A few green changes in your home can have a lasting effect on the environment and make a positive impact on your finances. Converting to a more energy-efficient lifestyle, such as recycling, managing your home’s temperature and conserving water, can be achieved by taking some simple steps.
Purchase Energy Efficient Appliances (more…)
According to the Writer’s Almanac, today is the 156th anniversary of the first oil well, which was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Although petroleum had been seen and used much earlier, this was humankind’s first foray into exploration for the stuff.
We all know the story of how oil came to dominate our world’s commerce and consequent military endeavors. Now we’re watching (and some of us actively helping) all this unravel, as various sources of renewable energy replace fossil fuels at the maximum practical rate, and provide a sustainable approach to powering our civilization.
I thought I’d post a pic of my press credentials from the National Clean Energy Summit. Apparently, anytime the president is in the same room with a member of the media, a “White House Press Pool” tag is required, even if the meeting is more than 2000 miles from the White House per se. Who knew? (more…)
Here’s an article that analyzes the traffic in the most congested cities in Europe: what causes it to worsen, and what progressive concepts are being offered to loosen it up. There are no surprises here: you get what you reward. When drivers receive cars as part of their job compensation—and when these cars are treated as tax-free, we see insane levels of congestion. (more…)
For those seeking advice as to what good PR looks like, here’s an article in NorthAmericanCleanEnergy.com that’s primary about a gift that PG&E bestowed upon a small town within its service district in Northern California. Note that it features an extremely positive mention of Efficient Drivetrains, one of its key vendors, and one of the companies I proudly recommend as a cleantech business investment opportunity. The collaborative use of logos on the trucks (pictured) isn’t a bad coup either.
In PR, we sometimes have to work hard for the smallest return; other times, we get lucky, and huge bounties fall into our laps. In the case of this article, I’m not sure how the whole thing went down. Of course, it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than to be good.
Frequent commenter Tom asks: Craig, did you see this article on the successful prototype of an all electric airplane?
I hadn’t seen this idea per se, but I’m aware that there are thousands of people who have been hard at work developing this basic concept for quite a while. I’m quite sure that we’ll eventually see electric transportation exported to the skies, though it will be slow to come about, given the gravimetric and volumetric energy- and power-densities of current battery technologies.
I’ve done a lot of work with Aerovironment over the years, and I note that it was the company’s founder, the late Dr. Paul MacCready who brought this concept to the forefront of our imagination a couple of decades ago.
At the National Clean Energy Summit yesterday, I had the opportunity to chat with Bill Ritter (pictured), ex-governor of Colorado. I reminded him of a story I had heard him tell a few years ago at one of the Renewable Energy Finance Forums in New York City in which he explained that the previous December, Colorado College had conducted a survey of tens of thousands of people living in the plains states in which the team established that the vast majority of people favored renewables, said they would be willing to pay more for clean energy, and urged Congress to pass a resolution allowing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)
I had lunch at the National Clean Energy Summit yesterday with Karl Reiber, PhD (pictured), a cardiovascular physiologist, the focus of whose work is aquatic animals and how they are affected by the changes that are happening to their environment.
The bottom line is that the waters in which they live are warming rapidly but sporadically due to climate change and the breakdown of livestock waste (an exothermic process). (more…)
It’s Sunday night here, but I’ve scheduled this post to be published at 2:45 tomorrow morning, the time at which I’ll get up, dress hurriedly, drive down to Los Angeles, and fly to Las Vegas for the 8th annual National Clean Energy Summit.
According to the promoters’ literature, I’ll enjoy a wonderful opportunity to hook up with: (more…)
My good friend Cameron Atwood asked for my comments on this concept of electrifying our highways by installing inductive charging in a certain lane of each of our major roadways. The attraction, of course, is that the concept eliminates, or at least greatly reduces, the drawback associated with the limited range EVs currently suffer due to small battery capacities. (more…)
