Get Energy Smart! NOW!

In face of wonderful New York Times reporting on windpower, giving voice to NIMBYism, perhaps we should highlight better reporting on and discussion of windpower.  OnEarth, the Natural Resources Defense Council‘s magazine, had a wonderful article earlier this year, “Falling in Love with Wind: How a small farm town traded its dair cows for renewable […]

[Read more →]

The UN has issue Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World.  Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging […]

[Read more →]

Australia’s incoming prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has named a singer from Midnight Oil, Peter Garrett, to be the new environmental minister.  For those for whom the band name doesn’t ring the bell, there can’t be many who won’t recognize the music. The time has come To say fair’s fair To pay the rent To pay our share […]

[Read more →]

Words leaking from behind closed doors about the Energy Bill are, well, to anyone who cares about an Energy Smart future simply foul language. According to the New York Times, Reaching agreement on that timetable is likely to require Congressional leaders to drop provisions like a mandate that electric utilities nationwide generate 15 percent of […]

[Read more →]

In an extremely good (and highly recommended) article, Environmental News Service is reporting that there is some serious cash supporting getting environmental organizations in line behind so-called “Clean Coal” (what should be called: Less Dirty Coal) and massive investments to explore the potential for carbon sequestration.   Carbon sequestration is a long-shot, which puts off implications […]

[Read more →]

The Center for American Progress just released its 10-step plan to a Low-Carbon Economy.  Based on an early look at the summary pages, great stuff and, well, ho-hum, and well, missing elements.  But, looking forward to seeing the full report.

[Read more →]

Today, Google announced RE<C — think renewable electricity cheaper than coal.  To be honest, it is hard to underestimate the importance of actions like these.  The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.  To achieve this, Google is […]

[Read more →]

Having discussed Gridpoint in Energy COOL: Luxury that could go mainstream, a small update from an article in The Washington Post business section.  Gridpoint looks to still mainly be in the testing / development phase, but is available at a retail price of $12.5k rather than the $10k in yesterday’s post.

[Read more →]

Monday’s Washington Post business section has an excellent set of articles examining local green businesses.   They provide a window on those pursuing green productivity for, it seems, ethical/moral issues first (and financial as corollary) as per Honest Tea and those who started entirely with financial reasons (with any environmental/ethical/moral issues secondary, a corollary) as per Marriott (article […]

[Read more →]

NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard driven opposition to some form of change) is a challenge to moves to a sensible energy future not just in America but around the globe.  Whether solar panels, drying clothes outdoors, white roofing, subways, or otherwise, a good number of paths toward a better energy future face opposition from […]

[Read more →]