Both political candidates claim that America needs to accelerate economic growth. This is accepted as a worthy goal by Paul Krugman, who notes that “some people I respect believe that trying to get …[the growth rate] back up should be a big goal of policy.” But Dr. Krugman then asks HOW we can do it:
“After all, what do we actually know how to do when it comes to economic policy?”
He is unable to identify specific answers in the article because he is looking at the problem from 40,000 feet. If you start with your feet on the ground, however, you can see several big opportunities. One great way to accelerate economic growth is to reduce energy bills for households and businesses through a large-scale program to make our existing homes and buildings more efficient. This will employ hundreds of thousands of people, some who are working on our buildings and some with jobs created by pumping money into the economy that otherwise would have been wasted.
Read the full story. (NRDC)
- Energy conservation, efficient lighting and building automation are now common — so when discussing a new home, it’s important to address energy efficiency.
- Newer buildings often have higher efficiency standards while being built, even though some of them don’t posses efficiency certification.
- On top of saving monthly costs, many energy-saving upgrades can lessen outside noise.
- Improve efficiency first, then add solar. Lowering energy demand could just mean less panels on the roof and less money upfront.
Read the full story. (Inman.com)
The Energy Department announced today it is investing $19 million to improve the efficiency of our nation’s homes, offices, schools, hospitals, restaurants and stores. These projects will develop advanced building technologies that will help American consumers and businesses save money on their utility bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create jobs.
Buildings are the largest energy consumer in the nation—accounting for more than 40 percent of the nation’s total energy demand and greenhouse emissions, and resulting in an annual energy bill totaling $430 billion. On average, nearly a third of this energy is wasted. It’s estimated that if the U.S. reduced energy use in buildings by 20 percent, the nation could save nearly $80 billion annually on energy bills.
Today’s 18 innovative projects will develop sensors and energy modeling tools to make our buildings smarter, reduce refrigerant leaks and improve the efficiency of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems, and produce a low-impact, gas-powered heat pump that can operate efficiently in colder climates. The projects will also support renewable energy market penetration through energy storage, pinpoint air leaks and reduce energy losses through the building envelope, and cut electricity use by transmitting sunlight to building interiors.
Read the full story. (DOE press release)
Tempers are rising in America, along with the temperatures.
Two decades ago, the issue of climate change wasn’t as contentious. The leading U.S. Senate proponent of taking action on global warming was Republican John McCain. George W. Bush wasn’t as zealous on the issue as his Democratic opponent for president in 2000, Al Gore, but he, too, talked of regulating carbon dioxide.
Then the Earth got even hotter , repeatedly breaking temperature records. But instead of drawing closer together, politicians polarized.
Democrats (and scientists) became more convinced that global warming was a real, man-made threat . But Republicans and Tea Party activists became more convinced that it was — to quote the repeated tweets of presidential nominee Donald Trump — a “hoax.”
When it comes to science, there’s more than climate that divides America’s leaders and people, such as evolution, vaccination and genetically modified food.
But nothing beats climate change for divisiveness.
“It’s more politically polarizing than abortion,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. “It’s more politically polarizing than gay marriage.”
Leiserowitz says his surveys show 17 percent of Americans, the fastest-growing group, are alarmed by climate change and want action now, with another 28 percent concerned but viewing it as a more distant threat. But there’s an often-vocal 10 percent who are dismissive, rejecting the concept of warming and the science
Read the full story. (Associated Press)
With the help of North Carolina software developer, the city of Roanoke, Virginia is finding it a lot easier, faster and less expensive to improve the energy efficiency of its municipal buildings, most of which were built more than half a century ago.
Roanoke’s efficiency push is part of its first-ever Climate Action Plan, aimed at lowering its carbon footprint on multiple fronts. But the city is finding there’s a strong economic case for the projects as well.
In 2014, Roanoke saved more than $500,000 in avoided energy costs compared to 2005, according to Nell Boyle, the city’s sustainability and outreach coordinator.
In a draft of the city’s initial Climate Action Plan report due out this fall and shared with Southeast Energy News, the city acknowledges how its “building stock was aging, maintenance on the buildings was well behind schedule and equipment was in imminent need of repair.” The upshot: Roanoke, like many municipalities, had its work cut out for itself, and every day it delayed was costing it more money.
Read the full story. (Southeast Energy News)
May 29, 2014
Clean Air Act 111(d)
Presentation at May 2014 VAEEC meeting by Kara Saul Rinaldi, Vice President, National Home Performance Council.
Download presentation.
It’s an understatement to say that the Obama administration has been dedicated to fighting climate change — with its biggest achievements including introducing the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and negotiating the Paris climate agreement. This is surely the most that any U.S. president has done to try to change the course of energy heating the planet.
But it’s much less widely known that at the same time, Obama could also be dubbed the “energy efficiency president”– the U.S. leader who has done more than any other to help us use less energy, and pay less for it, as we go about our daily lives. Which, of course, also helps fight climate change.
The story does not command nearly as much attention as the Paris talks or the Clean Power Plan, but the facts are tough to dispute: Obama’s Energy Department has finalized more new standards for energy efficient appliances and products than any past administration, a new report finds.
Read the full story. (Washington Post)
U.S. federal agencies should disclose whether their actions and decisions will have an impact on climate change, the White House announced on Tuesday.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized an update after nearly six years of consultations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a Nixon-era statute that called on officials to weigh the environmental effects of projects such as highways, dams or oil drilling.
The update takes NEPA a step further by requiring agencies such as the Interior Department to the Army Corps of Engineers to quantify greenhouse gas emissions in NEPA project reviews and to describe the potential climate change impacts.
“This increased predictability and certainty will allow decision makers and the public to more fully understand the potential climate impacts of all proposed federal actions,” the CEQ said in a statement.
This would prompt agencies to consider alternatives or propose measures to mitigate the climate impacts of a project, it said.
Read the full story. (Reuters)
Cutting computer energy waste, particularly when desktops and laptops are doing little or no work, could save consumers billions of dollars on their energy bills and avoid millions of tons of carbon pollution annually, according to a new report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
To prove the point, NRDC and its partners conducted a demonstration project that cut the “idle power” of a desktop computer in half, using readily available off-the-shelf components and tweaking system power management settings, with zero impact on performance or the price tag (while reducing electricity bills by more than $70 over the life of the computer).
Idle power matters because modern computers spend most of their time, and energy use, when on, but not actively used such as when users are away from their desks, or when they are performing light tasks like browsing the Internet or reading email—both of which require little processing power. Computers spend from 50 percent to 77 percent of their time in idle and low-intensity active modes and draw much more power than necessary in them.
Read the full story. (NRDC)
When Hurricane Isabel pummeled Hampton Roads with 5- to 8-foot waves in 2003, low-lying Langley Air Force Base in Hampton was largely underwater, sustaining more than $160 million in damage.
Now, a new Union of Concerned Scientists report warns that Isabel was just a grim taste of things to come. That flooding and storm surge at Langley and other coastal military installations will only get worse — maybe a lot worse.
In fact, under the worst-case scenario of 6.9 feet of sea level rise for this region by the end of this century, the base stands to lose nearly 90 percent of its land to daily flooding as it essentially becomes part of the tidal zone.
Meanwhile, some 20 miles away along the James River, roughly 60 percent of Joint Base Langley-Eustis could be lost to high tides — with even more lost to the extreme spring and king tides.
Read the full story. (Daily Press)
