So, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 passed the House on Friday. First, to get the necessary throat-clearing out of the way: this is an historic moment that was both an extremely long time in coming and also a lot speedier than many dared hope. When Henry Waxman announced his intention of bring the bill to a floor vote by July 4, most in the environmental community thought the goal was admirably... Continue reading »
Thomas Friedman makes a bunch of very good points in his recent column on the Waxman Markey climate change bill that just passed in the House. But the opening comes on awfully strong: There is much in the House cap-and-trade energy bill that just passed that I absolutely hate. It is too weak in key areas and way too complicated in others. A simple, straightforward carbon tax would have made much more sense than this... Continue reading »
Are you a fan of cheap symbolism? Well then, feast on this: a popular and successful electric car used to be produced in the United States under the name Detroit Electric. Competition with conventional gasoline-powered cars finally shuttered the line — in 1939. Now the Detroit Electric brand is being revived by a British entrepreneur as a Netherlands-based company backed with Chinese money, marketing modern electric cars built by a Malaysian manufacturing company. This is... Continue reading »
We’ve covered micro-wind a number of times here, but I think this may be the coolest innovation I’ve seen in a while: inventor Shawn Frayne has come up with a device that harnesses the power of wind without any rotating parts. Instead, his company’s Windbelts capture energy using fluttering fabric. You can best understand the process by watching this short video, but basically as moving air passes over a taut membrane, it induces a vibration,... Continue reading »
I’ve written before about our urban future. The flip side of the increasing concentration of people in growing cities is that other areas have to shrink. And that’s exactly what’s happening. This story about false fire alarms going off in the abandoned sprawl outside Phoenix, AZ has the eerie quality of that Ray Bradbury story about the slow death of an automated house after the end of civilization. It turns out firefighters aren’t allowed to... Continue reading »
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article in the surging culinary interest in, well, weeds. Plants like chickweed, dandelion, purslane, and lamb’s quarters have gotten a lot of positive press lately for their nutritional properties and their flavor. They also happen to be abundant on suburban lawns. It’s a shame that these plants are now considered yuppie fare. I have friends whose immigrant parents used to mortify them by harvesting these weeds from urban... Continue reading »
The American Clean Energy and Security (née Waxman Markey) covers an impressive swath of the U.S. economy — nearly 85% of total carbon emissions, as compared to Europe’s 52%. One area it doesn’t cover, however, is aviation, at least not via the cap-and-trade mechanism that puts a hard limit on total emissions. Instead, the bill makes brief mention of creating efficiency standards for new aircraft engines based on the best technology available at the time.... Continue reading »
We at TerraPass want to congratulate our partner Enterprise Fleet Management for winning the 2009 American Business Award for Environmental Responsibility Program of the Year. Fleet Management earned this national award by rolling out a set of programs to reduce the carbon footprint of its customers’ vehicles. Enterprise Fleet Management’s environmental programs include the following: Vehicle Cycling/Fleet Optimization — Enterprise provides comprehensive data for measuring fleet emissions, project improvements in fuel efficiency and direct and... Continue reading »
Last year, I wrote about Chicago’s decision to lease its parking spaces to a private company. Although no vendor had yet been selected, the deal seemed like a good idea in principle. Parking reform — which generally means raising the price of curbside spots to something approaching market rates, and perhaps even dynamically adjusting them based on time, location, and other conditions — offers a lot of benefits. Underpriced parking leads to increased tailpipe emissions,... Continue reading »
The online publication Yale Environment 360 recently asked eleven environmentalists and environmental groups for their reactions to the Waxman-Markey climate legislation, now that the bill has spent some time marinating in various congressional committees. The question takes on particular relevance as environmentalists wrestle with the issue of how far to compromise on various key issues. Here’s a round-up of the round-up: Angela Ledford, U.S. Climate Action Network In a nutshell: supports the bill even if... Continue reading »
Yahoo! Green is running a contest for would-be inventors: submit your idea for a green product, and vie for the chance to see your creation on store shelves. The contest is open for one week more, and for the final week Yahoo! is waiving all submission fees. The winner will receive $2,500, plus a share of the sales for 20 years. You might also be featured in an episode of the PBS show Everyday Edisons.... Continue reading »
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