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A while back I wrote about the benefits – including water protection and potential energy savings - of recycling human waste for use as composting material.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California - which is the largest supplier of drinking water in the United States and one of California's largest energy consumers - has just adopted new energy management policies. These policies will help the district move forward on programs, projects and initiatives for reducing the rising costs of electricity, implementing renewable energy projects and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change.
The National Water Quality Monitoring Council has posted presentations from their biennial conference. The presentations are not exclusively Western, but because the conference was held in Denver you'll find many Western-focused presentations (as well as plenty of topics of broader applicability).
Thursday has past and another edition of The Climate Post is available. Have you ever heard of the Kochtopus? Keep reading below to learn, among many other things, about how the oil and gas industry out-spent environmental groups by a factor of 8:1 in the run-up to the defeat of the climate bill in the U.S. Senate, and why upholding AB32 – California’s Kyoto-style emissions standards that is coming under attack by the usual suspects – is a critical step toward addressing climate change at the national level.
It looks like solar developers are finally realizing the value of water. A large-scale concentrating solar thermal plant proposed in Kern County, California has been approved by California regulators after developers agreed to cool the plant with reclaimed water that will be piped in from a neighboring community.
Thanks to a readers suggestion, I just stumbled across some great articles featured on Circle Of Blue Waternews which address our nations current energy supply strategies, developmental trends, and energy's dependence on water.
Pennsylvania is one of the largest coal producing states in the country, with more than 250 mines churning out 65,414,000 short tons of coal per year, or more than 130 billion pounds of the country’s dirtiest source of energy. A report sponsored by the Citizens Coal Council and released last month provides an in-depth look at regulatory practices in Pennsylvania and finds that laws protecting water supplies from underground coal mining, specifically longwall mining, are inadequate and/or poorly enforced.
What is my favorite thing about Thursday's? Is it: A) It's my last day of the workweek. B) The Climate Post comes out. or C) Two Fillet-o-Fish sandwiches for two bucks at McDonald's down the street from my house. Read on for the answer.
It’s bad enough that climate legislation is dead in the Senate at a time when we are seeing clear signs of human-caused global warming all over the world. To make matters worse, in the absence of climate legislation, more than 30 traditional coal-fired power plants have been built in the United States since 2008 or are under construction, signaling that coal will continue to pollute our water and warm our atmosphere for decades to come.
An oft-cited criticism of clean, low-water using energy technologies such as wind and photovoltaic solar is that they generate energy intermittently and can overload power grids with electricity at times when nobody needs it. The Bonneville Power Administration is exploring one potential solution to this problem: storing surplus power in water heaters.
As town's across the country adopt low impact development and green infrastructure strategies to manage their stormwater, many are finding that the benefits of these approaches go far beyond clean water. A report produced by the Bureau of Environmental Services in Portland, OR has quantified some of these benefits, including the direct energy savings resulting from the city's innovative Grey to Green Initiative, illustrating the significant energy and greenhouse gas emissions reductions that can be achieved through low impact development.
A solar project proposed in California’s San Joaquin Valley has been embraced by environmentalists and farmers alike, making the project a potential model for how to address the political, environmental and financial challenges associated with large-scale solar development.
The Pacific Institute has just released an awesome new public outreach and education tool called the WECalc – Your Home Water, Energy and Climate Calculator. The user-friendly WECalc allows anybody to quantify their personal or household’s water use and its associated energy and greenhouse gas emissions, then provides specific tips based on your water use habits.
On a slow Saturday night, I was delighted to find a new piece of writing on the Clean Water Act from Utah’s own Robert Adler on Legal Theory Blog. Professor Adler (of the University of Utah) is one of the big thinkers on the Clean Water Act, and this piece is an interesting demonstration of his on-going and interesting relationship with the Act.
