Daniel Coffey is a 22-year attorney with a chemical engineering undergraduate degree from University of California, Davis. A former appointee to the San Diego Park and Recreation Board, Mr. Coffey follows San Diego politics closely as an active member of the community.

Over the past three centuries, and accelerating dramatically after World War II, we, the increasingly numerous people of Earth, have collectively built an energy accumulation machine, a device as simple as it is colossal, as subtle as it is relentless, as uncontrollable as it is destructive and powerful. Call it the Extra Greenhouse Gas Machine or EGG-Machine.

This is a shout-out for some of my favorite small businesses and their owners, people who give a good name to enterprise and care about their customers. These are businesses where you know the owner on sight and every customer counts.

Two of my all-time favorite events occurred last week: attending the April 26 ribbon cutting of the 200-acre, 26 megawatt NRG tracking solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in Borrego Springs; and test riding the new model R11, R8 and M4 Optibike electric mountain bikes in Balboa Park on April 27. Each was a fantastic experience; each nearly at the opposite ends of "The Action Scale.”