Rising sea levels due to hurricanes and tidal flooding intensified by climate change will put military bases along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast at risk, according to a report released on Wednesday.
Nonprofit group the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed 18 military installations that represent more than 120 coastal bases nationwide to weigh the impact of climate change on their operations.
Faster rates of sea level rises in the second half of this century could mean that tidal flooding will become a daily occurrence for some installations, pushing useable land needed for military training and testing into tidal zones, said the report titled “The U.S. Military on the Front Lines of Rising Seas.”
Read the full story. (Reuters)
Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, questions climate change just like Trump himself does.
By contrast, a peek into the recent past of Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, suggests he takes the issue seriously and has paid particular attention to how it is affecting his constituents in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, which faces some of the largest rates of sea level rise in the country. The link also underscores the strong connection between climate change and national security, because one of the key players that must grapple with sea level rise in the area is Naval Station Norfolk, “the largest naval complex in the world.”
And it suggests that by approaching the issue in this way — focusing on regional vulnerability and on national security — Kaine has actually been able to make some significant bipartisan progress.
Read the full story. (Washington Post)
US Moves Up to #8 Spot Behind Spain and China, Rising From #13 Ranking in 2014; 3rdInternational Scorecard Evaluates 23 Largest Energy-Consuming Countries on 35 Categories.
WASHINGTON, DC – July 20, 2016 – Germany continues to lead the world in energy efficiency, followed by Italy and Japan (tied for second place), France, and the United Kingdom (not reflecting energy-related government changes in 2016), according to the 2016 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard published today by the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). New to the rankings this year are eight nations: Indonesia, Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey.
Now in its third edition, the ACEEE report (http://aceee.org/portal/national-policy/international-scorecard) finds that the United States rose in the international rankings from #13 in 2014 to #8 in 2016.
On a scale of 100 possible points in 35 categories, the nations were ranked by ACEEE as follows: Germany (1), Italy (2, tied), Japan (2, tied), France (4), UK (5), China (6), Spain (7), South Korea (8, tied), United States (8, tied), Canada (10), Netherlands (11), Poland (12), Taiwan (13), India (14), Turkey (15), Australia (16), Russia (17), Indonesia (18), Mexico (19), Thailand (20), South Africa (21), Brazil (22), Saudi Arabia (23).
Read the ACEEE press release.
Inside a plain brick building in Burlington lies the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, a buzzing hipster incubator that looks as if it could be in Silicon Valley. It is powered invisibly by forces that any city would envy: a green grid that is highly energy-efficient and a superfast one-gigabit internet connection.
“People would kill for this internet connection,” said Tom Torti, president of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce. “For us to grow our tech network, we needed to double down on fiber network.” The new Burlington economy is going to be knowledge- and skills-based, he added.
This digital superhighway runs through beautiful Burlington, a small city sandwiched between the distant Green Mountains and the 125-mile-long Lake Champlain. It is an outlier as far as emerging technology hubs and so-called smart cities go. But Burlington, which has a lower unemployment rate than Silicon Valley, is now spawning a wave of technology pioneers.
The technology center, called VCET, provides free advice, mentoring, seed money and gorgeous co-working spaces that are available to entrepreneurs for a low fee. Students can use these spaces free, so Max Robbins and Peter Silverman, 20-year-old college students, are starting their business, Beacon VT, there. It is similar to the dating site OkCupid, but for employment, matching students with employers.
“We’re trying to give people an unfair advantage,” said David Bradbury, president and fund manager at VCET. “There’s nothing too big that you can’t dream here. And the snowball is moving faster.”
Read the full story. (New York Times)
California’s film industry may have taught the Golden State something that folks in other parts of the nation are just beginning to understand.
Around 1920, movies were silent, black and white, and largely quite crude, though there were occasional masterpieces. It was a lot like renewable energy around 2010.
As technology breakthroughs and economies of scale grew movie industry returns, the industry lured Wall Street capital that financed bigger, better, more profitable projects. That’s a lot like the history of renewables this decade.
Big studios, challenged by independent producers and stronger regulation, either adapted to disruption or went broke. California utilities, perhaps inspired by the trials of the old film houses, are leading the response to demands from their “audience” for more renewable energy.
The state’s three dominant investor-owned utilities (IOUs) topped the just-released Ceres/CleanEdge clean energy deployment rankings. Though the U.S. Department of Energy forecasts solar and wind generation will grow from 2015’s 227 billion kWh to almost 1 trillion kWh in 2040, utilities in many other states have yet to jump on the bandwagon.
Even so, the report numbers show overall growth in utility renewables, and executives at both leader and laggard companies told Utility Dive that a paradigm shift toward cleaner energy solutions has influenced how they think about the grid.
Read the full story. (Utility Dive)
A recent psychological study has provided suggestive evidence that when people decide to take steps to use less energy at home, and so to protect the environment, they don’t merely do so because they want to save a little bit of cash on their electricity bills. If anything, it suggests, some forms of materialistic or competitive thinking may inhibit deep or long-lasting conservation attitudes.
The study, recently published in Energy Policy and led by Zeynep Gurguc of Imperial College Business School in London, was able to show this by studying a pretty perfect test population: postgraduate students in West London, who did not have to pay anything for their energy use in their student residence halls — and, indeed, many of whom were young enough that they had no experience with energy bills at all. Therefore, any change to their at-home energy use behavior could hardly be chalked up to a desire to save a little money.
Read the full story. (Washington Post)
It’s hard to get people to change their habits, even when doing so could have lasting benefits for the environment. But a team of scientists may have just found a way to hack it when it comes to helping families develop better energy-saving practices at home. The trick, according to them, is to have children help deliver the message.
In a new study involving 30 California Girl Scout troops, researchers demonstrated that interventions targeting youth can help promote energy-saving actions in both children and their parents, with concrete behavioral changes lasting for months after an intervention takes place. The research highlights the idea that youth-oriented environmental programs can have a tangible impact on entire families.
Read the full story. (Washington Post)
Energy managers, facilities managers and everyone else in the sector should take a moment to congratulate themselves. A number of recently released studies and surveys show that investment in energy efficiency in general — and commercial buildings in particular — is growing steadily.
Of course, the good news is not all the result of the work of those in building services. It involves a recognition by the public and corporate management that energy efficiency is a good thing. On the part of management, it also is clear that saving energy ultimately saves money and burnishes the company’s image. The federal government – as well as many state and local governments – is pushing efficiency. On top of all that, exploding technology, from the Internet of Things to renewables, is enabling the great strides.
Read the full story. (Energy Manager Today)
Cities have more potential than ever to implement significant enhancements in energy efficiency, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a time when climate change risk tops global agendas. However, urban areas in the United States face major impediments to some of the most effective energy-saving strategies. Overcoming these will require a coordinated effort between government, industry and civil society.
Johnson Controls convened dozens of mayors, city planners and NGO representatives Thursday for an urban efficiency roundtable at the National Press Club. The purpose was to bring together people who are intimately involved in urban efficiency programs, and to provide a space for them to discuss the challenges and solutions they encounter in their work. Three major themes emerged:
Read the full story. (GreenBiz)
RICHMOND – Gov. Terry McAuliffe promised a close look Tuesday at energy regulations to cut carbon production and increase clean energy use that he can promulgate without legislative approval.
The governor convened a working group under Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward, giving her 10 months to recommend options for “a regulatory strategy to reduce carbon pollution.” A number of environmental groups applauded the move, though some said McAuliffe has not pushed near far enough on clean energy issues.
Republicans, through Speaker of the House William Howell’s office, criticized the move as “another deliberate attempt to circumvent the legislature and the will of Virginia voters.”
Read the full story. (Daily Press)
