Friday Five: July 11, 2014

It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  After dealing with smoking, leaded fuels and paints, asbestos, and other things harmful to human health, we do not learn how to better predict and manage these things.  Economic value does not tell the whole story...ever.
Pesticide blamed for bee deaths now linked to bird declines
"The researchers found a strong correlation between pesticide concentrations measured in surface freshwater and lower or negative local population growth rates of 14 species of birds since the introduction of the pesticide imidacloprid in the Netherlands in the 1990s, according to a study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature."

The consequences of our dangerous and addictive relationship with energy and chemicals often fall on those at the margins.  If this plant and all the pollution generating industry in this town were located in the posh suburbs of our major cities, we would move more quickly to eliminate them.
Mysterious blast at Chevron plant shakes pollution-weary Texas town
"When the smoke clears from this incident, Kelley and the Port Arthur community will still have other pollution problems on their hands. Besides the pollution cluster that already exists there, and the planned terminus for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, Kelley said the city just took a contract to take in chemical weapons waste from Syria. A few years ago, Kelley was instrumental in stopping tons of waste from Mexico from coming into the city to burned off in a city incinerator."

On a more positive note, the economics of solar continue to improve...
Hendersonville plaza to add solar parking canopies
"The systems at City Square are part of the TVA’s Green Power Providers program, which means TVA will buy 100 percent of the solar electricity generated for 20 years and pay a premium for the first 10 years.
Smith hopes the prominent solar canopies at City Square will spur more solar installations in the community."

...and improve.
Some go solar for savings, not the planet
"A December 2013 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found a premium of roughly $25,000 on homes in California with rooftop solar panels. Ben Hoen, a staff research associate at the lab who co-authored the study, said that figure was market dependent and likely different in other parts of the country. Still, he said 'it is reasonable to assume' that houses in other markets with solar power could fetch a premium."

Anyone looking for the best financial ROI of any major investment should find a company that will replace rigs for major transportation companies.  The ROI over ten years exceeds that of any savings account, money market account, or even the equity market.  It is not the economics or logistics of energy improvements that prevent us from making them happen, it is just the entrenched inertia of a few doomed industries.
Big fuel savings available in new trucks
"The technologies to improve fuel efficiency are cost-effective. For example, a new truck that includes an advanced engine and transmission, new axle design, and improved aerodynamics to the tractor and trailer could save average tractor-trailer owners and drivers about $30,000 per year in fuel. In 2025, these new efficiency technologies would increase truck purchase costs by about $32,000, which is recovered by fuel savings in just 13 months."

Happy Friday!

Friday Five: June 27, 2014

It's not that we do dumb things that screw things up...it's that we do smart, well-intentioned things...

That screw things up.
Everything we know about neonic pesticides is awful
"The pesticides don’t just affect pest species. Most prominently, they affect bees and butterflies, which are poisoned when they gather pollen and nectar. But neonics’ negative impacts go far beyond pollinators. They kill all manner of animals and affect all kinds of ecosystems. They’re giving rise to Silent Spring 2.0."

And then we push it to scale and screw it up even more.
The brutal cost of cheap chicken
"American meat eaters live, for the most part, in happy ignorance of the system that grows animals for slaughter. When that ignorance is interrupted with a bit of information about the meat industry, we typically respond with outrage."

And then we build culture around it so that we hold onto it far longer than is practical.
The death of the American mall
"Dying shopping malls are speckled across the United States, often in middle-class suburbs wrestling with socioeconomic shifts. Some, like Rolling Acres, have already succumbed. Estimates on the share that might close or be repurposed in coming decades range from 15 to 50%. Americans are returning downtown; online shopping is taking a 6% bite out of brick-and-mortar sales; and to many iPhone-clutching, city-dwelling and frequently jobless young people, the culture that spawned satire like Mallrats seems increasingly dated, even cartoonish."

Finally, we do everything we can to try to hold onto it, even when it has never made economic sense. (Although, I will say that two of the points of the article: that there might be a way to produce energy without the damaging waste component, and that nuclear energy has to handle almost all of its waste products...they both have merit.  **Most, because they do not have to restore mined areas to pre-mining condition, and they do not have to account for the impact of the waste heat.**)
Is nuclear power ever coming back?
"According to those in the business of generating nuclear energy, other power producers should have to pay full price for the risks associated with their waste products. The way they see it, they’ve made their plants safer by prohibiting the release of critical, planet-damaging byproducts, and others should too."

I find it heartening when simple, time-tested mechanisms provide a path to a healthier future.  We need more electricity cooperatives and clean energy "building and loan" models to expedite the move to clean, community-based energy systems.  We have the knowledge, the technology, and now the economic incentive.  The only obstacle now are well-funded, obsolete industries.
Buying into solar power, no roof required
"The shared approach has its roots in rural electric cooperatives, said Elaine Ulrich of the Department of Energy’s SunShot program, but has only begun to take off in recent years, and still accounts for a tiny fraction of solar production. There are at least 52 projects in at least 17 states, and at least 10 states are encouraging their development through policy and programs, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the main trade group."

Happy Friday!