Bioenergy, once a green energy darling, has been burned by concerns over food prices, environmental cost/benefit debates, and probably a little scapegoating. Although breakthroughs of all kinds have put this technology on the cusp, we're still really just learning how to do biomass sustainably and efficiently. And it's not helping that no shared standards exist for growing or production of biofuels and other products.

As blogged on Matter in March, several groups have proposed their own standards, but a new effort may have the buy-in from the right players to put biomass back in the good graces of the eco-sphere.

At the recently concluded World Bioenergy conference in Sweden, delegates launched the World Bioenergy Association, designed to confront and solve some of the stickiest issues in this emerging market. A major initiative of the WBA is to help develop certification systems to "ensure that the fuels are produced in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, and under acceptable working and social conditions." The organization will also promote trade, biofuels standardization, and continuing research and development.

Says Chair of the WBA Kent Nystroem, "Bioenergy use can and should be increased in a sustainable way in light of high prices of fossil fuels and their environmental impact on the climate, and by representing bioenergy producers worldwide, WBA can help."

To me, this sounds like the right thing at the right time. Until we have a common set of rules that will ensure protection of the environment,bioenergy will always be in danger of doing more harm than good.

As a result, he explained, GM would be closing four SUV and truck factories, including two in the U.S. GM plans to throw its effort into getting its plug-in, the Chevy Volt, on the market. The Volt has been in development since 2001. Wagoner also explained that the future of the Hummer, the civilian version of a military tank, is unclear and that GM is considering whether Hummer is still within the image the company wants its brand to project.

Wagoner’s comments were not only significant because of what they mean for automakers, indicate that carmakers are coming to terms with the idea that price changes are supply-side and long-term. 

A study by the Brookings Institute concluded that people living in the most populated cities in the US have almost 15% lower carbon footprints (2.47 tons per year) than the national average. (3.87 tons per year). The study compared transportation, and density, indoor climate control among the cities:

-Fuel prices: higher fuel prices encourage more fuel efficiency; the highest prices were found farthest from sources and where the most taxes and environmental regulations existed.

-Common fuel types: coal heavy states had large carbon footprints and was most often used by states with coal heavy economies in the East.

-Weather: more extreme weather required more heating and cooling, resulting in higher energy usage.

-Sprawl: density helps to lower carbon footprint by reducing building size and inefficiently used space found in suburbs.

-Transportation infrastructure: mass transit, related to high fuel prices and density, tends to help consumers lower their carbon footprint. Mass transit is economically practicable where there is a high density of customers concentrated along certain corridors, as in cities.

An unmentioned but intimately related factor is politics. The worst carbon per capita was found in ‘red states’, where Republican party ideals fight environmental protection, as can be seen by the recent death of the Lieberman-Warner Climate bill in the Senate.

The highest emitters were in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Cities that had the lowest scores were in the West, where fossil fuels are becoming prohibitively expensive, with California, the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii leading in reduced carbon output. 

While modern scientific advancements present humankind with no shortage of technological marvels, people the world over are still awed by the eons-old power of natural forces. While the sheer energy of these forces is perhaps best evidenced by the destructive force of natural disasters, it also takes many forms that have proven far more useful to humanity. Hydroelectric and hydrokinetic mechanisms have existed in some form since the earliest days of civilization, and windmills have farmed the skies for almost as long, drawing power to grind flour and pump water. Solar energy dried clothes and baked the mud bricks that became the foundation of many a civilization.

But until recently, one natural force has largely eluded the human yoke. Just beneath the surface of the Earth, tremendous pressures and the continual decay of radioactive elements create a tremendous amount of heat. Only occasionally visible on the surface—in places such as Iceland, where direct geothermal power warms a vast majority of the homes—geothermal power tends to reveal itself in violent explosive ways, such as volcanoes and geysers. Despite this, though, the geothermal resource is one of the most potent and untapped power sources available to the inhabitants of this planet.

Unlike many traditional energy sources, such as shallow coal and oil, geothermal can be difficult to tap because of its depth. But within roughly 30,000 feet of the Earth’s surface, there is 50,000 times the amount of energy contained in the world’s combined fossil fuel resources, and scientists have developed several methods of cracking this energy nut. The most common involves finding an existing location where cold water seeps down into the hotter parts of the earth, before being forcefully blasted back up the surface as steam. Though effective (the Geysers plant in California delivers some 850 megawatts), the usefulness of this method diminishes as more plants tap an area, thus decreasing the pressure, and they occasionally release hazardous and foul-smelling gasses.

A second method for harvesting geothermal energy involves pumping cold water down to the heated regions of the earth, and harvesting energy from it as it returns in superheated state. Though untested on a large scale, this method would largely eliminate problems of noxious gasses and water pressure, and test sites have thus far yielded good results. Programs in the United States and at least four other nations are currently attempting to further refine this hot, dry rock method of generating geothermal power.

Until these technologies are proven on a wider scale, though, geothermal power’s most effective role in solving the world’s energy problem is as a heater of homes and other small structures. Even a few feet below the soil, temperatures in the ground rarely dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit . By running pipes through this warm soil, and passing a fluid through those pipes, warmth can be carried back up to structures above ground level, providing carbon-free heat through even the coldest of months.

It seems no gas price or global warming can stand between some affluent Americans and their SUVs. Never mind the near-century of Americans with larger families who got by without them—they are a necessity according to this CNN story.

And really, who can’t feel for the suburban mother trying to fit three children under the age of 10 into Mazda 626, a four-door sedan designed to fit five adults. Thank heavens for the Ford Explorer. It provides her added protection in the event of a crash, but more importantly, it keeps her from suffering that gravest of injury: the stigma of being typecast a minivan-driving soccer mom.

Personally, I applaud her creativity, as I have never seen an SUV used for all but the most rugged off-road riding, and that beefy pedigree just so happens to add another benefit: sure handling in foul foul conditions due to its 4-wheel drive. It’s about time the American consumer had a vehicle to turn to for good handling in bad weather. It’s just a darn shame they only come in such huge sizes and burn so much gas.

One only hopes the price of gas falls soon, because over time, that 72-mile commute is going to be a real wallet-killer.

Pastor John Hagee took a little flack for claiming America’s poor economy was God’s punishment for abortion. So can we perhaps infer the massive spike in oil prices today was similar retribution for killing the Lieberman-Warner Climate Protection Act?

Yes, sadly, the most sweeping climate change legislation to date was ground to dust under the weight of an intractable filibuster. The measure drew only 48 votes in a make-or-break decision that would have ended the filibuster. That’s exactly twenty percent shy of the required sixty, and is sure to send proponents of carbon emissions back to the drawing board.

Still, environmental groups were quick to find the silver-lining under the ever-darkening clouds of America’s inability to act on the global warming issue. While only minority voted to support the act, six senators not present for the vote entered into record that they would have supported it, had counts been closer. In the end, only 36 senators, barely 1/3 of the body, and a scant sliver of a percent away from the number required to uphold a veto, officially cast ballots against it.

The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 fell short of the 60 votes needed to end a Republican filibuster and will not be brought up for a vote again until next year after a new Congress and president are sworn in. The bill would have required a reduction in carbon emissions by 71 percent by 2050.

Jim Pierobon, an energy and climate public affairs consultant in Washington, DC, says the inability to get 60 votes to prevent a filibuster should not come as a surprise. "It is very clear now just how much of an uphill battle assembling the requisite support for a climate bill to become law will be, even with a new administration and the next Congress starting work in January."

Democrats were nearly united in support of the bill with the exception of four senators from states with economies that derive substantial revenue from the coal industry. The four Democratic defectors were:

Sherrod Brown, Ohio
Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Tim Johnson, South Dakota
Byron Dorgan, North Dakota

Pierobon says the less-than-full support from Democrats clouds the picture for future climate change votes. "What do (climate change) advocates do with today’s vote results, especially with regards to Senators Brown, Dorgan, Johnson and Landrieu?

Republicans are concerned about the potential for a carbon cap and trade system to increase the price of energy. With several Republican seats at risk in November and oil at nearly $140 a barrel, the majority have been unwilling to vote with the Democrats. However, seven Republican senators broke away from their party in voting for the bill. With the exception of New Hampshire, all of the Republicans who voted for the bill come from coastal states which are likely to be most affected by climate change should sea levels begin to rise:

John Warner (the co-sponsor), Virginia
Gordon Smith, Oregon
Susan Collins, Maine
Olymipa Snowe, Maine
Elizabeth Dole, North Carolina
John Sununu, New Hampshire
Mel Martinez, Florida

The expected change in the party split in next year's Congress somewhat enhances the chance of a climate bill passing, according to Pierobon. "Given the way the political winds are blowing, they can probably count on a handful of votes in the Senate moving in their direction next year. But the House is a different challenge. Any bi-partisan approach means working with Rep. Joe Barton of Texas and he’s a non-believer. Can allied Democrats win enough seats in the U.S. House to tip the scales in favor of a robust climate bill to overcome Joe Barton?"

The Prometheus Institute is predicting the cost of solar panels to drop significantly by 2010. Travis Bradford, the president of the Institute, says that the price for silicon-based panels should drop to $2.14 per watt within the next two years, from the current price of $3.66. Thin film photovoltaics should drop below two dollars, to $1.81 per watt in the same time frame. It currently costs $2.96 per watt.

Right now, coal — the long time contender for ‘least expensive source of power’ — is priced at $2.10 per watt. The Prometheus Institute is effectively saying that solar power will actually become cheaper than coal in the next two years, even assuming that the cost of coal doesn’t rise. That could make for a significant incentive to convince more companies to switch to solar power.

The price forecast is based on an expected rise in silicon production. Currently, there is a shortage of silicon available for the production of solar panels.  Worldwide silicon production is expected to quadruple by 2012, making a shortage much less of a problem. The Prometheus Institute also expects that there will be more solar power available worldwide, driving the overall price down.

Photo — Now Picnic

Business is going green — and finding a financial benefit to doing so! In the next few years, it looks pretty likely that more and more offices will be reducing their carbon footprints. As they do, there are a few things I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of around the water cooler.

On-site power production: As solar panels and other energy options get cheaper, the cost of electricity from the local fossil fuels plants are sky rocketing. It makes perfect financial sense to install any sort of generator that has practically no fuel costs. The only kink in the plan is the high installation costs — it can take years to recoup that sort of investment. But with options like PPAs and more efficient solar panels, on-site power production is looking pretty good.

Telecommuting: Employees, as a rule, like telecommuting because they don’t have to fight through traffic. As a side benefit, telecommuting also reduces carbon emissions. But employers are also starting to warm to the idea: they don’t have to buy desks for telecommuters, pay for electricity for their computers or a host of other expenses. Just a simple reduction in the wood, plastic and other materials in office furniture makes telecommuting environmentally friendly, but added up with energy usage numbers, it’s great for the employers, the employees and the environment.

Fewer office electronics: Copy machines and other office electronics are expensive. I think we’ll be seeing fewer of them, though as certain electronics are capable of taking on more and more tasks. We’ve all seen the all-in-one copy machine / printer / scanner option — but I think we’ll be seeing more offerings from the electronics companies. Along the same lines, I think we’ll see more energy-efficient equipment and an overall reduction in gadgets. After all, if a cell phone can take on the jobs of a pager, a camera, a voice recorder, an internet browser and half a dozen other things, I think most companies will leap at the chance to provide fewer ‘toys’ to their employees.

As companies find more ways to go green, they’re finding financial reasons to implement the same idea. And this move towards cleaner business practices is creating brand new industries (and new jobs) that can provide significant opportunities in a time when the American economy can certainly use the boost. So why aren’t more companies jumping on the cleantech bandwagon?

It’s a change. And not all business owners are innovators — we saw that when some companies started to use computers. It took time for a lot of businesses to implement computers, even though, for some people, the value of the computer is pretty clear. It’s going to take just as much time to make green business practices the norm.

Photo by Jeff Wilcox

Dopplr, a social networking site based on sharing your travel plans, has upped the ante for its members. Beyond simply connecting travelers with their friends who will be in the same place at the same time, Dopplr now offers a carbon calculator to help trip planners.

The figures beyond the carbon calculator come from AMEE, “the world’s energy meter.” Dopplr users can calculate their emissions based on travel method and stopovers. They can also share their information with their friends, showing off low carbon usage and providing incentives to further lower their emissions. Carbon use is also displayed in a number of ways, including a carbon calendar.

Dopplr is a free service which has enjoyed a certain level of popularity among new media users. I’m on it, and I’ve used it — it’s easy to use and I think there’s a lot of potential for users interested more in their carbon output than their social networking. I think that Dopplr’s carbon calculator actually expands their market to a whole new niche audience, making their business a little more stable. The carbon calculator has been a planned step for Dopplr from the start, judging from posts on the Dopplr blog.

Photo — Afroswede

There’s no question right now that fuel efficiency is in. If gas prices are high enough to bring the much-maligned Geo Metro back to the price range it was originally sold at over a decade ago, you know consumers are taking every action they can to shore up their fuel economy. But the concern is not purely economic; more and more, awareness of the effects of heat-trapping carbon emissions are driving consumers towards better and cleaner choices, especially in the realm of automobiles.

Ford Escape hybrids continue to sell at well above their book prices, and last month, the average time from delivery for sale for a Toyota Prius was a shade under 17 hours. With hybrids selling so well, people are searching everywhere for the next big step toward the zero-emission vehicle. And one of the most hyped contenders in this arena is the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

The technology behind fuel cells is staggeringly simple and immediately appealing. Take some hydrogen, take some oxygen, then put special membrane between them. The hydrogen crosses the membrane to combine with the oxygen, generating an electrical current in the process. And the only chemical emission is regular old water.

Fuel cells have provided power to the space program for decades, and a fairly large number of prototype hydrogen vehicles are already in existence. In fact, if you’re lucky enough to live in certain parts of California, you’ll be able to lease a fuel-cell hydrogen vehicle from Honda, starting sometime this summer. Plus the design is undergoing further refinement everyday. Two of the biggest advances in recent months have been made by BMW; a gorgeous concept sedan that reduces carbon monoxide as it drives, and a fuel tank that can apparently 310 miles on 22lbs of hydrogen.

But sadly, that appears to be the end of the good news about the fuel cell car. As you may have read, BMW has no plans for a production model of that concept sedan, most likely because the cost would be prohibitively high. The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? estimates that the average cost of a prototype hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is in the millions; not bad for a proof-of-concept, but far too costly for the assembly line. Moreover, hydrogen gas is extremely expensive to produce, both economically and in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. In most cases, it must be electrolyzed from water, in a complete reversal of the reaction used to power a fuel cell car—anyone familiar with the Laws of Thermodynamics can tell you why that’s a losing proposal.

But potentially, the most lethal blow to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is that it simply can’t compete against other vehicles in the existing marketplace. Unlike plug-in electrics, it can’t be refueled at home, and unlike hybrids, it cannot refuel at a gas station or augment its range with gasoline. Storing and transporting hydrogen in a useful, liquid state requires keeping it extremely compressed, something which existing gas carriers would require extensive modifications to do.

In short, hydrogen cars do offer the potential for clean, long range transport, but at such an immense cost that widespread adaptation of the technology simply isn’t a feasible option in the foreseeable future.

After a week of the debate, it seems all but inevitable that the most impressive and far-reaching bill to make it to the floor of the US Senate will die a slow and sad death in filibuster.

Even the bill’s staunchest supporters say it’s unlikely they’ll be able to rally the 60 votes needed to break the current roadblock set-up by Senate Republicans. Despite the co-sponsorship of John Warner, a Virginia Republican, only 6 GOP members pledged their support to the measure.

Environmental legislation never seems to pass easily—the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 were debated for five weeks before finally passing. But opposition seemed dead set on burying the bill in unpopular amendments and delay; one senator demanded that the entire 492 page proposal be read aloud into the record on Wednesday, essentially ending debate on the bill for that day.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has set a vote for Friday at noon to determine the bills fate. If it cannot muster the 60 votes needed to break filibuster, it will be removed from consideration.

Despite birthing some one of the most obstinate climate-change thumb-twiddlers of all time, Yale University recently announced plans for an online magazine, aimed entirely at global environmental topics. Yale Environment 360 looks to centralize environmental reporting, and raise it to a world-class level.

The magazine’s first edition boasts quite a pedigree, drawing in writers from the New Yorker, Nobel Prize-winners, along with scientists and pundits from across the spectrum. Issues range from the myth of clean-burning coal to water shortages, and take place as far away as China and the Amazon rainforest.

The magazines creation reinforces the established that the environment is of primary concern among both academics and college students, but the broad-based focus and wide variety of material speaks to the growing popularity of green issues among the public as a whole.

It’s been a chicken-and-egg problem: how can you get more hydrogen-powered cars on the road without more fueling stations offering hydrogen? And how can you get more fueling stations to offer hydrogen until there are more hydrogen-powered cars on the road?

By the end of June, though, one Los Angeles Shell Station will be offering hydrogen, though. Several more LA stations plan to add similar accommodations in the next few months. The Shell Station on Santa Monica Boulevard is adding an on-site electrolyzer to create hydrogen. The filling station is taking part in a U.S. Department of Energy research program; both Shell and GM have teamed up with the DOE. For the time being the stations will be generating their hydrogen from electricity in turn generated by fossil fuels. But Shell is working with wind power and geothermal power sources to develop a better plan.

This is a clear step to making hydrogen-powered vehicles practical on the streets of LA. Maybe Shell can even help hydrogen power break out of its chicken-and-egg cycle.

Photo — RoadSidePictures

The New York Marriott Downtown has been looking for a way to reduce costs. They found that one of their most significant costs was energy, so the hotel’s management has installed a ‘microturbine farm.’

Marriott cut the ribbon on the new system on Tuesday, actually made up of two PureComfort systems. PureComfort systems are ultra-clean power setups sold by UTC Power. At Marriott, the 11 microturbines provide not only enough electricity for the 500-room full-service hotel to function but to also handle all cooling and heating needs. Temperature will be controlled through the use of the waste heat generated by the system’s microturbines.

In a press release, the hotel’s owner, Ed Walter, announced, “This system has a proven track record of reliability and efficiency.  It demonstrates our ability and interest in conserving energy and protecting the environment, while also generating a significant return on our investment. In addition, we have registered the project with the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) for LEED® certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.”

UTC Power estimates that their system is almost 80 percent efficient, nearing three times the efficiency of a conventional power plant. Additionally, the hotel expects to reduce their carbon emissions by about 1,700 tons.

The New York Marriott Downtown has managed to go off the grid, energy-wise. I’m sure that Walter is just as pleased about not having to pay his electric bill as helping the environment. It’s always good to be able to both at the same time.

Media characterizations of teens and youth tend to cast them in a spoiled and apathetic light. But in survey after survey, young people continually express concerns on a variety of topics, not the least of which is the environment. Yet despite the clear interest, traditional high school curriculums do little to engage environmental topics, outside sparse coverage in biology or earth science courses.

Aiming to correct this divergence between enthusiasm and eduction, without stressing school budgets, the National Environmental Education Foundation has teamed up the the Weather Channel to create the somewhat obtusely-named National High School Challenge.

The idea is to inspire teachers in other subjects to create bold lesson plans that delve deeply into environmental topics, all while fitting with in the curriculum of an existing course or combination of subject ares. The contest sponsors will then dole out funding of $5,000 to $10,000 to bring the new plans to life.

The competition will accept entries through June 20th, with winners announced sometime in August.

While wind power has snagged plenty of headlines in recent months, it isn’t the only renewable energy source drawing big dollars from utility companies these days. Southern California Edison, which already pulls in some seventeen percent of its power from renewables, announced today that it would invest in a 245 megawatt solar project to power customers in the region.

The undertaking, which is the first commercial effort in America using solar tower technology, is contracted through eSolar and takes advantage of the massive amount of sunlight the Southern California region receives each year.

While wind turbines have come to symbolize the green movement in recent years, solar power represents another viable and time-tested means of drawing power from the environment with minimal ecological disturbance. Solar towers, along with hypothetical space-based solar arrays, could dramatically increase solar’s presence in the energy market over the coming decades.

West Linn Paper Company has become one of the first companies pledged to report their greenhouse emissions to the Climate Registry. The nonprofit registry was established to publicly record greenhouse emissions across both geographical borders and industry sectors. Among the creators of the organization are 39 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, six Mexican states, six Canadian provinces and three Native American tribes.

The Climate Registry requests North American companies and organizations, such as West Linn Paper, to voluntarily submit to independently verified measurements on a yearly basis. The organization’s reporting protocols are based on the World Resources Institute’s measurement standards. Emission records will provide a baseline for companies working towards reducing their environmental impact.

West Linn Paper has worked hard to provide environmental stewardship through the companies commitments. The Oregon-based paper manufacturer offers a number of recycled paper products and have met the requirements for FSC certification — when they haven’t exceeded them. The company has made sustainability a part of their plans for success, and even says on its website that its business relies on it: “We are proud of our accomplishments and will continue to improve our mill operations and environmental practices—our business and community depend on it.”

An extended list of companies reporting emissions to the Climate Registry is available on the organization's website.

Image courtesy West Linn Paper Company

If you try to choose your clothing with the environment in mind, you now have a choice for green "unmentionables". Marks & Spencer, the largest clothing retailer in the U.K. has announced that it is now making carbon-neutral bras. The company has 750+ stores in more than 30 countries.

Marks & Spencer’s supplier, MAS, is opening an ‘eco-factory’ in Sri Lanka. The factory has not been certified as green, although the company has applied for LEED certification. And it looks likely that they’ll achieve it.

The factory will run at least partially on clean energy supplied by the national electric grid and augmented with solar panels. It is an energy-efficient building, constructed using materials with low embodied energy. Estimated energy for the new factory is approximately 40% less than other factories of the same size.

Water usage in the plant has been reduced by 50%, as the factory has systems that harvest rainwater, as well as low flow fixtures. Waste is also recycled, with biowaste going into an anaerobic digestion system to be processed into gas for kitchen use.

The overall working conditions at the plant include natural lighting and fresh airflows, as well as greenery. By 2010, MAS plans to employ 1,300 workers at the plant. The plant will also have a number of facilities on site, including a holistic medical center.

MAS’ new plant builds on Marks & Spencer’s green success stories with their eco-stores in Bournemouth and Pollok, England. The company works with an in-house team, Plan A (‘There is no Plan B’), to generate ideas to improve the company’s corporate responsibility. Plan A was launched in January 2007 as a set of 100 social and environmental commitments that Marks & Spencer planned to address in the next five years. In addition to Plan A’s focus on environmentalism, the new factory has provided a few opportunities to address their fair partnership goals.

Other Plan A projects have included the use green materials in building new stores, using sustainable fishing to supply the needs for the Marks & Spencer’s food lines, stocking fair trade products in their stores and increasing energy efficiency. They’ve had notable success with reducing the number of shopping bags that Marks & Spencer customers using by implementing a charge for each plastic bag. A large number of customers have switched over to using reusable bags from home to avoid the extra cost.

Photo courtesy of Marks & Spencer

One of the ongoing concerns with electric vehicles is the range: most can’t travel much more than 120 miles without needing to recharge. The idea that drivers will need to recharge their cars less than 150 miles from their home — rather than the fill ups that gasoline-powered cars require every 350 miles or so — has been a major concern for the average consumer.

Superlattice Power, a North Carolina-based battery company, has announced an innovation that may not get EVs up to a range of 350 miles, but can at least extend them to 200 miles. The company has developed a new lithium polymer battery that relies on a new type of superlattice cathode.

Hybrid Technologies has worked closely with Superlattice Power to develop their new battery and bring it a point of practicality for commercial use. Neither company is ready to put a new battery on the market, though, and it’s not clear when they will be ready to start sales. The two companies are specifically focusing on developing batteries for electric vehicles but have mentioned plans to adapt more efficient batteries for consumer electronics from iPods to laptops.

Image courtesy Superlattice Power.

For much of the 20th century, the United States has been looked upon as a world leader. From the development of manned flight at the start of the last century, through the Space Program in the 1960s, to the massive technological boom that closed out the 1900s, America has been the worldwide gold standard—quite literally, in fact, with many nations fixing the value of their currency to the US Dollar—in prosperity, productivity and quality of life.

Perhaps even more amazingly, though, the U.S. has always managed to temper the pace and power of its industrial achievements with concern for the environment. From Johnny Appleseed to John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt to Rachel Carson, environmentalists have always managed to hold impressive sway in the United States, and this has paid massive dividends for the nation. Despite developing some of the most polluting technologies ever conceived, the U.S. has largely avoided disasters brought on by them, due in no small part to thoughtfully constructed and carefully enforced controls and restrictions.

On the other hand, the United States is hardly a paragon of intelligent environmental restraint. It’s no secret that the plush lifestyles enjoyed by many in the most developed nations have come at the expense of the rest of the world, and even George W. Bush, the “big oil” President, has admitted the U.S. has something of a problem with its astronomical rates of consumption. 

As the world proceeds further into this new century, it’s important that developed nations like the U.S. choose exactly which of their aspects they choose to export to the developing world. With 80% of humanity now living in so-called “developing nations”, the course these countries take as they approach modernization will have an unimaginable impact on the rest of the world—and so far, environmentalism hasn’t proven all that popular an export.

“Overshopping”, or purchasing well beyond one’s needs, is already present in emerging economies; roughly one-third of all food purchased in South Africa is thrown away, even as the world faces an increasingly dire food shortage. While GDP and purchasing power are reaching all-time highs in nations across the world, lists of “most polluted cities” never seem to include anywhere in American or Western Europe. The same can be said for gridlock , while fully-developed nations have a virtual lock on the ranks of the world’s cleanest.

This isn’t to say that developing nations are pushing toward modernity without any care at all for the environment. Indeed, many places with rapidly emerging economies are miles ahead of the United States on curbing their carbon emissions, and on far more sustainable means of transportation, such as bicycles and mass transit. But in the interests of sustainability, and the fate of the environment worldwide, the US and other developed nations must make a more concerted effort to export the virtues of environmental consciousness over the allure of consumerism.

Have a pile of old electronics in need of recycling? Best Buy is testing a free recycling program for e-waste in eight states. This seems like a good idea on Best Buy’s part for a number of reasons. Best Buy has faced some criticism about the disposable nature of many of its products. Quite a few TVs picked up from Best Buy have wound up in a landfill. The problem is made worse by the rapid advancements in technology these days, making even a new purchase obsolete relatively quickly.

While this program is a test program — meaning that Best Buy may decide to chuck the whole thing down the road — the way that Best Buy is running it shows serious potential. Consumers can drop off two items every day at their local Best Buy. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to cart around more than two items anyhow. And if you’re having a new appliance delivered, Best Buy will take the old one away.

There are some limitations on just what electronics you can drop off with Best Buy: televisions over 32 inches, air conditioners and microwaves. Appliances can’t be dropped off — although Best Buy will pick them up from your home for fee, whether or not you’ve bought a new appliance through their store. The recycling program, overall, is focused on collecting the unwanted gadgets (iPods, video game controllers and other little stuff) that generally just get pitched in the trash.

Best Buy is offering a list of participating stores on its website, but basically, the company is testing the recycling program in the Minnesota (Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin), Baltimore (Maryland, D.C. and Virginia) and San Francisco markets. Best Buy has over 900 stores in the U.S., and if all goes well, they may expand the program to every store.

"We want to take the time to learn if we can handle this before we go any further," said Best Buy spokeswoman Kelly Groehler in an interview with the Associate Press yesterday. "We know the need is there and the waste stream is there.”

Best Buy was recently approached by As You Sow, an organization concentrating on corporate social responsibility, for an endorsement for another electronics recycling program. The proposal prompted Best Buy to move forward on its already existing recycling programs and expand those plans. The 117 store test is -- to date -- the most extensive free electronics recycling program offered by any major retailer.

The state of Hawaii has set some new rules for homebuilders. By 2010, all new homes built in the state are required to have solar hot water heaters, rather than the electric and natural gas heaters that are the norm.

Solar water heaters reduce the average home’s electricity bill by at least 30 percent. And Hawaii is well positioned for solar energy. The bill passed with only two dissenting votes in the Hawaiian Senate and unanimous support in the Hawaiian House. Considering that the cost of electricity in the state is the highest in the U.S., the changeover will not only help homeowners with sustainability but also with expenses.

Governor Linda Lingle has set a statewide goal of at least 70 percent renewable energy use in the state of Hawaii by 2030. Solar water heaters are a good start. Hawaiian legislators, though, need to think about moving beyond this law. They’ve rejected a number of related bills — lighting efficiency standards, compact fluorescent recycling programs, etc. — that will be necessary to hit that 70 percent goal.

In a post on the Hawaii Sierra Club’s blog, the organization’s director, Jeff Mikulina, said, "Passing the solar roofs bill was the single biggest step the legislature took this year to increase Hawaii's energy security." And it was a great step.

Photo — RJL20

In what is becoming a near-weekly occurrence, another large energy company plunked down a sizeable chunk of change in hopes of greening up its image, generating cleaner power, and maybe even saving the world.

The latest buyer is Alliant Energy Corporation, who ponied up nearly $820 million dollars for 303 wind turbines from Vestas-American. Alliant is slated to use the turbines for a variety of wind-energy projects throughout the American Midwest, including Whispering Willow Wind Farm-East, a 200 megawatt facility in Franklin County, IA.

Sales like these have become more and more common in recent months, continuing a trend that saw global wind power capacity rise 27% over the course of last year.  The burgeoning demand has caused a growing shortage in supply, but with petrochemical prices at record highs and the American dollar spending relatively cheap, many companies clearly see this juncture as the time to buy.

I’ve got a brilliant proposal for the future of our nation. I’m gonna call it the “Unpopular President” amendment, and it will limit or improve the President’s veto power based on his current popularity rating. An unorthodox idea, true, but possibly the only Lieberman-Warner will get past a veto by lame duck Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush.

Despite that gloomy introduction, day one Senate debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Protect Act went fairly well, at least from an environmental prospective. Few of the voices arguing against the bill questioned the existence or damage potential of human-caused global warming, preferring instead to focus on the economic repercussions a cap and trade plan would have, especially in the current economy.

Supporters argued their opposition was in the pockets of industrial interests, and highlighted that energy prices are already skyrocketing; the 50-cent increase in the price of gas by 2030 predicted by the White House if the bill passes, claimed Senator Lieberman, would come as a relief.

The backers’ current goal of 60 votes, enough to stave off a filibuster seems attainable. But the 67 needed to overturn a Bush veto may be a bridge too far.

Silver bullet policy solutions are those that solve a myriad of issues in one tidy move. The aptly named bullet train- a high speed link between Northern and Southern California (pictured)- could do that for the Golden State and put ambitious climate targets within reach.

High speed, long distance rail is not a new idea; the Japanese and Europeans basically have it down to a science. It is not even a new idea for California, as it was originally proposed in the early 90s. The bullet train, which would run between San Francisco and Los Angeles, would be able to travel more than two hundred miles an hour and offset increasingly expensive interstate airtravel.

Though Governor office rep Sabrina Lockhart is on record arguing that "It's not cost-effective in the short term” all signs actually point to yes on that one. The bullet train is projected to make twice its costs in less operating time than it would take to build it. Study after study reports that the bullet train is solidly cost effective, that a market has existed for years and that demand of the service is rising. Further, some speculate that California will not be able to meet its precedent setting climate goals without such a project.

So, what’s the problem? Looks like it’s Schwarzi. Though Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a better governor than Californians expected, taking admirable leadership in climate change rhetoric and solar initiatives, his office seems to be demonstrating a lot of inertia on this subject. Junior State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma told reporters that "The governor needs to get on board. This is an important environmental issue. For him not to be behind it doesn't make sense."

In part, financing seems to be a political hurdle. The bullet train has a big up front price tag that voters will need to float. Though Arnold Schwarzenegger has crossed many typically partisan lines to get behind environmental initiatives, there is a lot of inertia regarding the big spending required for the bullet train. At the same time, though a bond measure to build a bullet train would look like a large number, the investment itself is sound. There is healthy private sector support for the train, but like most cleantech, is seeking a stable regulatory environment and strong public leadership to encourage investment.

Ironically, every year the train is not built, it adds nearly two billion dollars in costs to the project. However it seems that the train is in the works, either with Schwarzenegger or without him. Schwarzenegger would do himself a service by endorsing a bond for the high speed rail. His tenure has been interesting thus far, but supporting a high speed train would turn his time in office from a curiosity into a legacy. 

More at the SFGuardian.

Forget utility bills. Off-grid systems are being installed with a quickness, thanks to a perfect storm of market conditions that result in savings when ratepayers unplug themselves from resource infrastructure. Off-grid expert estimates that about 400,000 people have unplugged, with that rate growing at an astounding thirty percent a year.

Users can not only break even, but are saving money by installing their own solar or wind infrastructure, drilling wells and growing their own food . These days being resource self-sufficient means being protected from wild swings in commodities markets and consumer prices. Policy has come around; a combination of subsidies, grants, green loans and other incentives has shortened the rate of return people can see in green building and off-grid investments, a rate of return that gets higher as nonrenewable energy costs rise. Another factor encouraging off-grid transitions is a dramatic drop in prices.

Aided by the LEED boom, which has made green building supplies a mainstream requirement, many green building features are markedly cheaper than a decade ago. Materials are being made better and more affordably; installation has fallen in price as environmental renovation services proliferate. These days, going off the grid, building green and providing for oneself environmentally is the economic choice, and no longer requiring much or any sacrifice in quality of living.

Read more at ENN.  

When municipalities redevelop neighborhoods, the most successful projects are those that the community themselves invested in. This is demonstrated no better than in Franklinton, a historic portion of Columbus Ohio, where a group of graduate students worked with community members to form redevelopment plans for their neighborhood that reflected their values.

Redevelopment is a critical urban planning tool that allows planners to refurbish, revitalize and even rezone neighborhoods whose economic vitality, occupants, or ability to meet the needs of their residents has diminished. Redevelopment involves a city restructuring neighborhoods, either by taking abandoned properties though eminent domain, rezoning, refurbishing brownfields and new projects. It’s redevelopment when your city knocks down the old ship yards and puts in condos, or when the meatpacking district becomes a mixed use project.

As you could imagine, redevelopment can mean changing the fundamental, or at least traditional, character of a neighborhood. This is why it is so critical for community members to be involved, and why Franklinton’s work is so impressive. The community was able to collaborate with planners to indicate what they wanted- walkability, a preservation of certain historic elements, mixed use design that created infrastructure for jobs near home, an artist friendly community, space for other large community based employers. The planning process employed by Franklinton is a great example of a way to avoid gentrification, where redevelopment renews the neighborhood without pushing residents out.

Read more here.

Photo by Franklinton Development Association; shows successful marriage of design, art, and new housing. 

The developers of a Christian-themed amusement park in rural Tennessee say they want to make it "sustainable and carbon-friendly." SafeHarbor Holding says the the 275-acre, $200 million facility will power all of its fire and brimstone attractions using geothermal heat pumps. In addition, green space will be preserved around the area, parking lots will be permeable rather than paved, and inside the park the operators plan recycling spots placed around the park.

The company altered its original design in an attempt to blend their heartland heaven into the natural surroundings: "We were able to adjust the design to use the natural water feature that currently exists on the land as the Dead Sea, and fit the Sea of Galilee into an area utilizing natural contours" (as quoted by the Murfreesboro Post).

However, the builders are having some trouble getting their holy land off the ground. A citizen petition in the town of Murfreesboro helped defeat re-zoning land for the park last week.

Some of the hostility due to, well, revelations about the not-so-godly past of Amnon Bar-Tur, one of the park's chief financial backers.  It was revealed that Mr. Bar-Tur was once a photographer for some of the nation's smuttiest magazines. The organization is considering other sites in nearby Lebanon, TN and in Kentucky.

Even though it may be a while before you can make your own pilgrimage to this place, you can still visit the park's website, which includes a surprisingly unenlightening "3-D site flyover."

Despite the fact that bicycles remain the most energy efficient form of transportation every produced, and despite the fact that a variety of new designs, and innovative programs make cycling easier than ever, and even taking into account the fact that the price of a tank of gas is encouraging progressively more insane driving maneuvers, Americans, by and large, are unwilling to use bikes.

But now, at least two Minnesota state legislators are hoping to convert drivers in cyclocommuters by leveraging that most basic of all American desires—freedom to ignore the rules. The bill, proposed by Rep. Phyllis Kahn and Sen. Jim Carlson would allow cyclists the ability to run red lights and stop signs at otherwise empty intersections.

Cyclists, being unencumbered by steel cages, have tremendously improved fields of vision over motorists, and have no radio, make-up or dog in the backseat to distract them, I’m one-hundred percent behind this new legislation. As co-sponsor Kahn says, “It's how most people behave anyway.”

Proliferation of asthma diagnoses and improved treatment over the past few decades has brought the humble metered dose inhaler to a pop-culture preeminence general reserved for more glamorous pharmaceuticals, like valium and prozac.

 As of December 31^st, those little air-way unclogging jets will turn just a little bit greener, thanks to the removal of chlorofluorocarbon-or CFC- based inhalants.

In one of the first and largest global-scale victories for environmentalists, governments in developed countries almost universally banned the production of CFCs in 1970s, after it was found their presence in the atmosphere drastically depleted a layer of ozone gas that protected the Earth from ultraviolet radiation.

 The prohibition has lead to small incidences of black market CFC production and smuggling of CFCs across borders, but the gradually decreasing costs of safe CFC alternatives has made has led UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to call the Montreal Protocol that banned their production “[T]he single most successful international agreement to date.”

Laying asphalt is a hot business. The oil, sand and rock mixture is too thick to lay without heating it to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The amount of energy spent on the actual act of constructing a road from asphalt is astounding — almost as astounding as how quickly asphalt has gone from a cheap construction material to a very expensive one.

Just a few years ago, asphalt sold from #35 a ton. Today, the cost is $80 and rising. Rising petroleum prices are to blame: asphalt is 5 percent oil. Asphalt is recyclable, but there’s a constant need for both new roads and repair to existing roads.

Hussain Bahia has a solution, though. Bahia, a civil engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, thinks it’s time for the U.S. to look other countries. Outside of the U.S., asphalt doesn’t necessarily require heat to lay. Instead, many other countries use cold mixes, which require approximately seven times less energy to lay. The problem is that there are standards and procedures for hot mixes in the U.S. — guidelines that allow engineers to predict how a given road will perform. There’s no such data in on cold-mixes.

Bahia’s goal is to fix that, through his work at the Asphalt Research Consortium. He plans to develop the necessary quality control tests and other standards to make cold mixes a reasonable alternative for U.S. road builders. Bahia has even planned experiments beyond the necessary standards — using more recycled materials and polymers, for instance.

Photo — Sidereal

Southern Methodist University is running on heat. It's recycling energy by using a thermoelectric generator. The machine generates electricity by using heat produced by using energy — manufacturing processes are a good example — to boil liquids. The boiling liquids turn into steam, which turns a turbine with generates power.

Dallas-based SMU is testing a generator from ElectraTherm, a firm specializing in recovering waste heat. Considering that approximately 50 percent of all fuel burned in industrial processes becomes waste heat, ElectraTherm’s generators offer an impressive opportunity to save energy from what has long seen as a necessary lost. Even better, this system is emissions-free. There may be some emissions remaining from whatever plant produced the heat in the first place, but over all, it seems that ElectraTherm’s generators provide for impressively clean power. Furthermore, calculations seem to imply that a company buying one of these generators could recoup the purchase cost within four years. After the purchase price is covered, the cost per kilowatt hour would be less than one cent.

And the financial savings? Wow! Sure, SMU will have to buy fuel for whatever mechanism from which they are harvesting heat. But they get full use of that fuel, and then get to use it again! Theoretically, if they use energy from waste heat in a process that creates more waste heat, they’ll get multiple uses out of it — although I assume that they’ll get diminishing returns. It’s a very efficient system, though.

Photo courtesy SMU

The biggest convention of the publishing world, BookExpo America, was held this past weekend. The organizers announced early plans to ‘green’ the conference in a variety of ways, but decided to jettison those plans part way through organization. Lance Fensterman, the BookExpo’s vice president, acknowledged that “We are fully aware that improvement can be made in our green related efforts,” in an interview with the Associated Press.

The real problem seems to be the sense that the BookExpo is all about trends, and sustainable business practices are growing. As a trend spotter, it makes sense that the BookExpo would try to incorporate a few of those green ideas into their own operations. The fact that practically every publishing house — Scholastic, Random House, etc. — have made serious environmental goals only makes it seem like the BookExpo is missing out on something big. Bloggers and other publications are already discussing the issue — some with complete horror at the printing of over 10 million pages for the convention and others with a touch of realism about the need for programs for each attendee.

Personally, I’m a little astounded at the number of printed materials that BEA produced. After all, a 700-page program seems a bit excessive, although those weren’t handed out to the full 30,000 attendees. Only 19,000 people got that lengthy document.  But I won’t question BEA’s decision on the need for such a program. But none of those materials were printed on recycled stock. I imagine quite a few copies went straight into a trash bin after the expo ended, as well.

This year’s BookExpo did feature some significant green programming, providing an opportunity for publishers to discuss the topic. But Fensterman also stated that BEA could have gone further: “I'm very proud of the green programming that we created this year at the show…Earlier in the year we had thought about doing even more green programming at BEA. But we felt that until we started being more green ourselves, it was not entirely right to proclaim the virtues of being green.”

Limiting discussion of the topic doesn’t seem like an ideal approach. Approximately 30,000 authors, publishers, booksellers and other publishing professionals attended the expo. It seems like opening up the question of how to make next year’s BookExpo sustainable would have been a fabulous opportunity to spark a discussion of how green trends are affecting the publishing industry as a whole.

Photo courtesy BookExpo America

Silicon Valley visionary Guy Kawasaki has helped launch a simple but useful window into “all the top sites” found around the web including a section dedicated to the best sites covering the green revolution. Alltop.com organizes headline feeds from leading sites across 80+ categories.

Green.alltop.com is where you'll find the recommended green news and information sites. We’re pleased to find several Matter Network publishing partners appearing on the list, including TerraPass Blog, GreenUpgrader, EcoGeek, Inhabitat, RiverWired, Triple Pundit and Matter Network itself.

Apparently determing the “top” listings is largely a judgment call by the Alltop team. According to the site, they rely upon “Google searches, review of the sites’ and blogs’ content, researchers, and our “gut” plus the recommendations of the Twitter community, owners of the sites and blogs, and people who care enough to write to us.” They also credit the Twitter social network as having been "the single biggest factor in the quality of Alltop."

Thus, a site's positioning on the list may not necessarily reflect that site's actual traffic rankings or popularity among demographic groups outside those of the influencers. Nonetheless Alltop seems useful as a way to discover interesting sites and to get a quick scan of current stories.