We All Can Do Our Part

Wal-mart now has bags in its' stores that you can purchase and use instead of the old plastic baggies. My sister, Charmaine, came up with her own novel idea of going green in order to help save the environment. She made cloth grocery and shopping bags for friends, family and neighbors this holiday season.

Everyone loves those bags since they are washable and you can take them with you whenever you go shopping. I love to use mines and I have totally left plastic grocery and shopping bags alone.

Weatherize Your Home To Conserve Energy

Tired of high energy bills?

Now's the time to do something about your leaky house.

Oncor Electric Delivery is expanding its energy-efficiency efforts and plans to spend more than $300 million over the next five years to help North Texas homeowners plug leaky doorways, insulate attics and change out light bulbs.

At the same time, the Dallas-based utility will help businesses shore up their conservation measures, targeting big users such as data centers.

NIPSCO Offering Energy Incentives

Before you buy your next water heater or furnace, taking the time to find one that's energy efficient could mean more money in your wallet.

The Northern Indiana Public Service Co. has introduced a new energy efficiency initiative for all NIPSCO natural gas customers that rewards them for buying with the environment in mind.

The program, called EnergyHarvestSM, offers cash rebates to encourage customers to purchase certain energy efficient appliances, including water heaters, Energy Star furnaces and programmable thermostats.

Nexsan Introduces First High Density Energy Efficient Storage

Nexsan, a leading provider of energy efficient disk-based storage systems designed for the long-term storage of information, today announced the SATABeast Xi, the first high density, energy efficient storage solution built and optimized for the Apple Xserve and Mac Pro markets.

The SATABeast Xi is the highest density storage solution available today, providing up to 42TB of storage in only 4U of rack space, and the only one of its caliber in the Xserve market featuring AutoMAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks). AutoMAID allows SATABeast Xi to place its disk drives in an idle state to conserve energy yet provide near-instantaneous access to data.

Hewlett Packard to Reduce PC Energy Usuage

Do you want to cut your energy bill while still browsing the web? Then Hewlett Packard may have the product for you.

Today at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, Hewlett Packard has committed to reduce the energy consumption of its volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25 percent by 2010. As a result, HP also now leads the industry in the number of Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT(TM)) Gold listed products with the introduction of more than two dozen PCs registered in North America at either the Gold or Silver rating levels.

HP has long focused on developing products designed with the environment in mind, and it was the first PC manufacturer to register an EPEAT Gold product with the HP Compaq rp5700 Long Lifecycle Business Desktop PC in 2007.

UK Companies Seeks To Improve Energy Efficiency Technologies

The Technology Strategy Board has launched a funding competition that it believes will stimulate UK companies to address the challenge of improving the efficiency of lighting while at the same time reducing energy consumption. The Technology Strategy Board believes that this investment will help to accelerate the development of new technologies, bringing them quickly into use in the UK and around the world.

Explaining the background to the decision to invest in this area, Technology Strategy Board Chief Executive Iain Gray said: "Lighting accounts for up to 20% of the UK's power. As we move towards a lower carbon economy, and recognise the need for more efficient energy use, developing advanced light sources becomes increasingly important."

Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama's, Plans For The Environment

Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has the best laid out plan concerning preserving our environment: Obama's plan includes:

1. Supporting cap-and-trade programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with 100 percent of permits auctioned; proceeds would go to job training, helping workers and industry adapt to clean technologies.

2. Setting "green job corps" for disadvantaged youths.

3. Investing $150 billion over 10 years in climate-friendly energy supplies, bio-fuels, plug-in hybrids, large-scale renewable energy and "clean coal" technology. Would set aside $50 billion for a clean-technologies venture capital fund.

4. Seeking a reduction in deforestation, a program to capture and store carbon emissions, the doubling of energy research funding and the establishment of a national low-carbon fuel standard. Opposes drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

5. Backing 52 mile per gallon fuel economy standard by 2026. Would offer tax credits and loan guarantees to encourage retooling by domestic automakers. Would set national building efficiency standards and offer grants to states and communities that implement building codes that emphasize energy efficiency.

6. Would propose a global energy forum of the world's top energy consumers.