Photo: Nate Steiner

California-based consumer advocacy group The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is mad as hell, and they aren’t going to take it any more.  They’ve put up a blog, Oil Watchdog, to help us motorists stay on top of oil issues that affect how much we bleed - er, pay - at the pump.

Starting off with a bang, the group posted a letter it sent to to David O’Reilly, Chevron Corp.’s chief executive, requesting that the company remove what the group describes as “contract barriers that prevent gasoline dealers from selling renewable motor fuels.” The group accuses the giant oil company of preventing the sale of renewable fuels at its gas stations “even as it boasts of investing in a new biodiesel plant.”

“Let the sunshine, the sunshine in….”

New federal legislation that would increase consumers’ solar access is in the works, lawmakers said today.

The Solar Opportunity and Local Access Rights (SOLAR) Act would improve net metering and interconnection standards, prohibit homeowners associations from restricting access to solar, reduce local permit fees, and establish a center for advanced solar research is in the works, legislators said.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) joined Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) today at a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce the new proposed legislation seeking to give fair treatment to consumers seeking access to solar power.

Sen. Robert Menendez is on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), is on the House Rules Committee and Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Good luck to you all, merry (and sunny) gentlemen!

This is a story of a public utility with a heart - and two wild peregrine falcons, and a bunch o’ alternative energy programs, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever find yourself cowering in the corner in the fetal position trying to ward off all those environmental puns - “Wind energy sweeps the state,” “Solar power shines,” and so forth? Well, it’s not my fault that Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla “painted a bright future for renewables” at the 3rd Annual National 25x’25 Renewable Energy Summit in Washington, D.C., this week.

The summit, whose name looks like a typo (at least it’s not an energy pun), presented a pro-renewable speech from Schweitzer. Montana’s governor, a leading proponent of the role of states in the development of renewable resources, cited the growth of wind power in his own state as an example of the means of breaking a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, noting that 10 percent of Montana’s electricity now comes from wind power. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of us who want to wash that coal (and the dust and emissions) right outta our hair, here’s some news: Rainforest Action Network ran an ad in the New York Times pressuring Wall Street’s leading banks to stop funding new coal plants.

The ad read: “There are over 150 new coal-burning power plants currently on the drawing board. Let’s keep them there.” According to the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the projected total cost for building these greenhouse gas-intensive power plants is estimated at well over $125 billion, Rainforest Action Network said. Read the rest of this entry »

Even as we speak, 10.5 million alternative fuel autos are blazing down the nation’s roads, according to sales data from an automotive source released today in honor of National Alternative Fuel Autos Week.

Sales data from 2006 released today by R.L. Polk and Co. say 10.5 million alternative fuel autos are on the road in the U.S. today. The Polk sales figures also reveal that an unprecedented 1.5 million Alternative Fuel Autos were sold in 2006, surpassing automakers’ sales expectations by 50 percent.

Currently, manufacturers are offering 60 models of Alternative Fuel Automobiles for sale including hybrid electric, ethanol-capable E-85 and clean diesel, up from just 12 models for sale in 2000, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.<!–more–>

 “There are 10.5 million Alternative Fuel Autos on the roads and highways of every state across the country. We are happy to see that consumers are, in fact, discovering the alternatives that are available to them on dealership lots nationwide,” said Dave McCurdy, president of the alliance.

“We believe that the numbers of Alternative Fuel Autos on the roads continue to rise because consumers can choose from a variety of autos that reduce fuel use while still providing the utility, safety, performance and comfort they seek.” 

 In addition to the 60 Alternative Fuel Autos currently being offered, auto engineers are working to include a diverse range of highly fuel-efficient technologies in new vehicles. Today, every model for sale is available with some kind of fuel-efficient technology, such as fuel injectors, four-cylinder engines, variable valve timing, continuously variable transmissions, cylinder deactivation and more.

An interesting tale of sustainability: The campus of the University of California, Davis is lined with more than 1,500 olive trees.

That sounds good, yes? But for years, the greasy residue of the fallen olives was a nuisance to the school’s Grounds Division, causing bicycle accidents and necessitating expensive cleanups.

After a particularly messy accident, Grounds Manager Sal Genito noticed that the scene had the overwhelming scent of olive oil. And that’s when the compact fluorescent lamp went on, so to speak.

An inspiration of how to save money (and avoid lawsuits) struck. Genito enlisted an olive oil expert to help devise a plan to press and blend these olives into a marketable product.

The olive oil was a big hit, both on campus and in competitions: three of the school’s four varieties took gold medal honors at the Los Angeles County fair, the largest olive oil competition in the nation.

On March 10, the UC Davis Grounds Division, which runs the picking, pressing and bottling operation, snagged the 2006 California Parks and Recreation Society Award of Excellence in the category of Operations and Maintenance. How ’bout them apples - er, olives!

All proceeds from olive oil sales go to paying off the cost of the operations; the remaining cash goes to funding research on campus that helps the olive oil industry find better methods to harvest, produce and dispose of waste products. The lesson: the next time you’re confronted with an environmental problem, use your creativity to get out of the pits. (Photo: wollombi)

 Photo: slava

You’ve probably heard of “carbon offsets” or “carbon neutral” practices - sort of like indulgences for the environment. They evolved as a way to possibly curb emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. To create a carbon offset, a company calculates how much carbon dioxide your car or whatever gives off and how much projects like growing trees would reduce emissions by an equivalent amount somewhere else in the world. Then you pull out your credit card and pay for those projects and bingo! You’ve atoned for your sins.

Or have you? Critics of these programs say offsetting gives the mistaken impression that you can keep on polluting or that such individual efforts can solve global warming, when much more fundamental change is needed.

 As the controversy rages on, some pranksters have come up with CheatNeutral, a tongue-in-cheek site that supposedly offers infidelity offsets. “When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere. Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience,” the homepage says.

 Photo: Itchick

The average Pacific Gas and Electric residential customer will pay $17.20 less for natural gas in March compared with February, the Northern California utility said Thursday. Natural gas prices are expected to drop 18 percent from last month, PG&E said. This is also an 11 percent drop from last year, when it was a lot colder. Now we’re jumping up and down for joy instead of doing so to stay warm.