Tag Archives: solar

Are “I Voted” stickers bad for the planet?

by FeliciaWalthall Posted on November 8, 2016

It’s no surprise, really, as passing such a policy was always going to be an uphill climb, and in this case even climate activists were not unified behind it. Big business was against it too, of course.

I-732 was designed to be revenue-neutral: It would have taxed fossil fuels consumed in the state and returned the revenue to people and businesses by cutting Washington’s regressive sales tax, giving tax rebates to low-income working households, and cutting a tax for manufacturers. A grassroots group of volunteers got it onto the ballot and earned support from big names like climate scientist James Hansen and actor/activist Leonardo DiCaprio.

But other environmentalists and social justice activists in the state didn’t like this approach, and they got backing from their own big names: Naomi Klein and Van Jones. They want revenue from any carbon fee to be invested in clean energy, green jobs, and disadvantaged communities.

“There is great enthusiasm for climate action that invests in communities on the frontlines of climate change, but I-732 did not offer what’s really needed,” said Rich Stolz of OneAmerica, a civil rights group in the state. “This election made it clear that engaging voters of color is a necessity to win both nationally and here in Washington state.”

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Are “I Voted” stickers bad for the planet?

Posted in alo, Anchor, Citizen, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Ringer, solar, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Are “I Voted” stickers bad for the planet?

Environmentalists are raising the pressure on Obama over Dakota Access.

by LavadaDedman Posted on November 7, 2016

Cushing, Oklahoma, was shaken on Sunday night by a 5.0 magnitude temblor. About 40 to 50 buildings were damaged, some substantially, according to the Associated Press, but no major injuries have been reported. The quake was felt as far away as Illinois, Iowa, and Texas.

Cushing — aka the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World” — is home to one of the largest oil storage terminals in the world. In 2012, President Obama visited Cushing to promote his support for the oil and gas industry.

But that same oil and gas industry has spurred a surge of earthquakes in Oklahoma, which are triggered when drillers inject wastewater underground. In 2005, prior to the state’s current oil and gas boom, there was only one earthquake of magnitude 3.0 or higher in Oklahoma. In 2015, there were more than 900.

Just in the last week, there have been about two dozen quakes in the state. Luckily, no damage has been reported to the Cushing oil terminal. But how long will that luck last?

Source:  

Environmentalists are raising the pressure on Obama over Dakota Access.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, green energy, ONA, PUR, solar, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Environmentalists are raising the pressure on Obama over Dakota Access.

A big earthquake hit Oklahoma’s oil hub, and the oil industry likely has itself to blame.

by WilmaAldrich Posted on November 7, 2016

Responding to the mass arrests of protesters last week, Greenpeace called on President Obama to “revoke all permits and halt construction of the pipeline,” send Justice Department observers to protect the civil rights of protesters, and order North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple to remove the National Guard from protest encampments along the pipeline’s planned route.

The Sierra Club, the nation’s largest green group, made the same demands in slightly more cautious terms.

The issue is now resonating beyond the environmental movement. CREDO Action, a progressive advocacy network, has gathered 386,000 signatures for a petition telling Obama to stop the project and 184,000 signatures on their petition asking Obama to prevent Gov. Dalrymple’s suppression of Native American pipeline opponents.

The push to stop the pipeline is likely to intensify after the election. On Nov. 15, CREDO will join with anti-fossil fuel and environmental justice organizations such as 350.org and the Indigenous Environmental Network for a day of action at Army Corps of Engineers offices around the country.

Protesters from Standing Rock have recently begun taking their demands directly to Hillary Clinton, who has avoided taking a position for or against the pipeline.

Read Grist’s previous coverage of the fight over the proposed pipeline.

Read this article: 

A big earthquake hit Oklahoma’s oil hub, and the oil industry likely has itself to blame.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, green energy, ONA, PUR, solar, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A big earthquake hit Oklahoma’s oil hub, and the oil industry likely has itself to blame.

Tesla’s New Solar Roof Is Pretty, But Is It Practical?

by LoisCraine Posted on November 7, 2016

Last week, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors spoke before a crowd at the set of the TV show Desperate Housewives. “The interesting thing is that the houses you see around you are all solar houses,” said Musk. “Did you notice?” This news shocked the audience, as there wasn’t a solar panel in sight. Instead, the surrounding solar cells were camouflaged in glass roof tiles with styles like Tuscan and slate.

This is part of Musk’s vision to revolutionize clean energy generation. He unveiled plans by Tesla to produce solar roof tiles in a variety of colors and textures. His goal is to make solar roofs that look better than the typical roof, have an installed cost that is lower than a new roof plus the cost of electricity, last longer, and provide better insulation.

If he can pull this off, rooftops as we know them will not be the same. Could this be the leap necessary to make solar more appealing and widespread?

Although Musk shows that going solar can be more aesthetically pleasing, pricing information on the solar tiles has not yet been released. The cost of solar energy, however, has plummeted in recent years and is already cost competitive with fossil fuel-based grid power in 10 U.S. states. Musk’s goal seems both realistic and viable if Tesla can work out the details.

You’d be hard-pressed to guess these slate glass tiles are actually solar tiles. Photo credit: Tesla

The Problem with Asphalt Shingles

Certainly, this common roofing system could use an overhaul. Asphalt roofs are not impressive from an environmental standpoint. They have low recycling rates (due to the potentially hazardous materials they contain), a mere 20-year lifespan and they absorb too much heat. By using a petroleum-based product, asphalt shingles increase our reliance on fossil fuels. When solar panels are mounted on asphalt roofs, the panels typically outlive the roof. This means that roofers have to work around the solar system or else temporarily remove the array.

In addition, an aluminum racking system is used to mount the solar panels. Although this is a relatively modest cost when considering the total system cost, solar tiles do not require such hardware because the tile and the solar cells are integrated. Combining solar cells with roofing materials could reduce total installation costs when compared to installing both a new roof and solar panels.

Why Is a Car Company Making Solar Roof Tiles?

From a lifestyle perspective, a solar roof and a car powered by solar energy go well together. Photo credit: Tesla

Tesla is dedicated to the world’s transition to clean energy. This vision includes renewable electricity generation, energy storage and clean transportation. Musk is the chairman and the largest investor in both Tesla and SolarCity, which makes solar power systems for homes and businesses. There is a $2.6 billion merger with SolarCity on the table, which will come to a shareholder vote on Nov. 17. Musk says SolarCity has 300,000 solar customers and Tesla has 180,000 car owners, and he sees great cross-selling opportunities. Introducing a sleek new solar product is likely to appeal to electric vehicle owners, who can use solar power to recharge.

Given that Tesla has proven itself with disruptive technology in recent years, revolutionizing both rooftops and clean power generation seems well within their means.

Related: We Could Power America with Relatively Few Solar Panels, So Why Aren’t We?

About
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Sarah Lozanova

Sarah Lozanova is a renewable energy and sustainability journalist and communications professional with an MBA in sustainable management. She is a regular contributor to environmental and energy publications and websites, including Mother Earth Living, Earth911, Home Power, Triple Pundit, CleanTechnica, The Ecologist, GreenBiz, Renewable Energy World and Windpower Engineering. Lozanova also works with several corporate clients as a public relations writer to gain visibility for renewable energy and sustainability achievements.

Latest posts by Sarah Lozanova (see all)

Tesla’s New Solar Roof Is Pretty, But Is It Practical? – November 7, 2016
3 DIY Compost Bin Designs You Can Make This Weekend – November 3, 2016
The Best Ways To Heat Your Home: Separating Myth From Fact – October 21, 2016

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Tesla’s New Solar Roof Is Pretty, But Is It Practical?
We Could Power America with Relatively Few Solar Panels, So Why Aren’t We?
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Continued: 

Tesla’s New Solar Roof Is Pretty, But Is It Practical?

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, GE, LG, ONA, oven, OXO, PUR, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tesla’s New Solar Roof Is Pretty, But Is It Practical?

The Southeast could be in for more pain at the pump after a pipeline explosion.

by AndreasHaddon1 Posted on November 1, 2016

Non-white or non-male riders, however, may have a harder time. That’s the conclusion of a new study in which researchers had students in Seattle and Boston request rides on specific routes from Uber, Lyft, and taxi-hailing app Flywheel.

Here’s how it works: When you request an Uber, the driver can only see your location and star rating. After that driver accepts, they get your name and picture, too — and may cancel if they don’t like what they see. Researchers zeroed in on cancellations to measure discrimination, says Don MacKenzie, one of the study’s coauthors.

For the Boston study, riders used preset identities with names like Keisha, Rasheed, Allison, and Todd. The male riders who used stereotypically black names saw a cancellation rate of 11.2 percent, compared to the 4.5 percent cancellation rate of those using white names. Female riders using white names had a cancellation rate of 5.4 percent, while female riders with black names experienced a cancellation rate of 8.4 percent, nearly double the cancellation rate for white male riders (MacKenzie points out that difference is not statistically significant).

Finally, women were sometimes subjected to unnecessarily long rides from talkative drivers — resulting in lost time and money for those riders.

View original:  

The Southeast could be in for more pain at the pump after a pipeline explosion.

Posted in alo, Anchor, Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, solar, solar power, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Southeast could be in for more pain at the pump after a pipeline explosion.

One farmer gunned down another, apparently after a confrontation over an herbicide.

by EugenioBach Posted on October 31, 2016

Non-white or non-male riders, however, may have a harder time. That’s the conclusion of a new study in which researchers had students in Seattle and Boston request rides on specific routes from Uber, Lyft, and taxi-hailing app Flywheel.

Here’s how it works: When you request an Uber, the driver can only see your location and star rating. After that driver accepts, they get your name and picture, too — and may cancel if they don’t like what they see. Researchers zeroed in on cancellations to measure discrimination, says Don MacKenzie, one of the study’s coauthors.

For the Boston study, riders used preset identities with names like Keisha, Rasheed, Allison, and Todd. The male riders who used stereotypically black names saw a cancellation rate of 11.2 percent, compared to the 4.5 percent cancellation rate of those using white names. Female riders using white names had a cancellation rate of 5.4 percent, while female riders with black names experienced a cancellation rate of 8.4 percent, nearly double the cancellation rate for white male riders (MacKenzie points out that difference is not statistically significant).

Finally, women were sometimes subjected to unnecessarily long rides from talkative drivers — resulting in lost time and money for those riders.

View original:  

One farmer gunned down another, apparently after a confrontation over an herbicide.

Posted in alo, Anchor, Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, solar, solar power, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on One farmer gunned down another, apparently after a confrontation over an herbicide.

West Antarctic glaciers lost more than 1,000 feet of ice in just 7 years.

by MadisonIliff Posted on October 26, 2016

Turns out, they’re not all true.

The Republican presidential nominee appeared on Herman Cain’s radio show on Tuesday, and he had quite a bit to say about wind and solar power, and birds too. Here’s part of the transcript, courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with our fact-checking notes added in brackets:

Trump: Our energy companies are a disaster right now. Coal. The coal business is — you know, there is such a thing as clean coal [False]. Our miners are out of work — now they’re just attacking energy companies like I’ve never seen them attack anything before.

They want everything to be wind and solar. Unfortunately, it’s not working on large-scale [False]. It’s just not working [False]. Solar is very, very expensive [False]. Wind is very, very expensive [False], and it only works when it’s windy [False].

Cain: Right.

Trump: Someone might need a little electricity — a lot of times, it’s the opposite season, actually. When they have it, that’s when you don’t need it. So wind is very problematic [False] and — I’m not saying I’m against those things. I’m for everything. I’m for everything.

Cain: Right.

Trump: But they are destroying our energy companies with regulation [False]. They’re absolutely destroying them [False].

Cain: But their viability has to be demonstrated before you shove it down the throats of the American people. That’s what you’re saying.

Trump: In all fairness, wind is fine [True]. Sometimes you go — I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Palm Springs, California — it looks like a junkyard [False]. They have all these different —

Cain: I have.

Trump: They have all these different companies and each one is made by a different group from, all from China and from Germany, by the way — not from here [False]. And you look at all these windmills. Half of them are broken [False]. They’re rusting and rotting. You know, you’re driving into Palm Springs, California, and it looks like a poor man’s version of Disneyland [False]. It’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen [False].

And it kills all the birds [False]. I don’t know if you know that … Thousands of birds are lying on the ground. And the eagle. You know, certain parts of California — they’ve killed so many eagles [False]. You know, they put you in jail if you kill an eagle. And yet these windmills [kill] them by the hundreds [False].

But solar and wind power are on a meteoric rise, whether Trump likes it or not.

Visit site – 

West Antarctic glaciers lost more than 1,000 feet of ice in just 7 years.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, PUR, Ringer, solar, solar panels, solar power, Ultima, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on West Antarctic glaciers lost more than 1,000 feet of ice in just 7 years.

Junk food is a human rights issue, a U.N. expert warns.

by LelandDuCane Posted on October 26, 2016

Turns out, they’re not all true.

The Republican presidential nominee appeared on Herman Cain’s radio show on Tuesday, and he had quite a bit to say about wind and solar power, and birds too. Here’s part of the transcript, courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with our fact-checking notes added in brackets:

Trump: Our energy companies are a disaster right now. Coal. The coal business is — you know, there is such a thing as clean coal [False]. Our miners are out of work — now they’re just attacking energy companies like I’ve never seen them attack anything before.

They want everything to be wind and solar. Unfortunately, it’s not working on large-scale [False]. It’s just not working [False]. Solar is very, very expensive [False]. Wind is very, very expensive [False], and it only works when it’s windy [False].

Cain: Right.

Trump: Someone might need a little electricity — a lot of times, it’s the opposite season, actually. When they have it, that’s when you don’t need it. So wind is very problematic [False] and — I’m not saying I’m against those things. I’m for everything. I’m for everything.

Cain: Right.

Trump: But they are destroying our energy companies with regulation [False]. They’re absolutely destroying them [False].

Cain: But their viability has to be demonstrated before you shove it down the throats of the American people. That’s what you’re saying.

Trump: In all fairness, wind is fine [True]. Sometimes you go — I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Palm Springs, California — it looks like a junkyard [False]. They have all these different —

Cain: I have.

Trump: They have all these different companies and each one is made by a different group from, all from China and from Germany, by the way — not from here [False]. And you look at all these windmills. Half of them are broken [False]. They’re rusting and rotting. You know, you’re driving into Palm Springs, California, and it looks like a poor man’s version of Disneyland [False]. It’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen [False].

And it kills all the birds [False]. I don’t know if you know that … Thousands of birds are lying on the ground. And the eagle. You know, certain parts of California — they’ve killed so many eagles [False]. You know, they put you in jail if you kill an eagle. And yet these windmills [kill] them by the hundreds [False].

But solar and wind power are on a meteoric rise, whether Trump likes it or not.

Original article – 

Junk food is a human rights issue, a U.N. expert warns.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Ringer, solar, solar panels, solar power, Ultima, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Junk food is a human rights issue, a U.N. expert warns.

An alternative timeline of what the Clinton-Trump debates could have been.

by JamilaChery743 Posted on October 20, 2016

Lower-income communities are getting shut out from bike-sharing programs, and New York City is an especially bad culprit.

The problem with Citibike, New York City’s program, is that it’s largely inaccessible in low-income neighborhoods, writes Noah Zuss on City & State New York, a local politics and policy website.

You can’t find Citibike stations in vast swaths of the city. The Bronx, the country’s poorest urban county, has none. Most of blue-collar Queens is also ignored, as is Manhattan’s least-affluent portion north of 110th Street.

The other problem is cost. Citbike runs $12 per day. It’s $14.95 a month for an annual membership, but you need to have a credit or debit card to sign up, which excludes many low-income New Yorkers. Even Citibike’s discount program for public-housing residents requires a credit or debit card.

It’s a similar story in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Denver: Bike-sharing programs are disproportionately used by affluent white people. Cities have responded with subsidized discount memberships for lower-income residents without much success yet.

What’s the solution? Last month, a report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials suggested month-to-month memberships and cash payments to make bike-sharing more accessible.

This article: 

An alternative timeline of what the Clinton-Trump debates could have been.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on An alternative timeline of what the Clinton-Trump debates could have been.

Say Hello to Our Solar System’s Newest Dwarf Planet

by Posted on October 13, 2016

Spotting the dwarf planet could help in the search for Planet Nine

Originally posted here – 

Say Hello to Our Solar System’s Newest Dwarf Planet

Posted in GE, Smith's, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on Say Hello to Our Solar System’s Newest Dwarf Planet