THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for August, 2010

Conventional diesel tugboats are significant sources of pollution in the world’s seaports, but that is on the verge of change. The Foss Maritime Company is adding a second energy efficient hybrid tugboat to its Southern California fleet. Its first hybrid vessel, the Carolyn Dorothy, was launched in 2009 and at the time it was believed to be the first and only tugboat of its kind in the world.

The new vessel is actually a retrofit of an existing tugboat, for which the California Air Resources Board chipped in a grant of $1 million.  It’s just a small part of a major EPA program to reduce pollution in seaport areas all along the U.S. coastlines, which also includes efforts to cut emissions from trucks at seaports.

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Now that the age of newspeak is firmly upon us, it’s not suprising that an organization with a seemingly straightforward name like “Center for Consumer Freedom” is not a consumer protection group.  CCF  is a lobbying group that has, among other things, worked for the tobacco industry to thwart smoking bans. Its latest target is the Environmental Working Group, and the subject is EWG’s recent report involving the use of vitamin A in sunscreens.

According to SourceWatch, CCF’ usually positions itself as an authority on an issue and then undermines the credibility of scientific research on that topic.  They’ve used this approach to attack research on issues ranging from obesity and mercury poisoning to pharmaceuticals and pesticides, and the vitamin A issue looks like a textbook case of their methodology.

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One of the largest orchards in Massachusetts has just cut its utility bill 80% with a $1.1 million 220 KW solar power plant. The state of Massachusetts helped Carlson Orchards with grants totaling $595,000 to help in the installation of the 1,050 solar photovoltaic panels.

Massachusetts earns money to invest in renewable energy with cap and trade auctions as a participating member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

RGGI  is a 10-state cap and trade program that caps emissions from 233 power plants from Maine to Maryland. It has generated $433 million for renewable investments in the 10 participating states.

RGGI earnings help Massachusetts reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by taking big energy users like the orchard off the dirty fossil grid. So far Massachusetts has earned $106 million in RGGI auctions.

But getting the grant wasn’t easy. It took a professional “green” project manager eight months of researching and fulfilling the arduous grant application process required. (more…)

As Russia reels under broiling temperatures completely outside the range of its experience, a widely quoted Russian political scientist is voicing the suspicion that the regional climate change is the deliberate work of the US, according to Radio Free Europe.

His idea is that the US is secretly trying to kill Russians and wipe out their crops with “climate-change weapons.”

Faced with soaring temperatures and the resulting droughts, crop failures, heat stroke deaths and wildfires, the deputy director of the Strategic Culture Foundation is suggesting that it had to have been deliberate. This had to have been an act of war, perpetrated by an enemy. (more…)

Using more buses, trains, and other forms of mass transit is a great way to address global climate change, air pollution, water pollution, and traffic congestion.

In the US, there is a quite a mass transit stigma, unfortunately. But there are a lot of efforts at making mass transit more comfortable, more attractive, and even sexy. From high-speed rail to modern streetcar systems to bus rapid transit to wi-fi on transit, there are a lot of cool things going on.

One more way to encourage more mass transit and facilitate its use is by creating super sweet and useful transit centers. San Francisco is on the road (or, we might change that phrase to “on a train”) to creating just such a transit center. Its upcoming Transbay Transit Center will perhaps be the sexiest transit center in the nation.

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