Environmental

New York will spend $100 million to help trim data center energy waste

From Green Right Now Reports

Image: NYSERDA

New York State’s Industrial and Process Efficiency program will provide over $100 million over the next two years to help data centers and manufacturers control energy costs and improve competitiveness, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced this week.

Funding will go to energy studies and capital improvements designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce waste.

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Governors want strong wind policy to build green jobs and energy security

From Green Right Now Reports

Image: Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

While there is no shortage of hot air swirling around various plans to harness wind energy to power our homes and businesses, a group of United States governors has hammered out a plan and is ready to take it all the way to the top.

On Tuesday, Iowa Governor Chet Culver and Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri released Great Expectations: U.S. Wind Energy Development, the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition’s 2010 Recommendations. Culver and Carcieri are the chair and vice chair of the 29-state organization, which is attempting to shape a national policy to make wind power both viable and cost-effective.

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Who are the world’s biggest polluters? Carnegie Institution takes a different look

Image: Carnegie Institution for Science

From Green Right Now Reports

Assessments of which nations are the world’s biggest polluters can be deceiving. A study by the Carnegie Institution for Science has determined that over a third of carbon dioxide emissions stemming from the consumption of goods and services in developed countries are actually released outside their borders.

For instance, if Americans buy goods produced in China, they are effectively “outsourcing” the carbon footprint while not technically doing the polluting on home soil.

According to the study, about 2.5 tons of carbon per person are consumed in the U.S. but produced elsewhere. Europeans, on average, top four tons per person.

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We’re not in Kansas anymore, climate-wise

From Green Right Now Reports

New research by U.S. environmental and geo-science academicians shows a distinct warming trend in the nation’s breadbasket over the last two centuries.

The scientists drew that conclusion after examining 65,987 weather records, recording the daily mean temperatures since 1828. Those weather observations, made by doctors in pioneer forts and later Weather Bureau officials, helped Dorian J. Burnette and David Stahle of the University of Arkansas, with the help of geographer Cary Mock of the University of South Carolina, reconstruct the climate of Manhattan, Kansas, in the center of the nation. The scientists’ findings are published in the March 15 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Climate.

What they found was that 19th century temperatures were notably cooler than those in the 20th Century and the first decade of the 21st Century.

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NYU releases carbon reduction plan

From Green Right Now Reports

New York University released its Climate Action Plan (CAP) today, which outlines the first steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.

The plan was developed after the university took a greenhouse gas inventory, and it outlines the projects and methods it will use to reduce or offsets its emissions.

NYU officials credited both Mayor Bloomberg’s PlanNYC Climate Challenge and the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) for initiating and helping shape its actions. The school is a signor of the ACUPCC .

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Research firm forecasts microgrid boom

From Green Right Now Reports

Image: Pike Research

With Americans focusing more and more on streamlining their energy consumption and reducing costs, microgrids may become an increasing part of the solution. Smart integration that can allow communities, companies or institutions to operate “off the grid” is not only attractive, but is rapidly becoming a genuine alternative.

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Greener cars for 2010: Here are 11 to watch

Chevy Volt. Photo: Green Right Now

The electric car is almost here. Hybrids abound. Diesel has cleaned up its act. Even conventional internal combustion engines can be tweaked to do a bit less harm to the environment.

A brighter, cleaner future is a mantra at the auto shows this year. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and a different sort of impression emerges: Change may be coming to the automobile industry, but progress is slow — even grudging — and the message can be murky.

Chevy has been hyping the much-discussed Volt, for example. The manufacturer’s new electric car – due later this year – can go up to 40 miles on a single charge before a gasoline engine kicks in to keep passengers from becoming stranded.

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Google Maps adds bike routes

From Green Right Now Reports

If you’re one of the 57 million Americans who ride a bike, mapping your daily commute, exploring new trails, and planning recreational rides should be easier with a new online tool from Google, which has added biking directions in the U.S. to Google Maps.

Google says the feature, announced at this week’s National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C.,  has been the most requested addition for Google Maps. The service includes step-by-step bicycling directions, bike trails outlined directly on the map and a new “bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads.

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Zipcar gets certified for San Francisco

From Green Right Now Reports

Looking to rent an apartment? Make sure it has all the amenities you’ll need: laundry facilities, exercise room — and a car for occasional long-range errands.

In San Francisco, they are not leaving that last one to chance. The Planning Department mandates that for every 50 to 200 units in a new residential building, at least one space must be made available for a car sharing vehicle.

The idea is that parking for an apartment complex shouldn’t shut out, but should encourage, those who use car sharing. And if the space has got a car at the ready — all the better.

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First appliance recycling center opens in Hatfield, Penn.

From Green Right Now Reports

PECO, FirstEnergy and PPL Utilities are working together on an environmental project that will help Pennsylvania residents lower their energy usage — and get rid of clunker appliances.

The energy and utility companies announced today that they have set up an appliance recycling center at JACO Environmental Inc. in Hatfield where they will turn in old, energy-gobbling refrigerators or freezers or inefficient, but working window air conditioning units.

The companies will collect the outdated appliances from customers, who will get paid — $35 for a junker refrigerator, and $25 for an old AC unit — and haul it away for free. About 80 percent of Pennsylvania’s residents are served by these utilities and will qualify to participate.

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