My Gulf Action in today’s New York Times
Posted on July 13, 2010
Filed Under Carbon Footprints, Energy Effienciency Tips, my gulf action, oil spill | Leave a Comment
Did you pick up a print copy of the New York Times today? On page A17 you’ll find an ad for My Gulf Action, SmartPower’s latest campaign, which you can join for free at www.MyGulfAction.com.
What is My Gulf Action? We know many Americans are frustrated and angry about the Gulf oil spill and are yearning for ways to take positive action. My Gulf Action helps anyone do just that. Create a free account (powered by Climate Culture, which also supported SmartPower’s award-winning America’s Greenest Campus campaign) and get access to hundreds of ways to track — and reduce — your personal energy use.
Pledge to become more energy efficient and we’ll show you how much fossil fuel you’re saving. Then we’ll aggregate your fossil fuel reductions with others, adding them to a real-time counter on the homepage that shows how much of the oil leaking into the Gulf is being offset by the My Gulf Action community.
My Gulf Action is where our clean energy revolution begins! Join today.
Members of Congress release citizens’ pleas to President Obama: Stop new offshore drilling!
Posted on July 12, 2010
Filed Under Green Celebs, News, Uncategorized, oil spill | Leave a Comment
By Brandon Rose
Environment America joined with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 29, to release more than 400,000 comments from citizens all around the U.S. asking President Obama to protect our oceans and coasts from the expansion of offshore drilling. The comments were submitted on the president’s next five-year Drilling Plan from 2012 to 2017, a day before the close of the comment period.
Oceana, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace, MoveOn, League of Conservation Voters and Ocean Champions collected the boxes of citizens’ comments that sat behind the respected speakers. The comments came from emails, door-to-door canvassing in coastal areas, and post cards. Representative Pallone, D-NJ, Representative Castor, D-FL, Representative Garamendi, D-CA, all spoke about the need for our country to stop our oil addiction, new offshore drilling, and move to less risky renewable energy.
Anna Aurillo, Director of the Washington Office of Environment America, said:
This past weekend we saw Hands Across the Sand events held on Saturday at more than 900 beaches around the country and the world – the largest ever public demonstration against offshore drilling. Today, more than 400,000 citizens are sending a loud and clear message to the President that his plan to expand offshore drilling to new coasts is a bad idea. Instead of more drills and spills, we want more windmills and to end our dependence on oil.
Under provisions in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), the president of the U.S. may administratively withdraw entire planning areas from consideration for easing the nation’s drilling plan. Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have used this power to protect areas of the U.S. coast from drilling.
We need to learn from our mistakes, now! There needs to be oil reform, just like there was reform on Wall Street. BP has been prioritizing profits over safety. Therefore, the government needs to step in and reform before another environmental disaster occurs.
Congressman Garamendi said:
“Do we need any more of a lesson than what we now see in the Gulf of Mexico? Yet in the halls of this Congress, there are many representatives that have not learned,” Congressman Garamendi said. “The Republican Party is still saying ‘drill, baby, drill’ when we know it’s really ’spill, baby, spill.’ Today 400,000 Americans are sending the powerful message that there are better alternatives.”
“It’s time for us to move away from a dependence on oil. As long as we continue to seek that oil fix, we’ll continue the addiction,” Garamendi added. “What if instead of massive oil subsidies and the inevitable cost of spill cleanup, we instead invested in renewable energy and conservation? Where would we be? We’re making choices here, and those choices determine whether we’ll have an ability to break our addiction to oil.”
Rep. Castor explained that this disaster is costing Florida more than $10 billion dollars because of its economic dependence on tourism, clean beaches, and fishing. This is especially tough on Florida since America’s economic recession. BP’s Tony Hayward tells the public that this disaster is 1 in a million. However, there have been 126 blowouts in Mexico since 1971. If BP spent $20 Billion on research in renewable energy like wind turbines and solar energy instead of cleaning up the oil they spilled in the Gulf, we would be getting our energy safer without having to drill deep into our oceans. These operations are proven to be risky and we need to make sure that this BP oil spill is the last great example of why our country needs to move to renewable energy.
For further reading: Congressman Garamendi’s Site
Please share your comments below.
Solar Powered Flight
Posted on July 12, 2010
Filed Under SOLAR, TECHNOLOGY, TRANSPORTATION | Leave a Comment
By Erin Molon
Fly by the light of the sun! Seriously.
According to a Yahoo News Report, an experimental solar powered plane took flight Wednesday out of Geneva, Switzerland. Using 12,000 solar cells and a wing span of 262.5 feet, engineers hope that the plane can gain enough energy from the sun to power the plane overnight. The flight took off in clear skies around 7 am and is flying over the Jura Mountains, just West of the Swiss Alps.
The real question will be answered at nightfall, as the pilot and ground crew will decided whether or not the plane has enough solar battery power to be flown through the night.
Engineers hope the plane does complete a flight through the night, which would be a major step towards completing an entire lap around the world in a solar plane.
The pilot, Andre Borschberg, settled to a cruise at approximately 19,860 feet in the air and managed to avoid the mountains’ low-level turbulence and thermal winds. He will reach 27,900 feet by Wednesday evening and, if he decides to fly through the night, will descend to 4,920 feet for the duration of the flight.
The plane’s path consists of loops around Payerne airport within gliding range in case of the need for an emergency landing. Borschberg is flying solo and is wearing a parachute just in case.
This flight is part of a group of tests they have been doing which also included a “flea hop” and an extended flight. According to an ABC news report, the main purpose of the project is to test and promote new energy efficient technologies.
Photo: Yahoo
Journalists Banned…Again
Posted on July 12, 2010
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
By Lauren Keane-Farrell
A month ago, National Incident Commander Thad Allen issued an order granting the media “uninhibited access” to the areas affected by the oil spill. On July 4th, Daniel Tencer at The Raw Story reported the Coast Guard has banned reporters from the cleanup areas.
Journalists who come too close to the oil spill without permission from the Coast Guard could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison.
This move has outraged journalists and bystanders alike, who see it as an attack on their First Amendment rights.
The Coast Guard order states that “vessels must not come within 20 meters of booming operations, boom, or oil spill response operations under penalty of law.”
Back in June, Allen told ABC News reporters that “media will have uninhibited access anywhere we’re doing operations, except for two things, if it’s a security or safety problem.”
Edward Stanton, the current Coast Guard Captain in New Orleans, told MKRW News that nine out of 10 times the reporter will be granted access.
This isn’t the first time reporters have had to jump through hoops to obtain their story. For weeks they’ve been complaining about BP, the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard.
Anderson Cooper, of CNN, describes the new rules as making it “very easy to hide incompetence or failure.”
Makes you wonder if BP “reporters” will have the same restrictions placed on them.
BP’s New Oil Cap to be Placed over Spill Site Monday
Posted on July 12, 2010
Filed Under oil spill | Leave a Comment
By Alison Shapiro
BP is now announcing that a cap will be placed on the oil spill site by Monday. This cap is separate from the cap that BP is still working on which will fill in the broken wellhead with mud and cement in order to permanently stop the leak. Tests will be done in order to ensure that the cap has stopped all oil spewing out of the main leak site and to make sure that oil is not coming from any other leak site.
The cap will be replacing an old cap that BP already placed over the spill, and will not be a permanent fix because the cap will not stop all oil from leaking out. As reported earlier, BP estimates that the permanent relief well could be put into place by the end of July, while others estimate the relief well being put into place by mid-August. As of last Monday, the temporary cap, known as ‘Top Hat 10,’ was 300 feet away from the leak connecting point. A delay that occurred with the vessel called the Helix Producer, which is supposed to collect oil coming from the spill to be sold and used, has caused the operation to begin a day later than was planned and BP execs as well as Americans are waiting for this spill to finally come to an end.
Photo: Flickr
BP says Gulf Spill can be stopped before August
Posted on July 9, 2010
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By Alison Shapiro
BP managing director Bob Dudley is saying that a relief well could be put into place by the end of July. The well would be used to shoot mud and cement through the leak site in order to stop the oil from continuing to gush into the Gulf.
Government estimates for this solution were for mid-August, so BP’s estimate seems to be a bit optimistic. Dudley’s estimates don’t seem very realistic: He claims that the oil flow could be stopped by late July in a “perfect world,” disregarding weather changes, wave height, and any other uncontrollable factors. The uncertainty that is surrounding the Gulf Coast situation is probably the reason that BP is attempting to churn out the right answers — even if they may be overestimating their capabilities.
We will have to see in the coming weeks what happens with the relief well, but hopefully the “relief” for this oil spill is coming soon and BP’s estimates aren’t too far-reaching.
Photo: Flickr
Hurricane Alex worsens oil spill
Posted on July 8, 2010
Filed Under oil spill | Leave a Comment
By Brandon Rose
The BP oil spill is nearing the 140 million gallon mark based on the federal government’s estimates. This will set a new record for the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 1970-1980 Ixtoc I spill off Mexico’s coast, which leaked 139 million gallons into the seas, has held the record so far. The growing total is vital to track, because BP will likely be fined per gallon spilled, Larry McKinney, director of Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi’s Gulf of Mexico research institute, told the AP.
To make things worse, Hurricane Alex is slowing the containment efforts by creating high winds and rough seas. Many of the collection boats have been called off due to safety. The storm has already shifted parts of the slick closer to sensitive area in Florida and Louisiana, and could also push the oil deeper into fragile coastal wetlands.
A clean up worker Otis Butler said:
“We’ve been steady busy until today,” Otis Butler said. “Now we’re mostly standing around and looking around. We just find things to do when we can today. But once this is over, I bet we’ll be twice as busy.”
President Obama was scheduled to meet with senior U.S. officials on Thursday to review the spill situation and oil containment plans, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
For the latest news on the Oil Spill: CNN This Just In
Introducing… the Interns! Alison Shapiro
Posted on July 7, 2010
Filed Under Interns | Leave a Comment
It’s summertime, which means it’s time to introduce this year’s SmartPower interns. You’ll be hearing a lot from these folks over the next couple of months. Check out their bios and stay posted!
Up next: Alison Shapiro.
Alison is an incoming senior at Poolesville High School in Maryland, with academic interests in journalism and environmental studies. She is excited to be getting out of her small town and commuting to D.C. for the summer. When Alison is not in school or doing homework, she enjoys playing drums, cooking, photography and taking care of her dogs. Alison hopes to promote clean energy awareness while interning at SmartPower and would like to influence her generation to make positive changes to protect the environment for the future.
Green Your Ride: Looks like a Ferrari — with Zero Emissions
Posted on July 6, 2010
Filed Under Electric Vehicles, Green Business, Green Your Ride, TECHNOLOGY | Leave a Comment
By Brandon Rose
Tesla Motors Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and sells high-performance, fully electric vehicles and advanced electric vehicle power train components. In addition to designing and manufacturing zero emission vehicles, Tesla sells and services them through its own sales and service network. Tesla has delivered over 1,000 sporty-looking Tesla Roadsters to customers in 22 countries.
The California based company went public this week, selling over 13 million shares of common stock priced at $17 per share. This is the first U.S. auto company initial public offering in 54 years. The stock rose 40% on its IPO debut, leaving green investors very impressed (it peaked at $25).
Here’s what all the speculation is about. Tesla is already taking reservations for their mass-produced sleek, electric, model S sedan, which these investors believe will be a huge hit when it comes the market in 2012. The price is estimated to be around the $50,000 range (not including the $7,500 U.S. federal tax credit). The electric sedan has a 300 mile range with a 45 minute QuickCharge (you can charge from any outlet). It’s 2X as efficient as hybrids and will go from 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds. The high performance sedan seats 7, making it a very desirable car for families. Pretty innovative, if you ask me.
Stay tuned for updates on the cutting-edge automaker Tesla.
For leasing information: Click Here
For more information on Green Investments: Investopedia
Hands Across the Sand
Posted on July 6, 2010
Filed Under oil spill | Leave a Comment
By Lauren Keane-Farrell
Can thousands of people across the world stand united against offshore drilling? On Saturday, June 26, they did just that.
Hands Across the Sand was a worldwide event that brought people together by having them hold hands at 12 p.m. for 15 minutes. Most of the events took places on beaches, to solidify the message of protecting our beaches from offshore drilling disasters. However, people that live far away from beaches found other places to meet. Facebook groups played a large part in bringing everyone together.
750 gatherings were planned, some as far away as Australia, to show solidarity against our dependence on oil and bringing attention to the urgency of convincing politicians to adopt policies that pursue clean and renewable energy.
Recently
- My Gulf Action in today’s New York Times
- Members of Congress release citizens’ pleas to President Obama: Stop new offshore drilling!
- Solar Powered Flight
- Journalists Banned…Again
- BP’s New Oil Cap to be Placed over Spill Site Monday
- BP says Gulf Spill can be stopped before August
- Hurricane Alex worsens oil spill
- Introducing… the Interns! Alison Shapiro
- Green Your Ride: Looks like a Ferrari — with Zero Emissions
- Hands Across the Sand
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