PUC eases rules of energy efficiency program

California regulators Thursday lowered the bar for an energy-efficiency program to allow utilities to earn about $89 million in customer-funded incentives for achieving as little as 65% of the power savings goals laid out for them. The California Public Utilities Commission also ruled that utilities could keep such incentives awarded to them even if a subsequent audit showed that the companies did not achieve the savings they reported.

Under that plan, utilities that achieved 65% of energy- efficiency goals collectively would have been penalized $142 million. Incentives would accrue after the companies reached 85% of the goals.

The energy-efficiency program "allows utilities to earn real money on an annual basis for their progress in meeting the state's energy-efficiency goals without having to worry that they'll have to give those monies back," he said. "This will significantly strengthen the motivation the utilities have to aggressively pursue energy efficiency."

Motel 6 Becoming More Energy Efficient

Motel 6 has signed on to participate in the Honeywell Cool Control Plus program, which is designed to help drastically reduce Motel 6’s environmental footprint. Working on behalf of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Honeywell will install energy-saving retrofits in a total of 7,530 rooms in the 66 Motel 6 properties located within PG&E’s service area in northern and central California.

Motel 6 has independently installed the Telkonet SmartEnergy (formerly Smart Systems) occupancy sensors and thermostats in 49 properties in California, and teaming with PG&E and Honeywell will bring the total number of rooms with retrofits to 13,440.

Rise In CO2 Emissions Predicted

Definitive figures for the UK's 2006 carbon dioxide emissions published on Thursday are expected to show further rises in the climate change gas, CO2. Provisional statistics for 2006, published last March, showed UK emissions were around 1.2% higher than 2005.

And despite the Government's commitment to taking action on global warming - shown most recently in the Climate Change Bill - figures look set to show a 2.7% increase since Labour came to power in 1997. While the UK is set to meet and exceed its Kyoto target of 12.5% cuts on 1990 levels by the period 2008 to 2012, it has become clear the Government will not meet its 20% cuts by 2010 manifesto target.

Nokia To Introduce More Energy Efficient Chargers

Nokia promises to reduce by 50% the average amount of energy used by battery chargers in "no-load" mode—when they are plugged into the mains but not charging a mobile phone.

The company also aims to reduce the average no-load power consumption by another 50% by the end of 2010. It will also remind consumers to unplug the charger from the electricity outlet once the phone has been fully charged.

Nokia said it reduced the company's overall global energy consumption by 3.5% though energy-efficiency programs. It is targeting further savings between 2007 and 2012 of 6% compared to 2006 levels. It uses green electricity to power 25% of the energy used by its facilities worldwide and will increase this to 50% in 2010.

Bush Commits To Climate Fund

The United States will commit $US2 billion ($A2.26 billion) over the next three years to a new international fund to promote clean energy technologies and fight climate change, President George W Bush has told Congress.

He said the United States is committed to working with major economies and the United Nations to complete an international agreement that "has the potential to slow, stop and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases".

A European Climate Plan

THE EUROPEAN Union announced a new plan last week to combat global warming that would set firm caps on emissions by 27 countries. The initiative might be seen as widening the gap on climate change between Europe and the United States, given the Bush administration's refusal to consider such binding measures. But that's premature: In fact, the proposal in many ways mirrors initiatives under discussion in Congress and could be the beginning of a harmonization of climate change policy between Brussels and Washington.

Between 2013 and 2020, the E.U. plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels. Gone are the national action plans that saw countries adopt schemes that protected local industries. Instead, the European Union would set individual national caps to meet the overall goal. The reduction would be bumped up to 30 percent if the United States and China signed binding climate change agreements.

College to host 2-day global warming teach-in

North Shore Community College already has started making its campus environmentally friendly, but with the two-day National Global Warming Teach-in starting Thursday, the college hopes to shift the focus to the entire community. US Senator John Kerry will be among legislators who will participate in a 'Dialogue with Decision Makers' on Friday.

The school's Lynn campus on Thursday and Friday will join other colleges and universities across the nation in hosting the event as part of Focus the Nation, an effort to educate citizens about the effects of global warming and climate change. The event will host local lawmakers, environmental specialists, and members of local environmental councils, and will feature speeches, demonstrations, and displays.

Building The Economy On Energy Efficiency

When former President Bill Clinton stomped for Hillary's economic plan for the country, he emphasized the importance of energy efficiency in achieving this goal:

Part of the plan to reinvigorate the economy includes major investment in clean energy, Clinton said. The one thing in common among countries with rising incomes and decreasing inequalities, he said, is a commitment to clean energy. That goes hand in hand with job creation by developing biofuels at farms and rural factories and requiring retrofits of all buildings for energy efficiency, he said.

I do agree with this plan because energy efficiency is an important element to consumption reduction and as we consume less of the ills that increases energy efficiency we invigorate the economy.

Hawaii State Buildings To Become Energy Efficient

The state of Hawaii is doing what all states should be doing in order to help curb the effects of global warming:

Eleven state government buildings, on four islands, are going to be "retrocommissioned" to increase the state's energy independence, the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism announced.

The state Department of Accounting and General Services and the energy efficiency branch of DBEDT will look for opportunities to save energy in buildings and reduce operating costs, the department said. They also will improve occupant comfort, extend equipment service life and reduce the volume of emergency calls for maintenance staff.

The 11 buildings, including the State Capitol, contain more than 1.4 million square feet of space and use about 33 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, the department said.

The City of New Orleans would have been on the right track of making its' city buildings more energy efficient if it were not for the actions of Stan "Pampy" Barre, a confidant of former New Orleans' Mayor, Marc Morial. Now Mr. Barre is a convicted felon, who is awaiting sentencing for his role in looting from the massive energy savings contract.

Wal-Mart May Become The Leader In Energy Conservation

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which launched a broad environmental push in late 2005, wants to expand that focus to other issues including energy prices, international trade and U.S. health care costs.

Chief Executive Lee Scott outlined plans in a speech Wednesday to push for more energy-saving products for Wal-Mart shoppers, work with other retailers on social and environmental standards for the foreign companies they buy from, and trim prescription and health records costs at home.

The world's largest retailer may even someday install windmills or solar panels at its stores that would allow shoppers to charge electric vehicles, and it is talking with automakers about a possible role in the hybrid and electric car market.

Dell Launches New Power Efficient Blade Server

The new PowerEdge M series blade chassis and related X64 blade servers could get Dell its rightful share of the blade space, which should account for around $5 billion in sales in 2008. The new Dell blade servers will be marketed with the same mantras that other blade server makers have tried over the past seven years--simplifying infrastructure configuration and management as well as ending sprawl in the data center through consolidation, virtualization, and density.

Energy efficiency is also going to be a big selling point. According to the tech specs of the new PowerEdge M1000e chassis, Dell can get the power supplies inside the box to run at between 88 percent and 91 percent efficiency when loaded up with between 20 percent and 60 percent of the peak loading on the power supplies in the box--the latter being the typical loading for enterprise customers using Dell's current PowerEdge 1955 blade servers.

We Must Improve Energy Efficiency

The world's largest energy consumer the United States on Monday called for a global push for increased energy efficiency to help meet rising demand and alleviate the impact of high prices on economic growth.

The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels per day of oil, around a quarter of the world's supply. Record oil prices have cooled U.S. appetite for gas guzzling cars and, along with increasing environmental concerns, lend weight to calls for more sparing use of energy.

The country last month passed a bill requiring increased fuel efficiency in vehicles for the first time in over 30 years.

Although Stan "Pampy" Barre tried to thwart New Orleans efforts to help make the city more energy efficient, the rest of us know how important it is to conserve energy. Please do your part in order to help preserve our natural resources and decrease the effects of global warming.

BT Launch Energy Efficient Phones

BT is launching less power-hungry telephones to cut CO2 emissions. The telecoms giant's new home phones use around half the power of previous models. This will mean lower electricity bills for customers and reduced carbon dioxide emissions, the firm said.

The design change will apply to more than 90% of all BT's home phone handsets by July this year. BT group MD for the consumer division Gavin Patterson said: "BT has continued to address environmental concerns by launching phones that consume approximately half the electricity of previous models; this will make a major contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions."

The energy efficient handsets will not cost any extra. BT estimates its switch to the new designs will cut customers' combined CO2 emissions by 195,000 tonnes over three years.

Hanover Homes - A model for energy efficiency

Are you in the market for an energy efficient home? Well, Hanover Homes may be the answer:

Hanover Homes North Corporation continues their commitment to conserving energy and offering the most value for their homeowners. Now, an Energy Star� partner, the company is breaking ground on the first in its line of affordable energy efficient Energy Star homes in the Tripp Park, Scranton, located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone.

The newest design, “The Hartford,” is expected to be completed early this summer.