No drilling any time soon, even without ban

Despite the lapse in the off-shore oil drilling ban, drilling off the California coast is not likely to occur any time soon.

Even if oil companies can buy new leases, federal officials say it would be at least five more years—and perhaps many more—before they would work through the necessary government evaluations, public comment periods, environmental and exploration studies, economic reviews, and state and federal approvals.
...
Oil companies also would need county and state approval to build their pipelines to the shore, along with the other facilities that might be needed to store the oil. Industry officials say it could take up to 12 years before they could begin pumping the oil if leases are sold in California waters.

The idea that oil drilling would have any impact on gas prices was always a scam. Even assuming it could be done quickly - which it can't - oil is a global market, the impact on gas prices would be negligible.

GB Exchange Closes

The Green Building Exchange on Main Street in Redwood City closed its doors. It was a great idea – a one-of-a-kind business model – that brought green building vendors permanently together under one roof. It also housed a radio show called Green Seed Radio.

I remember meeting the founder Michael Schaeffer last July and was impressed by his enthusiasm and drive. But then in November, when I was back there during a seminar, I was struck by the frank tone of one of the administrators I was chatting with, who told me that it was getting difficult to keep the vendors there. And then the radio station bellyed up. Its location, on the east side of Veterans Blvd., really hampered its exposure.

The Exchange is currently looking for a new spot, presumably in South San Francisco, according to the news coverage.

Gore in San Jose at West Coast Green

Gore was in San Jose yesterday and spoke at West Coast Green:

Within 10 years, the United States should get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. "It's time to think boldly," he said. "We've had enough of little tiny policies.

He called for a national smart grid with expanded, underground transmission lines that add solar, wind and geothermal power to the national's energy supply. And he mentioned Silicon Valley, where he now works as a partner at the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture-capital firm, as being integral to achieving something like a Moore's Law for renewable technologies where efficiencies increase and prices fall at a consistent pace.

More on the show and the products featured in this SJ Mercury article. I love Warmboard. Radiant floor heating is many times more efficient than blown in heated air from vents which mostly heat the ceiling. Radiant floor heating puts the heat where you need it.

The article ends on a sour note by reinforcing the notion that green is more expensive. The article of course fails to note that cost decline with scale - these technologies are scaling quickly - and that the cost advantage of inherently inefficient alternatives will decline as the true costs of inefficiency and emissions are properly incorporated. We pay for those costs currently in other ways such as health costs.

10 to the 100

Google launches a new philanthropic initiative. Gathering the best ideas - is one of them yours?

Applied Materials makes move on LED lighting

Earth2Tech has the story.

Finance and oil markets: impact on clean-tech?

Concern may be spreading over the impact of the downturn on the nascent clean-tech economy in Silicon Valley.

In Silicon Valley, Wall Street's problems have fostered widespread uncertainty. The financial contraction hits just as the valley is in the midst of remaking itself into a worldwide center for clean technology, which takes years to develop and requires more capital than the hardware and software startups the valley has produced in the past.

The growth of that new sector could be stunted now that capital is harder to get, especially for companies that have already designed products and are ready to build prototypes, said Marc Gottschalk, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto who works with clean-tech startups.

However, the primary driver for clean-tech is the rising price of oil. Despite the recent drop in the cost as the world economy crimps demand and speculators take their profits, most observers project a continued upward trend for oil. The other recent major factor in the oil run-up was the weak dollar. And the dollar seems likely to be hit again as a consequence of the massive bailout.

More generally, over at the OilDrum Gail the Actuary makes the following observations about the relationship between the oil and financial markets:

(1) Some of the organizations with problems were no doubt speculating in oil futures. Once the prices started to drop, the balance sheets of the organizations were affected, and they suddenly needed more capital.

(2) As the companies who speculated in the oil market (all of them, not just the particular ones having problems today) try to unwind their positions because of margin calls, they drive down the price of oil in the futures market. That is likely why we are seeing declining oil prices, at a time when fundamentals would say they should be rising.

(3) As the price of oil and food rises, people have less money to pay debt of all kinds. This has contributed to the rising mortgages defaults, and is helping to drive down home prices. This is very closely tied to problems of banks and other financial institutions.

(4) Structured securities based on sliced and diced mortgages and other debt depend on assumptions regarding "independence of defaults". Once a shortage of oil and higher food and energy prices start causing mortgage defaults, the defaults are no longer independent (as they would be if they were caused by an illness of a particular homeowner, for example). Instead, there is a systematic bias in the pricing the risk, and the structuring doesn't work as planned.

(5) Energy companies need well-functioning credit markets to expand their exploration and production, and to pursue alternative energy approaches. For example, expanding the use of wind energy, or electric-powered vehicles, is likely to need a huge amount of debt financing.

Put your seat belts on. We're in for a wild ride.

Saving money in low income housing

San Francisco is moving on energy and water efficiency in their public housing.

Ameresco has created a preliminary guaranteed energy savings program for SFHA facilities which includes: replacing toilets, aerators and showerheads with high efficiency models; improving irrigation efficiency; upgrading common area and apartment lighting; replacing boilers and furnaces; improving temperature control; improving building ventilation efficiency; building weatherization; installing cogeneration to generate electricity and hot water and installing solar panels to provide electricity. Yearly savings from the program are estimated at approximately $2 million to $3 million.

Not bad savings. Evidently the ROI is about 10 years (investment at $20-30M).

Market meltdown in the offing?

What does this have to do with energy? Check this out. It's worth going through the whole thing.

Palin and drilling

A thought-provoking feminist critique.

For a different angle, Saturday Night Live:

SPHC
by Hishighness

Going green: Galt?

Just south of Sacramento is conservative Central Valley Galt. It is challenged with nearly 20% of the population under the poverty line and median income for a household in the city was $45,052 according to the 2000 census. Yet Galt may be going green using the Berkeley financing approach:

Here's how the Galt plan would work:

• Residents sign up for solar panels or other improvements, such as double-pane windows or efficient air conditioners.

• The city sells bonds and pays for the installation, taking bids from contractors and overseeing the construction.

• Residents pay back the debt over a period of up to 20 years.

The mayor says advantages are:

• The city can finance solar panels cheaper than residents, who, if they take out a loan, pay high interest rates.

• If a homeowner installs solar but moves in five or 10 years, the panels stay with the house and the next owner assumes the debt.

• Grants could allow the city to operate the program without using any general fund money.

9/18 Event: Energy-Saving Fixes to Include When Remodeling

You are invited to attend our next free presentation: Energy-Saving Fixes to Include When Remodeling. This 45-minute presentation by Suzanne Emerson, sponsored by RecycleWorks and Redwood City, is being held at 5 pm on Thurs, Sept. 18th, at the Redwood City Council Chambers, 1017 Middlefield Road. Additional information is provided on the attached flyer and at http://www.emersonenvironmental.com/resources.html. If you will be attending, you are encouraged to RSVP to Jeffery Liang at greenbuild@recycleworks.org, so he knows how many appetizers and drinks to order.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Suzanne Henderson Emerson, J.D.
energy and water efficiency consultant
GreenPoint rater

Stockton General Plan to include climate measures

The Attorney General and Stockton reach an agreement on the incorporation of climate measures into the Stockton general plan.

The City of Stockton has agreed to reduce sprawl and plans to construct nearly 18,000 new home units within the current city limits, including 4,400 units to be built in downtown Stockton. To encourage infill growth, the City will consider measures such as less restrictive building height requirements and reduced permit fees to spur the development of downtown commercial and residential units. The City will initiate a subsidy program to spark infill growth.

In addition, the City will adopt several green building ordinances to ensure that new residential housing and commercial buildings are energy-efficient, conserve water and are built with green materials.

Any new development in the city will have to be transit-friendly. New commercial and residential development will be located near mass-transit stops and be accessible to vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle traffic and established neighborhoods.

Big city targets

Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco mayors have committed to targets on climate change by 2013 as part of the Bay Area Climate Change Compact. This is really a subset of San Jose's Green Vision.

Reducing electricity usage in municipal buildings by 10 percent;

Adding 20,000 so-called green-collar jobs, including both management and skilled positions;

Decreasing community water consumption by 15 percent.

SMC pursues a green fleet

The County of San Mateo yesterday approved a commitment to make future car purchases 30 mpg or better.

Officials should plan to pay between $6,000 and $10,000 more for hybrid models but an estimated 25 percent savings on gas is expected to help offset that investment.

Not to be a nit-picker, but the gas savings doesn't "offset" the investment. The fact that it's an investment offsets the more expensive up-front price tag in the form of fuel-efficiency.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

"'Drill, drill, drill' is like being on the being on the eve of the internet revolution and demanding 'we want IBM Selectric typewriters!'"

Hat-tip Gristmill.

Desalination in Bay Area's future?

The largest desalination project in the US was approved days ago for construction in Carlsbad.

Poseidon Resources Corp. got final government approval Friday for its proposed $300 million desalination plant in Carlsbad. However, the legal challenges to the controversial plant have not ended.

The 3-0 vote by the State Lands Commission was the last regulatory endorsement Poseidon needed to build the plant.

Situated in coastal Carlsbad, the plant would be capable of making 50 million gallons of fresh water a day from sea water, 9 percent of the county's total water consumption.

This decision is being challenged in court due to concerns from Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper that the project will negatively impact local water bodies due to its water intake and salt waste.

The four primary water utilities in the Bay Area - Contra Costa, East Bay, Santa Clara and San Francisco - are in the exploration phase of desalination. Marin is separately exploring a desalination project.

Desalination is not inherently problematic. Given population pressures and the declining water supply expected as a consequence of climate change it is very likely that desalination will become a fixture of California's water supply.

However, desalination is expensive, energy intensive and produces toxic brine. This is leading to a lot of debate as the state begins to grapple with the current drought.

“Marin’s desalination plant would cost $2,000 an acre foot,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Oakland. “Conservation can be had for a couple hundred dollars an acre foot.”

Detailed in the Sierra Club's recent report, a number of peninsula cities have implemented measures such as use of recycled water or low-flow toilet replacement programs. Such measures, still only begun to be taken overall, can save millions of gallons of drinking water. One such example is Redwood City which expects to save over 100 million gallons of water per year by replacing 12,250 older high water-use toilets over three-years. In addition, Redwood City has taken additional measures.

Redwood City began to require in August that new developments include dual plumbing that recycles water as well as providing it fresh. The city’s recycled water system saves 50 million gallons of drinking water annually and the city hopes to save 300 million by 2010. Officials don’t worry that such requirements will discourage businesses from coming to Redwood City.

It is urgent to pursue water efficiency measures before embarking on costlier solutions.

Running out of time

The massive Markham Ice Shelf in Canada disappeared in August.

Nearly the size of Manhattan, the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separated from Ellesmere Island in early August and is now floating in the Arctic Ocean, said Luke Copeland, director of the Laboratory for Cryospheric Research at the University of Ottawa.

Copeland and fellow researchers were watching the ice shelf, which is about as tall as a 10-story building, using satellite imagery when cloud cover blocked the region for five days. When visibility returned, the mass was gone.

Photo above was in 2005, below is August 2008.

Placing orders for Prius plug-ins - maybe not

Seems a Palo Alto dealer got a bit ahead of the curve when he started taking deposits for the highly anticipated plug-in hybrid Prius'. Now Toyota wants the dealer to give the money back.

Peninsula progress: Sierra Club Cool Cities Report

The Cool Cities Campaign of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club conducted in March 2008 a survey of climate protection policies and practices of city and county governments in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Twenty-eight of the 37 jurisdictions in the two-county area (76% by number, 90% by population) responded to the 30-question survey. This report presents results from the survey and provides a snapshot of local government planning and actions on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. The purpose of this report is to increase awareness of the state of climate action by local governments in our area, to facilitate the exchange of best practices, and to advocate for decisive action worthy of the magnitude of the climate change challenge.

The most salient things that jump out of the report is that there is initial movement on meaningful action. Of 37 cities plus 2 counties in the region, 25 have signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement or the Cool Counties Initiative. More importantly, over 60% of participating municipalities have completed or will complete this year their community-wide emissions inventory.

However, cities lag on climate action plans with only 32% of participating municipalities aiming for completing them this year. Green building standards however may see a break-out this year with 14 municipalities having established or planning to establish green building standards for new commercial or residential buildings. Eight of those cities have already established some standards and more are on the way, especially in Santa Clara county.

The report covers a range of actions including transportation, green vehicle fleets, solar power, water efficiency, recycling and more.

Kudos to the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club for this informative report.

Electrics are coming: PG&E, Nissan, Zap

It seems a week doesn't go by without someone making an announcement about their electric car plans. Playing "me-too" to Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi, Nissan is now saying electric is the future:

Nissan won't be coming out with a model available only as a hybrid, opting instead to focus on electric vehicles for its green strategy, according to a senior executive.

Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan Motor Executive Vice President overseeing research and development, said Nissan will likely pack its hybrid system in a model already available as a conventional gasoline-powered car.

Hybrids, he said, will soon be so commonplace they will no longer be the conspicuous-consumption status symbols they now seem to be for owners.

This of course is a response to the clear momentum in consumer preference with sales of small cars up 40% in 2008.

This of course is music to the ears of local electrical utility PG&E and Southern California Edison.

High gas prices and concerns about global warming have piqued interest in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Patterson said automakers and utilities must work together to make those vehicles a success.

"We already had one opportunity to have electric vehicles for the U.S. public," he said of cars such as the General Motors EV1 tested and leased in the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in California. "This is the second opportunity. We'd better get it right this time, because I don't think we'll get a third chance."

The oblique reference to automakers and utilities 'working together' refers to a range of grid issues that need to be address. Soaring electrical demand which large scale electric cars will bring will strain our antiquated grid which can't manage peaks well or move electricity across the country where needed. Also, power locations in parking garages and lots will need to be attended to. These challenges are real but pale relative to the challenges that will come if we do not shift how we power ourselves.

Meanwhile Santa Rosa based Zap continues its up and down and around path towards being a player in the market.

Catching rain

Drought is one of the top impacts of climate change. A great way of being more efficient with water is by using rain barrels and San Francisco will soon be promoting them. AP has a great profile.

This fall, San Francisco will try to recruit more people to hoard the rain. The city will be putting $100,000 toward hosting how-to workshops and offering rebates and discounts on rainwater catchment tanks.

In addition to conserving water, these efforts help alleviate the problem of storm runoff. Asphalt-covered roads, sidewalks and parking lots repel storm water, forcing it down storm drains and into creeks rather than allowing it to soak into soil. Big flushes of storm water in water treatment systems can send raw sewage flowing into the ocean. Overloaded streams can cause flooding and damage salmon habitat.

There are many places to get them including here.

Solar thermal and carbon footprint classes

Some great opportunities to learn about solar thermal, radiant floor heating (Sept 4), and low-carbon lifestyles (Sept 9):

Callista Shepherd of Green Key Real Estate is hosting a one-hour educational Q&A with Chris Chappell of EnviroPlumbing - and you are invited!

EnviroPlumbing is a sales, installation and service company offering top quality eco-friendly solutions to home and business owners who want to reduce their energy and water use. We offer the very best in solar-powered domestic hot water and radiant floor heating systems, solar pool heating, water conservation and reclamation solutions. We provide the technology to help make a better world, one home at a time.

All are welcome. Invite an interested friend or two. Come learn about the What, How, Why and the ballpark "How Much" formulas regarding solar thermal systems and radiant hydronic flooring systems. Bring your questions.

*** Please RSVP to Callista@GreenKeyRealEstate.com.
WHERE:
Green Key Real Estate - SF SOMA Office
444 8th Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103

WHEN:
Thursday
September 4th, 2008
6:30 - 7:30pm, doors open at 6pm.

And low-carbon lifestyles:

Low Carbon Lifestyle class

Come be part of the solution and learn how to reduce your carbon foot print!

The Low Carbon Lifestyle class is an easily accessible program to help individuals and communities reduce their "carbon footprints" which contribute to climate change--in a practical, fun way. The 4-session (meeting every other week) course will utilize the illustrated Low Carbon Diet reader from Empowerment Institute to help guide the class. The program addresses four main areas: changing habits to reduce your impact, making your home more efficient, empowering others to take action, and making a CO2 reduction plan to reduce your carbon foot print.

This class is sponsored by Acterra and the Palo Alto Adult Education program. Please pre-register on-line at http://www.paadultschool.org/

Instructor: David Coale has been teaching various classes in sustainable living for over 10 years and is on the Acterra Board. Class meets on Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 for four sessions starting on September 9th. Cost is $48 and includes the reader.