Who said the GOP is not fact-based?
George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen, that it's harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, uh, well, you know when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide.
Good to see those working to reduce their water impacts get recognized:
Applied Materials – Overall Business category
Reduced water use by 16%, saving more than 40 million gallons of water per year.
California Native Plant Society – Education category
Cosponsored Going Native Garden Tour, educating more than 3,500 people about the water conservation benefits of native plants.
City of Redwood City – Innovation category
Water Allocation Program creates water budgets for landscape irrigation customers, resulting in 15-30% reduction in water use.
City of San José Environmental Services Department – Large Government Agency/Utility category
Water Efficient Technologies (WET) program provides financial incentives for conservation, resulting in 1.6 million gallons of water savings per day.
First Community Housing – Multiple Benefit category
Water conservation measures reduce indoor use by 35% and outdoor use by 64%. Green roof retains 80% of rain fall.
Former Assemblyman John Laird – Individual category
Sponsored state bills to reduce urban and agricultural water use, and to require high efficiency toilets in new developments.
Kirsch Center for Environmental Studies – Small Organization category
LEED-certified green building dramatically reduces indoor water use, and native plants reduce landscape irrigation by 50%.
L-3 Communications – Program-Specific Business category
Reduced city water use for cleaning and plating by 65%, saving 10 million gallons of water and $21,000 per year.
Montara Water & Sanitary District -- Small Government Agency/Utility category
Reduced already-low community water use by 16% to just 69 gallons per person per day.
Stanford University -- Large Organization category
Comprehensive water conservation program has reduced daily campus use from 2.7 to 2.3 million gallons per day since 2001.
ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance -- Landscape Management category
Helped its Silicon Valley clients save more than 2.3 million gallons of water per day through improved landscape management.
Why the Awards? – California is in its third year of drought, and despite recent storms, precipitation is below average for the year. As a result, Governor Schwarzenegger has called for a 20% reduction in water use. With population growth and climate change looming, current water conditions are expected to become the new norm. The Silicon
Valley Water Conservation Awards recognize businesses and organizations on the cutting edge of water conservation. We hope they will serve as role models for others.
Water Awards Coalition
The Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards are presented by a coalition of 10
organizations, including: Acterra, Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation
Agency, California Native Plant Society, Clean Water Action, Joint Venture: Silicon
Valley Network, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Silicon Valley Leadership Group,
Sustainable San Mateo County, Sustainable Silicon Valley and Tuolumne River Trust.
You see it time and time again. You're gazing at the beautiful bay. And then you look down a little and stare at a few plastic bags floating on the water. This sucks!
That's why I really liked this new video put out by Save the Bay. It's a part of their new The Bay vs. The Bag campaign.
In more ways than one.
In 1991 I happened to meet with ultraconservative, then southern California Congressman Bill Dannemeyer (updated with link). The meeting was a poorly organized but well-intentioned effort to lobby him on green energy and other things. He said he would be pleased to one day support efforts that would beam solar energy from satellites in space - but in the mean time carbon fuels was where it was at.
Evidently, PG&E is looking at space now.
Another unrelated notable from Dannemeyer was his comment at a different time that "we should build a big park and put all the critters there" as a way to address endangered species...
Good to see a little old-fashioned regional competition to be the center of research and solutions - in this case, from San Diego:
Learning from their failed 2005 bid to house California's stem cell institute in San Diego County, local business and academic leaders are mounting an early campaign to become the state's hub for research on global warming.
The county's clean-technology trade group and others are lobbying powerful lawmakers – including state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles – for that designation. The effort includes one of the region's top scientists, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and representatives from major companies such as Qualcomm and SAIC.
Padilla, chairman of the Senate energy committee, is sponsoring a bill that would create an office for overseeing efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. It would resemble the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, established five years ago to advance stem cell research. The next year, San Francisco won the bidding war for that institute's headquarters, beating out San Diego and Sacramento.
From Suzanne Emerson at Emerson Environmental:
Tax Breaks for Energy Efficiency Home Improvements: As you're finalizing your 2008 tax return, start thinking about how much money you could receive back on your 2009 income taxes with this year's increases in federal tax credits for energy efficiency upgrades. Both Flex Your Power and Energy Star have compiled useful overviews of the available tax breaks for 2009 and 2010.
If you would like assistance in planning or implementing your energy efficiency upgrades, just let us know.
Workshops: Perform Your Own Mini-Energy Audit: Are your electricity and gas bills too high? Attend a workshop to learn how to perform your own mini-energy audit to lower your utility bills. Learn what to test, how to test, and what to look for. Receive useful information about free on-line energy audit software and resources for fixing problems you find. 2 free workshops:
Open to all: Presented through San Carlos Parks & Recreation. Class 6:30-9:00 pm, May 18, 2009, Chestnut Room, San Carlos Adult Community Center, 601 Chestnut Street, San Carlos. Advanced registration required: call (650) 802-4382.
Palo Alto Residents Only: Presented through Palo Alto Utilities department. Class 10 am- 1 pm, June 13, 2009, Lucy Stern Community Center, Palo Alto Advanced registration required: contact Utility Marketing Services, (650) 329-2241.
Not surprising, but US and Bay Area still lead.
Global investment in renewable energy, electric cars and other green tech dropped 48% to $1 billion in the first quarter of 2009 from the previous year and fell 41% from the previous quarter. (Global here being defined as North America, Europe, China and India.)
Chu, Newsom and Van Jones in DC conference.
"Off in the distance is an iceberg, so how do you turn the ship so there is only a glancing blow?" he said Tuesday at a Newsweek-sponsored energy conference in Washington. "And the good ship Earth takes time to turn."
Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was part of a trio of Bay Area leaders who brought different perspectives to the conference. Van Jones, a former community organizer in Oakland, spoke on the impact of green jobs, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom touted his city's initiatives on climate change.
Siting of renewable energy generation and transmission lines is one of the challenges facing moving green energy forward quickly. Fortunately Google is using it's mapping tools to address the problem.
Path to Green Energy will identify areas in 13 western states potentially suitable for massive megawatt solar power plants, wind farms, transmission lines and other green energy projects. The app will also pinpoint critical habitat for protected wildlife such as the desert tortoise in California and Wyoming’s sage grouse as well as other environmentally sensitive lands.
