are linking it to the Dakota Access pipeline . That looks to be the west coast version of dapl. Travesty. Ke it is a really, we were working on providing testimony, we and our tribes, of Washington State, were invited to give testimony on the kindermorgan project. We feel a bit betrayed by this decision by the Prime Minister to go forward with this after we had given a consolidated testimony. Amy clearly another issue we have to cover but we have to wrap up now. Michael vendiola, thanks for joining us. Clark williamsderry, we will link to your report the rickety finances behind the Dakota Access pipeline. Two that were celebrating our anniversary tonight were celebrating our anniversary. Tune in at 7 00. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] today, we know that, on a carbonbased econy, we ship over 700 billion worth of our economy overseas to fuel the system. Just think if we could take 700 billion every year and park it here in the states. That would have a dramatic effect on the economy. If everye on earth consumed as much as the average european, wed need about three planets woh of resources to support us. If we all lived like americans, wed need about five planets. So what we try and do here is create a oneplanet lifestyle. One planet is an easy proposition to understand. We have one planet. Were using resources faer than that planet can replenish them. So we dont have any more planets than that, so weve got to cut back our lifestyle. Frankly, its just consume less. Right . Consume less energy. You know, create less waste. Its a problem of lack of awareness. In the u. S. , buildings consume more energy than transportation or industry, and, within the buildings, homes consume more than 50 of the building Sector Energy use. As a result, it is in our National Interest to reduce the Energy Consumption in homes, because then, we reduce the dependency on foreign oil. Now, what we want to do is not be dependent on foreign oil. What wed want to do is not have to buy any oil. Wee got to stop building the way we did, weve got to accept the fact that theconomy of construction is only becoming an economic burden to the owner of the home. The way we have been building houses is just an absolute lost first cost. You know . Its all about lowest first cost. Its not about operating cost, its not about longevity of building, its not about durability of building. Its not about any of that. Builders and people are gonna push back on some of this, because there is an increased cost to doing it. Up front. But, again, no ones shong about the longterm benefits of why we need to do this as a country and a society, and thats really where the challenge is, is, we know its the right thing to do, but nobodys making the commitment to really do it, except for a few individuals. This is not only a ceremonial groundbreaking; it really is an achievement. The start of a home that will have no electric bills. Today, were gonna pour the foundation of zero Energy America. This is the day we change our priorities, we make new commitments; we are gonna look to the day that fossil fuel is a fuel of the past. The project will build homes that utilize 100 Renewable Energy, have a Net Zero Energy usage. This will be the first zeroenergy home, and certainly will not be the last. Living in a healthy home certainly makes sense. Living in a home that operates efficiently makes sense. Theres nothing green that drives the decisionmaking. Its a smart decision. Thats the bottom line. Change comes from two directions its either Consumer Preference or its legislation. We have no Consumer Awareness and builders respond to their consumers. It doesnt smuch matter whos in the white house or whos controlling congress. These are just smart decisions that can be made, oftentimes, at the state and the local level. And, you know, thats kind of where were waging the green war. Its reallall very, very local. And so, while wed love to see greater, you know, activity on the National Policy side, theres a lot of great stuff happening at t local level ths startin to catalyze this. Zeroenergy homes works for everne. Its a zero electric bill. How can you go wrong . Thats extra money for groceries, extra money for college, extra money for whatever the case may be. Male narrator as energy costs have risen around the world, nations have been forced to address their consumption and their energy usage. Governments and consumers in europe and asia have sought new and Innovative Solutions to Controlling Energy costs by controlling Energy Consumption in how they build, and in how they live. But with relatively cheap energy costs, america has stayed with the status quo, and built houses the same way for more than 50 years. Now, as our energy costs rise, and we find ourselves engaged in wars in International Regions rich in energy resources, we must look for Energy Solutions literally on the home front. We must look for ways to reduce and eliminate our dependence on Foreign Energy sources. We must move to a nation where our homes and buildings produce more energy than they consume. We must move to a zero Energy America. For builders like Marc Rutenberg, the challenge is how; how do we redefine every aspect of how we build in varying climates to build smart and energyefficient homes that are still affordable and costeffective . Every time we look at it, said, how is it tomorrows home, inside a very familiar, very comfortable platform . Narrator for rutenberg, a florida builder, its a challenge that many have said couldnt be done. What he soon realized that even with his pedigree from arguably floridas first family of home builders, the rutenbergs, and 25 years of personal building experience, everything hknew about building a home was about to change. We thought we were pretty good. We said, weve got 50 years Third Generation a benchmark in florida as high as a home builder can push i yeah, and we said, throw it out. Take everything you know and start ov. Methodology, process, systems, performance those words werent in our vocabulary; now they control everything. [power drill whirring] if you look at the history of innovation of building envelopes over the last hundred years, its disgusting. I mean, its 2x4 walls those have been around since, what, the late 1800s. In the 60s or 70s, somebody decided, oh, well, lets start to fill that cavity with blown fiberglass. About the same time, people decided doublepane glass was kind of a good thing to do. The innovation in building envelopes is zero. Talk about an easy area to focus some innovation on. When homeowners think about, well, i want to green my ho, first thing they starthinking about is, well, i should put solar panels on my roof. And thats one of those major misconceptions that we try really hard to combat. I have the cversation at least three times a week. People are all jazzed up, where, im gonna put solar panels on my roof, and its like, yeah, theyre cool, but is the house leaky . I mean, thats where you got to start. If you think about the history of innovation in the housing sector, nobody would, in their right mind, if they needed a computer, would go buy a 1920s aing machine. Nobody would go buy a model t unless theyre, you know, a collector or something. But lots of people go buy a 1920s bungalow, and thats in large part because its not technologically all that different than whats being built today. What does make sense is the lowlying fruit air sealing, you know . Doing weather stripping on windows, replacing windows, replacing doors; these kind of thin. You just got to insulate. Better windows, better doors, and insulation in the attic and floor or basement. Controlling air infiltration is the priority over and above the thermal layer itself. It doesnt matter how big the thermos bottles; if i put holes in it, dont put the top on, it not gonna work real well. We have got to shut down air infiltration, do Everything Possible to maintain the integrity of the thermal envelope. Icynene spray foam is both an insulation and an air barrier. That combination gives us some unique properties that ordinary, conventional insulation does not have. Initially, it was reay just used in highend residential homes; expensive, custommade homes for people whoared a lot about the environment and about their energy bills, and wanted to do thright thing. So it was quite limited in the beginning, but lately, spray polyurethane foam insulation has been spreading down into production homes and much broader use, and into commercial buildings and other areas. Spray foam is a better material than traditional insulations because its one thats more rigid and durable. It keeps its shape better for the life of the house. Other types of insulations will dip and sag over time, but the spray foam structure is such that it stays and keeps its shape and strength and durability fothe life of a building. Some of the other benefits of icynene, in addition to the Energy Efficiency, are the acoustical properties. It makes a home much quieter. As the home is tightly sealed, very little air from the outside gets in. Really, the only air that comes into the home, other thanpening windows and doors, comes in through mechanical ventilation, which is filtered. So what we see when we do aome in icynene is that theres very ltle dust, very little pollen in the home, so people with allergies are positively affected. When youre looking at the performance of insulation, if the insulation doesnt perform as an air barrier, or there isnt an integral air barrier as part of that system, then the performance of the insulation gets compromised. If you take insulation and you adhere it to a surface, you can adhere it over things that normally used to be a problem in terms of thermal performance the complicated structural materials. You eliminate those thermal bridges, you get much better performance. And imagine a house that you can maintain constant temperatures, and you can maintain humidity control, and u dont have concerns about moisture builp in the exterior walls or in the ro. Imagine the flexibility, the freedom that that brings, and thats what youreooking at when you provide this kind of a solution. Lots of folks have found, with a simple change of insulating their attic in a warm, airconditioning climate at the roofline versus on the floor of the attic, theyre saving upwards of 50 on their energy bills. Quite significant. The amount of energy thats saved is so substanal that in the life cycle of the product, it likely is the most Energy Efficient of any of the Insulation Products that you can use, because it has that air barrier attribute. Engineers have begun to think of the building envelope as a system, and so the building envelope would include all the materials from inside the paint on the inside of the home to the siding on the outside of the home and everything in between. If you design the building envelope properl then you get good moisture performance to keep out mold and mildew you get Energy Efficiency, and you get sound deadening, so that the interior of the space is ve quiet and pleasant. Back in 1992 when andrew went through and this state just got devastated by a category 5 hurricane, and our goal at that time was to build the best window we could build to protect people. And we developed an impactresistant window. This shot we just did previously, and you can see how, yes, there was a nice cracking pattern, there was the outer layer, which was was the ig that did break, but the window itself is still in great shape. No penetration. So this is what you expect from an impact window. As time went on and we started looking at the energy costs and looking at the movement coming to florida and saying, okay, theres energy costs here that are getting higher. So now we had to marry that that impactresistant product to a really energyefficient window. One of the things that people should definitely consider is the functionality of the window in terms of the Overall Energy efficiency of the home, and the impact that has on your other systems. You can decrease the size of your ac it simply by upgrading your windows. And the net effect is a saving not only in the total buildingost but ultimately in your energy bills. With the zeroenergy project that were working on with Marc Rutenberg homes, the windows that were actually installed were energyefficient vinyl winguard impact windows. And what it allowed the construction to carry out was that the hvac system would s for the square fooge ofhis home, and because of the windows that were installed and the insulation in the home, they were able to bring it down to three oneton units, which is a considerable savings to the consumer in the long run. But in a home that has truly old Windows Windows th are singlepane, maybe theyre 20 years old the savings is considerable, and onour heating or ac costs, it could be as much as 25 . By putting energyefficient windows in, you can downsize yr hvac, you can save energy costs, and over theourse of two years to five years, youre gonna actually have a net Energy Saving on youhouse. The zeroenergy project is going to allow us to really demonstrate to the consumer that you can build a zeroenergy home in florida byrotecting the building envelope and this is what we really need to do to educate people to move forward in this movement. Someday windows will actually capture energy and put it back into the house. If youre looking at that 10 cost or 20 cost to build an energyefficient house and make that envelope theest envelope you can psibly make, youre gonna save that money for the life of the house. But your life of a house is gonna be, you know, 50 to 75, 100 years, so youve got that Energy Efficiency that whole time Going Forward for a really small cost on the front end. The envelope is the easiest thing to understand in terms of making some sort of efficiency gains, i think, because you can just think it in terms of a draft that can come from cracks around a window; cracks in the foundation. A lot of people have homes you go and see where the pipes go in and out of the house, and youre stunned. You know, itsike, youan actually see around there. So its critical to have a tight envelope. Narrator the evolution of the envelope in pasvhaus design principles. Si originally developed in 1988 by professor bo adamson of sweden and professor Wolfgang Feist of germany, passivhaus, or passive house in america, is a rigorous voluntary standard for Energy Efficiency in a building, centered around reducing the ecological footprint, that results in ultralowenergy buildings that require Little Energy for space heating or cooling. Since its inception, there are now more than 50,000 structures worldwide that ulize these design principles, that include positioning of the structu, material choices, systems choices, and windows and doors all selected for how they contribute to the management of the thermal barrier. A passive house is a building that isand it doesnt have to be a house; it could be a commercial building, it could be a skyscraper, it could be a school that is built to a very demanding Energy Performance standard. You have ventilation requirements, you have fresh air, air quality requirements, you have heating and cooling requirements, and youve got to make them all work together. And its possible to do that. I built a passive house toave money and to live comfortably. The walls were insulated panels that were anchored with interior walls regular 2x4 walls. The walls have windows that are very efficient. They retain heat, and, in the wintertime, the wall, the glass surface, the floor surface theyre all equal temperature. And ive measured. I know that for a fact. Energy recovery ventilation is a key part of the passive house design approach. And its partly because the envelope is supertit, which mean you know, conventionally, designers built hoes knowing that they leak, and thats how they make sure that you get enough fresh air in the house, which is not a great way to go about it, but its bn possible because eners been cheap. Now you say, were gonna seal this thing, but when we seal this thing, what happens . Well, now we dont get enough fresh air unless we actively make sure we do. So you set up this very highly Efficient Energy recovery ventilation system where you have a really highly efficient motor runs very quiet, and it runs at a very low level continuously. Narrator with an erv, if its cold outside and warm inside, then the air is exchanged across the erv and mixed in a chamber with an enthalpy wheel or an enthalpy exchange, raising the temperature of cold outside air to or close to the temperature of the inside air. If its warm outside and cold inside, like summer months, the process is reversed. In some instances, an inline microheater or microcooler about the size of a hairdryer, will be installed to further raise or lower the temperature of the air before it enters the building environment. But long before the builder worries about an erv, they have to make many Construction Material choices that can affect the efficiency of the structure and its envelope. Today, there are a variety of products in this emerging marketplace that offer better performance for builders focused on increasing the effectiveness of the thermal envelope and reducing the ecological footprint of the home. When building his first zeroenergy home, Marc Rutenberg took the time to research and select the materials with that goal in mind. What were looking at is aac autoclaved aerated concrete. Extraordinary structural performance, thermal performae, fire resistance. Its as safe, as reliable, as any exterior building envelope product that weve ever worked with. Aac is autoclaved aerated concrete. Basically, its a lightweight concrete, and the light weight and how its aerated is where it gets some of its thermal properties. I believe this product has something to offer our society as a whole, and the Sustainability Movement as a whole as well. Because you can reduce, dramatically, the amount of energy used when you construct buildings with this product. Energy usage ends up creating a lot of the co2 issue that we have here in this country. And quite frankly, when you s and commercial buildings, it dwarfs what happens, for example, in transportation. So its very important to use a product like this and otherso reduce it in buildings. Builders have an opportunity to offer the consumer something that can bring value, again, to save energy ngterm. But the builders have to be willing to proactively tell their buyers, i have this package for you. To say, heres what youre really trying to accomplish, and dont allow other pele to value engineer out some of threally good things that can be put in, sustainabilitywise; particularly if they end up saving money in the life cycle cost of the building. The group here decided to test various types of construction; aac was one of those, and another one was concrete block. And another one was normal, kind of, wood framing, if you will. We were asked to come out while hebel demonstrated the Fire Properties of each building. After the fire first began, each one had the same fire load 36 pallets in each one of the typical buildings. Within 14 minutes, the first Wood Building started to fail. A few minutes afterwards, around 15 minutes, the concrete building started to show signs of failure. It was just amazing; the comparison was clear compared to the regular concrete Block Construction and the wood construction. A fire was going inside the building. You could put your hand on the outside of the building and you couldnt feel the heat. And its because its so well insulated. You know, eventually it will char and whateve but youre not gonna feel that heat for a long time, because it takes a long time to pass through. Handsdown, just proved how good their product is. What we lened about sustainability and sustainability, in my mind, starts and ends with using energy we have to be willing to make some tradeoffs. We believe that you might spend a little bit more somewhere, but youll end up saving more because you save more energy later on. Narrator as important as the material choiceare, how those products are manufactured is just as important. One company, boral bricks, is leading by example by redefining how a Brick Manufacturing plant is conceived, designed, built, and operated. When youre looking at the effectiveness of materials, your decisions are impacting you far beyond the home youre building. Youre impacting the community, youre impacting the regional economies. If you start looking at the effectiveness of your materials, then srt looking at the way there made whos king them and where theyre coming fm. Boral bricks is a great example cradle to cradle manufacturing facility located where natural materials are available. Located where they can take advantage of old, existing methane gas. Being able to run their plant on recyclable materials. The terra haute facility is unique in that all levels of sustainability, from the Energy Sources to how we win the clay are all factored into really doing aood job of making a sustainable product. We located this facility adjacent to a methane source, provided by an existing landfill. We knew that we wanted to get involved in a plant that had a landfill that was mature enough that we could siphon off the gas for a long foreseeable window, so that we could go ahead and put in the equipment and design the plant to utilize the methane gas. The methane production in a landfill is forever. I mean, its not gonna stop; once the process starts, youve got to do something with that meane. Either it escapes to the atmosphere, or it has to be collected and flared off. Methane is some 20 times more damaging to the environment than Carbon Dioxide is. To take that energy and make a product out of it and a beneficial use is certainly a plus for everybody. The terra haute plant is actually a really its just a perfect location for a Brick Manufacturing plant from our standpoint. Being located near a mine site where theres a large amount of overburden, which is basically the soil and the mineral materials that are removed as they dig down to get to the coal that they want all of this stuff they have to dig through comes up to the surface. They have no use for that. So there it sits. We have a use for that, and they want to get rid of it, and, again, its a winwin situation. Weve oked at different types of technologies where we can really utilize a waste material, or something that would otherwise be toxic, or landfill material, or a gas that you dont want, and bring it in and use it as a fuel material. I think, obviously, the consumer is going to want to buy a product which is made responsibly out of materials that otherwise might be wast. In the case of this facility, its the energy from the landfill gas, as well as the fact that were not digging up a fresh place in the earth; were taking old mine spoils and making a usable product out of it. Smart construction, whether its the boral brick plant or this house the economics of Building Materials and building methodology is smart construction. And what youre going to find, over and over, is the adoption of highperformance systems, highperformance materials; youre adopting it beuse of the expected life cycle performance of the products. Narrator using Sustainable Materials that are manufactured responsibly is only one part of the equation. To achieve a zeroenergy or netzero standard where the building creates more energy than it consumes, we have to rethink every aspect of how to build. Project frog, a San Francisco startup, is doing just that, and dragging a 19thcentury industry into the future with stylish, energyefficient buildings that can be built in less time, and as much as 50 cheaper. Project frog uses natural light, ventilation, and sitespecific design to create highly efficient buildings that range from convenience stores, to schools, to specialty projects, like Crissy Field Center at San Franciscos historic golden gate park. The Mission Behind the company is to create buildings that are better, greener, faster, ancheaper, and all at the same time. One of the goals that weve set out to do is to make sure that every building that we put in place is capable of being energyneutral. The intent is to drive down t Energy Demand by just increasing energy efficncy. The Center Brings 28,000 kids from various parts of San Francisco to teach them various environmental principles. They have great programs. Part of the centers mission is its an environmental center, so, obviously, what we wanted to do was reflect that in the construction of this new building. In 2009, the existing center had to move, and it was sort of on an emergency basis, so we were tasked, at the conservancy, to find a solution that we could implement within a year. We looked at a variety of different solutions. It needed to be something that was designed safe for schoolchildren. We settled on project frog, and i think its been a good collaboration. What we want to do is to optimize based on the use, based on the location, what the best strategies are for a given location. And really, what you want to think about is not just the green components, but the correlative health components. The goal, right, is to just kind of reduce waste across the board. So when were manufacturing, when were onsite, and when were actually opating the building. Some of the interesting features of the building that youan see right from the outside the building is clad in oldgrowth redwood that we salvaged from a railroad tunnel. The red siding over there is a pduct called ecoclad. If you go out back, youll see sort of a large water tank. It collects the rain off of theoof. It supplies over 50 of the water. Why waste good, purified, Domestic Water when you can use rainwater for that . The buildings well insulated enough, with a cool roof that reflects radiant heat off of it, that we dont need to cool the building at all. Simply opening the windows is adequate. What we did in this building is we used whats called an underfloor displacement ventilation system, which is a complicated way of saying the air actually comes up from the floor. So instead of air being pushed down on you like a standard heating and cooling system, it rises. And, because of the nature of air and convection, the air tends to collect around you. We use what we call daylight autonomy, which means that you just dont need lights on in the building during sunlight hours. In a school, for example, that can save you as much as 40 of your energy spent, like that, just by putting in better glass. We got installed a 24 kw photovoltaic system that uses pretty interesting microinverter technology, so we can monitor the panel efficiency, panel by panel, in real time. The whole process to get from foundation to cold shell is usually about 20 days, which is 5x faster than most buildings. It really is about being responsible and producing what we consume. I think its, like, 72 of our municipal landfills are construction debris, and thats just not sustainle. And so, as we think about, you know, just the full impact, the full life cycle assessment of buildings you know, the energy that we consume in those buildings over 50 years, 100 years, whatever it is. Theres no choice but to rethink, you know, the way that we strategize around our communities. Narrator designing an entire Community Around a green, sustainae, energyefficient lifestyle is a monumental task. It may sound farfetched, but these communities already exist all around the world, and are being developed right here in america. One londonbased company, bioregional, is driving Development Worldwide with the sustainable message of a oneplanet lifestyle only consume what the planet can support. At bioregional, what were really trying to do is create places where its easy for people to have a whole green lifestyle. So that includes things like Green Buildings energyefficient buildings supply of Renewable Energy. But also looks at transport solutions; for example, reducing dependence on the car by introducing car clubs. Looking at how we can make it easy for people to recycle. And how they can get more local, organic food. So the one Planet Communities Program is basically creating a small handful of places around the world that go further than anyone else has gone in terms of sustainability; creating places where we get a reduction in the footprint of the people who live there. This is a way to look at sustainability thats not just about a building, its not just about a street, its not just about a piece of infrastructure, but its really about the people who live in those buildings and their behaviors as well. It folds all that together. So, bedzed was really our first attempt at creating a place where people could lead a whole sustainable lifestyle, and it was really analyzing bedzed that we came up with the one planet living concept. Through the analysis of looking at where peoples environmental savings were coming from, what really brought benefit, what, perhaps, we thought brought benefit, but didnt. But also, what improved peoples quality of life. Bedzed was a project that was finished in 2002, and it was an initiative to create 96 homes in a sustainable, passive solar village, and then have commercial space, so that there would be jobs onsite as well. Where were standing right now were at the bedzed ecovillage that stands for the Beddington Zero Energy Development in south london. Weve been here for about ten years now, so were quite settled in, and were trying to find mainstream ways to live sustainably, and, at the same time, have a really good quality of life. When we started to think about bedzed, we really wanted this to be a place where, they really could live sustainably here. We did think very long and hard about the materials that we used here. Our aim was to choose local, environmentally accredited, reclaimed, recycled materials. Currently, about 20 of our electricity comes from the pv panels; the rest of our electricity is coming from the grid, and our hot water is coming from three efficient, onsite, gascondensing boilers. Our longterm plan is to get a Biomass Boiler, using local waste wood to give us our heat, and to go on a green tariff for the rest of our electricity. But even without that, you know, 100 Renewable Energy supply at the moment, were still reducing our Carbon Emissions from the buildings by about 60 . Thats really good. I mean, thats down to, really, energyefficient appliances, the design of the buildings, and the way that people are living in those buildings. So, i mean, thats already a big efficiency. We were looking at reducing our water use by about 50 , reducing our electricity by 25 , our heating by 88 , and recing our private car miles by about 50 . We have met or exceeded all of tho targets, so were really happy th that. But if we look at the complete ecological footprint impact, were actually not getting down to that oneplanet level, which we were surprised about, so we went back and we were checking all of our figures, ing more studies to see, you know, what is happening here . And the thing is, bedzed is quite small there are a hundred homes here, you know, there are some offices here; we have a community center. But when people need to go to use the schools, use hospitals, use the shops, go to work, theyre back out in the unsustainable world, so their impact is going to go up. This cost roughly about 50 more per square meter to build than a conventional development at the time. But really it was a test case. The idea was to learn from this, and then take what worked and leave what didnt rk, and bring those into the next generation designs. So, one brighton, the next community that weve been involved in with the developer, Bioregional Quintain that is a profitable development. You know, so many years down the line. One brighton is a project that built on the findings of bedzed. One brighton is a project right next to the train station in downtown brighton, which is a seaside resort town. Its 172 units. Its a building in the United Kingdom thats gone further, i think, in terms of Energy Efficiency than almost any of the others. One brighton is an example where were creating a zeroenergy building. And we do that by generating about half the Renewable Energy onsite so we have some Photovoltaic Panels not a huge amount but we generate the heat from a wood heating system. But then weve also set up an Energy Services company which bulk buys guaranteed Green Electricity from a wind farm, and we distribute that to our residents. These are the two buildings of one brighton. You have brighton belle, and pullman haul in the distance. Its very much a commercial venture, but from the outset, certain principles were put in place through the design, the construction, and now the living phase, and those principles are supposed to make the building as sustainable as possible. I can monitor whats going on with the Biomass Boiler; i can check essures, temperures. The Biomass Boiler we have onsite here, its a 500 kilowatt binder model. It runs on wood chip. That wood chip comes from local sussex forests, so thats coppice material as well, so those trees will grow back. Its as close to zerocarbon as were gonna get. The heat thats generated from that is used to heat 20,000 liters of water, which is pumped as a district heating system around the entire building. Thats 172 apartments, about 10 commercial units. So weve got general waste, weve got glass, and weve got mixed recyclables. But weve also got a food waste chute. Underground here, we have a mechanical composter. So what happens is, residents are issued with these biodegradable bags they can get from me. They fill it with whatever organic material they have that can be leaves, bread, bones, meat, whatever. Drop it down the food waste chute, and, from there, its put into the composter, and in about eight weeks, well gecompost out there. We can use tt compost thats generated in the rooftop allotments. Whats unusual about one brighton is getting all these different, simple technologies in the one place. I think one brighton has proved that you can build a project like this, make it successful. Every single apartment here has been sold, and thats bucking a trend in the uk. One brighton, i think, stands out, because it was a building that was delivered without any additional cost. So it was built within the conventional build cost envelope, but its a zerocarbon building. And this project had the best Sales Performance in the southeast of england. So it was very financially successful, as one of the greenest buildings in the world. I think green living, its very important to the future, and if people actually see the benefits in their lives, in their childrens lives, and see that, actually, you dont need a major lifestyle change to actually live greener, i think people will jump on board. Through detailednalysis, we really understood that creating a whole sustainable lifestyle was important. Thats everything not just Green Buildings, but also food, managing waste and recycling more and looking at transport. Sonoma Mountain Village is a fantastic project in california, just north of San Francisco. Of about 3 4 million square feet of existing budings. The project really was a vision of brad baker, whos ceo of codding enterprises. The vision was born on the fact that development cant keep being done the same way if were going to be stewards of the earth, and were gonna be responsible to the environment. So hp agilent had a factory there, and they abandoned it. They left behind 3,000 Parking Spaces and these big box buildings that nobody wanted to do anything with. And this Real Estate Developer that had been developing strip malls came along with a new visn, bought the property, and have cated a new urbanist plan for the project that means that those existing buildings stay. They get retrofitted, and they turn into job cenrs, and, around the edge of those buildings, condominiums are put in place at the exterior as well as retail, cafes, a new cinema, grocery store, and then all around those existing buildings, 1,900 homes are added. And so what you get, at the end, is a project where theres gonna be 4,500 residents and 4,500 jobs. A place where youreonna be a fiveminute walk from everything you need. A place where 100 of the power is gonna be generated onsite using renewable power. And thats just the start. We have opportunity to expand that. The houses will be totally selfsufficient as well. Theres a 15year buildout to this project. And itll change as we go through, and well take advantage of new technology. So this is, to my mind, this is the start of something thats gonna be absolutely fantastic. Our community, youll be able to live here, youll be able to work here, youll be able to dine and shop here, and play here. And youll be able to do it all within this beautiful, sustainable community. You can have a green building, but to make a green lifestyle, you need more than a green building; you need a green community. And so we wanted something that had that scale. Something that had places for people to rk, places for people to shop, places for people to recreate. And then, obviously, places for people to live. And we thought, by having this scale, we could have a ch more comprehensive apprch ancreate a much more holistic sustainable lifestyle. So the first thing we did is, we got Energy Efficient. We started turning things off that didnt need to be on, finding more efficient pumps, and putting timers on things, and really, you know, just reducing the waste that was involved. We put our first solar array in in 2006, and it was very impactful on our utility bill. Time went on, and we decided to add another array. And the othething that happened is that we got a lot more people out here. It went from being an abandoned campus to home to about 800 employees that come here every day. In here, we also have what we call a business incubator. And its a place where small businesses, instead of starting in their garage, they can come and plug and play and start their business in this incubator. And then theyre grown, and then they take root as a fully fledged business in rohnert park or in sonoma Mountain Village. Weve completely taken the typical model and thrown it out. We started with jobs. We have around 800 people working here onsite right now, so, normally, in a Community Like this, you would actually start with the homes, the people, then the jobs come along afterwards. Well, weve started with the jobs. While weve been going through the rezoning of the site and the entitlements for this site, we actually started leasing the space out here, which, of course, went along with the jobs. And for a landowner, that makes it a model that is selfsustaining. So while were going through this, instead of sitting, waiting on the economy for our return on our investment, were alreadreceiving a return on our investment. We went across the cotry, we actually went overseas, we tried to find other prects. We found bits and pieces of what we wanted our community to be like, but we did not find a true model. We were able to find new urban projects, and were able to find sustainable projects, but we never found one that we felt had the look and the feel and the deep sustainability that we wanted. So a lot of what were doing, we basically are kind of the pioneers on. When you look at the whole picture, its not just a zerocarbon development, its not just a zerowaste development, but its a place where were reinventing the American Business park. And building houses around it not separating them, so that the factories and the jobs are here, and the houses are over here, but mixing them up and saying, you know what . Its really okay for people to live next to their jobs. In ft, its gonna be better, its gonna be richer, to be able to go visit your kid at lunch break at the daycare nearby. And i think that this is a template for, not just new communitie in the United States, but for the retrofit of the american suburbs and, you know, business parks. We knew, going in, it would be a longtm situation; we didnt know it would be quite as longterm as its turned out to be. You know, thats just the way it goes sometimes. Luckily, everybodys hung in there, and, you know, were still really excited about the future. You can have all the lifestyle, luxury, lovely house, impress your friends, and you can help save the world. Do you want to do that . Or not . I mean, nobodys gonna say no. Narrator even as these visionaries develop solutions of longterm sustainable communities, they face challenges from laws and Development Codes implemented without considering these types of solutions. For instance, at sonoma Mountain Village, in order to pass power from the communitys solar arrays to an individual residence, California Law will have to be rewritten, allowing direct transfer of power from a nonutility company. Without the support of federal, state, and local government, many of these sustainable communities will never get off the ground. Environmental policy is not, kind of, front and center in the agenda of most americans today. We can sort of see a future where it definitely will be. Where they understand the fincial impacts and the Health Impacts of making better decisions. And, at some pointwere just gonna really start to worry about what kind of world were leaving to our kids and our grandkids. It takes leadership, but the reason i think we all got into this position is not any evildoers; its just that gas and oil was so cheap. It was so easy to use. We built a whole infrastructure on it. Now its turning out to be expensive and geopolitically dangerous, so we want to stop doing that. I do think that, for the most part, youve got governmen out there that are trying to figure out a way to support renewable eney, sustainable strategies, even in places where you know, outside of california, where they may not have the same kind of mandates, theyre realizing, look, there are jobs on the line. Theres jobs that are available if we think differtly. New jerseys a great example where i think a lot of that stuff has taken place. Very accommodative to the Solar Industry secondlargest number of solar installations in the country behind california, and it just gives you a good sense how really smart policy can help drive that kind of change. This is the first of its kind. This is the first commercial netzero Electric Building in the United States. 31 tannery is a great example of being netzero today, versus ten years down the road. We found out its doable; its very possible with a little bit of investment. We get paid for the amount of electricity we generate from our system. In new jersey, we get paid through solar Renewable Energy credits. We dont need the utility grid to supply with electricity; that winds up to be about 30,000 a year in utility savings, plus the revenue we get om srecs is about 160,000 a year, so, between savings and revenue from our pv system, we earn about 190,000 a year. The pv system was about a 1. 4 Million Investment by the building owner, and were looking at about six years its gonna take to pay off the system. Builders and people are gonna push back on some of this, because there is an increased cost to doing it up front. But, again, no ones showing about the longterm benefits of why we need to do this as a country and as a society, and thats really where the challenge is. We know its the right thing to do, but nobodys making the commitment to really do it. And its really gonna require the government to push people towards this movement. The challenge is that you will get the builders arguing that as you add features to a house, you reduce affordability. And then you get a certain push from government saying, well, homes need to be affordable to a certain percentage of people. And so, inherently, then, the builders come back and say, well, then you cant make us add this to the house, because it wont become afforble. Now, i dont agree with that argument. And it was a 200,000 house versus an energy star 210,000 house. And, because of the Energy Savings, and water savings, and reduced mortgage rate, and reduced insurance rates, you actually would be positive 60 a month. And so, but, again, if you just look at that dollar per square foot, ones 100 per square foot and ones 105 per square foot. Even though this one saves me 60 a month. Most salespeople arent going to have that conversation with you. Theyre trying to sell you a house. We have monthly bills its a mortgage. Its principle. Its interest. Its energy. Its water. Its a gas bill, possibly. Its homeowners insurance. Its all of those things. And were only talking mortgagecapital cost. When you factor those other things in, its definitely more affordable to look at performance. The standards of our construction start with the performance of the home. Anthat concept wasnt relevant. The building industry largely collapsed it was on its back and the decision that we made without realizing at that point, when we to on this project, was really as simple as, we need to be relevant. I know, from theeedback of the community, that this home immediately has now positioned itself as a competitive benchmark. And people visiting and looking at alternative products available on the market theyre comparing a list of factors at were ner on the list. We are installing in this zero Energy America home for rutenberg homes, and our vrf product line, and basically thats a variable refrigerant flow system. A variable refrigerant flow technology, in a nutshell were moving refrigerant to the zone that needs it. A conventional system comes on and shuts off. Here, im running all variablespeed indoor units and variablespeed outdoor products, and moving the refrigerant to the zone that needs it. When we look in this room, for example, we look at ducting supplies that are here and over there. They are the same as we would use in conventiona tenology installations. The difference is, these duct runs would be 12 inches, theyd be tied back into ducts that are over 20 inches, and they would run more than 70 feet back to a common air handler location. Here, these two ducts are approximately 8 inches. This one runs approximately 12 feet, this one runs approximately 18 ft, to an air handler thats here, located in the conditioned attic. I can take a single outdoor unit, in this particular instance, and put five indoor units and give this home five separate cooling zones or heating zones. So what im able to do is, the zones that dont need it, im able to ramp those indoor units down to very low fan speeds, thereby consuming a lot less electcity and on using electricity to provide the cooling thats calling for in a particular zone. Conventionally, we locate our systems in the garage, and then we transfer that 160 feet across the house, and in that distance, we lose a tremendous amount of the efciency, not to mention the fact the air escaping. The separate heating and cooling zones are designated by individual indoor units, and those indoor units are designed to serve the space that theyre in, so were using Less Materials from an overall installation perspective, but were also giving each of those zones a controller for temperature and humidity so that we can control each individually, so that maybe you dont need the bedrooms at the same temperature as you need the living space, because no ones over there. So now, with this system, we have the ability to do that, where with a conventional system, its on or its off in one set point. [car horns honking] in the history of lg group, lg has been greatly successful in home appliances. In the future, lg thinks about environment for the human being. And how to save energy, and how to deliver more benefits to the customers. From the environmental and energysaving prospect. The technologies that we are using at the moment we call vrf technology. Variable refrigerant flow technology. [speaking korean] if you compare it with the conventional system when you are talking about conventional system, youre referring to the chilled water system or the fan coil units we use the most popular thing that is applicable in your market may be the ducting system. So, instead of going to onetoone system, if you have a multisplit system, you can considerably reduce the installation cost, the first thing, and the second part is the operation cost that is coming up with this system. So, when you compare both these costs, this is more costsaving. Our vision is to be a Solution Provider for total hvac solution, and to become a real Energy Solution company in the future. We believe this netzero house project in florida is a perfect fit for our evolutions, and we view this as a good example and platform to demonstrate our energyefficient equipment. We believe this can be a great educational platform, since we can, you know, demonstrate how it works, and our Energy Efficiencies can be operated as well. What youre looking at here this is the star of the hvac show. This is vrf technology. What is so different about the capacity of this equipment were able to ramp down to 13 of the production capability and were able to ramp up to 130 . So, contrary to conventional air nditioning standards, where the switch is either on or off im at zero or im at 100 in order to gain extreme efficiencies in hv design, as the load on the house changes and the demand for heating or cooling changes throughout the house, we have to have a condensing system that can adjust itself so its only producing, really, what the house is calling for. If i was installing a conventional, straight cool or heat pump operated system, the typical florida new construction environment, with a vrf system, its going to cost mormoney. But as soon as you say to me, but i want to add zoning to a conventional system, i want to upgrade the seer seer relates to the efficiency higher the efficiency, lower operating cost. As soon as you say to me, i need a variablespeed fan, as soon as you say, i really should go to a variablespeed compressor, its going to cost more money. So i keep increasing the cost of the conventional system. Once i do that, to try to mimic the effectiveness of the vrf system, ive never reached the true effectiveness of the vrf. I didnt come close to reducing my operating costs to the Cost Reduction available through the vrf operations. I didnt match up to the flexibility of the vrf products, and i spent the same amount of money. And, in ten years, its designed to fail. [fan blade rattles] real case and reallife study says were seeing as much as 40 , 50 , 60 Energy Savings on an electric bill for these systems. Any of these homes at were building nowadays that are tight and, you know, were trying to run conventional systems and run snake ductwork, large ductwork, through attic spaces and restrict airflows. And here, im running 1 4 inch and 1 2 inch copper line sets through these chases and truss spaces, and then putting these little air handlers where they go. And by doing so, we just greatly improve the comfort levels of the hom that were working with. Weve been investing in vrf technology for long, and weve been heavily pursuing this technology to be the platform to win, and as a result, we are seeing the growth, rapidly. And regions like europe, regions like japan, already embrace this Heat Pump Technology as a source of renewable technology. And the penetration of ty accelerated in europe already up to 40 . You know, countries like uk, france, and italy, and also in asia china, korea; already more than 60 including japan. So when energy cost is becoming a more important factor for builders and contractors, they are accepting these technologies. Narrator by employing passive house degn principles for the thermal envelope, and achieving a tightly built home with very little air infiltration and heat transfer, Marc Rutenberg set up a system could reduce the ergy consumption required to heat and cool the home. This overall system designed to reduce Energy Requirements then allows thbuilder to look at solar solutio for the home. Because of Energy Consumption reductions, solar becomes a viable costeffective solution especially in florida. In the second half of zero ergy america, well explore solar as a viable option to not oy reducing our carbon footprint, but reducing homeowners monthly expenses; well go to germany a world leader in Renewable Energy and discover how a simple incentive program, being emulated now in gainesville, florida, has halted the construction of new nuclear and coal power plants and made the country capable of producing more Renewable Energy than it consumes; and well explore new technology in products that make energyefficient, sustainable construction a costeffective reality today. Plus well look at real answers to not only what theovernment can do, but what you can do to retrofit your current home right now, to help move us to a zero Energy America. [soulf guitar music] maybe not everyones like this, but when i go out there and watch my electromechanical electric power meter run backwards, it just fills me with joy. To me, the solutions are there. Now its an issue of, lets do i you could build a homehat is a zeroenergy home today, and it doesnt have to break the bank if you do it right. If youre gonna progress, if youre gonna move forward, why not stop having to use oil . Why not stop having to use coal . Why not use things that are clean . Things that make sense . Things that happen to be free