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In Aspen and Pitkin County, Colorado, a new home over 5000 square feet (465 m) either has to include a renewable energy system, or its builder/ owner has to pay a $5000 mitigation fee. This component of a new Renewable Energy Mitigation Program (REMP) is, perhaps, the most unique and innovative addition to an energy code in the last 10 years. It started with big energy hogs – spas, heated pools, and snowmelt systems – that fell outside the residential energy code. When the local building code was tightened to include these energy uses, there was no way to improve the structure’s performance enough to offset the massive amounts of energy that pools, driveway heaters or very large homes use.According to Stephen Kanipe, the county and city building inspector, about $1.2 million has been collected in the last year, with mitigation fees as high as $80,000 from a single residence! How is the fee calculated? A system’s energy use over a 20 year period is multiplied by twice the marginal cost of locally available windpower.The Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE), a local nonprofit, administers the funds. CORE has used the funds for projects such as PV panels for a […]
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There’s more “oil” in Detroit than in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, aptly notes David Nemtzow, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. If fuel economy (CAFE) standards for light trucks were raised to 27.5 mpg like other passenger cars, we would save 2.1 million barrels of oil per day. This is twice Refuge peak production capability, and twice what the pipeline ships now, according to the U.S. Geological Society.A new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) puts average fuel economy for vehicles at its lowest point in 21 years. And U.S. citizens paid about $4 trillion from 1979 to 1991 for oil price shocks. This is almost as much as Americans spent on national defense during that period and more than interest payments on the national debt.The Energy Information Administration places the transportation sector as the second largest energy consumer in the U.S. It accounted for 67 percent of U.S. oil consumption and 26 percent of U.S. energy consumption in 2000. On October 10, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) asked Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to stop plans to mark-up the energy bill. He asked Sen. Bingaman to prepare […]
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Congress should pass a "National Energy Security, Fuel Efficiency and Hydrogen Transition Act of 2001." This would rapidly reduce oil dependence and would create a worldwide business boom.
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Is it good business to give your proprietary technology to competitors? Designtex thinks so!
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The events of this day cause every thinking person to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. There are two possible responses to what has occurred. The first comes from love, the second from fear.
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The sky is blue and the birds sing. For one more day. What can we do to spark the love of life in everyone on this planet? Some voices for sustainability speak their mind.
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Yes, electronics recycling is a hot topic, and yes, manufacturers must take national action. But can they? Read what Michele Raymond, recycling industry expert, has to say.
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Green purchasing practices don't make headlines, but they are quietly changing companies and products from the inside-out. Read this excellent overview of why and how they do it, with examples from Herman Miller, Anheuser-Busch, Volvo, DaimlerChrysler and others.
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There are 17 eco-industrial projects underway in the U.S., Canada and Denmark, taking a variety of forms. For example: A Computer and Electronics Disposition Eco-Industrial Park in Austin, Texas is being positioned as a leader in the emerging field of electronics recovery and recycling. The businesses in the park will use the latest industrial ecology techniques for wide-scale energy, resource and waste efficiency. The plan calls for reuse, sale of parts and units, recycling, remanufacturing, and ultimate disposition of all computer and electronic equipment. Tenants will benefit from shared social services such as job-training, transportation, public space, child-care and technology research. The anchor business will be a computer and electronics disposition facility. There will be a Research & Development Center, a business incubator (Innovation Center), and the non-profit managing partner of the park. Future resident companies will feed off the product streams of the anchor facility. The Industrial Ecosystem Development Project, in Research Triangle, North Carolina, completed a two year, EPA-funded research project to match company wastestreams in a six-county region. The challenges of industrial waste matchmaking and the specific industry inputs and byproducts they found offer a useful guide for implementing such programs elsewhere. 182 facilities furnished information on […]
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For sustainable energy technologies to find their rightful place in emerging energy policies and regulatory structures, advocates must be active and informed. Jane Weissman, a board member of the American Solar Energy Society summarizes the key issues.
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