National News
Clean Energy
Los Angeles’ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced that his city will not buy electricity produced in coal fired fired power plants from 2020 instead the city will switch to cleaner energy sources to fulfill its power demands.
Los Angeles’ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced that his city will not buy electricity produced in coal fired fired power plants from 2020 instead the city will switch to cleaner energy sources to fulfill its power demands. California has no coal-fired power plants and Los Angeles will stop buying coal generated power that it buys from other states. The 40 percent power that comes from coal-fired power plants will be taken from power plants running on cleaner sources like natural gas, nuclear energy and hydro power. This is in addition to the city’s energy efficiency plans under which it seeks to reduce energy consumption by 1 percent every year for the next ten years.
Los Angeles has set a great example for the big cities which are busy economic centers with huge energy demands. Energy consumption in rapidly growing cities of the developing countries is growing at astronomical rates. Usually the simple solution is to produce more energy, set up coal-fired power plants since coal is easily available and cheap. However, long term solutions to this energy problem are often overlooked. Countries eying faster economic growth must explore such alternatives and work to develop them as they hold the key to the problem of not just energy consumption but rising carbon emissions and climate change as well.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is the solution of all the environmental problems our world is facing today. Cities should study the energy use patterns and then work plans to cut energy use of non essential entities. Public lighting facilities can be improved to reduce load on the grid. Replacing conventional street lights with new efficient ones and switching to solar panels to power them are some of the simple solutions.
Power demand for heating purposes can be reduced by energy efficient architecture. Use ofdouble glazed windows in all new buildings being built should be made mandatory. Double glazed windows will keep away the solar heat while allowing light to enter into the buildings thus reducing cooling as well as lighting costs.
Urban heat island phenomenon increases the temperature of the cities significantly. During day time the buildings at as thermal mass and absorb the infrared radiation of the sun, as the day progresses the buildings start emitting this stored energy and thus cities are much more hotter than the neighboring areas and therefore the power demand for cooling purposes increases. This phenomenon can be dealt with by having gardens on the rooftops of buildings.Green roofs will have a net cooling effect as evapotranspiration will reduce the temperaturesin and around the building. Aesthetic beauty, ecosystems for urban wildlife, storm water management and rainwater harvesting are the other major advantages of having a green roof.
Cleaner & Renewable Energy
Reducing dependence on the power plants is one of the most efficient ways to reduce their carbon emission output. Tax incentives and subsidies for home owners and businesses for installation of solar panels and solar heaters should be provided. Feed-in tariffs schemes should be employed which would promote the use of solar energy by giving profitable returns to the users.
And even though instantly switching to large scale renewable energy plants is not possible or economically feasible, cities should look to cleaner energy sources. Laws mandating power companies to increase power generation from renewable sources every year should be passed. This would, in the long term, mean a significant reduction in carbon emissions without burdening the consumers with increased costs.
Investing in renewable energy would require billions of dollars since an economic parity has not been achieved yet and burdening common people with added costs in this time of economic slowdown would be highly unpopular. But we also need to reduce our greenhouse gas emission output therefore we must start with the simplest and the cheapest solutions available.
Reducing energy use and mitigating effects of carbon emissions by increasing green cover, even in cities, are the basic steps we can implement. An increase in green cover would not only bring down the ambient temperatures but would also mean increased rainfall within the city as well as neighboring (possibly agricultural) areas.
We have seen developed countries dodging the issue of promising monetary help to the developing countries to make transition to cleaner energy systems. Without this financial help the next climate treaty, which could include stricter and much needed emission cuts, would fail.
Thus it is important that the developed countries work out plans to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions so that, one, they could meet the emission reduction targets and, second, free up funds which could be used for assisting developing countries acquire cleaner energy systems. The developing countries must look to emulate these schemes with technical assistance from the developed countries and financial help through the adaptation fund and carbon trading.
Photos: Erland Howden and 416style (Creative Commons)
source: red,green, and blue by Mridul Chadha
Obama, Chu Roll Out New Lighting Rules and $346M for Energy Efficient Buildings
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With Energy Secretary Steven Chu by his side, U.S. President Barack Obama detailed stricter new lighting standards and promised the swift release of $346 million in Recovery Act funds to boost energy efficiency in new and existing commercial buildings and homes.
The president’s move on Monday, coming on the first business day after the House passed the climate bill, kept efforts to reduce U.S. energy consumption in the headlines.
“I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses,” Obama said of the new rules that set higher thresholds for energy efficiency in lamps and lighting equipment.
The standards were issued on Friday. Products made in the U.S. or imported for use in the country are required to meet the new parameters starting in 2012. According to the Department of Energy, the changes in lamps and lighting equipment would:
• Prevent the emission of as much as 594 million tons of carbon dioxide from 2012 through 2042, which is estimated as being roughly equivalent to removing 166 million cars from the road for a year.
• Save consumers $1 billion to $4 billion annually from 2012 through 2042.
• Save enough electricity from 2012 through 2042 to power every home in the U.S. for as many as 10 months.
• Eliminate the need for up to 7.3 gigawatts of new generating capacity by 2042, which the DOE says is equivalent to as many as 14 500MW coal-fired power plants.
The DOE’s release of $346 million in stimulus funds will go toward development and deployment of more energy smart buildings — and the technology and equipment to support them.
In the U.S., commercial buildings and homes account for about 40 percent of the energy consumption — more than any other economic sector — and for a similar percentage of CO2 emissions in the country. Existing structures present a ripe target for energy efficiency efforts and retrofits, the DOE noted, with three-quarters of the 81 million buildings in stock having been constructed before 1979.
The Recovery Act money for energy efficient structures will be allotted in five major areas:
• Advanced Building Systems Research, $100 million: Funding focuses on the development and design of integrated systems to control and manage the technology and equipment that enable structures to be more energy efficient. The goal is to accelerate progress toward zero-net energy buildings.
• Commercial Buildings Initiative, $53.5 million: Funds are to be used for expanding and speeding formation of partnerships among major companies and organizations with large building portfolios to make that property deliver “exemplary energy performance.” The DOE wants to increase the number of partnerships, now at 23, to about 75. Competitive applications for the partnerships will open in September.
• Buildings and Appliance Market Transformation, $72.5 million: Funding will be aimed at spurring the development of more energy efficient products through an expansion of Energy Star; preparing and educating various industries on how to implement commercial building codes that call for a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency and take effect in 2010; and adapting the DOE Appliance Standards program to better address innovative technology.
• Solid State Lighting Research and Development, $50 million: The DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy department calls solid-state lighting “a pivotal emerging technology that promises to fundamentally alter lighting in the future.” The R&D funds in this area will be channeled toward work that will bring high-performance lighting technology and products to market more quickly.
• Residential Buildings Development and Deployment, $70 million: The money is to be devoted to projects that will provide technical training and assistance to residential builders and the workforce handling improvement and retrofitting of existing homes for energy efficiency, as well as the construction of new, energy-saving homes. Eligible projects include those run by municipalities, states and utilities.
source: greenerbuildings
Massachusetts Unveils Ocean Energy Plan
Massachusetts on Wednesday released a draft plan for the permitting and management of ocean energy projects, such as tidal and wind power farms.
The state said it is the first such comprehensive plan in the nation. The plan aims to support the development of renewable energy, while maintaining protection of marine resources, by establishing potential zones for projects and mapping zones with sensitive ecosystems.
The draft was mandated by the state’s Oceans Act of 2008, which sets a December 31, 2009 deadline for the final plan.
Last week, the U.S. Interior Department awarded the first-ever exploratory leases for offshore wind power development off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware.
A Pike Research report published in June said marine- and hydrokinetic-generated power from the world’s oceans could grow to provide 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of power generation capacity by 2015
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPTT) in January announced plans to collaborate on utility-scale wave power generation in North America.
Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles spoke to WBUR in Boston about the draft management plan. A transcript of that interview is available at: www.wbur.org/2009/07/01/oceans-management
source: sustainablebusiness via matter network
Green-Collar Graduations Show the Promise of Stimulus Funds
OAKLAND, Calif. — It’s no secret that there is plenty of work ahead of us in moving the U.S. to a green economy. The trouble is not in finding people who need work, but rather in finding qualified and well trained workers to take on those jobs.
For companies facing a shortage of applicants, a promising solution is in the works: Green jobs training programs will make it easier for companies to make those hires, and federal, state and local projects are helping spread those nationwide.
As an added bonus, these programs will also make it easier for companies who prioritize hiring local, to meet their goals. Sun Light and Power, a solar panel installer based in Berkeley, Calif., thinks these green job training programs offer the best of both words:Workers that are both local and well trained.
“It’s important for us to hire employees from the community because we believe in continuing to support learning and development after the training programs they’ve gone through,” said Ellen Lee, Human Resources Director for Sun Light & Power.
The company has participated in green job training programs in the Bay Area, which allows them to have an influence in how potential employees are trained and participate in job development. And even though this may be a new concept for the green job sector, it is likely to become the trend.
Green for All, an Oakland-based non-profit organization, is working on a national level to influence public policy and help create similar green job training programs across the country. And Californians are starting to see the green economy light up, funded by federal stimulus dollars.
On June 29, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced $20 million in grants to11 regional pilot projects as a part of the state-wide Green Job Corps program, which was launched in March.
“We are working around the clock to bring Recovery Act funding into California as quickly, effectively and responsibly as possible to stimulate our economy,” said Governor Schwarzenegger in a prepared statement.
“Using Recovery funds and public-private partnerships, the California Green Jobs Corps will help 1,500 at-risk young adults realize a brighter future while stimulating our economy and working toward a greener California.”
Funding for the program will include career training in: energy efficiency, solar power, green construction, and alternative automotive fuel, among other things, the Governor’s office reports. In addition to job training, there will be a community service component, as well as civic education and environmental stewardship, said a representative with California Volunteers, the lead agency in charge of overseeing the California Green Jobs Corps.
The stimulus funding comes from Recovery Act Workforce Investment Act funds, of which 15 percent is part of the Governor’s discretionary fund and was prioritized for the creation of the job corps program, said Jairo Moncada, communications manager with California Volunteers.
“[The California Green Job Corps program] gives us an opportunity to make sure we are putting the dollars to work,” Moncada said in a telephone interview. Because green jobs are an emerging sector, the program is a way to ensure at-risk youth (ages 16 to 24) are prepared for the job market, a component of the Governor’s plan to improve the economy.
California Volunteers is in an ideal situation to organize the program, “because our office has experience with public-private partnerships and leveraging state, local and federal resources,” said William Ing, specialist for new initiatives with theEmployment Development Department of the governor’s office. In addition, the Volunteers program works with the Ing’s office, which runs the grant program and administers funds on a daily basis, he said.
On a local level, each program will maintain partnerships with four types of entities: a community college or district, a local workforce investment board, a non-profit organization and a private employer. While it may seem like additional levels of bureaucracy, Ing said the partnerships are a flat design: one entity receives the grant money and works with partners to understand needs of both the students and the employers.
“We don’t see that as an additional layer [of bureaucracy], we see that as a logical way of building a program,” where four entities are working together, Ing said. For example, a non-profit could help the community college understand the needs of non-typical students, who might have been in the foster system or had contact with the criminal justice system. In addition, the private employer could provide feedback to the community college regarding to the skills future employees need for a particular industry.
What and Where the Green Jobs Are
While there is no concrete definition of “green-collar jobs,” the flexibility of the term is important, so that local programs can use stimulus funds based on their own needs and conditions, Ing said. “We want to be supportive of local needs for different regions,” he said, noting that demands in the Bay Area are likely to be very different than in the Central Valley or in Southern California.
The Governor’s website even has an interactive map of Stimulus projects in the state.
These multi-faceted job-training programs are a part of the Obama Administration’s policies, as well as the state of California’s policies for economic development.
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“President Obama and I share similar priorities right now when it comes to helping the economy rebound and creating a greener California and America,” said Governor Schwarzenegger in a prepared statement in March.
But what will happen in the interim, while workers are being trained, before they are ready to enter the workforce?
“Despite the lag time, the Governor recognized that California will need thousands of skilled workers to fill the jobs of the emerging green economy,” Moncada said in an email message. “The Green Jobs Corps will create a pipeline of trained and skilled workers that will be ready to step in to this emerging economy and it will help maintain an equilibrium between supply (of skilled workers) and demand (for skilled workers).”
The state’s program, however, was modeled after Oakland’s Green Job Corps program, which was designed by a local non-profit, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. The training program, a public-private partnership includes: Cypress Mandela Training Center, a pre-apprenticeship program, Laney College, a community college, and Growth Sector, a workforce intermediary that helps place students.
The program evolved from one of the Ella Baker Center’s campaigns, called Green-Collar Jobs, which celebrated its first graduating class from the job corps on June 22. The group of 40 people received 18 hours of college credit from Laney. However small it may seem, the graduation is significant because it serves as a model for the nation, said Emily Kirsch, coordinator for the Green-Collar Jobs campaign.
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“Oakland, like many cities, is facing many challenges such as budget deficits, drop-out rates for high school students and crime. But despite this, Oakland has come together with labor, business, and the city itself to create a model program that can be replicated in similar cities through the country.”
As of last Monday’s graduation ceremony, four trainees have been placed with local companies, and 20 more are currently in the selection process for jobs in the solar and weatherization industries, said Caz Pereira, director of Growth Sector.
Part of what made the job corps program successful is the formation of the Oakland Green Employer Council, Kirsch said. These 12 businesses and non-profits work in the sectors of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building, and can provide input to training curriculum, as well as have access to well-trained, potential employees, she said.
Green Job Training is Only the Beginning
Aware of the magnitude of the situation, Kirsch acknowledges that the first graduating class is only a small step in creating viable economic opportunities for low-income communities that often suffer the effects of pollution and have the highest unemployment rates. A program like Oakland’s needs to be brought to a national scale, she said.
“It’s great that 40 people are trained, but there are 10,000 unemployed people in Oakland,” Kirsch said. “[The graduation is] an opportunity to celebrate but, also is an opportunity to say we there is a lot we need to do,” which is why the Ella Baker Center is so lucky to have Green For All at national level to influence policy, she said.
Green for All evolved from the Ella Baker Center’s Green-Collar Jobs campaign, but grew so big it needed its own office. And Van Jones, founder of both Green for All and the Ella Baker Center, is now in the Obama Cabinet. Having Jones in the White House is beneficial to both the national and local green jobs campaigns, Kirsch said.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All, commented on the organization’s work in an email message.
“Green For All’s emphasis is on communities with barriers to employment, so that is reflective of the organizations that are part of our Community of Practice, a Green For All program that links job training providers so they can learn from each other and share best practices on how to train populations with barriers, connect them to jobs, and more.”
The non-profit helped to pass the Green Jobs Act in 2007, which helps create and fund training programs for green jobs.
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“Such programs promise to be the first step out of poverty for many who are in desperate need of work,” Ellis-Lamkins said in an email.
Most recently, the organization’s grassroots networking helped to include a local hiring provision, amended by Representative Bobby Rush, in the American Clean Energy and Security act (ACES), which passed the House on June 26. Ellis-Lamkins said this is the first time a local-hire clause was included in federal legislation.
On a state level, Green For All helped to pass SB 5659 in Washington, which will prioritize weatherization and energy efficiency jobs for veterans, National Guard members, and low-income populations, she said. In New Mexico, the organization helped to pass HB 622, which provides bond revenue for green jobs training programs with a focus on disadvantaged, rural and tribal communities, Ellis-Lamkins said.
And while these state and municipal successes are a boon to local economies, the ACES bill still must pass through the Senate, and could face tough opposition. Ellis-Lamkins believes that green jobs are an integral part of improving the economy and the environment, but admits influencing federal legislation is not easy.
“It is still an uphill battle, despite all the economic analysis that we have seen that tells us that transitioning to a clean energy economy will benefit our economy,” she said. “Powerful interests continue spreading the message that this transition will put our economy further down the hole and make the poor even poorer.”
In an effort to counter this message, Green for All has created pamphlets to help cities ensure that Recovery funds spent on weatherization and energy efficiency programs create jobs that have will “[maximize] their impact on the environment, the economy, and the unemployment rates,” Ellis-Lamkins said.
And while local successes may seem small when facing record unemployment rates and volatile energy prices, Sun Power and Light has the experience to show public-private partnerships can matter to their business.
The solar panel installer began work with a similar green job training program, Solar Richmond, in which some trainees were hired and are still currently on staff, said Lee in an email message.
Not only is local hiring a vital part of Sun Power and Light’s corporate culture, “we believe in providing work opportunities in our communities because it’s our neighborhood and we care about the people who live here,” Lee, the HR director said in an email message.
source: greenbiz
Food
What is in your food?
Yes, you can get away with just buying organic milk and meat products. Yes, an organic apple is twice as expensive as conventional. Yes, there’s a reason they call it Whole Paycheck.
But then you come face to face with the truth: Unless you’re buying organic, your food is full of chemicals that are banned in other countries because they’re dangerous to our health.
The Pesticide Action Network’s new WhatsOnMyFood [www.whatsonmyfood.org ] website is a revolutionary resource that makes this fact undeniably clear. Created with information from the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program cross-referenced with data from Environmental Protection Agency (among others), WhatsOnMyFood.org is destined to do to grocery shopping what the SkinDeepDatabase did to beauty product perusal.
Scroll down their list of common foods—from almonds to watermelon—and click on your favorites to pop up a list of pesticides and information on their toxicity. Like the aforementioned apple, which presents the residue of 14 different pesticides such as dimethoate, a carcinogen, hormone disruptor, neurotoxin and developmental (or reproductive) toxicant. Or blueberries, which can include a record 48 different pesticides in each tiny little globe.
You can also search by pesticide, such as Atrazine, a cancer-causing chemical that it’s banned in Europe, but so widely used in the United States that it’s found in 71% of our drinking water. Or check out water-cooler facts such as: Apples can be sprayed up to 16 times with 26 different chemicals, just a few of the 400 pesticides that are legal in the U.S.
In fact, according to Pesticide Action Network, “Pesticide regulations in the U.S. are well behind much of the rest of the industrialized world.” In a country that represents more wealth per capita than most others, how can this be possible? PAN cites agrichemical corporations with serious pull in Washington, for starters, but also because “pesticide regulation in the U.S. does not adequately account for things like additive and synergistic effects.”
Huh? Basically, what this means is that the EPA regulates chemicals on an individual basis, rather than considering the cumulative effects the mixture of pesticides that the average American ingests each day.
And here’s what all of this means to parents: The average child gets five or more servings of pesticides in their food and water every day. According to the Department of Health & Human Services, organophosphate pesticides are now found in the blood of 95% of Americans tested, with levels twice as high in blood samples taken from children. Exposure to organophosphate pesticides are linked to hyperactivity, behavior disorders, learning disabilities, developmental delays and motor dysfunction.
And we wonder why our kids are having problems in school.
Parents, please feed your children organic food. I know it’s more expensive. I know times are tough. But think about that $4 Starbuck’s latte you ordered yesterday. Or that lunchtime sandwich you could have brown-bagged. Cut out a few weekly splurges of your own to make up the difference in grocery bills for your family. But please don’t cut costs when it comes to your kids.
source: celsias by Rachel Sarnoff
Energy
Funding Boost for Waste Methane Processor
Landfills, coal beds and cattle feedlots all produce methane, which is often either flared — that is, burned off — or released into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas.
Prometheus Energy, a five-year-old company based in Redmond, Wash., has developed a technology to turn that waste methane into liquid natural gas. And the company this week raised $20 million from the Shell Technology Ventures Fund, a fund related to the petroleum company Royal Dutch Shell and Black River Asset Management, a subsidiary of the agriculture giant Cargill.
The deal represents a vote of confidence from a fund connected to the world’s largest nongovernmental producer of liquid natural gas, and industry insiders say it’s a victory for a technology that has remained small until now.
Michael Butler, the chief executive of Cascadia Capital, an investment banking firm that arranged the financing for Prometheus, said that Shell, which has plenty of stranded oil and gas mines that could supply waste methane, wants to help Prometheus expand around the world. The news also signifies a second chance for Prometheus, which was delisted from London’s Alternative Investment Market last year.
The 27-employee company began producing liquid natural gas at plants in Southern California and in southern Utah last year, and expects to start production at a plant in Poland next year, said Kirt Montague, the chief executive of Prometheus. The company takes waste gas that landfills and coal mines already collect for flaring, and purifies it into methane, removing the carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water, oxygen, sulfur and other components, before converting it into liquid natural gas.
The idea is to replace diesel fuel in transportation and industrial applications with cleaner-burning natural gas, an idea that has also been championed byT. Boone Pickens.
But liquid natural gas plants usually need to be large to make economic sense, and that has kept waste-methane plants – which tend to be smaller because they rely on gas emitted as a waste, not a primary product – from taking off.
But Prometheus says it’s created a way to make a compact process competitive — already producing liquid natural gas at a price 20 to 30 percent below that of diesel fuel. Edgar Kuipers, a senior portfolio manager at Kenda Capital, which manages the Shell Technologies Venture Fund, said the company had proved it could make small liquid natural gas plants economically viable.
“We see a bright future for small L.N.G. projects,” he said.
source: new york times, green inc. By Jennifer Kho
Technology
New Design Integrates Wind Turbines Into Transmission Towers
Concept incorporates vertical-axis wind turbines directly into transmission towers already dotting the landscape.
Three Frenchmen, architects Nic ola Delon and Julien Choppin, along with engineer Raphaël Ménard, believe they have stumbled upon a scalable design that would not only allow wind turbines to work in virtually any landscape, they believe it avoids some of the aesthetic hurdles normally facing large wind farms. The Wind-it concept would fuse vertical-axis wind turbines directly into new or existing electricity transmission infrastructure.
The team estimates that if a third of France’s high-voltage electricity towers were renovated with turbines, they could rival the power generation of two nuclear reactors, or about 5 percent of the country’s energy needs.
Making its public debut in May 2007 as part of an exhibition about energy and design sponsored by the national utility Électricité de France, the Wind-it concept more recently garnered attention when featured in Metropolis Mag’s 2009 Next Generation contest.
“There are half a million pylons already in France,” engineer Ménard says. “If you look to other countries, there are tens of millions. Even if the power is tiny, as soon as you integrate it like that, it creates big, big energy.”
While praising it, technical experts who judged the design expressed some concerns. “There’s a slight naïveté about wind power’s potential in the design, “says Chris Garvin, a partner with the environmental consultancy Terrapin Bright Green, “but it’s compelling nonetheless.”
Electricity towers aren’t built to accommodate the vibration and stress produced by wind turbines, so existing structures would likely require a magnitude of structural reinforcement likely to make retrofitting of existing towers cost-prohibitive.
source: cleantechnica.com by Timothy B. Hurst
Obama Setting Aside Land for Solar Farms
Ken Salazar, the US Interior Secretary in the Obama administration, told the press earlier that he is studying if almost 700,000 acres of federal land would be a good fit for solar farms.
This represents a big step from the Obama administration toward the use of renewable energy in a effort to help the country cut their carbon footprint.
Salazar went on to predict that by the end of 2010 there will be upwards of 13 commercial scale solar farms under development of US land.
source: cut your footprint
Opinion
Green Progress Report: Obama at Five Months
It’s been a busy first five months for President Barack Obama and his new administration. Between managing a devastating financial crisis, trying to pull the U.S. out of a recession and commanding two wars, one might wonder how any other priorities make it onto his agenda.
Yet, the President has managed to move forward on many environmental issues, even in this short period of time. Some environmental groups argue that he has not gone far enough, and that he’s made too many compromises; others worry that the regulations will end up hurting businesses and costing consumers too much money. Still, a look at the areas in which Obama and congress have been involved lately provides plenty of fodder for debate.
Stimulating the Green Economy
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the stimulus package) is filled with a host of environmental measures.
The bill contains more than $70 billion in funding and $20 billion in tax incentives intended to develop, promote and support a green economy. Some of the highlights include:
- $25 billion to improve the nation’s electricity grid and to improve efficiency in government buildings and low-cost housing
- $10 billion toward research into renewable sources of electricity and automobile efficiency
- $20 billion for public transportation and rail improvements, including the development of high-speed rail lines
- Nearly $10 billion for environmental cleanup projects and to support clean water access, especially in rural communities
- $6 billion for climate research and to promote the development of science and engineering jobs within the U.S.
Action From the Other Green Branch
Last week the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a massive bill that is the first of its kind to seriously regulate greenhouse gas emissions. While the bill still needs to make it through a deeply divided Senate, it contains bold steps intended to address global warming. Too bold, or not bold enough, depends on whom you ask, but the ball is moving, and we may soon see Obama sign into law a bill containing some version of the following provisions:
- Most notable is the cap-and-trade system, which allows companies who emit fewer greenhouse gasses (GHG) to swap with those who do, even as the net allowable limit shrinks from year to year. Eventually, the economic and legal incentives to shift away from GHG will turn industries away from their use.
- The bill requires the U.S. to reduce its GHG emissions to 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.
- Several provisions within the 1,300-page bill are intended to steer public utilities toward the use of renewable energy, while others deal with improving the energy efficiency of buildings (the largest emitters of GHG in the U.S.).
- Taxpayers will bear some of the costs of this shift, but most provisions are not set to go into effect until 2012 when, hopefully, the current economic crisis will have passed.
Executive and Cabinet Power
President Obama and his Cabinet have also been busy issuing orders to address a host of policies, from auto emissions to federal land management. Here are some highlights from his various departments:
- In May, the Obama administration issues new fuel efficiency standards for autos sold in the U.S., starting in 2012. They are among the toughest ever set, but they will yield a savings of nearly 2 billion barrels of oil –and the GHG emissions from their combustion– over the lives of these vehicles.
- The Interior Department reversed a Bush administration decision to allow oil drilling near Arches and Canyonland National Parks and tabled plans for offshore drilling.
- They also reversed rules allowing mountaintop removal coal mines to dump their waste near streams and have slowed the process of permitting companies to extract oil shale, a costly and environmentally devastating process.
- Obama has signaled that he intends to regulate the emissions of power plants as well, but that may be covered in the Clean Energy Act, assuming it eventually finds its way to his desk.
All of these actions are encouraging signs that this administration takes climate change and resource management seriously, and with the Kyoto Protocol set to run out in 2012, the U.S. may emerge as a leader in December, when the world’s nations convene in Copenhagen to develop a new climate policy.
source: Earth911 by Steve Uydess
Turning baby steps into long strides in warming fight
ADDRESSING GLOBAL warming requires a dramatic departure from business, and politics, as usual. Whether our elected representatives can continue the process of rising to this most fundamental challenge is far from clear – and time is running out.
Signals from the White House are encouraging. President Obama has appointed prominent scientists, deeply steeped in climate science, to key posts.
And Congress is on the move. The American Clean Energy and Security Act is the first legislation seriously addressing global warming pollution to ever pass the House – a step that required a massive effort. New Englanders owe our hometown climate champion, Representative Edward Markey, thanks and congratulations.
But the details of the bill matter – and some of those details are ugly. When first introduced, the bill plotted a course consistent with what science tells us is needed to avoid catastrophe: a course toward lower emissions and a new clean economy. But legislators doing the bidding of coal interests (mining companies and power plant owners), big agribusiness, and their allies held the bill hostage, extracting major concessions in exchange for support – damaging and diluting the bill.
Climate protection advocates and businesspeople trying to build a new economy around clean energy are focused on fixing these problems. Some key issues are:
The emissions cap in the cap-and-trade portion of the bill must truly limit emissions, decreasing over time. At this point it is really no cap at all. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the revised bill would not require any emissions reductions until after 2020. By contrast, sound science tells us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to at least 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 as a key step toward stabilizing our climate. Emissions have increased significantly since 1990 and we must cut them nearly 40 percent from current levels by 2020 in order to be on track for meeting our 2050 target. The revised bill – with a weakened cap and heavy reliance on dubious offsets – will not get us there.
The revised bill gives away most of the rights to pollute – the allowances at the heart of cap and trade. As Obama accurately pointed out in February, “If you’re giving away carbon permits for free, then basically you’re not really pricing the thing and it doesn’t work – or people can game the system in so many ways that it’s not creating the incentive structures that we’re looking for.’’
Here in the Northeast we have learned that auctioning allowances and investing the auction proceeds in energy efficiency reduces both utility bills and pollution. Unfortunately, the revised bill gives allowances to coal plant owners, creating the largest cash giveaway to coal plants in history. It’s a giveaway all the more egregious because the revised bill fails to limit the number of dirty new coal-fired power plants that can be built between now and 2015. We need to shut down coal plants, not pay them to pollute.
The bill also provides windfalls to big agriculture – including undermining existing laws regarding greenhouse gas emissions associated with ethanol.
Although the bill would establish a national requirement that a rising percentage of electricity come from renewable sources (as states in New England do), the version in the bill is weaker than existing state standards and will not spur development of new projects. A separate, powerful Energy Efficiency Resource Standard was also eliminated during the revision process. Instead, a weaker version was consolidated into the renewable energy standard. Efficiency is entirely different from renewable energy, and the revised bill errs when it considers these distinct clean energy tools to be interchangeable.
The bill has created deserved excitement, even more so since it passed the House. Critical provisions promoting investment in clean energy technology, like strong building codes and appliance standards, must be preserved as the bill moves forward. And the fundamental ideas behind the bill are sound.
The bill needs to be returned to full strength by restoring a real cap and bulking up the tools to foster renewable energy and efficiency – fixing the flaws inflicted during the legislative process. A restored bill can put us on a path toward climate protection and lay the foundation for a new economy.
John Kassel is president of the Conservation Law Foundation.
source: boston globe
Recycle
Dell, Goodwill Partner to Recycle Computers
Dell, Inc. doesn’t just specialize in making computers. It specializes in recycling them as well.
As it grows its Reconnect program in partnership with Goodwill, which began in 2004, domestic recycling of computers and other electronics is taking off.
Partnerships like those between Dell and Goodwill are not only good for promoting e-cycling and green jobs in the U.S., but they are also good for the environment as well.
Stories abound about the dark side of e-waste in developing countries. The environmental degradation associated with the lax e-recycling regulations in such countries includes contaminated drinking water, as well as personal harm for those handling the metals and toxic materials hidden inside electronics.
All too often, the electronics that supply this dangerous and unregulated market come from the U.S.
However, the ongoing collaboration between Goodwill and Dell looks to change this by keeping more electronics bound for recycling closer to home.
At a Goodwill computer recycling plant in southwestern Pennsylvania, roughly 2 million computer units are received from donations every year.
The plant does its best to refurbish and put on the shelves as many computers as possible, but for those beyond repair, the plant has applied for a permit with the state’s environmental department to disassemble those parts so they can be sent to Dell.
By doing so, this Goodwill plant ensures that the methods they use and the materials they obtain from demanufacturing prior to final recycling are standard, trustworthy, and most of all, as safe as possible.
On Dell’s end, its free recycle program of any Dell-branded product makes recycling easy. Plus, if you are in the market for a new Dell, the company will recycle your old PC for free, even if it is not a Dell computer.
source: Earth911 by Haley Paul
