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Climate campaigners could have a shot at winning the Nobel Peace Prize

Word around the campfire is that climate campaigners Al Gore and Sheila Watt-Cloutier may be on the short list of nominees with a shot at landing this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The prestigious award — to be announced Oct. 12 — has traditionally been awarded to human-rights activists and peace advocates (except for that whole […]

What will Sen. Pete Domenici’s retirement mean for the environment?

The last post I wrote evaluating the environmental impact of a supposedly done-for senator was about Larry Craig. So much for that. But while Sen. Wide Stance (R-Idaho) is sticking around for now, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) will certainly be retiring at the end of the 110th Congress — so it behooves us to look […]

EPA not up to par on environmental justice, GAO finds

Charged with the minor task of informing minority and low-income populations about toxic facilities in their neighborhoods, do you think the U.S. EPA has:

a). Done a thorough, admirable job, or

b). Not

For the correct answer, read this new GAO report [PDF].

Hillary lays out science proposals

Today, in an address to the Carnegie Institution for Science (timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Sputnik), Hillary rolled out her science agenda. After some strong rebukes to the Bush administration for its "war on science," she offered this course of action:

Expand human and robotic space exploration and speed development of vehicles to would replace the space shuttle.

Launch a space-based climate change initiative to combat global warming.

Create a $50-billion strategic energy fund to research ways to boost energy efficiency and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Comply with a legal requirement that the executive branch issue a national assessment on climate change every four years. She would also expand the assessment to reflect how U.S. regions and economic sectors are responding to the challenges posed by climate change.

Name an assistant to the president for science and technology, a position that was eliminated in the Bush White House.

Re-establish the Office of Technology Assessment.

Sounds pretty good, even if it's disconcerting that the space-based climate change initiative appears higher up than boosting energy efficiency. Let's hope that was just a hat tip to Sputnik.

New energy proposal in California

California -- already a leader in intelligent utility regulations -- is taking aggressive steps to stay the leader. The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) made the following remarkable proposal last month:

• All new residential construction in California will be zero net energy by 2020
• All new commercial construction in California will be zero net energy by 2030

In addition, the PUC established "a new system of incentives and penalties to drive investor-owned utilities above and beyond California's aggressive energy savings goals." Under this framework:

Earnings to shareholders accrue only when a utility produces positive net benefits (savings minus costs) for ratepayers. The shareholder "reward" side of the incentive mechanism is balanced by the risk of financial penalties for substandard performance in achieving the PUC's per-kilowatt, kilowatt-hour, and therm savings goals.

Kudos to the PUC for its aggressive strategy, which "puts energy efficiency on an equal footing with utility generation," as Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon put it. "It will align utility corporate culture with California's environmental values."

Even though utility regulations seem mundane, they are a core climate strategy, so here are some more details of the PUC's ground-breaking decision:

Notable quotable

“At the risk of oversimplifying, our current energy policy in the United States involves shooting bearded people. It’s not hard to imagine better ideas coming out of a reality TV show.” — Scott Adams (thanks Kate!)

Could Domenici be succeeded by a green builder?

Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has announced he won’t run for reelection. Could he be replaced by already-declared Democratic candidate Don Wiviott, a builder known for energy-efficient properties?

Regulatory reform of utilities could lessen the need for new power plants

Last week, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) announced that eight utilities "are committed to seeking regulatory reforms and approvals to increase their investment in energy efficiency by $500 million annually to about $1.5 billion annually."

The utilities -- Con Edison, Duke Energy, Edison International, Great Plains Energy, Pepco Holdings, PNM Resources, Sierra Pacific Resources, and Xcel Energy -- represent nearly 20 million customers. The extra efficiency effort would "reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 30 million tons" and "avoid the need for 50 500-megawatt peaking power plants."

What regulatory reform? Our former President offered "to try to explain it to you in my basic English" which I reprint here:

A chat with Zenn about NEVs and EEstor

I talked to a few people at Discover Brilliant. I’ll be getting Q&As up over the coming weeks. Bill Williams is the California sales director for Zenn Motor Co., maker of neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs). In addition to selling one of the most full-featured NEVs, Zenn has an exclusive contract with a tight-lipped and somewhat […]

Times Square New Year’s Eve ball goes green

The ball that drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is — say it with us now — going green. This year, the 100th anniversary of the tradition, the fifth iteration of the ball will have an aluminum skeleton and be lit by energy-efficient LED lights. With 16 times as many lights, it will […]