Renew News

With a bunch of educational flash games energyhog.org is a fun place for kids to learn about energy conservation. There is both an adult section and a kids section on the site. I found the adult section to be pretty basic, but if you are new to all this energy stuff, and haven’t been espousing the benefits of compact fluorescents and hybrid cars for decades like I have, then you can learn a lot. I thought the kid part of the site was the real gem though. There’s nothing like video games to get the learning going, and these games are actually fun too.

The Discovery channel is 3/4 of the way through their four part series on the car of the future, appropriately called Future Car. The most recent episode was about fuel and hit on everything from ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen and solar all the way to having a car powered by air.

A few of the finer details are a little off, but all in all the shows have been great. It’s really cool to see what the designers are thinking about, and what is on the way. Perhaps the most interesting thing for me in this episode on fuel is that a lot of the future is already available now. Of course they showed prototype cars that can do some amazing things, but really the near future of fueling our vehicles is not so much about bringing in new technology, as it’s about getting more people on-board with the advances that are already commercially available like ethanol, biodiesel and hybrids.

One of the great things about cable is that you get more than one chance to see a good show. If you missed any of Future Car, check out the schedule for your second chance.

=============================================================

Gotta pay the bills:

The exquisite combination of exterior paint colors is used by the professional exterior designers to give a unique look to the fence gate. There is a need of fine-quality material for the establishment of driveways in the patio or garage.

California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine is going to propose a bill that would ban the use of incandescent light bulbs in his state. Since fluorescent bulbs use far less energy this is a move to save energy statewide. It has created quite a buzz in New Jersey where Edison got over 400 patents, and there is a bill that calls for all government buildings to make the switch to fluorescents over the next three years.

I think that an outright ban on the bulbs is a bit extreme, especially since I am married to an artist who prefers incandescent light in her studio, but aggressive incentives are a great idea.

Read more about it here.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released it’s annual list of “Greenest” and “Meanest” cars once again.  Topping the list are well-known and highly publicized hybrids Toyota Prius and Honda Civic, but there are some other interesting appearances as well.

Read more here.

In his recent State of the Union address, George W Bush talked about, and seemed to support, many of the most promising areas of renewable energy. With the current global political climate, and our war in Iraq (that seems to be becoming more about oil every day), it is no surprise that the White House would want to address the security of the nation’s energy supply. The Bush administration does not have a good track record with environmental issues, but it may just be that we have reached a point where the goals of the environmentalists and the politicians have finally met.  Despite my natural optimism, my political views combined with history make it very difficult for me to believe the goals of the Bush administration.  However, with two major exceptions, if the White House sticks to its stated intentions, the US might finally be on the right track with its energy policy.

The points I’m most excited about:

• Reducing gasoline consumption through improved vehicle efficiency, gasoline alternatives (like ethanol), and reductions in commuting and congestion.
• More research into hybrid vehicles, especially plug-in hybrids.
• Increasing the supply of renewable fuels.

The points that make me cringe:

• More nuclear energy.  First, it’s not a renewable resource, and second, it creates toxic byproducts that last for hundreds of years.  People are starting to talk about nuclear as green energy and that makes me crazy.  It is so NOT green.
• More domestic oil production, especially in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge.  Aside from my feeling that we should protect the few wild places we have left, I don’t like a policy of bleeding our country dry of oil first.  If anything, we should preserve what oil we have while we develop renewables further to take the place of foreign oil imports.

Some people think that any State of the Union address is nothing but lip service regardless of who delivered it.  I don’t agree with that.  I have to say that I am very impressed with the majority of the stated goals set out in the new energy policy from the Bush White House, but it’s much easier to talk about doing things than it is to actually do them.  We will see if this administration puts its money where its mouth is.

Check out the full policy here.

In the next week or so, the PBS show This Old House will start an eight-part series on an environmentally friendly green remodel of an Austin, Texas 1926 bungalow. They are using all kinds of great fancy eco-friendly materials like Trex Brasilia decking (trex.com) and a really cool glass and concrete mix called IceStone (icestone.biz). There’s a great article all about it in this week’s Newsweek, but since it is the current issue it’s not on the website yet. Just go buy the magazine.

Although I couldn’t find showtimes on the This Old House website (which is weird), you can read more about the project there.

A Statement of the Obvious.

My Fellow Americans,

As citizens of This Great Nation, we Americans, regardless of our political affiliations, burn more energy per person than a vast majority of the 6.4 billion (and counting) people on the planet today. Thus, our energy footprint is disproportionately large. And, as much of our energy comes from coal fired power plants, in terms of releasing heat trapping gases, we win baby. And not in a good way.

So, many of our hopes lay within the development of alternative energy. We think clean sources of power will help decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and therefore alleviate the problems associated burning oil, natural gas, and coal. But will it?

Our (Pretend) Bright Future.

Lets consider the following hypothetical example. Scientists at Big Green University announce the creation of the black box generator. The BBG produces energy without emissions of any kind. It is portable enough to be carried anywhere. It is adaptable enough that it can power your Ipod, your car, your city, your aircraft carrier, and your commercial jetliner. Great. We have solved the problem. Now what?

(more…)

Tonight I was visited by someone from the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, and it inspired me to make the following plea to our nation’s leaders:

To our Leaders at all levels,

It’s time to get serious about Renewable Energy. This country has made some good steps, but it’s time for more serious action. We need a National Renewable Energy Standard (RES) for the United States. We need it for four reasons: environmentalism, to maintain our economy, to avoid an energy shortage, and for national security.

A Renewable Energy Standard is a plan that requires utilities to gradually increase the percentage of renewable energy in the total energy that they provide. Twenty states already have their own Renewable Energy Standards, and it’s time to follow their lead. This can be done locally, statewide, or nationally. With enough leaders at all levels working on it we will be able to have an impact.

I live in Indiana, and the main thing that has been in the news in this state regarding Renewable Energy is biofuel. Since we are a corn and soybean-growing state it makes sense to promote biodiesel, and I am very happy with the progress and the attention that biodiesel has gotten so far, but there is another area that deserves greater attention in Indiana and throughout the nation: wind. (more…)

 

Slate.com has a step by step list of instructions that will help you cut your carbon emissions.  Check it out here. 

http://www.slate.com/id/2151739/

If you look out the first small window in the front bedroom of our house, you can catch glimpses of Mount Si and the foothills of the Cascade Range between the houses across the street. It is an odd view, similar to looking out at the Grand Canyon through missing boards on a fence. But still, there are hints of the spectacular. The green forested mountains rise four thousand feet above the valley floor, broken here and there with bands of grey and brown rock so large the Native Tribes believed the cliffs were a fallen moon. The forests themselves are broken here and there with clearcuts like chunks of fur shaved out of a dog’s side.

Mount Si above the Snoqualmie River with clear cuts
in the distance.
From the City of North Bend Website. 2006.

The new clearcuts are brown and tan, zig-zagged with the cuts made for the logging truck roads. In the course of a few years these bare spots turn progressively greener as the saplings planted for the next harvest being to branch out. But, away from the clearcuts, on the higher elevations and farther back from the open mouths of the valleys lay forests so green in the right light they appear black.

(more…)