A new white paper released by NRDC today describes how California restored its energy efficiency leadership by enacting smart policies over the last decade. These energy efficiency programs provide enormous economic and environmental benefits to the state.
Sick of hearing about miles per gallon? How about espresso shots per mile?
That's how the makers of the Carpuccino, a refurbished 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco that runs on coffee grounds, measure efficiency. Fifty six shots to the mile is what they're getting at the moment. That's not efficient enough to be affordable, but it is another transportation alternative that could bloom into something bigger.
Clean coal, eh? No such thing. The stuff is dirty from the cradle to the grave. Just consider coal ash. Over 130 million tons of this so-called coal combustion waste -- containing nearly 100,000 tons of toxic metals -- is produced every year, as a byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity at hundreds of U.S. power plants.
Gaze out across a New York dairy farm, a Kansas wheat spread or a field of tomatoes in California's Salinas Valley, and you might think of the folks who grow America's food as natural born environmentalists.
Last week I blogged about the event NRDC hosted with James Cameron and Elvis Mitchell at Fox Studios to bring attention to the environmental message behind the highest-grossing movie in history, Avatar. We now have video clips on the event online.
