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Source: Bloomberg.com

Los Angeles will become the biggest U.S. city to abandon coal-fueled electricity after the taxpayer- owned utility said it will support renewable sources, boost energy efficiency and build a new natural-gas fired plant.

The city’s Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal-owned utility, will phase out the electricity it imports from the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona and Intermountain Power in Utah, according to a statement yesterday. The two coal plants provide 39 percent of the city’s power.

“The era of coal is over,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement. “By divesting from coal and investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, we reduce our carbon footprint and set a precedent for the national power market.”
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Source: Energy Manager Today.com

The US Department of Energy Technical Assistance Program (TAP) has published a resource with tools and tips for public sector organizations to use in developing a benchmarking plan.

Benchmarking — comparing a metered building’s current energy performance with its energy baseline — can help building managers compare performance over time or between similar types of building, or document savings from conservation measures. Whether benchmarking as a part of an energy management plan or to meet requirements of a policy or program, having a benchmarking plan helps organizations implement their efforts.

Designing a Benchmarking Plan provides an 11-step outline through the planning process with resources to help organizations at each step. Read more

Source: Environmental Leader.com

Johnson & Johnson has set up a fund for greenhouse gas reduction projects like chiller optimization and solar PV installations — just one example of how companies are allocating capital for long-term environmental performance, according to a report by the World Resources Institute.

Aligning Profit and Environmental Sustainability: Stories from Industry looks at what’s needed to bridge barriers between existing corporate behavior and environmentally sound business practices. WRI interviewed sustainability managers from AkzoNobel, Alcoa, Citi, Greif, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Natura, Siemens and others about how companies scale up strategies that are good for business and the planet.

Companies usually have separate capital expense and operating expense budgets, the report says, and this practice can make it difficult to increase one budget to benefit the other. In Johnson & Johnson’s case, the special fund for GHG-reduction projects increases its capital budget, and the operating budget is then adjusted to account for expected savings. This allows the company to invest in projects that cost more upfront, but have lower operating costs.
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Source: Environmental Leader.com

Waste and energy use reduction are the top facility-related improvements retailers are undertaking to improve their sustainability performance, according to a report released today by the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

The second annual Retail Sustainability Report, which aims to provide a detailed view of the industry’s adoption of sustainability programs, was based on a survey of 35 RILA member retailers, representing more than 65,000 locations and $1 trillion in global revenue, as well as interviews with 10 members companies.

Nearly all surveyed companies have initiatives to reduce waste and increase recycling, the report said. Companies reported recycling at stores not only reduces costs, it engages the store employees — some of the sector’s biggest advocates.

Over the next two years, companies will increasingly focus on green building practices, management of greenhouse gas emissions and water use, the report said.
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Source: Environmental Protection Online.com

In a ceremony on campus yesterday, Arizona State University’s Sustainable Cities Network was recognized by the EPA’s Regional Administrator, Jared Blumenfeld. The Pacific Southwest Region’s 2012 Green Government Award was presented to Anne Reichman, program manager for the Sustainable Cities Network at ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.

The Sustainable Cities Network is a collaborative program created by Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) to increase regional dialogue and action amongst Arizona communities. In partnership with local city, county and tribal leaders from the Valley, GIOS established the voluntary Network in late 2008, linking together municipal and tribal sustainability practitioners from over 25 jurisdictions and Maricopa County. Through the regular meetings of its five workgroups, the Network educates and works with local community partners to streamline green city operations and design sustainable neighborhoods.
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Source: Binghamton University Pipe Dream student run newspaper By: Molly McGrath

In my ideal America, we’d all be tree-hugging, granola-crunchin’ environmentalists living in log cabins powered by solar panels. Every child would have a deep reverence for nature. We would not view nature as a separate entity, but seek out our own place in it, aware of the impact our species has on the greater ecosystem. We wouldn’t make our choices based on fleeting impulses toward greed. We would care for the environment because of a deep connection to it.

Unfortunately for me and my tree-huggin’ compatriots, most people have their heads up their arses. I recall a conversation with a fellow SUNY student. She told me that she didn’t like nature. It was something to be feared. In her words, “It’s waiting to **** us over.” For this reason, she likes to remain indoors most of the time.

Young people are dissociated from the natural world. Most appeals centered on the intrinsic value of the environment fail miserably. The ecological disasters on the horizon demand a more pragmatic approach. How do we convince a nation dependent on over consumption of resources to start caring?

Fear. We fear-monger until aggressive action is taken. This fear cannot be centered on destruction of the environment, but instead on economic collapse. We need to frame this in an apocalyptic light. Peak oil is perhaps the best bet in chilling Americans out of their cocoons.
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Source: Falls Church News Press.com By: Tom Whipple

When peak oil first came to widespread public attention some 10 or 15 years ago, there was some debate about whether peak oil was the solution to climate change caused by carbon emissions. After all, if we are forced by geology and economics to burn decreasing amounts of oil, won’t carbon emissions and global warming take care of themselves? In the last 10 years, however, much has happened. Bad economic times have reduced consumption of oil in most of the OECD countries. This demand has been replaced by increased demand from China, India and other developing or oil-rich countries, which are rapidly turning themselves into “motorized societies” where nearly everybody owns a car or some form of oil-powered transport.

The other side of the peak oil/global warming issue is what has happened to our climate in recent years. Lower Manhattan under water; New England under feet of snow; Texas and the upper mid-west burned dry; the Mississippi flooding; and the South torn up by tornadoes is rather hard to ignore. Indeed, the respected Pew Research Center says the number of Americans saying they believe the earth is warming has increased from 57 percent to 67 percent in the last five years. Those believing that climate change is caused by manmade emissions are up from 36 percent in 2009 to 42 percent in 2012. The rather low percentage of those who believe that global warming comes from carbon emissions is a tribute to the power of the massive public relations campaign that fossil fuel companies and their political allies have been waging for many years.
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Source: < href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-21/fracking-emissions-get-review-after-epa-watchdog-report.html" target="_blank">Bloomberg.com

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to more closely study air emissions from hydraulic fracturing after the agency’s auditor concluded its current data is insufficient to make policy decisions.

The EPA has already begun an inter-agency study of methane, air toxins and other pollutants released when oil and gas are tapped using the process, called fracking, Gina McCarthy, the head of the agency’s air office, said in a letter to the Inspector General’s office that was released yesterday.
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