In 2006, California passed a climate change law that mandates greenhouse gas emissions cutbacks to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office sees that law as raising energy prices, which will result in higher costs for business and, in turn, will have a near-term and long-term negative effect on jobs. The Legislative Analyst’s Office, however, does predict that the negative impact will be “modest.”

The Legislative Analyst’s Office put this report together at the request of State Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto).

Further reading:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100309/tpl-environment-us-climate-california-20b2d2f.html

http://cssrc.us/web/14/pubs/100308_AB32JobsImpact.pdf

http://cssrc.us/web/14/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heypaul/103653062/

KJC

Here are some of the articles that appeared this week regarding scientists defending their work on climate change.

• 95 per cent chance that Man is to blame for global warming, say scientists Times Online
• Scientists Taking Steps to Defend Work on Climate - NYTimes.com
• Scientists Taking Steps to Defend Work on Climate » American Scientist

This was the year when the Olympic organizing committee vowed to go green.  And many of those bronze, silver, and gold medals, are — yes — green.

According to the UK’s Guardian, “The gold, silver and bronze medallions slung around winning athletes’ necks as they step on to the winners’ podium at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games could well be made from the guts of an old Belgian computer.

“The manufacturer of medals for this Olympics is for the first time incorporating token amounts of recycled material into the medals. Medals historically have been made of freshly mines ores.

“The innovation – though largely symbolic – was directed by an Olympic organising committee which had vowed to put on the greenest games ever, raising the bar for London in 2012. “Vancouver Winter Olympics go green with recycled metals for medals ..

Here is a Skype interview with Planet Forward and VC at Vancouver

“Planet Forward host, Frank Sesno, talks via Skype with Jack Hidary, venture capitalist and founder of the Freedom Prize. Hidary discusses Vancouver’s efforts to host a ‘green’ Olympics and talks about what other cities could do to similarly reduce their carbon footprint.  An entrepreneur reports from the “Green Olympics”

Copyright 2010 Rita Watson

Could this be the next revolution in energy?  Or are there two sides to this  story as the Christian Science Monitor suggests? Side One — It is already in use on eBay campuses and hear what they have to say. CBS 60 Minutes showed the Bloom Box - a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard that works as a power source … 60 Minutes: Bloom box and bloom energy.

The untold story

Side Two — The Christian Science Monitor is telling another side to the story, one relating to cost and green.  “The ‘60 Minutes’ Bloom Box spot revealed a lot about the clean-energy ‘power house.’ Here’s information that didn’t air on TV. Bloom Box: What 60 Minutes left out

One of the questions asked in the CBS interview,  “Why this instead of solar panels?”

Answer, “The sun does not shine all of the time.”

True, but what about solar credits?

The solar side

There are alliances with energy companies that do give you “credits” towards energy when there is no sun - as noted in our link after this video.

Solar credits

The state and federal governments encourage residents to use safe, non-polluting renewable energy by offering incentives that lower the cost of installing solar power in homes and businesses. These incentives come in the form of rebates, tax credits, below-market rate loans, deductions and exemptions Solar Power Incentives

Have a look at our index of stories regarding different forms of energy, the field is “heating up.”  Here are three popular features:

Back to basics: Let’s look at passive solar again

DOE awards $338 million in grants for geothermal energy

Interview: Visionary James Gordon, Cape Wind

Environmentalists and the media are enamored with the idea of renewable technology. Solar technology, in particular, has exciting possibilities. But, with a bit more research, two major problems with solar tech solutions quickly become evident.

• Most of these solar energy options are too expensive without significant government subsidies.

• Individual homeowners and homeowners’ associations often view these solutions as unsightly in traditional neighborhoods.

While many homeowners might be interested in reducing the amount of energy they buy from their local utility by installing solar panels on their roofs, it is often less enticing when they determine that their costs might not be recouped within an acceptable timeframe.

This is where government subsidies can change the “break-even” point in the equation.

But that begs the question — Do we, as a society, want the government to continue to pick winners and losers in the energy world?

A proven winner that can save a homeowner money immediately is a seemingly old-fashioned idea - passive solar. Passive solar is most easily incorporated into new construction.  Existing buildings, however, can also be  retrofitted to passively collect and store solar heat.

The U.S. Department of Energy sets out a general outline of the five elements of passive solar home design, summarized as follows:

• Aperture  or Collector - A large glass window through which sunlight enters the building. The aperture should face within 30 degrees of true south and should not be shaded from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day during the heating season.

• Absorber - A hard, dark surface that serves as the storage element. The absorber, which may be a masonry wall, floor, or partition, or a water container, sits in the direct path of sunlight. Sunlight that hits the surface is absorbed as heat.

• Thermal mass - Materials that retain the heat produced by sunlight. The thermal mass is the material below or behind the surface of the absorber.

• Distribution - The method by which collected solar heat circulates throughout the house. A passive design uses three natural heat transfer modes  - conduction, convection and radiation. Fans, ducts and blowers can aid the distribution of heat to different parts of the house.

• Control - During summer months, roof overhangs, awnings and blinds can be used to shade the aperture.

http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/designing_remodeling/index.cfm/mytopic=10270

These DOE guidelines are a helpful starting point, but they are merely a general overview. A successful passive solar design requires a detailed and careful analysis of the site, region and climate. Passive solar designs for the Southwest will differ from the Southeast and likewise, a design for the Northeast will differ from the Mountain states.

While passive solar design may seem, at first, to be an old-fashioned technology, it does not lead to an old-fashioned house or unsightly additions. Far from it.

Randy Schwartz, a Georgia Tech-trained architect and builder, and his company Buildynamic, have used passive solar techniques to create spectacular living spaces.

Careful attention is paid to the house’s orientation and also to vegetation, ventilation, insulation, strategic use of materials, placement of openings and building techniques.

While energy considerations are obviously the key element in designing a passive solar house, as Randy Schwartz has shown, they can be incorporated in a dramatic way that creates a very special house for a special site.

Although passive solar may not be a dramatic new technology, its wise use can yield dramatic results in energy conservation and design - appealing to both the homeowner’s budget and the neighborhood.

Further reading:

http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/designing_remodeling/index.cfm/mytopic=10250

http://buildynamic.com/

Photos:  http://buildynamic.com/

Illustration: DOE http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/designing_remodeling/index.cfm/mytopic=10270

Copyright 2010 - K.J.Collins

The Daily Mail reports that Phil Jones, the climate scientist at the center of the Climategate or the”hide-the-decline” scandal admitted that “for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.”

The revelations don’t end there. The Daily Mail continues:

“Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers.
Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.
The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.

Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now - suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.”

Read the entire article at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0fcOw66cF

Further reading:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/7236406/Climategate-academic-Professor-Phil-Jones-admits-he-lost-track-of-vital-data.html

And,  previous articles at Greenlegals - http://greenlegals.com/2009/11/cru-threw-the-raw-temperature-data-out-in-the-rubbish/

Photo: Nasa Images

KJC

“The inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that this issue has stalled is dead wrong . . . This is not and never has been a partisan issue, and Senators Graham, Lieberman, and I will continue building consensus on both sides of the aisle with all those willing to engage to create jobs, advance our security interests, reduce pollution, and make America more competitive,” said Kerry, a key advocate of a climate change legislation.”

Photo: Nasa images — http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~12~12~64172~168567:Sun-and-Earth-in-Scale?qvq=q:Sun+;lc:nasaNAS~5~5,NVA2~14~14,nasaNAS~20~20,NVA2~1~1,NVA2~13~13,NVA2~23~23,nasaNAS~16~16,NSVS~3~3,NVA2~8~8,NVA2~22~22,NVA2~19~19,nasaNAS~8~8,NVA2~4~4,nasaNAS~6~6,NVA2~21~21,NVA2~18~18,nasaNAS~4~4,NVA2~20~20,nasaNAS~2~2,nasaNAS~13~13,NVA2~17~17,nasaNAS~12~12,nasaNAS~22~22,NVA2~16~16,NVA2~9~9,nasaNAS~10~10,nasaNAS~7~7,NVA2~15~15,nasaNAS~9~9,NVA2~25~25&mi=120&trs=15882

KJC

Growth in the U.S. will likely be spurred on by the decreasing cost of solar panels and installation, and the continuing and increasing federal and state incentives. The federal stimulus package funding, for example, will be felt in 2010 and so will tax credits for solar investment for utilities.

Some experts, however, think that the case for growth of large solar projects in the next few years may be a bit too rosy.

Large solar farms face land permitting issues and require special transmission lines that can lead to delays. Smaller projects, located closer to substations, may fare better.

Homeowner should see prices come down too. Harry Fleming of Acro Energy, predicts in the Technology Review that a homeowner wishing to install a five-kilowatt rooftop solar panel system will see his costs after subsidies decreasing from $16,000 today to $13,000 by the end of the year.

Photo: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/343894/

Copyright 2010 — KJCollins

And what is that animal in the Eco checkpoint?  Some think it’s an anteater. http://lotterysquirrel.com/2010/02/08/mystery-animal-in-audi-2010-green-car-super-bowl-commercial/

Update on the anteater –

[See post to watch Flash video]

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD1IIPHrDiw

KJC