Get Energy Smart! NOW!

The U.S. Congress is often the site of friendly (sometimes not so friendly) wagering, when rival teams meet each other in important events. This occurs around University football games, World Series, the Superbowl, March Madness, and other competitions.  Right now, there is a 20-team competition underway almost literally in the shadow of the US Congress […]

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Solar innovation has come to The National Mall from the north as part of the 2009 Solar Decathlon, with two Canadian teams out of the 20 energy efficient solar powered homes. Team Ontario/BC took their geography to heat, forming Team North to North House to Washington, DC. Considering where they come from, no surprise that […]

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Electrification of rail is one of the most effective currently available technology paths for reducing carbon emissions. It should be on the top of the policy agenda. It is, basically, nowhere to be found. Here is a guest post by the very thoughtful BruceMcF, looking at this gap and providing a path forward for addressing […]

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Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, and Senator John Kerry, Democrat from Massachusetts, have joined forces in what might be one of the most important single opinion pieces published in a newspaper so far in 2009. Published in The New York Times, Yes, We Can (Pass Climate Legislation), provides an indication of a ‘bipartisan’ […]

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Thronging The National Mall at this time are thousands of curious people, visiting the Solar Decathlon with the 20 energy efficient solar powered homes, being awed by their designs, their technologies, and their visions for the future.  Team Boston has centered their entire project around that very sense of curiosity, with CURIO House having as […]

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Each of the Solar Decathlon’s 20 teams developed their own philosophy, developed within their own regional requirements and styles, and developed a sustainable home from that. Some teams aimed for the upscale market, creating visions for the Hampton beach goer or the empty nesters sipping wine in Napa Valley.  While those on the high might […]

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Team California brought to the Mall a home where life will follow the sun. The Refract House, a three room (or, dependent on weather, four counting the patio) home is laid out so that life moves through the house with the sun. One wakes in the east, as the sun enters into the bedroom, life […]

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After a long day battling for the public option, Jeff “Energy Smart” Merkley sat down with a group at the Center for American Progress (courtesy of Wonkroom’s Brad Johnson) to discuss energy and climate issues. Amid praise for the roll-out for the Kerry-Boxer climate legislation, Senator Merkley laid out a cogent and clear message that […]

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Secretary of Energy Steven Chu went to the National Mall today to visit the Solar Decathlon, with Chu’s Decathlon visit featured on the White House blog I just helped kick-off the Department of Energy’s 2009 Solar Decathlon. This is a unique student competition on the National Mall that showcases the latest energy efficiency and solar […]

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The University of Minnesota’s Solar Decathlon team‘s handout to visitors to the DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Thursday on the Mall in Washington, DC, (which I had a chance to visit earlier today) is subtitled “A New Tradition”. Their ICON Solar House hopefully is just that, a representation and sign of “a new tradition” that […]

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