A new way of thinking about climate change
Posted on July 3, 2008
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by Willy Ritch
The US-based Clean Energy Group (CEG) is an NGO “dedicated to greater use of clean energy technologies in the U.S. and abroad through innovation in finance, technology, and policy.” Just how do they go about that? A new report that they released this week has some of the answers.
Climate Choreography: How Open and Distributed Innovation Could Accelerate Technology Development and Deployment calls for a new way of approaching technical innovation to combat global warming. Actually, it’s not a new way of thinking exactly–but to date it hasn’t really been applied to the challenges of climate change technology. The report points out that complex problems like the global AIDS epidemic have benefited from this approach, where the problem is tackled in many different places using many different disciplines at the same time.
“In multiple sectors, including health, agriculture and information technology, governments, companies and donors have created new strategies to accelerate technology innovation and development, including efforts directed at overcoming ‘global market failures’. They often rely on ‘distributed innovation’ strategies to tap and bring together innovators from around the globe to develop and deploy new technologies.”
Contrast this philosophy with the traditional “top-down” approach that the federal government tends to take. Climate Choreography calls for greater funding at the state level as a way to encourage innovation all over the country. State governments have already proven, over and over again, that they are willing to take action to address climate change while the feds seem to be stuck in the mud.
Much is made of the significant contribution we’ve made to global warming–far out of proportion to our share of the world’s population. That is certainly true, but there is also the potential for us to provide much of the solution. The US should be a leader in clean energy, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction technologies–and it seems like the folks at CEG have some ideas on how to get us there.
You can read the entire report right here or the press release here.
SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Keep it on “cold”
Posted on July 2, 2008
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by Brian Keane
Most of us may not typically be big fans of cold showers, but let’s not be afraid to use cold water for washing our clothes.
Using only the cold-water cycle on your washer will save the average household around $64 and reduce its carbon emissions by 100 lbs. each year.
“No way,” you say?
Way.
And it is because 90% of the energy a washing machine uses is to heat water. 90%!! That’s serious business.
If you use cold water to wash your clothes, you will all-but-eliminate the energy demand from your washing machine and still get the same work out of it!
I know what you’re thinking, we all have clothes that say on the tag to wash them in warm water, but it’s not usually necessary. Granted, your bed linens, towels and similar items may still require hot washes to get thoroughly clean. But, in fact, it is suggested that most infant clothes be washed only in cold water. And if cold water can get a baby’s clothes clean, it can probably get most of your clothes clean too!
So, as they say, “throw cold water on it…” and set your washing machine to the cold cycle. Your clothes will be just as clean – and it’s another cool way to get energy smart and an easy way to help the environment. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, as energy prices continue to climb, it’s an easy way to save money!
Also, as we enter into the Independence Day Weekend – every little bit we do to reduce our energy waste helps make our country just a bit more energy independent! So flex a little of your own energy independence this 4 th of July by turning the dial on your washer to “cold”! It’s an easy way to be energy smart.
Your clothes, your wallet, and a grateful nation will thank you!
Brian Keane is the President of SmartPower
Cross-posted on Shine from Yahoo.
Feds dragged, kicking and screaming, toward CO2 regulation
Posted on July 2, 2008
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by Willy Ritch
I guess this is what checks and balances is all about.
Last year the US Supreme Court, ruling against the Bush Administration, said carbon dioxide is in fact a pollutant, and the EPA has the right and obligation to take CO2 into consideration when enforcing the Clean Air Act. This week a judge in Georgia actually put that SupCo decision to work, overturning a lower court decision that cleared the way for construction of a $2 billion coal plant. The judge said the companies that want to build the plant must first get a permit that takes into consideration the CO2 the plant would emit.
Meanwhile, over in the Exectuive Branch of our nation’s government, things weren’t going to smoothly.
After that Supreme Court decision the EPA went to work drafting rules that followed the court’s mandate: consider CO2 a pollutant and regulate it. The Agency produced a report that concludes that CO2 pollution is a threat to human health and that requiring more fuel efficient cars would help mitigate the threat.
The trouble came when the report was sent to the White House.
Not only does the White House disagree with the assumptions underlying the report–they refused to even open the email from the EPA that contained it. Seriously. (I don’t know about you, but I’m imagining a little kid covering his ears saying over and over again “I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you.”)
Ironically, the coal plant proponents in that Georgia case had argued that the Supreme Court decision on CO2 ought not to be taken into consideration in their case, because the federal government had yet to develop rules on how to implement it. And, it appears, if the Bush Administration has their way, that isn’t going to change any time soon.
Green Gold
Posted on July 2, 2008
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by Willy Ritch
The UN says there is a gold rush on in the clean energy world, where global investment increased by 60% last year, to nearly $150 billion. Wind energy development attracted over a third of the investment dollars while it looks like solar power projects saw the biggest jump percentage wise–investors pumped over 250% more money into solar in 2007 as they had the year before, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme.
“Just as thousands were drawn to California and the Klondike in the late 1800s, the green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern day prospectors in all parts of the globe,” said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.
Biofules was an exception–investment actually declined by a third in that segment. Not surprising with the increased scrutiny paid to corn-based ethanol, which some say is more of a boondoggle than a true clean energy development.
“That is some crackerjack energy policy.”
Posted on June 30, 2008
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by Willy Ritch
It sounds like an April Fools Joke. Or a parody from The Onion.
The Bush Administration has announced that it is freezing development of new solar projects on public lands for two years, in order to study their environmental impact. Meanwhile, if some in Washington get their way, it’s full speed ahead on handing out leases on public land for oil companies that want to drill for oil.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”
There are currently 130 applications for solar projects on government land (our land,) which would provide clean energy for 1 million homes. Although the feds are going to keep processing those applications, they are not accepting new requests for the next two years.
David Roberts over at Gristmill.org had a few choice words.
Oh, now they care about careful environmental assessment? Oil and gas development is spreading over the American West like a cancer, but this, this solar stuff … it’s a bridge too far!
So Congress and the feds are going to let the solar investment tax credit lapse and institute a moratorium on deployment in the best solar states — two body blows to an nascent clean energy industry. That is some crackerjack energy policy.
An online editorial at Newsday points out that the same agency that is ordering the freeze–the Bureau of Land Mangaement–also has “promoted a massive rush to lease public lands for oil and gas development.”
No shortage of irony in today’s political climate.
Hey! I know that guy!
Posted on June 30, 2008
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SmartPower President Brian Keane’s smiling face graced the Salt Lake Tribune over the weekend. Brian was featured in their “Business Insight” section talking about ways to save money on your power bill.
The biggest energy drain in the house used to be the refrigerator, but now, the biggest is the flat screen television. When you turn it off with your remote control, it’s still on, it’s still drawing power of about $175 per year.
The solution is a power strip, as Brian described in last week’s SmartTip.
SmartPower is popping up all over the media these days, spreading the word on energy efficiency and clean energy. Brian’s SmartTip is part of Shine on Yahoo, for example. And Brian is talking clean energy policy in his new blog on Huffington Post.
Energy is a hot topic these days–for good reason. Four dollar gas and heating costs that are right up there have Americans reeling and finding new sources of clean energy while simultaneously using less have become important goals. We’ve been talking about clean energy and energy efficiency at SmartPower for quite awhile, and will certainly continue to be a part of the discussion.
An ice free North Pole
Posted on June 27, 2008
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by Willy Ritch
This summer we may see something no one has ever seen before–an ice free North Pole. Just think, someday you can bounce your great-grandchild on your knee and say “I remember the first time the ice melted at the North Pole–it was back in ‘08….”
The UK’s Independent is reporting today that polar scientists say that, for the first time, the chances of an ice free poll are better than 50/50 for the first time ever. The phenomena is the result of successively warmer summers when more and more of the ice around the North Pole is “single-year” ice, as opposed to the much thicker permanent ice that has built up over many years. With much of that multi-year ice blown away and melted, the fresh frozen variety takes its place and can’t stand up to a summer’s worth of melting.
This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.
“The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I’d say it’s even-odds whether the North Pole melts out,” said Dr Serreze.
Disappearing ice is part of a feedback loop: the bright white ice reflects a lot of the sun’s heat back into the atmosphere, but the darker open ocean water absorbs it. The more open water, the warmer the ocean in that area gets. The warmer the ocean gets, the more the ice in the area melts.
The warming Arctic has global implications, of course, and is itself an indicator of our world-wide climate crisis. But it also has local impacts, on the Inuits who live in the north. Animals and fish that the Inuits have never seen and don’t have words for in their language have begun to appear. And in the far north of Canada, Hydro Quebec has lowered electric rates for schools and hospitals so they can afford to run their new must-have equipment: air conditioners.
SupCo reduces Exxon Valdez award
Posted on June 26, 2008
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by Willy Ritch
Yesterday the US Supreme Court reduced the punitive damages in a the lawsuit agains Exxon Mobil for their oil spill in Prince Wililam Sound nearly 20 years ago. The orignial award of $5 billion had already been reduced to $2.5 billion and yesterday the Court reduced it further to $500 million. Not exactly petty cash for Exxon Mobile, but I doubt they’ll have a hard time coming up with the money.
The $500 million is punitive damages–that is, a punishment for what the company did wrong when the Exxon Valdez went up on a reef in 1989. That award is on top of the actual damages which the company had already paid, also about $500 million. In fact, the Court decided a 1:1 ratio of actual to punitive damages seemed about right in maritime cases (basing their reasoning on an 1818 case involving an American privateer.)
The legal nuances of this case are beyond me, but looking at all those file photos of oil-soaked sea birds and the crude oil slick oozing out from the ship that accompanied today’s story seem like another reminder of the high price we are paying for our reliance on fossil fuels. It is impossible to pick up a newspaper lately and not see what a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into:
•Skyrocketing energy prices are crippling our economy and grim warnings about the severe pain and suffering that will accompany next winter’s heating season suggest it will only get worse.
•NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen comes out with his most urgent warning yet on climate change, saying the big oil & coal companies are guilty of “crimes against humanity” for misleading us on global warming.
•An early start to the wildfire season in California and floods of biblical proportion in the Midwest seem to illustrate everything Hansen and others are about climate change.
SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Break out the power strips
Posted on June 25, 2008
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by Brian Keane
The power strip: tacky and clunky, but easily hidden and an absolute must-use to avoid wasting energy in the home.
According to the US Department of Energy, “In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.” Unplugging your chargers, small appliances and other items is essential to combating that kind of energy waste. But, your home’s “main drains” of unused electricity are in the entertainment center.
You have your TV running through your TiVO, running through your DVD player, all running through your stereo—it’s, no doubt, a sweet set-up. It is important to know, though, that when you click “off” on the remote for all that stuff, none of it is really off.
The easiest remedy to all this wasted energy is to plug all these devices into a power strip. And don’t worry, you can hide it stealthily out of sight in your entertainment center cabinet and/or work desk and still be able to easily click it on and off whenever you want to! When you do, you will really be turning off all those electronic gadgets – saving yourself close to $200 in energy costs a year!
Of course, you are not going to want to shut off your TiVO if you need to record an episode of Grey’s Anatomy that you already missed the first time it aired. So to be on the safe side, plug the TiVO into the wall and allow it to stay on. I mean, let’s be real. We don’t want to do without anything . . . but the wasted energy. So if you need a gadget to be on – then by all means, keep it on. But do we really “need” the TV, DVD player and stereo—not to mention your kids’ Wii—burning energy day and night?
Use a power strips for your entertainment center and compare your energy costs.
It’s a great way for all of us to get energy smart and to do our part to help reduce climate change.
Be sure to check out our regular SmartTip blogs on Yahoo!’s Shine magazine, too.
Consumer Demand is the Answer
Posted on June 24, 2008
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cross-posted at Huffington Post
by Briane Keane
The U.S. Senate is currently stalled on approving renewals for clean energy production tax credits. These tax incentives have promoted investment in the clean and renewable energy industry for the last fifteen years. In years that the credits have been in place, the clean energy industry has grown at an ever-increasing rate, but when the credits have been allowed to expire, investment has dropped and growth has slowed dramatically. We should insist that our politicians help create a business climate in which a clean energy industry will flourish by renewing the clean energy production tax credits.
However, a clean energy policy that will make the United States more energy independent and significantly reduce our nation’s impact on climate change will not be founded on legislation alone. Such a policy must also be led by consumer demand. Policies and legislation can change and energy prices will fluctuate, but if consumer demand for clean and renewable energy grows it will create a robust marketplace for alternative energy, which will guarantee our nation’s clean energy future.
Passing the clean energy tax stimulus legislation alone won’t create consumer demand. To increase Americans’ desire for alternative energy sources, the energy industry should approach the promotion of clean and renewable energy the way corporate America approaches selling any product — through old-fashioned business principles like salesmanship, consumer education, marketing initiatives and consumer product research. Put another way, the iPod is in hot demand - so hot, it doesn’t need federal policies to help them push sales. We can and should do the same for clean, renewable energy.
Consumer education and marketing will play an important role in increasing the demand for clean energy. Some consumers still believe that when the wind stops blowing or clouds cover the sun their homes will lose power. Others believe that buying and using clean energy requires the adoption of some kind of hippie lifestyle. We must educate consumers that clean energy sources are reliable, mainstream and simply do not require any lifestyle changes.
Beyond basic information about clean energy, consumers need guidance for how to take action. In many states, clean energy already exists on the grid, yet most consumers don’t realize this or know how to purchase it.
Recently
- A new way of thinking about climate change
- SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Keep it on “cold”
- Feds dragged, kicking and screaming, toward CO2 regulation
- Green Gold
- “That is some crackerjack energy policy.”
- Hey! I know that guy!
- An ice free North Pole
- SupCo reduces Exxon Valdez award
- SmartPower SmartTip of the Week: Break out the power strips
- Consumer Demand is the Answer
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