Energy Exchange

Want to See EDF at SXSW Eco 2015? Cast Your Vote!

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 18, 2015

Every year, SXSW Eco – one of the most high-profile environmental conferences – selects its programming based on votes from the public. This means anyone, regardless of whether you submitted a panel, can cast a vote.

This year, seven experts from Environmental Defense Fund are featured on dynamic panels that cover everything from solar equity and new utility business models to innovative building efficiency programs and the threat of methane pollution. To make sure EDF and energy-related programming is represented at the conference in Austin, TX this October, we are asking our readers to please vote for your favorite EDF panels and presentations. Read More »

Also posted in California, Clean Energy, Climate, Demand Response, EDF Climate Corps, Energy Efficiency, Energy-Water Nexus, Grid Modernization, Illinois, Methane, Natural Gas, Renewable Energy, Texas, Utility Business Models / Comments are closed

Adding to the Clean Energy Chorus: Voices of Faith

By Marilynn Marsh-Robinson / Published: May 14, 2015

Diverse groups are creating a healthy dialogue on climate change and clean energy. In addition to ethnicity, diversity includes geographical representation, political affiliation, socio-economic backgrounds – and religious beliefs.

One notable group, Interfaith Power and Light (IPL), is mobilizing millions of people of faith to be better stewards of energy and the environment. Founded in 1998, IPL now has chapters in more than 40 states and represents 15,000 congregations. IPL works with congregations to promote energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions and the impacts of climate change.

In addition to clean energy advocacy, IPL recognizes that public policies – local, state and federal – play a pivotal role in reducing reliance on fossil fuels and expanding energy choices. IPL rightly focuses attention on communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, advocating for strong adaptation and mitigation actions to protect all communities – from the coast to the heartland. These communities, which are least responsible for activities and decisions that adversely impact the climate, suffer the most. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Climate, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy / Read 1 Response

Little Pomp, Lots of Circumstance in California’s New Plan to Cut Short-Lived Climate Pollutants

By Tim O'Connor / Published: May 12, 2015

Methane, refrigerants, black carbon – these are all pollutants that fall within a class of global warming agents known as SLCPs, or short-lived climate pollutants. As the name suggests, each has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than their better-known cousin, carbon dioxide (CO₂) – but at the same time each is more potent (and works in different ways) than CO₂ at warming the planet.

While SLCPs are a serious problem – responsible for nearly a quarter of the warming we’re experiencing today – cutting them is a huge opportunity to have almost an immediate benefit on slowing global climate change.

SLCPs and California Climate Policy

On April 30, Governor Jerry Brown announced new statewide targets for all greenhouse gas emissions – stating by executive order that all GHGs must be reduced to 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030. And, while many may be asking what more the state can do to cut more GHGs to meet the governor’s overall goal, on May 7 the Air Resources Board demonstrated that SLCP reductions are going to play a major role.

The new SLCP plan (released as a concept paper) didn’t receive a tremendous amount of fanfare. That lack of attention isn’t surprising – the SLCP plan after all is about a specific class of pollutants that is named by a rather obscure acronym. But, while the pomp of the governor’s executive order to cut all GHGs may have stolen the show on April 30, the May 7 plan may have just as much circumstance. Read More »

Posted in General / Comments are closed

Methane Leaks: The Opportunity Paris Climate Negotiators Can’t Afford To Miss

By Drew Nelson / Published: April 24, 2015

When countries meet in Paris for the United Nations climate talks later this year, their representatives will come armed with the best data, research and ideas on how to reach a climate agreement and avert catastrophic climate change.

But a new report from Rhodium Group, commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund, shows that countries have so far been leaving a huge opportunity on the table: methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

Cutting methane can have a dramatic impact

The report shows that the global oil and natural gas industry is leaking a huge amount of climate-harming methane every year. When released into the atmosphere, this methane has the same climate impact as does 40 percent of carbon dioxide from the world’s coal combustion. Read More »

Also posted in Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

Clearing the Air: L.A.’s Vision for Clean Transportation

By EDF Blogs / Published: April 15, 2015

By: Larissa Koehler and Jorge Madrid

There’s something remarkable happening in the city of Los Angeles, you can feel it in the air – and it’s definitely not the country’s worst pollution or the record-breaking heat – it’s the winds of change. Los Angeles is in the process of reinventing itself from a dystopian vision of traffic jams and unbreathable air into an urban leader in sustainability.

Last week L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled a bold new plan (pLAn) to revolutionize sustainability in Los Angeles, including taking a bite of the big enchilada responsible for the most air pollution that gets in our lungs and greenhouse gas pollution that causes climate change – the transportation sector. Mobile sources (think diesel trucks, trains, ships, aircraft, and cars) account for 90 percent of Southern California’s harmful air pollution. Statewide, the transportation sector is responsible for nearly 70 percent of smog-forming gases and 40 percent of the state’s climate change pollution every year.

While some progress has been made – the number of non-attainment days (days when an area doesn’t meet the federal air quality standard) has decreased dramatically since the 1990s and the Port of Los Angeles has reduced diesel particulate matter by 80 percent since 2005 – there are still huge clean air disparities. We know the dirtiest zip codes in L.A. are also the ones with a disproportionately large amount of low-income communities and people of color. We cannot run a victory lap on this issue until EVERYONE in L.A. can safely get around the city and breathe healthy air at the same time. Read More »

Also posted in Air Quality, California, Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, State / Comments are closed

Methane Gets its Day in the Los Angeles Spotlight

By Tim O'Connor / Published: March 16, 2015

Los Angeles City Council members Paul Koretz and Tom LaBonge at a press conference prior to the event

Los Angeles has a methane problem. Recent analysis by NASA and CalTech reveals that concentrations of methane in the Los Angeles basin are more than 60 percent higher than previously estimated. That’s a serious issue, because the invisible, heat-trapping gas packs a volatile climate change punch that is 84 times greater than carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it is released.

The good news is that cutting methane pollution is a no-nonsense, can’t-lose proposition for fighting climate change. A dynamic discussion of solutions to the methane challenge brought nearly 200 people to a symposium in downtown Los Angeles last week.

The event was sponsored by EDF, in partnership with Climate Resolve and 11 other organizations representing diverse communities across California. Participants heard from climate change and methane experts from leading academic and research institutions about the science of methane pollution and what can be done to control it. The event drew officials from local, state, and federal agencies; utility representatives; business leaders; and a large array of concerned citizens.

NBC4 Los Angeles has a great story HERE.

Posted in General / Comments are closed