• Strawbale structures. Experience researchers have found that the strawbale structure is many times more efficient in regulating heat transfer between the inside and the outside of a structure. It is as fire resistant as any stick built structure and has all of the wind and seismic resistance of any other permitted structure. It is so easy to build that any common labor can be used, thus enabling families, small groups and entire communities to participate in erection of strawbale structures. The impact of this technology would be to greatly lower the cost of affordable housing by one-third.

• Solar and wind. By combining strawbale construction of solar energy, each building can generate much of its hot water and electricity. If located in a windy area, wind power generation can be an added source of energy.

• South facing solar roofing and heat trapping devices. Large roofs which face south catch the Winter sun and can transform that heat into electrical energy and supply hot water to the building. Using celestery windows and large heat-absorbing masses inside the building which are directly heated by the sunlight, will reduce the carbon footprint of that building, and reduce the cost of heating.

• Ground effects heating and cooling. Substantial engineering progress has been made in the field of ground effects heating and cooling. Heating by use of geothermal water is also a practical service.

• Biomass. Farming areas produce waste in the form of biomass. This byproduct of agriculture is highly useful in making compost, soil amendments, methane and ethanol.

• Localization. Much of today's food is imported from over 1500 miles away, thus putting in danger our food security as prices of fuel continues to skyrocket. Localization of our food supply will greatly reduce the food's carbon footprint. By moving toward self-sufficiency, we not only save money but improve the local economy by keeping our money turning in the local economy.

• Local currency. By have a community, even a loosely organized one, would promote localization of our community needs, including a form of local currency. Over the past 10 years, the value of the dollar has slipped 35% as against stronger foreign currencies. This decline will continue as the U.S. Government continues to rack-up trillions of dollars of debt and continues to run the mint's printing presses at full tilt.

The point of having a local currency is to keep the value stable and keep it flowing within the community as long as possible. Studies have shown that $100 paid into an Indian Reservation in Montana, suffers a loss of 80% in the first use and an additional 8% in the second use. By the third use, only $1.00 or so remains in the reservation. So, the trick is to keep the money circulating as long as possible in the community.

Thus, the value of a local currency system is two-fold: the purchasing power of our currency remains stable and stays a longer time within the community. Thus, we have partially solved the problem of the “leaky barrel”. A local currency system can be developed using debit cards, secured by the assets of the community, rendered in dollars, and managed by the local banks and credit unions. The system is already in place in most large boxes. I sold Citibank-based “Home Depot Credit Cards” when I worked in the Bozeman, MT, store. We can, as a community, in cooperation with the local banks, issue credit cards, payable in community dollars and directly exchangeable in U.S. Dollars. As the value of the dollar continues to drop and the assets of the SBCC increases, we can begin to shift from 1 to 1 direct conversion to U.S. Dollars and allow the conversion to float. The index could be an average taken from a range of major currencies and their respective exchange rates. This system would, over time, make our local currency more valuable and more sought-after as a medium of exchange. The debit card makes the math very simple. The exchange rate is published every day at midnight and is good until the next midnight and is on the Internet and is posted at each bank and ATM machine. Local merchants would, over time, prefer the local currency since it is mroe stable and identifes the customer as "local". Further, the customer, in secting which merchants with which h/h will deal, will prefer those who honor the local currency.

Some reprogramming of the ATM machines would be needed to allow for a person to designate which kind of currency is to be transacted. If that could not be done, then we can install our own ATM machines. We would not have any physical currency, only the debit card. Thus the merchants would have to get on board along with the banks. Since this currency system is founded by and supported by SBCC, it should very stable and sought-after. What name do we want for the local currency?

• Local production of food and fuel. In addition to the savings from localization mentioned above, there are several other important considerations about the local production of food and fuel. First and foremost, we need to use permaculture farming and ranching techniques to grow our own food. Since the soil is the stomach of the plant, we need to take care of the soil as a condition of having healthy and productive plants. This means we need to add high quality compost so that the soil critters have a feast, and put mulch around our plants to keep in the moisture and suppress the weeds.

You have probably seen huge plums of smoke rising from fields where framers are burning the straw stubble. The farmers say they do it to get rid of the pests. In reality, the pest problem is because of repeated mono-cropping, so burning the stubble has little effect on the next year's supply of pests. It would be much to the benefit of the farmer to add some manure or manure tea to a green manure crop and turn both into the ground and then plant a different crop next time. Our farmers can easily convert from mono-cropping to rotational cropping, which has been advocated for years by the extension services.

In addition to growing both food and fuel crops, our marginal farm lands could support acres of covered ponds growing Chlorella vulgaris algae. This algae is 50% oil much of which can be extracted to make biodiesel. With solar, wind, ground effects energy, we could not only be “off the grid”, but with biodiesel, we'd be “off the gas pump” -- no more foreign oil. We're looking at biodiesel produced on a large scale at probably $1.25 to $2.50 a gallon raw cost (the costs depends on where you get the ethanol and how much of it is recovered after use).