President Barack Obama had some firm words for critics of his economic stimulus plan in his first presidential news conference on Monday night, using some of his most forceful comments to defend the green energy investments in the plan. "Why would that be a waste of federal money?" he asked. "We can have a respectful debate about whether or not we should be involved in energy policy, but don't call it wasteful spending," he continued.
"We're creating jobs immediately by weatherizing homes ... and we're saving money for taxpayers $2 billion when it comes to federal buildings." Earlier in the day, at a town-hall meeting in Elkhard, Ind., Obama also talked up clean energy and the jobs it can create.
First Lady Michelle Obama made similar points during a speech to employees of the Interior Department on Monday. "At a time when so many Americans are out of work, sound energy and environmental policies are going to help create thousands of jobs through the economic recovery and reinvestment plan that Barack is out there promoting today," she said.
In other, but related, news.
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday moved away from "drill-only" energy policies as he blocked a last-minute attempt by the administration of George W. Bush to push through the sale of offshore leases to gas and oil companies.
"On January 16, the last business day of the Bush administration, the administration proposed a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing," Salazar told a news conference.
What Salazar called a "midnight action" by the previous administration favored big oil while ignoring developers of renewable energy.
It would have moved forward from 2012 to 2010 the creation of a new energy development plan that would affect some 300 million offshore acres on the outer continental shelf (OCS), from the US eastern seaboard to the Pacific Ocean off California, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.
"For the last eight years, America has taken one road to energy independence, which was drill, drill, drill," said Salazar.
"I intend to do what the prior administration failed to do and that is to build a framework for offshore renewable energy development so that we can incorporate the great potential for wind, wave and ocean current energy into our offshore energy strategy," Salazar said.
A recent ethanol study by the University of Minnesota suggests that corn-based ethanol maybe more harmful (climate change, greenhouse gases, health effects) and costly to the environment than gasoline itself. With this said, it is important to note that quite a bit of the US production of ethanol is currently reliant on first generation biofuels, such as corn.
"To understand the environmental and health consequences of biofuels," says Jason Hill, one of the lead author's of the report. "We must look well beyond the tailpipe to how and where biofuels are produced."
According to the findings in this study, for each billion gallons of fuel produced and expelled into the air through a vehicles exhaust, the combined health and greenhouse costs are $469 million for gasoline and somewhere between $472 million to $952 million for corn ethanol, the variance being dependent on whether the biorefinery heat source is coming from natural gas, coal, or corn stover.
They found that ethanol made from corn would result in health costs of as much as 93 cents per gallon compared to 34 cents a gallon for gasoline.
The results for ethanol varied according to how the fuel is produced. Ethanol produced by coal-fired plants fared the worst. Ethanol from plants that use natural gas still came out with higher costs than gasoline.
Ethanol made from prairie grasses fared much better than gasoline or corn ethanol at 24 cents per gallon.
Researchers from Stanford University and the Energy Department also were involved in the study.
San Fransisco is installing a network of wireless sensors in the asphalt based on the "smart dust" technology to come out of UC Berkeley. Once in place, battery-operated "bumps" will not only relay information about open parking spots to drivers via street signs and smart phones, they'll also convey real-time information about congestion and traffic and flow to city planners.
Parking policy might seem like a minor matter, but the numbers tell a different story. Professor Donald Shoup, the godfather of parking reform, has conducted research showing that drivers cruising for parking are responsible for up to 30% of traffic in central business districts. In one small area studied, cruising burned an additional 47,000 gallons of gasoline per year.
Price increases inevitably encounter resistance from consumers. But if the promises of variable-price parking live up to the hype - reduced traffic, improved city services, and less time spent hunting for spots - this could end up being a change that residents demand.
April 2008 saw another sharp drop in vehicle miles traveled according to the Federal Highway Administration's monthly report on "Traffic Volume Trends." This follows "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history" in March.
This is not surprising at all I am sure. As far as I am concerned it is only a matter of time before businesses begin adopting more telecommuting opportunities just to be able to retain and hire new employees.
Congratulations to those reporters who clearly received their journalism degrees from the University of the Obvious!
Anyway, the specific stats are as follows: "U.S. driving went down 4.5 billion miles in April."
And in other far more interesting news we have the new nightclub in the UK which is powered by dance floor energy!
Mr Charalambous, the head of a new climate change organisation called Club4Climate, said he hoped to use clubbing to inspire young people to tackle global warming.
"This is a new way to draw in the young generation," he said.
"It's a sexy and fresh approach as opposed to the way young people feel they are preached to by other more 'grown-up' charities.
"Our aim in opening the country's first ecological club is to get as many people as possible involved in saving their world.
"There is no greater platform than clubbing to reach out to young people. Having an energy-generating dance floor is a very exciting and interesting-idea that we have been talking to people in Rotterdam about. Such a dance floor could generate about 60 per cent of the building's energy."
There are batteries in the dance floor and they are constantly recharged by the movement from people dancing. Personally, I think, this is the most awesome contribution to storing energy ever!
This morning I was scanning the headlines on EcoMoto.org and was interested to see one about orange peels.
A group of University of Guadalajara students were researching essential oils when they discovered that orange peels could be used to make ethanol. Ethanol is used to dilute gasoline in car engines so that less gas is used.
News like this is rather exciting because the more natural resources we find to help make gas greener means the less prices will go up for each item. It also means there will be more ways to create ethanol and dilute gas...therefore minimizing the amount of mass drilling needed!
