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Bad news for the polluter-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, but wonderful news for the planet.
In 2012 and 2013, ALEC tried to roll back states’ renewable energy standards, and failed. Now it’s trying to roll back solar net-metering programs, which let homeowners sell electricity from their rooftop panels into the grid, and that campaign isn’t going so well either.
Case in point: In Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) just signed a bill that will expand the state’s net-metering program, allowing solar panel owners to sell more of their clean electricity into the grid.
The bill will nearly quadruple the size of a cap on the amount of solar power that utilities must be willing to buy from their customers. It also creates pilot projects that could allow for solar projects as large as 5 megawatts to be built under the scheme. The AP reports:
Alternative energy proponents pushed for the increased cap after some Vermont utilities had reached the 4 percent cap and stopped taking new net-metered power.
“Our success exceeded our wildest dreams,” Shumlin said before signing the bill into law, noting that since he took office in 2011 the state had quadrupled the amount of solar energy on the state’s electric grid.
Vermont’s increased use of alternative energy has helped the state to become the nation’s per-capita leader in the number of solar energy jobs.
The new law is being lauded by renewable energy advocates. “Thousands of Vermonters have already gone solar, and this law will allow thousands more, of all walks of life, to be part of building a clean energy legacy for our state,” the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said in a statement. “While we have more work to do, this law is a good next step.”
Meanwhile, the solar industry recently helped defeat ALEC-championed efforts in Washington and Utah to wind back the net-metering programs in those states. And we told you in November about a similar success in Arizona.
“In state after state, overwhelming public support for rooftop solar continues to trump multi-million dollar attacks from utilities … and ALEC,” an exec with solar company Sunrun told CleanTechnica.
Source
New Vermont law expands use of renewable energy by encouraging small power projects, AP
Solar Industry Defeats ALEC Net Metering Attacks In Utah & Washington, CleanTechnica
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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Two bills in the Senate would require the country to get at least 25 percent renewable electricity by 2025, but neither has a chance in hell of making it to Obama’s desk. Thanks, Republicans! So the president is doing what he can without approval from Congress: requiring the federal government to get more of its power from renewable sources.
President Obama says the U.S. government “must lead by example” when it comes to safeguarding the environment, so he’s ordering federal agencies to use more clean energy.
Under a presidential memorandum out Thursday, each agency would have until 2020 to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable supplies. …
Agencies are supposed to build their own facilities when they can, or buy clean energy from wind farms and solar facilities. …
The memo also directs federal agencies to increase energy efficiency in its buildings and its power management systems.
The U.S. government currently gets about 7.5 percent of its electricity from renewables, so the new goal would almost triple that percentage.
With today’s memorandum, Obama follows through on a promise he made in his big climate speech in June. We’re looking forward to him keeping the rest of the promises from that speech.
Source
Obama Tells Government To Ramp Up Its Renewable Energy Use, NPR
Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.
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Triple threat: Obama orders federal agencies to boost clean energy use threefold
Oh yay. Just 5,840 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico are virtually bereft of life this summer.
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
The deadest parts of the 2013 dead zone are shown in red. Click to embiggen.
This year’s dead zone is much bigger than an official goal of 1,950 square miles, but not as bad as had been feared.
Heavy spring rains inundated Mississippi River tributaries with fertilizers and other nutrients, and once those pollutants flowed into the Gulf, they led to the growth of oxygen-starved areas where marine life can’t survive.
But NOAA says things could have been worse. The agency had previously warned that this summer’s dead zone could be larger than the record-breaking one of 2002, when an 8,481-square-mile-area of low or no oxygen was detected during monitoring. Heavy winds came to the aid of the Gulf ecosystem this year, mixing up the oxygen-deprived waters and reducing the size of the dead zone.
The area of low oxygen covers 5,840 square miles of the Gulf floor — roughly the size of Connecticut — said scientists led by Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. …
Rabalais said the survey boat encountered some bottom-dwelling eels and crabs that had swum near the surface of water that’s 60 to 70 feet deep to find oxygen.
“That’s a long way for something like an eel, that lives buried in the mud, to find its way to the surface,” she said in an interview.
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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Gulf of Mexico dead zone is big, but not record-breaking big
Mother Jones
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The small number of companies that dominate global meat production is about to get smaller. The Chinese corporation Shuanghui International, already the majority shareholder of China’s largest meat producer, has just bought US giant Smthfield, the globe’s largest hog producer and pork packer, in a $4.7 billion cash deal. (It still has to get past Smithfield’s shareholders and the US Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews takeovers of US companies.)
Now, I hope this merger of titans doesn’t provoke a xenophobic reaction. Shuanghui has strong ties to China’s central government, but it also counts Goldman Sachs among its major shareholders. And the US meat industry is already quite globalized. Back in 2009, a Brazilian giant called JBS had already barreled into the US market, and now holds huge positions in beef, pork, and chicken processing here. And true, as China has ramped up its food production—and rapidly reshaped hog production on the industrial US model—it has produced more than it share of food safety scandals, including recent ones involving hogs.
But as I have pointed out, the US pork industry is no prize either—it pollutes water as a matter of course, hollows out the rural areas on which it alights, relies heavily on routine antibiotic use, recently inspired a government watchdog group to lament “egregious” violations of food safety and animal welfare code in slaughterhouses, and uh, has an explosive manure foam problem.
So forget about where HQ is for the vast conglomerate that ultimately profits from running Smithfield’s factory-scale hog farms and slaughterhouses. The real question is: What does this deal telling us about the global food system and the future of food? Reuters offers a hint:
The thrust of the deal is to send the U.S. made pork to China, a factor that one person familiar with the matter said would help during Shuanghui’s CFIUS Committee on Foreign Investment review.
If Reuters is right that deal’s purpose is to grease the wheels of trade carrying US hogs to China and its enormous domestic pork market, then we’re looking at the further expansion of factory-scale swine farming here in the US: all of the festering troubles I listed above, intensified. For Smithfield itself, the deal is savvy, because Americans are eating less meat. In order to maintain endless profit growth, the company needs to conquer markets where per capita meat consumption is growing fast, and the China market itself represents the globe’s biggest prize in that regard.
As for China, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy showed in a blockbuster 2011 report, the central government strived for years for self-sufficiency in pork, even as demand for it exploded, by rapidly industrializing production along the model pioneered by Smithfield. By essentially buying Smithfield, the government may be throwing in the towel—saying, essentially, let’s just offshore our hog production, or at least a huge part of it, to the US.
In an ironic twist, China appears to be taking advantage of lax environmental and labor standards in the US to supply its citizens with something it can’t get enough of. Industrial pork: the iPhone’s culinary mirror image.
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Slow lorises in the deep dark of the Vietnamese forest are probably wise to avoid the scientist who wanders by with a flashlight and a notebook. There are other humans about with less noble intentions. Visit site: Scientist at Work Blog: A Forest Denizen at Risk ; ;Related ArticlesDot Earth Blog: A Survival Plan for America’s Tornado Danger ZoneScientist at Work Blog: Thwarted by MoonlightClimate Change Will Drive Up Manhattan’s Heat-Related Death Toll ;
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It is early April, and another whale season is drawing to a close. Visit site – Scientist at Work Blog: Heading North, With an Appetite ; ;Related ArticlesExplosive poop foam is killing hogs, destroying barns and stumping scientistsDot Earth Blog: The Adirondack Park and Conservation on a Crowding PlanetDot Earth Blog: The Other Climate Science Gap ;
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On the Mekong, the Opperman family learns how to cast for dinner in a changing river. View original post here: Scientist at Work Blog: Empty Nets on the Mekong ; ;Related ArticlesDot Earth Blog: DNA from Tiger Scat Aids Conservation Efforts in NepalPlans to Harness China’s Nu River Threaten a RegionChinese River’s Fate May Reshape a Region ;
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Small coastal fisheries are having an outsize impact on sea turtle populations, a new study finds. Continued: Postcard from a Loggerhead Turtle Dying Ground Related ArticlesFresh Thoughts from Authors of a Paper on 11,300 Years of Global Temperature ChangesDogs, Nets and Poverty – a Tough Combination55 percent of U.S. rivers and streams are in poor condition, says EPA
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Boulder, Colo.-based Green Guru Gear is the brainchild of best friends Davidson Lewis and Justin Daugherty, two outdoor enthusiasts who were sick of tossing their old athletic gear in the trash. Entering its sixth year, the brand now includes outdoor sports equipment and accessories made from old bike tires, climbing rope and wet suits. Earth911 sat down with Daugherty to learn more about how the two friends turned a passion for reducing waste into their dream green jobs.
The Green Guru Gear headquarters in Boulder, Colo. reflects the brand’s unique take on blending outdoor enthusiasm with upcycled fun. Photo: Green Guru Gear
While pursuing an industrial design degree at Virginia Tech, Green Guru Gear founder Davidson Lewis wrote his senior thesis on creative ways to upcycle common waste materials. The outdoor-lover and sustainability enthusiast continued working with reused materials after graduation, creating wallets, backpacks and other accessories from old truck and tractor tires.
Founder Davidson Lewis says he started Green Guru Gear to capture waste materials created by activities he loves, like hiking, biking and surfing. Photo: Green Guru Gear
In 2005, Lewis launched his company as Ecologic Designs, and his best friend Justin Daugherty quickly jumped on board. At first, the design duo focused on sourcing materials from partner companies, such as Patagonia, Nike and AT&T, and turning them into customized designs.
After they started making products, the pair decided to create their own brand and identity that reflected the outdoor sports they loved, while upcycling waste materials that are common to their active lifestyles.
Since launching Green Guru Gear in 2007, Lewis and Daugherty have expanded the line to include bike accessories, bags, dog collars, wallets and other products made from old athletic gear, such as bicycle inner tubes, climbing rope and wet suits.
“Davidson and myself are both backpackers and outdoor enthusiasts, so all our gear is ripping and tearing, and it only lasts a few years,” says Daugherty, who now serves as VP of sales and operations for Green Guru Gear. “We were just wondering where all this waste was going over the years.”
Justin Daugherty (right) of Green Guru Gear shows off the company’s tricked-out two-person bicycle, complete with giant speakers that would make any DJ drool. Photo: Green Guru Gear
Most of the materials used in the Green Guru Gear line are sent in by corporate partners or collected through drop-off recycling bins at bike shops, climbing gyms and outdoor retailers around the friends’ hometown of Boulder, Colo.
The line also incorporates other waste materials, such as plastic water bottles, manufacturing waste from camper shells and reflective Mylar used in compostable cup packaging.
“We’re not just looking at one or two or three particular materials,” Daugherty says. “We’re constantly looking at everything that’s out there.”
To make sure they’re walking the walk, the backpackers-turned-entrepreneurs fine-tuned their manufacturing processes to leave the smallest footprint possible.
Dirty bike tires and other materials are washed with Simple Green and shined up with an all-natural mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. From there, the products are sewn by hand at Green Guru’s manufacturing facility in Boulder.
“We don’t want to go to the extent where we’re using too much energy to produce [our products] and it offsets any benefits,” Daugherty says. “That’s something that’s really important to us, is being smart about our manufacturing and how we use our materials. We’re trying to leave the least carbon footprint possible.”
Don’t Miss: 10 Awesome Upcycled Products from Ethical Ocean
Green Guru Gear founder Davidson Lewis heads out on a ski trip with the company’s “Eco Ambulance,” a biodiesel-powered van used to pick up recycled materials from drop-off locations around Boulder, Colo. Photo: Green Guru Gear
In addition to creating some seriously cool upcycled products, the guys at Green Guru Gear are quickly emerging at the forefront of the sustainability scene in Boulder. Staff members are often spotted around town in the company’s “Eco Ambulance,” a biodiesel-powered van used to pick up recycled materials from drop-off bins, and the Green Guru crew organizes community bike rides every Thursday.
Expanding on their all-local feel, Lewis and Daugherty hope to set up collection, manufacturing, distribution and sales headquarters across the U.S. and abroad, so customers can purchase an item that was made from local waste materials and manufactured locally.
The company hopes to expand collection and production to Los Angeles within the next two years. A women’s line, called Green Goddess Gear, is also in the works and is set to launch in early 2014.
Bet You’ll Love: Green Your Workout with Recycled Fitness Gear
Building a brand from the ground up may require a lot of labor, but Daugherty says it never feels like work.
“I can’t ask for anything more in life,” he says. “The lifestyle that we love is bikes and the outdoors, and that’s our business… I come into work every day loving it.”
For more information on Green Guru Gear, check out the brand’s website, or pick up one of their cool upcycled products from the company’s web store or one of our favorite online sellers, Ethical Ocean. If you have some old athletic gear around the house, Green Guru Gear will gladly recycle it for you through drop-off bins across the U.S. and its mail-back recycling program.
Want to score free Green Guru Gear? Ethical Ocean is giving away a bunch of awesome upcycled products right now, including an upcycled bike inner-tube belt from the company. Click here to enter!
Homepage Image: Green Guru Gear
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