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1. Nuclear Energy More Expensive Than Some Clean Power, Study Says
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2. UK Conservatives Aim to Rival Silicon Valley on Cleantech
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3. E-waste recycling resources in Oregon, Washington
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4. De-icers, making bread in a can and giving a toilet for Christmas
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5. Portland-born GreenPrint's paper saver for Mac is here
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6. Getting burned and getting smart about CFLs
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7. Green Freebie: Win 5 Free Trips to See the Natural Wonders of the World ??? Machu Picchu, Anyone?
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8. Java as fuel means car exhaust that smells like coffee
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9. OPB's "Think Out Loud" wants your recycling calls, comments
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10. Green Gift Idea: Virtual Volunteering for a Charity ??? Right from Your Home Computer
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11. Green Freebie: Win a Gas-Friendly Mini Coop Worth over $18,000
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12. GREEN GIFT IDEAS: Let???s All Go Out to an Eco-Friendly Restaurant! Here are the Top 10 in the U.S.
Nuclear Energy More Expensive Than Some Clean Power, Study Says
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
Growing support for nuclear energy in the U.S. has hinged on three key arguments in recent years: It offers a carbon-free alternative to coal; a domestic alternative to petroleum; and a supposedly cheaper, more reliable alternative to renewable sources like wind and solar. But according to a new analysis from Climate Progress, existing nuclear power plant technology can generate electricity at no less than $0.25 to $0.30 per kilowatt-hour (including fuel and O&M, excluding distribution) for the first year of operation.
Costs would drop slightly in following years, but that’s triple today’s average utility rate, about 10 times the estimated per-kilowatt-hour cost of efficiency-boosting measures, and more than some generation costs for existing renewable energy technologies.
As a result of the research, Climate Progress, which is published by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said it may nix nuclear energy from the 14 “stabilization wedges” included in its proposed climate change response. The current list suggests 700 gigawatts of nuclear energy plus radioactive waste storage capacity equivalent to 10 Yucca mountains.
In addition to assessing business risks for new nuclear power facilities, study author Craig Severance set out to clarify the notion that short-sighted, anti-nuclear environmentalists halted carbon-free energy development. High costs, he writes, have thwarted nuclear all along:
Utility executives and Wall Street financiers were the ones who stopped nuclear power's expansion in the 1970’s. As more evidence of the business risks and the costs associated with nuclear power became clear through utilities' own experiences, utility boards across the country, and the financial houses who fund them, stopped considering nuclear power a serious future option. Orders for new plants that had already been advanced, were quietly withdrawn. The nuclear industry simply failed to compete against other available options, whose risks and costs were significantly lower.
Climate Progress challenged nuclear energy advocates today to go beyond touting relatively low operating costs for paid-off nuclear plants, and provide detailed documentation of cost estimates for energy from new facilities. As for next-generation nuclear technology (like Hyperion’s nuclear-in-a-hot-tub-sized-box device), Climate Progress considers it a fine idea — and worth pursuing — but not likely to help us meet 2020 or even 2030 greenhouse-gas emission reduction targets.
As Time’s Michael Grunwald noted last week, “It turns out that new plants would be not just extremely expensive but spectacularly expensive.” The fallout from overly optimistic early estimates can now be felt around the world, from Finland, where costs have ballooned and progress slowed at a nuclear plant, to Florida, where a plant planned for just off the Keys could cost up to $18 billion.
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UK Conservatives Aim to Rival Silicon Valley on Cleantech
David Ehrlich - Big Green
The Conservative Party in the UK is ringing in the new year with a call to boost funding for clean technology startups, create cleantech incubators across the country and establish a Low Carbon Index for publicly-traded companies on the London Stock Exchange and the LSE’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Conservative Party leader David Cameron says his party is aiming at “creating a new generation of world-beating startups to rival anything going on right now in Silicon Valley.”
The recommendations were outlined in two reports that the conservatives said were put together by independent working groups. The incubators are planned to help startups get off the ground, and the Low Carbon Index aims to provide cleantech companies with access to cash at the next stage of their development.
Cameron said in a speech that UK firms currently have a less than 5-percent share of the global market for cleantech goods and services. “This market is expected to be worth trillions of pounds, and produce millions of new jobs, in the years to come, so we’ve got to do better — a lot better,” he said.
One of the reports pushed for £600,000 ($883,025) of public sector funding to be invested in cleantech incubators for every £150,000 of private investment — a four-to-one ratio — with a yet-to-be-determined cap on the government spending. Companies could also get access to free or heavily subsidized facilities to test their products under the plan.
For the stock index, the plan is to include companies from a wide range of sectors, including renewable energy, waste reduction and fuel cell technologies, with companies from anywhere in the world eligible to join, as long as they’re already listed on the LSE or the AIM. About 100 companies would already qualify for listing in the proposed index, according to the report on the plan.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labour Party has made his own announcements for a green future in the UK, and said this weekend that cleantech could be a help in the current credit crisis. “Rather than [the recession] pushing the environment into a lower order of priority, the environment is part of the solution,” he told the Guardian.
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E-waste recycling resources in Oregon, Washington
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - PDXgreen in print: Friday columns
De-icers, making bread in a can and giving a toilet for Christmas
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Portland-born GreenPrint's paper saver for Mac is here
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Getting burned and getting smart about CFLs
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Green Freebie: Win 5 Free Trips to See the Natural Wonders of the...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
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Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Does this happen to you? Once you start dreaming about exotic places you???d love to escape to ??? natural wonders of the world where there are no malls or tinsel or shopping lists ??? you just can???t stop. There are so many things you haven???t done yet in life — like a safari on the Serengeti in Tanzania or swimming with the sea lions in the Galapagos or a trek to the Amazon and Machu Picchu ??? just puckering up to say Machu Picchu puts me in an adventurous state of mind.
Well, stop dreaming ??? Natural Habitat Adventures has come to the rescue. This eco-conscious company is offering, not one but FIVE,?? big vacations for two ??? one every year for five years ??? to the most exciting natural destinations in the world. Beyond those mentioned in my dreams, they???ve also got trips to walk with the penguins in Antarctica and the Falklands as well as a trip to Manitoba to schmooze with the polar bears.
I???ve entered ??? and so can you ??? every day up until the deadline, Feb. 28, 2009. Hope to see you there ??? if not, give the sea lions a smooch for me. Start clicking.
Photo credit: Llama in Macchu Picchuu: from Nurse healthwriter blog
Java as fuel means car exhaust that smells like coffee
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
OPB's "Think Out Loud" wants your recycling calls, comments
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Green Gift Idea: Virtual Volunteering for a Charity ??? Right from...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
Looking for a way to save money on gifts — who isn’t? Give the best gift of all ??? and it won???t cost you a penny. Volunteer to help a green charity of your choice. And you can do it right from your home computer.
“Virtual volunteering” is on the rise. And a wide range of groups need your help. You can pitch in with groups devoted to the environment, human rights, disaster relief, animal protection, and more. As a virtual volunteer, you provide skills these organizations need, such as contacting donors or writing letters or grant proposals or other materials they need to publish or post on the Web.
Good Green Charities
To find great environmental charities, go to The Charity Navigator web site, a great guide to intelligent giving, and they will provide you with a list of the best charities in all kinds of categories. You can even break it down by location, if you???d rather volunteer the old-fashioned way ??? in person.
?? Click here for a list of the Top 100 four-star-rated environmental charities recommended by the Charity Navigator:
?? Sierra Club, devoted to preserving the environment for the next generation:. Their motto says it all: “Explore, enjoy and protect the planet”: http://www.sierraclub.org/
?? The Nature Conservancy, which has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers ??? and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.: http://www.nature.org/
Good Charities
Here are some others to consider that were listed by Bottom Line newsletters as willing to engage virtual volunteers. If your favorite charity is not among them, contact them and propose helping out virtually ??? and start a new trend.
?? Network for Good, founded by America Online, Cisco Systems and Yahoo (866-650-4636, www.networkforgood.org).
?? Points of Light Institute, a Washington, DC-based organization that recently merged with a similar group, the Hands On Network (202-729-8000, www.pointsoflight.org).
?? Taproot Foundation, which puts together teams of working people who want to help charitable groups (415-359-1423, www.taprootfoundation.org).
?? ServiceLeader.org at the University of Texas at Austin (512-232-7062, www.serviceleader.org).
?? VolunteerMatch, my organization, with volunteer opportunities from more than 55,000 nonprofit organizations (415-241-6868, www.volunteermatch.org).
?? UN Volunteers, an arm of the United Nations that can be contacted by E-mail at information@unvolunteers.org and by phone in Germany at 49-228-815-2000. Its Web sites are www.onlinevolunteering.org and www.unvolunteers.org.
?? Wisconsin and Minnesota-based Nibakure Children???s Village (612-578-6560, www.nibakure.org) recently needed three volunteers to work online two hours a week on fund-raising for an orphanage in Rwanda.
?? Family-to-Family (914-478-0756, www.family-to-family.org), an organization that helps feed families in needy communities nationwide.
(Illustration credit: Sierra Club)
Green Freebie: Win a Gas-Friendly Mini Coop Worth over $18,000
susan - Sustainable Ideas
They???re oh so cute ??? those Mini Coops and fuel-efficient, too. They make you want to tie a ribbon on one and drive it right over the river and through the woods to grandmother???s house you go for the holidays. Well, maybe you can ??? for free.
Champignon Minis is giving away one Mini Cooper, valued at over $18,000, just in time for the holidays. It won’t take a miracle — just a click. So see if you can get lucky before the deadline: 12-31-08.
(Photo credit: The Horse’s Mouth )
GREEN GIFT IDEAS: Let???s All Go Out to an Eco-Friendly Restaurant!...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
Do we need more stuff? No. But we all need to eat. And there???s no lovelier gift for friends and family than gathering everybody together ??? and NOT cooking. Dining out is definitely a splurge, but the beauty of this gift is that the giver gets to enjoy it, too. Naughty, but nice. And if that isn’t the holiday spirit, then you can just put a lump of coal under my Chanukah tree.
So pick an eco-friendly restaurant in your neighborhood, and tell everybody, this is our gift: Friendship, fun, family spirit ??? and FOOD. There???s no reason not to make it fine food, while you???re at it. So here are the Top 10 Eco-friendly Restaurants that Bon App??ti magazine picked for 2008, where the fish is line???caught, the meat grass???fed, birds are cage???free and the rest is local, sustainable, organic and all-around mouth-watering (and oh yes, healthy).
1. Primo ??? Rockland, Maine
2. Firefly Grill ??? Effingham, Illinois
3. Hook ??? Washington, D.C.
4. Ubuntu ??? Napa Valley, California
5. Caf?? Cenizo ??? Marathon, Texas
6. The Kitchen ??? Boulder, Colorado
7. La Provence ??? Lacombe, Louisiana
8. Spoonriver ??? Minneapolis, Minnesota
9. Blue Velvet ??? Los Angeles, California
10. Local Burger ??? Lawrence, Kansas
If none of these are in your neighborhood, go to the Certified Green Restaurant Association and find places that have been certified as green ??? or are working towards those estimable goals.
For more always delicious food ideas, go to Bon Appetit.
(Photo Credit: Local Burger restaurant)
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