Prepare for Earth Day:
1.Eat local food.
2.Get your sneakers ready.
3.Pump up your bicycle tires.

Renewable energy is once again (since the 70s) part of the national energy agenda in a substantive way. There are a multitude of homeowner options from simple conservation to selling your excess renewable power back to the grid. Businesses can purchase from renewable sources, or even save money and “go green” like Google or Sierra Nevada Brewing.

While the ethanol biofuels you purchase today at the pump likely use more carbon that straight diesel or gas, and steal acres from food production …read more of Eat Local and Walk/Ride for 1 day here

While hydrogen based fuel cells remain in the popular imagination as a potential technical fix to solve the climate change problem, there exists a slew of hydrocarbon based fuel cells already in action.

So should we invest in and support these market ready energy sources? Even if they need to be “filled up” with natural gas, methane, or ethanol — knowing they will emit greenhouse gasses?

For stationary applications this may actually make sense. As electricity sources diversify and the old fashioned grid (de)evolves, institutions, hospitals, hotels, and factories may have several sources of electricity. …read more of A case of IPA and a quick charge for my Prius? here

Navigating the buzz surrounding fuel cell technology is difficult. There are fuel cell power plants that produce megawatts of electricity for hotels, campuses, factories, and even fuel cells that feed off the emissions of waste water treatment plants. Then of course there are the fuel cell prototypes in cars, boats, submarines, and now even motorcycles.

Is this technology clean, green, and able to step up to help mitigate our contributions to climate change?

Fuel cells were first conceived and developed in the 19th century but were overshadowed by their simpler and more practical cousin, the battery. In the last two centuries there have been over 20 distinct varieties of fuel cell technologies. Fuel cells rely on a reactant fuel which often either hydrogen or a hydrocarbon. The hydrogen reactant emits water or water vapor and heat. The hydrocarbon reactant fuel emits mainly carbon dioxide and water or water vapor and heat. …read more of Are Fuel Cells “Green”? here

Watching TV lately there are mixed messages regarding the very abundant and cheap non-renewable resource, coal. Coal, originally plant matter, is geologically stored carbon. This formerly atmosphere-biosphere carbon was stored hundreds of millions of years ago in geologic sediment.

One set of TV commercials would have the viewers believe that coal is now pollution free and climate change friendly. The other camp of commercials tries to cleverly debunk that claim.

A few facts about coal and the way we use it are needed …read more of Clean Coal Myths here

Once a river system has a proper series of dams to harness electricity, and agricultural lands are lost, people displaced, and ecological processes permanently disrupted, the electricity generated will be substantial, uninterrupted, and have few direct emissions.

Hydroelectric power will likely not grow significantly in the US as most of our major rivers have dams in place. Additional electricity may come from upgrades and retrofits to existing facilities. New hydroelectric projects are also unlikely due to the massive costs construction, federal taking of property, and the lack of public support. In the Northwest,millions are spent to reverse the damage to the salmon runs caused by the many dams.Negative effects to wildlife and their habitat …read more of Future of Hydroelectric here