Solving the Green Building Policy Puzzle

Welcome to another extremely busy season for state legislative activity. If you haven’t started paying attention, the action in most states is in high gear, as most state legislatures meet in the first quarter of the year. Some states are even finishing their 2011 sessions and are already closing their doors until next time around.…

The Greening of Professional Sports

You’re looking above at AT&T Park, where the World Series champion San Francisco Giants play. It’s one of the greenest stadiums in the country, writes Amanda Little in Forbes: “[The Giants’] stadium, AT&T Park, which accommodates about 45,000 fans, runs its scoreboard on solar power, recycles and composts nearly 50 percent of its waste, sources eco-friendly…

Red Robin Slices Energy Costs With LED Retrofits

Three years ago, lighting manufacturer Eco-story supplied corporate Red Robin restaurants with 10,000 LED lamps, enabling the company to save $600,000 in electricity costs a year. This past February, the Ansara Restaurant Group Inc., a Red Robin franchisee, worked with Eco-story to install 3,500 LED lamps in its 22 restaurants and now expects to save more than $117,000…

Assembly Ok’s Bill Requiring More Solar, Wind Power

A bill that would require a third of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources such as the sun and the wind is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown after passage Tuesday.The governor supports the concept. “He’ll consider the bill closely when it reaches his desk,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said. The bill passed the Assembly by…

Big Desert Solar Farm Means Big Factory in S.D.

When negotiating with the developer of a big Imperial Valleysolar farm, San Diego Gas & Electricdidn’t just want green power. It also asked for local jobs.Specifically, it said the cutting-edge solar panels to be used in the project should be made in San Diego. Thursday, SDG&E announced a solar farm it now has under contract…

Crazy Weather: How it’s linked to global Warming

The story leading up to the Super Bowl was whether it would happen at all. For the previous week, Dallas, along with the rest of the Midwest and Northeast, had been buried in a blizzard that dumped record amounts of snow, closing airports, clogging highways and causing rolling power blackouts. Commentators wondered sarcastically about what…

Breakthrough in Biofuels from UCLA Research Team

Researchers in the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) celebrated another advance in the next generation of biofuels: using bacteria to covert plant matter into isobutanol to be used in car engines at a higher grade than ethanol or alcohol. Under James Liao of UCLA, isobutanol has been produced directly from cellulose for the…

U.S. Senate Rejects Assault on Public Health and Environment

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Senate today rejected a House-passed funding bill that included sweeping attacks on many of the nation’s core environmental and public health programs. The bill—H.R. 1, summarized below—would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from cleaning up a variety of dangerous pollutants, saving consumers billions of dollars annually at the gas pump through…

Say Goodbye to Your Drafty Fireplace, and Hello to Energy Efficient Warmth with Morso Wood Stoves

Morso Energy Efficient Wood Stoves has spent 157-years creating timeless, handcrafted Scandinavian-designed wood stoves and fireplace inserts that fuse inspired design with advanced engineering. Nothing less than the best, will work in your home. “Morso now offers direct ordering in Texas,” said US President Craig Shankster. “When you vist Morsona.com click on  Find a Dealer…