Energy Efficiency

I'm only human, of flesh and blood I'm made

Making buildings more efficient: It helps to understand human behavior 0
Posted 45 minutes ago If I told you how much energy your neighbors use on average, and whether you fell above or below that average, would that induce you to save more energy? What if, depending on whether you came in above or below average, you got an emoticon on your energy bill? Say, a smiley face if you save more energy than they do, a frowny face if less. Sounds silly, right? We're all rational people here. We do things for considered reasons, not some cartoon face! Except not so much.
REC-ing the Planet

Why buying cheap energy certificates worsens climate change 5
Posted 4 hours, 57 minutes ago Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are a powerful mechanism for financing renewable energy projects. But they don't come cheap. Or, rather, anyone offering to sell you a REC on the cheap is selling you a lot of hot air.
Toward a more perfect invisible hand

Making buildings more efficient: rationalizing retrofit markets 5
Posted 6 days, 14 hours ago 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 1 week ago 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, 2 days ago 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 1
Posted 1 week, 3 days 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.
If PACE can make it in New York, PACE can make in anywhere

New York passes clean energy financing bill 0
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago
Intermittency and you

Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power? 164
Posted 3 weeks ago On Friday, Matt Yglesias had a post making the point that only socialist state control seems capable of creating a robust nuclear power industry. It's a valid point -- the only countries building nuke plants these days are the ones where governments are making the decisions. David Frum replied with a post containing a series of wildly overbroad assertions ranging from false to highly misleading, with no evidence or links to support them. (Nuclear power does impressive things to conservatives' error-to-word ratios.) Matt replied, and in the course of doing so let this drop: "That said, obviously you need a certain amount electricity that can be relied upon irrespective of how windy it is or whether the sun is shining. So I’d happily see the nuclear share of the pie grow at the expense of coal and oil as the provider of that baseload electricity." This notion has really grabbed the public imagination and been embraced as conventional wisdom: that the grid can only incorporate a limited amount of renewable energy, thus we need coal and nuclear power plants for baseload electricity. Clean energy skeptics chant the word "baseload" like a talisman. There's far less to the claim than meets the eye, though.
More than just a bright idea

New Agreement on Standards for Outdoor Lights Announced 0
Posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago
Nearly 200 organizations and companies urge adoption of key energy-efficiency provision 0
Posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago
How to Actually Solve Climate Change, Part Whatever

Energy Trust and the Big Hope 13
Posted 1 month ago 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 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.
How bright is Energy Star?

New reports show successes and failures of Energy Star 0
Posted 1 month ago The media has been taking the Department of Energy to task over a recently released audit by the Inspector General which highlighted some well known shortcomings in the Energy Star program. The new DOE has vowed to take care of these problems and they are addressing the major issues and are moving forward.
Kerry smacks down Inhofe’s lies about the cost of climate policy 1
Posted 1 month ago At today's hearing on the Kerry-Boxer bill, Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla.) was spouting the usual lies about the high cost of the policy. Kerry responded:
Listen to the coal guy!

Why it’s better to invest in efficiency than to hold electricity rates down 9
Posted 1 month ago A utility representative, of all people, recognizes the important truth that it is better to give consumers efficiency than to give them cheaper electricity.
One step forward, several back

The Kerry-Boxer bill is not “more ambitious” than Waxman-Markey 2
Posted 1 month ago I'm sure Steve Mufson and Juliet Eilperin didn't choose the headline, but whoever did, I think it's a real mistake to refer to the Kerry-Boxer bill as "a bit more ambitious" than its Waxman-Markey counterpart in the House. This became conventional wisdom almost immediately, but it seems to me both wrong and pernicious -- the more Kerry-Boxer is seen as a leftward move from the House bill, the more senators who want to be seen as moderate will want to be seen hacking it down.
Interns saving the world

Climate Corps interns save Fortune 500 firms $54 million 4
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago 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.
Yeah, we said billion

A $4 billion push to make affordable housing green 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Today brings news of a major investment in making affordable housing greener, and an ambitious call for an even bigger national conversion. Find out who's behind it.
Stripping for a cause

Weatherization will save us all 6
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Despite its terrible name, Joe Biden's Middle Class Task Force has some solid ideas on saving energy and money. Find out what innovations are coming to your neighborhood.
DOE and EPA Agree to Make a Brighter Energy Star 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago