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Every new trend sparks entrepreneurial ingenuity. Rising food prices, tainted food from China, and a growing realization among the public that transporting food thousands of miles contributes to global warming, are all leading to a renewed move to eat locally produced food. Backyard gardeners are growing in numbers and urban gardens are increasingly popular. Although many people want to grow their own food, they don’t have time to weed, compost, and harvest. That’s where the entrepreneurs come in. One of the first businesses of its kind, San-Francisco-based MyFarm helps people create a "secure, sustainable food system." MyFarm will install a small backyard organic garden and do all the chores, with services ranging from $600-$1000. After they create your garden, they show up every week to weed. They’ll even leave a box of vegetables at your door. Customers can keep the whole crop or share it with members of MyFarm’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The crops can also be shared with local chefs, who integrate the products into their menus. A similar service based in Portland, Oregon, Your Backyard Farmer, began in 2006. It also offers individualized organic gardening services, intended to help customers start and maintain their own gardens. The […]
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The world must lower its carbon emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm). We’re at about 450 ppm now. By Amanda Peterka Skier Bode Miller is wearing the bright-green sweatband. Cyclist Adam Craig sports one. Surfers, speed skaters and hockey players have picked up on the trend. And if Andrew Gardner reaches his goal, exactly 350 world-famous athletes will soon be wearing the eye-catching color. Each wristband bears the number 350, the same as Gardner’s goal. And he wants it all to be done by December 24, 2008, 350 days before the United Nations convention in Copenhagen. The number represents the parts per million (ppm) of carbon emissions that climate scientist Dr. James Hansen says we have to return to in order to sustain life on Earth as we know it. It’s also the name of the umbrella campaign that Gardner’s work falls under-a worldwide network of people and climate change organizations committed to following Hansen’s advice. "The culture of athleticism is imitation and idolizing, and we’re hoping to take that network of people and turn them into folks who are spreading the word about 350," Gardner says. Gardner, a Nordic skier and environmentalist, is also friends with Bill McKibben, […]
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DOE to Offer $25 Billion in Loans for Advanced Vehicles Missouri Voters Approve a Renewable Energy Requirement California Voters Approve Funding for High-Speed Rail System Boulder Voters Follow Berkeley with Clean Energy Financing California Approves $1 Billion for Low-Income Energy Efficiency Slumping Carbon Allowance Prices May Stymie Market Growth DOE to Offer $25 Billion in Loans for Advanced Vehicles DOE issued an Interim Final Rule last week for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which will distribute up to $25 billion in direct loans to automakers and component manufacturers. The loans will help those manufacturers establish new U.S. manufacturing facilities or re-equip or expand existing ones within the U.S. for the production of advanced technology vehicles and the components for such vehicles. To expedite the loans, the rule will become effective as soon as it is published in the Federal Register, but DOE will also accept comments on the rule for 30 days after its publication. The loan program was authorized by section 136 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which President Bush signed into law in December 2007. To qualify for the loan, the vehicles being manufactured must meet tough emissions standards while achieving a […]
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DOE and EPA Release an Energy Efficiency Action Plan for States EPA Sets Renewable Fuel Requirement of 10.21% for 2009 California Streamlines Approvals for Renewable Energy Projects Reliability Report Warns of Transmission Needs with Wind Power Booming BLM Offers Geothermal Leases in Utah, Idaho, and Oregon Dropping Energy Prices Offer Good News for U.S. Consumers DOE and EPA Release an Energy Efficiency Action Plan for States DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have released an updated version of the National Action Plan Vision for 2025: A Framework for Change, which lays out a proposed energy efficiency action plan for state policy makers. If implemented by all states, the plan could lower energy demand across the country by 50%, achieve more than $500 billion in net savings over the next 20 years, and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 90 million vehicles. The report, which was released under the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency initiative, was produced by more than 60 energy, environmental, and state policy leaders from across the country. The updated action plan encourages investment in low-cost energy efficiency programs and shows the progress that the states are making toward their goals, while […]
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Utilities in Colorado and Hawaii Pursue Clean Energy Researchers Seek to Reduce Bat Deaths from Wind Turbines California Regulators Reject Finavera Wave Power Contract Corn Ethanol Producer VeraSun Files for Bankruptcy Protection Chrysler Launches New Hybrids, then Cancels Production European Union to Place Emissions Cap on All Flights in 2012 Utilities in Colorado and Hawaii Pursue Clean Energy The largest utilities in Colorado and Hawaii are now seriously pursuing clean energy. In late September, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a long-term energy resource plan for Xcel Energy that calls for demand-side management programs to reduce electricity use by 1,744 gigawatt-hours by 2015, while cutting peak electricity demand by 421 megawatts (MW), equivalent to two medium-size power plants. The plan also calls for at least 200 MW of solar power with energy storage, such as a concentrating solar power plant, and up to 850 MW of intermittent renewable power. And to help reduce its carbon dioxide emissions, Xcel Energy will close two of its older, coal-fired power plants-one in Denver and another in Grand Junction. See the Colorado PUC press release and full decision (PDF 577 KB). In Hawaii, the state reached an agreement with Hawaiian Electric Company to […]
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This comparison of the Presidential candidates positions illuminate the differences between them on our core green issues. Although both candidates will be more assertive than President Bush in tackling global warming and energy issues, McCain emphasizes oil drilling and aggressive nuclear expansion, while Obama envisions a new economy sparked by solar, wind and other renewable sources of energy. Vote on November 4!! The following discussion is excerpted from Ardour Capital‘s 2009 Renewable Energy Policy Preview. Also see the League of Conservation Voters Scorecard. McCain has a 24% green voting record, while Obama has an 87% green voting record. See how your Congressional candidates voted on key energy and environmental issues. Renewable energy advocates indicate that Senator Barack Obama is overwhelmingly their preferred choice. Figure 1 shows that renewable that energy is the only industry where Senator Obama leads in contributions. The oil and gas industry donated $1.7 million to Senator McCain and $500 thousand to Senator Obama. Barak Obama Renewables would play a central role in the nation’s energy policy under an Obama administration. His official proposals on renewable energy include a variety of tax credits, research and development funding, and federal mandates aimed at increasing the use of renewable […]
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Don’t Be Fooled by Bogus Renewable Energy Measures, Say California Conservation Groups Props 10 Would Harm Clean Energy, Slow Fight Against Global Warming; Prop 1A would catalyze rail system; controversy about Prop 7. A coalition of California’s leading conservation groups urge voters to cast "NO" votes against Propositions 7 and 10 on this November’s ballot. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV), Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Sierra Club, which for decades have led the fight to bring clean energy to California, warn the renewable energy measures are fatally flawed and, if passed, would harm the state’s efforts to create a clean energy economy. "In a state where clean energy is as American as apple pie, we’re worried that voters could be confused by these misleading renewable energy measures," says David Pettit, director of NRDC’s Southern California Clean Air Program. "Props 7 and 10 sound good on paper, but they actually would make it harder to bring new wind and solar energy and clean vehicle technologies to California. We can’t afford to turn the clock back on clean energy." Proposition 7, The Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008, requires California to increase […]
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Interior Department to Open 190 Million Acres to Geothermal Power Dell and City of Chicago Join Ranks of Top Green Power Buyers U.S. Solar Power Manufacturing Growing Dramatically Ausra Opens its First Concentrating Solar Power Plant in California California Releases Plans to Cut its Greenhouse Emissions U.N. Environment Programme Launches Green Economy Initiative Interior Department to Open 190 Million Acres to Geothermal Power The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced last week that it plans to make more than 190 million acres of federal land in 12 western states available for geothermal energy development. DOI’s Final Geothermal Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) identifies 118 million acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and 79 million acres of National Forest System lands that could be opened to future geothermal leasing, potentially leading to 5,540 megawatts (MW) of new geothermal power capacity by 2015. The PEIS excludes wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, and national parks. It will amend 122 BLM land use plans to allow for geothermal development, while allowing the Forest Service the discretion of evaluating geothermal leasing and considering whether to amend its land use plans. The document also includes site-specific environmental analyses for […]
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by Sarah Curry With diesel fuel retailing around $4.00 a gallon, algae-based oil sources are beginning to look better. More than 50 companies in the U.S. are working to commercialize algae-generated biodiesel. Most start-ups begin with the findings of the Aquatic Species Program, which ran at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) from 1978-1996. The Lab collected and screened more than 3000 algal strains, looking for species that naturally produce a useful quantity of oil. After narrowing the collection down to 300 strains, mainly green algae and diatoms, NREL grew the algae in test ponds in Roswell, New Mexico for a year. They also studied the process for lipid extraction and conversion to biodiesel. In the last few years of the program, they worked to genetically modify the algae to produce more oil. Microalgae are fast-growing beasts with a voracious appetite for carbon dioxide. They have the potential to produce more oil per acre than any other feedstock being used to make biodiesel, and they can be grown on land that’s unsuitable for food crops. In theory, producing algadiesel should be easy: Just separate CO2 from a coal plant’s exhaust, bubble it through an algae tank, squeee out the oil […]
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by Jonathan Dorn With fossil fuel prices escalating and countries searching for ways to reduce oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions, capturing the earth’s heat for power generation is garnering new attention. First begun in Larderello, Italy, in 1904, electricity generation using geothermal energy is now taking place in 24 countries, 5 of which use it to produce 15% or more of their total electricity. In the first half of 2008, total world installed geothermal power capacity passed 10,000 megawatts (MW) – enough electricity to meet the needs of 60 million people, roughly the population of the United Kingdom. In 2010, capacity could increase to 13,500 MW across 46 countries – the equivalent to 27 coal-fired power plants. Originating from the earth’s core and from the decay of naturally occurring isotopes such as those of uranium, thorium, and potassium, the heat energy in the uppermost six miles of the planet’s crust is vast – 50,000 times greater than the energy content of all oil and natural gas resources. Chile, Peru, Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Russia, China, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other countries along the Ring of Fire (an area of high volcanic activity encircling the basin of the Pacific […]
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