Update from Sierra Club

We love seeing positive news on EV's.  Are you shopping for electric cars yet?

This past year has been an exciting one for cleaner vehicles. The President announced new historic vehicle fuel economy and emissions standards that will arguably do more to protect the planet than any other policy yet.  Also, according to NRDC's Luke Tonachel's recent blog, in the past year "hybrid sales grew by 55 percent and plug-in electric vehicle sales jumped 228 percent." And in 2013, we'll see about eight new plug-in models on the market. We have much work to do to boost plug-in vehicle sales, but we're heading in the right direction.

Sea Change Radio recently posted an interview with me on why the Sierra Club has been promoting a switch to electric vehicles as one of many important ways to slash oil use and emissions.

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Enjoy the show and tour 2012

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RENEW Plans Honor for SC Johnson

Award Will Recognize Company’s Investment in Wind Energy

SC Johnson, the Racine-based consumer products manufacturer, will be one of several Wisconsin companies and organizations receiving awards from RENEW Wisconsin for their renewable energy investments in 2012. The award will recognize SC Johnson’s two utility-scale wind turbines that are now supplying electricity to its Waxdale production facility. The two turbines were formally commissioned at the plant in a ceremony this morning.

In recognition of forward-looking customer generators, like SC Johnson, and the businesses that serve them, RENEW will present awards at its January 11, 2013, Energy Policy Summit. The event will be held at the University of Wisconsin’s Pyle Center.

Called Powering Positive Action, RENEW’s summit will focus on strategies for expanding Wisconsin’s renewable energy marketplace for businesses and customers.

“Customer generators like SC Johnson have become the engines for clean energy development. The benefits of these investments don’t just flow to the installation owners, rather all of us gain from their contribution to a stronger economy and cleaner environment. For each of these reasons, they deserve recognition as well as our appreciation,” said Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide renewable energy advocacy organization.

“Wisconsin is fortunate to have such innovative and conscientious employers setting examples for others to embrace,” said Vickerman.

“The Summit will help Wisconsin decision-makers decide on a productive mix of policies to sustain further growth in the clean energy marketplace.”
END
Read the news release from SC Johnson.

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Radio show yesterday is now on Blog Talk Radio 24/7

We hope you listened yesterday but, if not, here's the link:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/renewable-now/2012/12/19/topic-coming-soon

We think you will be stunned by what you hear on the first part of the show.

Here's some info on the guest who appeared:  

We  covered gas safety with special guest Bob Ackley of Gas Safety, Inc. He’ll explain how there are natural gas leaks in many places and the  environmental  impacts this hazard brings .

We’ll also take a look at Rhode Island’s Goodwill Industries and learn about their job training program which involves recycling and rebuilding electronics.

Also, take a look at this grid from Terra Pass on Scope 3 emissions:

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Resistant MRSA “Super bug” Wound Possibly healed with Honey

We had a great talk today on our radio show--which we pre-recorded and will run over WARL and Blog Talk Radio next Weds, the day after Christmas, and this article is one of the remarkable things we discovered during our interview with Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, PhD

Professor Emerita of Anthropology & Joint Doctoral Program in Education,
Rhode Island College
Adjunct Professor of African Studies at Naval War College, Newport
Editor, Sudan Studies Association Bulletin
Secretary and Newsletter Editor, RI Beekeepers' Association
cfluehr@ric.edu

Make sure you listen next Weds and any day thereafter to my interview with Carolyn and my co-host today, Jim Murphy.

In the meantime we are happy to share this story and pretty amazing side of honey:  

"Anecdotal reports of honey healing anti-bacterial resistant wounds abound in beekeeping circles. A recent case was brought to my attention by a local tradesman who was working in New York city on a project and suffered an in-jury to his wrist that worsened into an abscessed open wound that required hospitalization. Hospitalized for two days the wound failed to respond to antibiotic and anti-bacterial treatment and it was feared that the infection was a case of MRSA, a highly contagious and resistant new bacteria. MRSA, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, is a new “superbug” that is re-sponsible for an estimated 19,000 deaths in the US and 368,000 hospitalizations per year. MRSA can be twice as deadly when compared with ordinary staph infections. MRSA is proving to be multi-drug resistant to a growing number of antibiotics in the penicillin and erythromycin categories and it is a growing problem in hospitals, prisons, schools, and nursing homes where patients with open wounds and weakened im-mune systems are at greater risk of infection. Some can be treated with so-called last re-sort antibiotics, but others prove non-responsive"

There's more and we'll post it soon.

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Today's radio show on WARL 1320 and Blog Talk Radio

Is going to cover a lot of ground.  The first part of the show--which runs live, 12-1p, EST, every Weds, will feature Jack Gregg, my co-host from Boston and this is what we are talking about:

"My guest for Renewable Now on Wednesday, Dec. 19 will be Bob Ackley of Gas Safety Inc. (www.gassafetyusa.com).  He is committed to the safe transmission and use of natural gas and propane. Natural gas leaks can be an explosion hazard as well as an environmental hazard that can threaten your health and environment. He has studies that show Natural gas leaks emanating from distribution piping systems are causing millions of dollars of damage to lawns, shrubs and trees. He has instruments that have the ability to detect as little as 10 parts per million of natural gas or propane. Recent studies have been published for the Boston ( http://www.bu.edu/energy/2012/11/26/study-details-natural-gas-leaks-in-boston/ ) and other states towns and cities.

 

BU and Gas Safety Inc did the testing and maping for the Boston report."

The second part is a Christmas special as we bring in Goodwill Industries to talk about their amazing, feel-good stories about job training, putting people back to work, how those people, amongst other skills, are learning how to recycle and rebuild electronics, and we'll find out more about how their e-waste efforts have helped clean up RI.

Feel free to contact us through Twitter and Facebook if you'd like to ask a question and make a comment.

We are the business side of green.

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Banning wind...are you in favor?

Eco RI News had a good story this week on Newport RI's recent ban on turbines (Ironically, we filmed some great shows there last week, studying tourism there and in RI, ocean management and the city's efforts to keep the local economy throttled up while implementing changes that they hope will take the burden off their water, air and infrastructure.  Those shows will start to air in Jan).  Local ordinances, like this one, are getting more common and more restrictive.  Wind can be a very efficient source of clean energy but, soon, there will be no where left to place turbines.

We believe strongly in preservation.  Newport has done a very good job of building much of their economy around its great history, architecture, historic neighborhoods and sites.  However, we don't think preservation should come at the expense of embracing new technology and moving the city, its businesses and citizens into alternative energy and reduced emissions.  We think their action here is short sighted and politically driven.

Here's the link:   http://www.ecori.org/front-page-journal/2012/12/14/newport-severely-restricts-turbine-placement.html

Part of the story:

Newport Severely Restricts Turbine Placement

By KYLE HENCE/ecoRI News contributor

NEWPORT — The City Council has voted to ban wind turbines from most of the city. With the recent approval of the wind turbine ordinance, out of 7,872 city lots, commercial-scale wind turbines — between 10 and 100 kilowatts and a maximum of 80 feet high — are permitted on 52 lots, and residential-scale turbines — less than 10 kilowatts and a maximum of 50 feet high — are permitted on 627.

In total there are 679 plots where the ordinance would allow a wind turbine to be installed to produce electricity. However, the ordinance prohibits turbines of any kind or size on 91 percent of city lots, regardless of plot size or energy generating potential. A 100 percent moratorium was in place up until the Dec. 12 passage of the city’s new wind ordinance.

As delineated in the language of the ordinance, property owners are prohibited from erecting small wind turbines anywhere in the city’s historic sections, including the entire southern portion of Newport defined by Ocean Drive.

In an April 9 letter to the City Council, James Dring, the Planning Board chairman, wrote, “The Planning Board regards the local Historic District as an inappropriate location for wind turbines unless the subject property has greater than 40,000 square feet of land areas.” The council, however, ultimately elected to impose a more restrictive ordinance than thatoriginally drafted by the Planning Board.

“It’s extremely restrictive,” said Newport Energy & Environment Commission member Doug Sabetti prior to this week’s vote. “It should be allowed in the historic districts with special use permits.”

During the discussion period opened by Mayor Henry Winthrop, council member Justin McLaughlin defined his guiding philosophy of governance as one in which he endeavored to legislate “for the people” rather than “to the people."

“This just seems overly restrictive to me,” he said, explaining his feeling that people should be free to do what they want with their own property as long as safety and related concerns are addressed...

What if a developer or a neighborhood wanted to do microgrid?

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