Placemaking | Grist

Toward a more perfect invisible hand

Making buildings more efficient: rationalizing retrofit markets 5
Posted 4 days, 5 hours ago By David Roberts As I said in my last post, taking energy efficiency in buildings seriously means expanding our policy horizons beyond the blunt tool of raising energy prices. We have to think in creative ways about how to remove market and behavioral failures that inhibit cost-effective responses to today's energy prices. How can we make efficiency markets more rational and robust? What follows is not intended to be comprehensive, just to call out some of the bigger challenges and a few interesting attempts to overcome them. There are folks out there who know much more about this than me -- I hope they'll comment or email me with things to add.
Of price and men

Making buildings more efficient: looking beyond price 5
Posted 5 days, 3 hours ago By David Roberts The market for building efficiency is snarled with market and behavioral failures that prevent price signals from getting translated into action. Instead of merely raising prices further, policymakers ought to look into ways to correct some of those failures.
Jobs we can believe in

Merkley wants Senate jobs bill to help finance building efficiency retrofits 5
Posted 1 week ago By David Roberts Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with the chairs of six committees that might have some hand in developing the clean energy bill. The question at hand was whether the bill should be pushed back in favor of a short-term focus on finance reform, jobs, and the deficit. Though John Kerry argued vigorously that the clean energy is a jobs bill that won't grow the deficit, it looks like he lost out and there will be some kind of standalone jobs bill in the interim. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is now advocating that any jobs bill include support for building retrofits to create jobs and reduce energy bills.
They Nailed It

Slideshow: Reinventing the JP Green House 0
Posted 1 week ago By Andrée Zaleska, Ken Ward Ken Ward and Andrée Zaleska are turning an old Boston store into a new model of eco-living -- here's a glimpse at the work underway.
The night I slept with Jim Hansen 15
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago By Ken Ward College students in Massachusetts got tired of letting climate worries keep them up all night. Now they're sleeping soundly -- in the middle of Boston Common.
How to Actually Solve Climate Change, Part Whatever

Energy Trust and the Big Hope 13
Posted 4 weeks, 1 day ago By Auden Schendler One glimmer of hope in the campaign against climate change is called Energy Trust, an organization in Oregon that, if widely copied, would move us well on the way to solving the problem.
Green Jobs Now

Weatherizing Portland 0
Posted 1 month ago By Andrea Buffa Clean Energy Works Portland is a groundbreaking new program that enables Portland residents to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and pay for the improvements over time through their utility bills.
Mass. religious, environmental leaders beseech Obama to take action

WWLD: What Would Lincoln Do? 2
Posted 1 month ago By Ken Ward Conjuring images of another world leader faced with a profound moral challenge, Massachusetts religious and environmental leaders call upon Obama to act on climate quickly.
the rhymes they are a-changin'

Eve of Destruction (New Millennium) 5
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago By Ken Ward As a rallying cry for this weekend's Day of Climate Action, veteran activist Ken Ward rewrote a classic tune -- see him perform it with partner Andrée Zaleska here.
Interns saving the world

Climate Corps interns save Fortune 500 firms $54 million 4
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago By Todd Woody MBA students from the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Corps identified energy efficiency measures that will save an estimated $54 million at Dell, eBay and 20 other Fortune 500 companies.