The Business, Technology, and Politics of Green Energy and Alternative Fuels
About this blog
"The business enterprise is a creature of society and an economy, and society or economy can put any business out of existence overnight." - Peter F. Drucker
Green is Good is a blog written by entrepreneur and green capitalist Chris Schultz of Pittsburgh, PA.
Joining Chris is Cara Jette, who blogs under the name Illyrias at PGH is a City and will be keeping us informed about everything green in the city of Pittsburgh.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope hailed the passing of the Stimulus Bill as the "biggest victory" by an American President in his first month in office. I'm sure his comment there is debatable, but one thing that is certain of President Obama's first month is that White House policy on clean energy and the environment is a complete 180 from the previous administration. If the Obama EPA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of the Interior can continue to make the kinds of changes they have made this first month over the next 11 months, this will indeed be the green-energy revolution, and the change, that we need and have been waiting for.
A recent Sierra Club email touted The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which contains approximately $80 billion in funding for promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and higher-mileage cars. This includes:
$25 billion for energy efficiency
$20 billion for renewable energy incentives
$11 billion in grants and $6 billion in loans to modernize the electric grid and increase its capacity to deliver power generated by renewable sources, and
$17.7 billion for mass transit, Amtrak, and high-speed rail.
The signing a day earlier of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is, as far as I can recall, by far the biggest victory mustered by an American President in his first month in office. Environmentally, the bill is the most important piece of legislative support for clean energy ever adopted. Its provisions include $80 billion for a wide variety of environmental programs. The President, before he signed it in Denver, visited a solar-energy manufacturing facility. It was a nice bookend to the visit he made to a Ohio wind-turbine factory last month, when he launched his campaign to get Congress to pass the bill.
In addition to directly funded investments, the bill also contains important, if little commented on, incentives to industry, states, and local government to go even further. Some of the second-year funding for energy efficiency, for example, is contingent on states following California's lead in giving their public utilities as much incentive to save energy as to increase electricity generation.
Tune in to VivoLive.com this Wednesday at 5:30pm for a live webcast of a discussion of the Stimulus Package and what it means for Pittsburgh. Yours truly will be in attendance to hear from Pittsburgh's green champion, Councilman Bill Peduto, and the rest of the panel which will consist of representatives from the offices of Arlen Specter, Mike Doyle, Ed Rendell and Jane Orie; State Representative Chelsa Wagner; Eve Picker, and an official from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. The PG's Early Returns blog has more on what this blogger hopes will turn into the unveiling of the Pennsylvania High Speed Rail project (wishful thinking, I know).
I attended the Clinton Global Initiative University conference in Austin, Texas this weekend in connection with my day job with Nourish International. The conference is based on Clinton's Global Initiative which brings world leaders together to discuss, what else, but pressing global issues, except the University version features college students.
Bill Clinton's tie aside, the most interesting thing I saw at a conference was a blurring of the lines between four of the major issues the world faces today: Health, Education, Poverty and the Environment. At the conference, it was taken as self-evident that these for issues were not just interconnected, but meant to be addressed in tandem.
This might seem obvious; after all, each of the four issues have to do with resource scarcity. What surprised (and encouraged) me was how frequently specific discussions on one issue drifted towards the others. A seminar on Global Health focused almost entirely on the environmental, education and economic factors that lead to the health problems in the first place. A discussion on the future of food seamlessly blended the need for more effective work in all four issues.
What excites me about this is that, several years ago, it wasn't that way. I distinctly remember discussing the Nourish business plan (necessary background: Nourish focuses on global poverty) with a professional who asked us when we were going to focus on the environment.
The problem with viewing each of these issues in a vacuum is that it limits the effectiveness of each potential solution. This can be seen clearly in the development of India and China, which, having begun to address their poverty problems, face a looming environmental problem -- one which threatens the health and long term economic security of their populations.
Good to see then, the "best and the brightest" of America attempting at least a more holistic approach.
PITTSBURGH – This morning, City Council will hold a national conversation on urban lighting. The hearing was set as a result of Councilman Peduto’s proposal to convert all 40,000 street lights in Pittsburgh to LEDs. Councilman Peduto now intends to create the Pittsburgh model of 21st century urban lighting, a model that other cities will follow worldwide.
Representatives from the William J. Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Climate Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University, and national innovators from Philips, Johnson Controls, Leotek, Lightolier, Ceramtec, Appalachian Lighting Systems, Condor Manufacturing, and Beta Lighting will be in attendance
“LED lighting has proven to cut energy use by as much as 80%, saving energy and taxpayers millions of dollars,” said Councilman Peduto.“This is one of the greatest ways we can reduce our carbon footprint and make Pittsburgh a worldwide leader.”
WHAT: City Council Hearing on Urban Lighting
WHEN: Monday, February 9, 2009 @ 10:00 AM
WHERE: City Council Chambers, 5th Floor, City-County Bldg
After the disappointment of learning that only 1.2% of the stimulus bill would be dedicated to public transportation, I reached out a policy analyst at Building America's Future, a coalition led by Governor's Ed Rendell and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayor Mike Bloomberg that is lobbying members of Congress to increase funding for our nation's infrastructure improvements.
Here is his response:
"Yesterday could have been worse. Initially the transit number was at $9 billion, but an amendment sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler to add $3 billion was passed yesterday with the final bill, so the stimulus package included $12 billion. A small but much appreciated victory for public transportation! "
NY Rep Jerrold Nadler's amendment was, in my opinion, the most significant of the few amendments that were actually approved, as it added $3 billion to the original $9 billion appropriated to public transportation. I feel a little better now.
We are not done though. If you want more funding for renewable energy and public transportation please write, call, or email your US Senators!
Change may have happened at the top, but both the lower and upper houses of our Congress still suck. If you peruse The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 you will see many pork projects brought to you by House Democrats and a huge amount of the bill dedicated to tax cuts, brought to you primarily by Republicans, who year after year fail to provide any ideas for our economy beyond tax cutting. According to Talking Points Memo, the Senate draft looks even more disappointing.
Here is brief summary of my problems with the House Stimulus Bill:
Too much pork!! Way too much going towards pork projects and programs that have nothing to do with economic stimulus (billions for student financial aid, energy assistance for seniors, and a number of pork projects like the $200 million revitalization of the National Mall)
Too much (approx. $300 billion) going towards tax cuts or credits, most of which will not creates jobs or stimulate the economy
Far too little going towards rail and public transportation projects (only $10 billion) and a disproportionate amount going towards highways ($30 billion)
Only $18.5 billion going towards the DOE's energy efficiency and renewable energy projects
Okay okay, so are there any good parts to the House Bill? Sure. Energy wise, despite such a small portion of the bill going to the DOE and renewable energy, there are some good projects that will advance our clean energy economy, and even help clean up our producers of dirty energy. Here are the highlights
$8 billion for the DOE's Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program
$4.5 billion for modernization of our electricity grid (smart grid!)
$2.4 billion for Carbon Capture and Sequestration demonstration
$2 billion for the DOE's Advanced Research Projects
$1 billion for the Advanced Battery Loan Guarantee Program
$600 million for Plug-ins and Hybrid vehicles for the Federal Government's Vehicle Fleet
$600 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's climate sensors and climate modeling technology
$350 million for the R&D and evaluation for improvements in energy generation, transmission, regulation, use, and storage, for military installations, military vehicles, and other military equipment (An energy independent Military?)
Total for energy related projects: $20.7 billion
Sunlight Labs extracted the appropriations from the bill into a spreadsheet, where you can view the stimulus funds appropriated to each department. They were baffled that they were only able to find $356.4 billion in appropriations within the text of the bill. Where is the other $475 billion? Well, $300 billion of it is going towards tax cuts for individuals and businesses. I think some tax cuts for small businesses makes a lot of sense, but additional tax cuts or tax rebates for individuals? Last year's tax rebate showed that the any positive impacts due to the fiscal stimulus checks were both minimal and temporary, and now we are going to try to tax cut our way to prosperity again? We need to start building things again!
***Please note that Obama has stated to House Republicans that he "had no pride in authorship of the current bill. " THANK GOD Obama isn't as clueless as some of the idiot House Democrats. Good god - don't these people realize that it is time for change instead of the same old bullshit in our politics and legislation?!
Obama could bring us this stimulus package, the first major piece of legislation during his presidency, in two ways. He could pull a George W. Bush and simply rubber stamp a bill produced by his own party. The other option is to do the right thing. He could make both parties put country first by working together to draft a bi-partisan bill that will create jobs, improve our infrastructure, and put us on the road to energy independence. That is the kind of change we need! If Obama wants to turn this stinker around, and improve his already high approval rating, he will do something audacious. He will veto this dog shit of a bill when it gets passed in both the House and Senate. He will piss off the members of his own party by demanding that they remove the funding for the pork projects, and he will ask them to replace some of the tax rebates /cuts with tax cuts for small businesses, which will show some love to the Republicans.
NOTE: Pennsylvania is slated to receive $22.07 billion of the stimulus money, with a little over $2.3 billion going towards the state budget shortfall. I would bet that Governor Rendell makes sure that the North Shore Connector gets that $120 million it needs in order to be completed.
This past week I made the trip down to Washington DC to see the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama. I had what I believe may have been one of the greenest inaugural trips out of any out of the owner. Instead of driving I carpooled with a friend who was already driving her Honda Civic Hybrid down to the capital. I think we only consumed 10 or 12 gallons of gas for the round trip. While in the capital I utlized one of the nation's better metro systems, I rode both natural gas and hybrid electric buses, and, when I wasn't too exhausted from standing out in the cold all day Tuesday, I made the one mile walk to and from the metro to the apartment I was staying at. Including gas, tolls, and metro fare I probably spent $50 on getting from Pittsburgh to DC and around DC. That's not too shabby. If you don't mind walking once in a while, and if you rely upon a car sharing service like Zip Car when you must have a car, living a car free life in Washington DC is very easy. Besides having hybrid electric buses I noticed that the district had a number of different electric vehicles for security and maintenance. Below is a picture of one of the electric security vehicles I came across while in the National Mall. Like this EV, DC was definitely 100% electric during the inauguration weekend.
How nice to be able to get pretty much anywhere around town via the subway here in Washington DC. It's a good thing too, because how would DC be able to function this Inauguration week without a kickass subway system? The metro is expecting over 1 million riders on Tuesday, Inauguration day, higher than the record 800,000+ when President Clinton was sworn in back in January of 1993.
So what exactly is a Smart Grid? According to the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory, in order for our power grid to qualify as a "smart" grid, it must have the following characteristics:
Self-healing from power disturbance events
Enabling active participation by consumers in demand response
Operating resiliently against physical and cyber attack
Providing power quality for 21st century needs
Accommodating all generation and storage options
Enabling new products, services, and markets
Optimizing assets and operating efficiently
Technology Review magazine has a great article on why smart grids are a critical ingredient for our clean energy future. Basically, the grid that we have today is pretty much the same thing that Thomas Edison created out of his labs in Menlo Park New Jersey - 110 years ago! The grid was not equipped to handle variable power sources like wind or solar and it was not built with the capability to control electricity usage on the demand side - so that instead of firing up expensive power plants to meet excess demand the grid would have the ability to shut down certain power consumers - or even tap into your plugged in plug-in vehicle's excess power. It may sound far fetched but there are already small scale smart grid projects currently under way throughout the US and countries such as Germany.
If you want a more detailed analysis of smart grids then The Cleantech blog's Richard Stuebi has pointed us to a very informative DOE reported titled "The Smart Grid: An Introduction." A big hat tip to Richard for also listing the following key data points that he was able to pull from the report:
The U.S. power grid consists of 9200 electric generating units connected by 300,000 miles of transmission lines -- of which only 668 miles were added since 2000.
Between 1988-98, U.S. electricity demand increased by nearly 30%, while transmission capacity grew by only 15%.
In the U.S., there were 41% more outages affecting more than 50,000 customers in the second half of the 1990's than in the first half of the 1990's.
The average age of a substation transformer on the U.S. power grid is 42 years -- two years more than their expected life span.
10% of all generation assets, and 25% of distribution infrastructure, are required for less than 5% of the hours of the year.
Here are a few things that I want to see from our next generation grid - in no particular order:
Easier to hook solar power and other renewable power sources into the grid. Today, if you had solar panels or wind turbines installed at your residence you would have to purchase an expensive converter to change the direct current to alternating current
When a tree knocks down one power line it doesn't take down the entire town's electricity with it. This seems to happen on a weekly basis around these parts - and right after posting this I read this headline on the PG "Power restored after crash knocks down lines..."
Better analytic capabilities for your home or business's electricity consumption. Smart metering is good but it is still not available in most places. The most easiest and cost efficient way to deliver information to consumers is to put it online. I want to to be able to login to my account and see real time data on total usage along with the appliances that are using the most electricity. This shouldn't be too diffucult but it would require the appliances to be "smart" as well, meaning a standardized identification system by applance category (television, refridgerator, stereo, etc) would have to be determined before this could come to fruition.
One of my predictions for 2009 is that this will be the year that passenger rail transport is finally brought back from the dead. I've you live or have lived in cities like Chicago or Philadelphia, you may be thinking that the railroads have never went away. But here in Pittsburgh, in Atlanta, and in a number of other cities across the country, the transformation of freight railroads to passenger/commuter rail lines have already been proven feasible, and may only be months away from the first phase of their implementation, as the President-elect has made a point that he intends to stress the utilization of railroads to ease congestion and reduce our reliance on fossil fuel-centric transportation of the highways and airways.
The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service. One of the things I have been talking bout for awhile is high speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities -- Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis. They are not that far away from each other. Because of how big of a hassle airlines are now. There are a lot of people if they had the choice, it takes you just about as much time if you had high speed rail to go the airport, park, take your shoes off.
This is something that we should be talking about a lot more. We are going to be having a lot of conversations this summer about gas prices. And it is a perfect time to start talk about why we don't have better rail service. We are the only advanced country in the world that doesn't have high speed rail. We just don't have it. And it works on the Northeast corridor. They would rather go from New York to Washington by train than they would by plane. It is a lot more reliable and it is a good way for us to start reducing how much gas we are using. It is a good story to tell.
So, I think anyone reading this blog will agree that having a President who wants to move our national transportation infrastructure into the 21st century is a good thing, is it not?
Also on the list of transportation initiatives that should interest anyone who is a fan of being able to get from point A to B without the hassles of the airlines - 2009 should be the year we finally learn which region will be the recipient of our nation's first MAGLEV train line. Funding for the nation's first 310 MPH MAGLEV train, which was initiated in the 1990's, was shelved following the 9/11 attacks, but the initiative has been revived in recent years, and despite having a federally funded tunnel to nowhere project already underway our US Senators are still working on bring the first federally funded MAGLEV track to the Pittsburgh region. In addition to the Pittsburgh MAGLEV project, MAGLEV train lines have been proposed for the Los Angeles - Las Vegas corridor, and the Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor (The Chattlanta line). Last but not least, the California High Speed Rail initiative got the approval of voters this past election. The high speed rail will link all of California's major cities and should become the model of how we can implement high speed rail throughout the country.
As you can see by the passenger rail map I have provided below, I think the Pittsburgh region has a number of good commuter rail options on the table. The combination of just a few of them would improve region's mobility by leaps and bounds without a multibillion dollar 54 mile long high speed train that goes from Greensburg to downtown to the airport. But, while I think a high speed rail line around one city, especially one as small as Pittsburgh, would be underutilized, I still think that a MAGLEV train connecting bigger cities or regions (ay the east coast to the Midwest, or New York or Philadelphia to Chicago) to one another, bypassing the highways in a manner similar to the California initiative, would be a good step towards reaching the goal of building President Obama's national high speed rail network. Pittsburgh, with its relative proximity to such a very large chunk of the US population, would be a logical place to start building the Northeast to Midwest line. Starting with a line between Cleveland and Pittsburgh or Pittsburgh and Philadelphia would provide a lot of benefits for the region and those professionals who would now have the mobility that would permit them to live and work in different cities.
I create the Google map below with an assist from The East Busway Blogger, and also the Southwestern PA Commission's report on regional transportation alternatives. The SPC's report has some great statistics on projected ridership and the cost of implementing and operating some of the Pittsburgh region's commuter rail options. Some of these options have already made it into the Pittsburgh Regional Integrated Transportation Plan, or the Pittsburgh Transportation Wiki Project for short. If you have additional ideas please feel free to add them to the wiki plan, and if you would like to include additional ideas for passenger rail lines please create them in Google Maps and email me or leave the URL or your idea in the comments section.
After years of hearing about the wonderful high speed rail lines throughout Europe and Asia, and feeling as though we'll never move beyond highways and air travel, it seems as though we are on the verge of turning a corner, and it feels good.
One engine of the Boeing 747-400 was fueled by a 50-50 mixture of jatropha plant oil and standard A1 jet fuel.
A Virgin Atlantic test flight in February used fuel derived from a blend of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.
In Auckland on Tuesday, a range of tests were completed both on the ground and during the flight, said Air New Zealand Chief Pilot David Morgan.
He said the oil from the plum-sized jatropha fruit performed "well through both the fuel system and engine".
Part of the significance of the accomplishment comes from the use of jatropha plant oil rather than more conditional corn ethanol. Cleanbreak provides some context:
Jatropha plants grow about three metres high and produce seeds that contain an inedible oil. The oil can make up 40 per cent of a seed’s mass. The reason Jatropha is considered ideal for biofuel production is that it’s hardy, resistant to drought and pests, and can be grown on land that generally isn’t good enough for food crops. Seriously — this stuff can grow in sand, gravel, even rock crevices.
The partners in the Air New Zealand project have set high standards for the fuel they’re using in an effort to avoid the kind of criticism that has been aimed at corn-based ethanol. “Firstly, the fuel source must be environmentally sustainable and not compete with existing food resources,” according to an airline press release. “Secondly, the fuel must be a drop-in replacement for traditional jet fuel and technically be at least as good as the product used today. Finally, it should be cost competitive with existing fuel supplies and be readily available.” Air New Zealand has said that 10 per cent of its jet fuel will come from jatropha-based biofuel by 2013.
The other bonus, obviously, is that air travel is one of the highest emission producing activities, however it's infrastructure (compared to our nation's automobile infrastructure) is centralized, making it easier to switch over in a short time span. Since air travel accounts for almost 10% of US transportation emissions, this could be a significant reduction.
An added bonus: according to J.P. Morgan Chase (via Cleanbreak), jatropha-based jet fuel could be produced at $43 a barrel. With prices of peutroleum based fuel currently around $60 a barrel, that's a competitve price.
Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto has publicly announced a plan to use a lightly used freight rail line for commuter rail service between the city's Hazelwood and Lawrenceville neighborhoods. The commuter service will be via a diesel rail engine on a rail line that is only used by the Allegheny Railroad a few times each day. I like the idea a lot, but I think it is only feasible if it is part of a broader initiative to leverage existing rail infrastructure and, most importantly, if it is integrated with the current light rail line that services the south hills and downtown. Without the downtown link to Oakland I do not see a separate line having enough riders to justify the cost and effort. Still, the low cost of implementing the line (estimated to be $25 million compared to $1 billion + for the downtown to Oakland link) make it seem like a very low risk venture, and the type of thing that could spur new development and additional passenger rail lines throughout Pittsburgh, as the region has a lot of rail lines, some that are hardly used or not even used at all.
When I emailed Bill Peduto with my concerns about the proposed line needing a connector to downtown he wrote the following response:
There are a few “spur” options from the main line. One would be to use the existing Jail Trail (the old B&O line) to connect to the parking garage/ The T stop on Second Avenue downtown. Another would be to utilize an abandoned line from Lawrenceville through the Strip to a potential stop near the convention center and the MLK busway downtown. However it is important to note that this East End Express would connect the two proposals being discussed in Harrisburg the Pittsburgh-Greensburg run and the Pittsburgh-Kittanning run. It should also connect to the busway and the T.
Councilman Peduto also stated that he will soon be releasing a report on his proposed rail line.
While we are on the subject of regional rail initiatives, the plans to bring the Allegheny Valley Commuter rail line service from the Northeast Allegheny County / Route 28 corridor to downtown is moving forward, and it has a key sponsor in District 4 Congressman Jason Altmire, who a few months ago posted an announcement of his support of the project on his website. Despite the lack of rail projects in Mayor Ravenstahl's infrastructure stimulus wish list, it is good to know that some local officials like Altmire and Peduto are truly trying to move the region's transportation system forward.
Below is the Google Map I created to show the Peduto rail line and how it could link up to the proposed Allegheny Valley commuter line.
Year after year Pittsburgh is ranked as one of the US city's with the poorest air quality. Almsot two years ago I wrote a post titled "Why Pittsburgh's air quality sucks." A few months after that post I wrote another titled "America's most livable city is once again rated....most polluted?" Back then I called on the mayor, whom I did not oppose at the time, to do more to regulate diesel emissions in the city of Pittsburgh. Needless to say the mayor has done nothing of the sort, and Allegheny County and county executive Dan Onarato have done a great job ignoring our air quality problem as well.
We are perennial favorites to be ranked #1 or #2 for particulate matter pollution, but despite the rankings there are always those who want to blame the results of the surveys on the monitoring system in Clairton, which is home to a US Steel coke plant. Well thankfully Pittsburgh Quarterly's Jeffrey Fraser has written a fantastic report titled "The truth about Pittsburgh's air" in this month's PQ magazine. The magazine is currently in stores, or you can read the report and other PQ articles via PDF. I encourage you to at least check out the air quality report so you at least know the truth about how bad it is out there. Thanks for Jeffrey Fraser for putting this issue into print.
To see a history of my blog posts on pollution and Pittsburgh's air quality please click here.
Pittsburgh's mayor Luke Ravenstahl released his list of projects for the Obama administration's massive infrastructure program, which should should go into effect as early as Obama's first month in office.. The mayor announced his plan amid criticism from members of Pittsburgh city council, who were upset that the mayor did not submit the city's wish list to the US Conference of Mayors in time to be included in the group's Jobs and Infrastructure Report, although 427 other cities were able to do so. You can view that report here.
My first reaction after looking over the list of 110 projects was "Where is the green?" and "Where are the transit projects?" Where are the big and bold ideas for light rail and commuter rail, like the things we have proposed as part of CityLive's Transportation Wiki? I've compared Pittsburgh's list to the wishlists of other cities, such as Miami, which asked for funding for $3.4 in projects, including $280 million on a new streetcar system, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, which requested $2.3 billion in funding, with over $1 billion of that money being earmarked for renewable energy projects. Below is a list of the ten cities which requested the most money for infrastructure projects. (The jobs figures are so inflated that you shouldn't even pay mind to them)
Again, the mayor's plan left me asking for plans to expand the light rail to Oakland, or a massive plan for citywide energy efficiency initiatives, like Councilman Peduto's LED lighting plan. To be fair, a lot of the projects on the mayor's list are essential and are long overdue. Our sewer systems should have been upgraded decades ago, and Pittsburgh is not alone as many cities across the US are asking for money for water and waste related projects. But when looking for true green projects I only found a handful that even come close to being considered "green". These projects included bike trails, LED lighting along the trails, and new parks and green spaces. These 10 projects, listed below, represent $38 million of the $1.02 billion in requested funds, meaning only 3.3 % of the total that Mayor Ravenstahl is requesting is going to projects that will make Pittsburgh a greener city. This is a joke when stacked up against other cities, both larger and smaller than Pittsburgh, who realize that projects focused on renewable energy and energy efficiency, not to mention CO2 reductions, will be at the top of the Obama's administration's list of priorities.
A friend, who had reviewed the list earlier today, sent me an email with the following:
Where’s the leadership? Where’s the innovation? The imagination? Where’s the $%@$ creativity or inspiration?
That’s just a rote $%#@ laundry list of stuff that came out of the backs of reports that have been filed away in the City-County Building for years.
My thoughts exactly. As I said earlier, the mayor's plan does address some essential fixes to things which are in dire need of upgrades, but anyone who has been living in Pittsburgh for a few years could have recommended those projects. These are not the big bold ideas that we need to "move Pittsburgh forward", as the mayor likes to say often. Obama's stimulus plan will be an unprecedented opportunity to improve our transportation system and finally build out our light rail network, which still only serves the South Hills and downtown Pittsburgh. Other cities have put forth bold ideas that will make them more competitive not only here in the US but on a global scale as well. Like every other issue, this one shows the glaring weakness of Pittsburgh : the lack of bold leadership from our top public officials.
Joel Kotkin, author of "The City" and columnist on about all things pertaining to regional economics, wrote about how it is critical that the Obama administration determines which infrastructure projects are worthy of a piece of the several hundred billion dollars in infrastructure spending that he has promised. I couldn't agree more. Kotkin also singled out Pittsburgh and highlighted our "tunnel to nowhere" project as an example of how easy it is to waste half a billion on a needless infrastructure project:
Perhaps no place epitomizes misplaced priorities better than Pittsburgh. Widely hailed in the media as a poster child for the urban "renaissance," Pittsburgh has suffered a precipitous decline in population: Its 310,000 residents are less than half its 1950 peak. It now shares with parts of the former East Germany the gloomy demographic of having more residents die each year than are born.
Like other cities, Pittsburgh has sought to revive itself with billions in new stadiums, arenas and cultural facilities. Meanwhile, its roads and bridges are in a constant state of disrepair. Most recently, the city embarked on a scheme to create a 1.2-mile, $435 million transit tunnel under the Allegheny River to connect downtown's heavily subsidized towers with taxpayer-funded pro sports stadiums and a new casino. This "tunnel to nowhere," derided by a local columnist as the nation's "premier transit boondoggle," will no doubt be the sort of thing many states and localities will seek federal infrastructure funds for, justifying them on the basis of both short-term economic stimulus and some kind of "green" agenda.
Ouch. I can't say I disagree with Kotkin, and I think his points further emphasize the need for the NIB - the National Infrastructure Bank. We need to take the politics out of deciding which projects get federal funding, and an independent board on the NIB is a smart way to make sure that projects that have the highest probability of generating jobs and growth get the funding instead of projects where we have to import Japanese labor to bore holes under the Allegheny River.
Hopefully the North Shore Connector boondoggle doesn't hurt our chances for new infrastructure projects here in the burgh, but judging from Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's announcement today of the city of Pittsburgh's Stimulus plan wish list, it seems like instead of bold audacious projects, like commuter rail, streetcars, or linking downtown to the Oakland corridor, the mayor is playing it safe with projects such as a supermarket, and $10 million worth of asphalt. I am not kidding you - read for yourself. More on this in the next post.
Earlier today I received an email from the office of Pittsburgh city councilman Bill Peduto announcing an ambitious plan that will reduce Pittsburgh's carbon footprint while saving the city millions in electricity costs. Peduto, who has been the only city legislator to propose green legislation of any sort over the last few years, wants the city to convert all 40,000 of its street lamps to energy efficient LED lighting. The cost of the program will be around $24 million and will be paid using a combination of the annual costs savings and funding from the state's Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement. Pittsburgh would join cities such as Austin, Raleigh (home LED manufacturer CREE), and Toronto as major cities who have adopted LED lighting on a large scale. According to Peduto, Pittsburgh would be the largest city in the US to roll out a complete conversion to LED lighting. This would be great news for Pittsburgh's green agenda, especially in light of today's Pittsburgh Penguin's press conference, where they announced the 21 year naming rights deal for their new arena, which will be known as the Clean Coal Center.
Over six months ago, Councilman William Peduto launched a trial of LED lights along the Walnut Street business district. Today, he is submitting a proposal for Pittsburgh to replace all 40,000 existing street lights with 200 Watt LED lights.
THE BENEFITS:
1) Green – Financial
Pittsburgh currently spends $3.2 million each year in electricity costs for our street lights. With the reduction of 137W of energy used by each of the 40,000 lights in the City of Pittsburgh, taxpayers will save $1.92 million per year in energy costs.
Pittsburgh currently spends approximately $1 million each year maintaining our street lights. An HPS bulb has 2 - 4 year life span versus 10 - 15 years for an LED light. Additionally, an LED fixtures burns out one LED at a time, which is in contrast to the current lights HPS lights which completely blow out all at once. This is expected to save taxpayers approximately $700,000/year in maintenance costs.
2) Green - Environmental
A 200W LED light only uses 93W of power. However, the existing 150W High Power Sodium (HPS) bulbs use approximately 230W (includes the ballast) of power. Therefore, over the year, the City of Pittsburgh will save 600 kWh of energy. This translates into 984 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions eliminated by switching all lights to LED.
LED lights turn on and off instantly with no warm up time. The existing HPS bulbs have a slow warm up period that is a waste of energy. Additionally, the existing sodium bulbs contain mercury in the ballasts, LED lights have no mercury.
LED lights produce a white light that stimulates the rods and the cones of our eyes. This creates a higher quality white light, while using less energy than the HPS lights that only stimulate the cones of our eyes and produce a yellow-orange light.
THE COST:
Each LED light costs approximately $500 to purchase. Additionally, it would cost about $100 in labor/light in conversion costs. Therefore, the cost to replace 40,000 lights would be approximately $24 million.
PAYING FOR IT:
With a total cost of $24 million and an annual savings of $2,620,000 upon complete conversion, the City can fully payoff the LED conversion in 10.5 years.
Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement (GESA) can be utilized to cover the upfront costs of the LED conversion. According to the State, “Projects will be implemented where, through simple-payback analysis, cost savings resulting from energy conservation improvements exceed the associated financing. In other words, these guaranteed savings are used to cover operating budget finance payments over a period not to exceed fifteen years.
NEXT STEPS:
The City should issue a Request for Proposals (RFP’s) immediately requesting that all interested companies provide the City with ten test lights to install throughout business districts in the City for a six month trial (February 1, 2009 – July 31, 2009). During the trial period, measurements should be taken to determine the luminous intensity and the energy produced. Solar powered lights and those with photo-sensitive detectors that lessen the light during dusk and dawn should be included in the trial.
The City should award the contract no later than August 31, 2009, based on required conditions of the RFP process, reliability through trial phase, and long term financial and environmental impact. The contract should require work to begin no later than October 1, 2009 and completed by December 31, 2010.
The City should immediately submit an application with the State through the Guaranteed Energy Savings program.
The City should determine programs we can work with to properly dispose of the existing HPS lights. This could be done through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or a similar program.
Pittsburgh Penguins fans, prepare yourself for annoying advertising about how good coal is for you and our country. Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of misleading ads regarding Consol Energy's commitment to "clean coal", because the Pens just awarded Consol Energy, a coal company located right here in Southwestern PA, with the naming rights to their arena in deal worth a reported $5 million dollars a year. Prepare yourselves for an arena powered by, but filled with dirty filthy stinking coal industry representatives. KDKA news broke the story:
When the Penguins' new arena opens, it will have a new name.
KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan has learned that Consol Energy has won the naming rights.
The local coal and energy company is claiming more and more of a national and international spotlight. Next week, the Penguins will announce the sale of the arena naming rights to Consol on a long term basis for at least several million dollars a year.
The Penguins aren't commenting, but in a similar deal, the New Jersey Devils sold naming rights to their arena to Prudential Insurance for $5 million a year.
Here are a few reasons why I am particularly pissed off about this:
1. During the segment on KDKA, Andy Sheenan mentions Consol's development of "clean coal" as if it was a real thing. As we have seen, heard, and read time and time again coal is not clean, it is freaking dirty and toxic substance for Christ's sake, but remember, we shouldn't expect the media to report the facts, right? The media's failure to get on board with climate change and clean technologies is why this blog exists, after all.
And how could I omit this clean coal demonstration that is now hitting the airwaves across the US.
2.The second thing I have a problem with is that the media has made no mention of coal's negative impact on our environment. I'm not surprised that they have ignored the climate change issue, but come on, right here in our own backyard we have First Energy's Bruce Mansfield plant, which has been spewing and raining soot and toxins upon the families that live in the vicinity of the power plant in nearby Beaver County.
To the right is a picture of what is left after companies like Consol Energy perform their magic of mountaintop coal removal.
3. The third thing has to do with Pittsburgh's image. We were known as the smokey city throughout most of the 20th century due to the abundance of coke works and steel mills. The air is much cleaner now, and Pittsburgh is trying to position itself as a leading city in the new clean energy industry. But how can Pittsburgh be a true green city when its largest indoor sporting venue is named after a coal company? Burning coal to produce electricity is the biggest source of CO2 emissions, which, along with other green house gasses like methane, are the primary culprit behind climate change. How can the mayor of Pittsburgh say with a straight face that Pittsburgh is one of America's greenest city's when our professional hockey team is represented by one of the least green entities around, a friggin coal company.
4. Penguins fans, most of them at least, won't give a you know what about the decision and may even buy into this clean coal myth. From the sounds of the people interviewed in the KDKA story (above), the arena could be named after the Bin Laden family and it still wouldn't matter because, as the guy stated:
"As long as I can come see the Pens I don't care what they call the arena."
Way to be and sound like a dumb yinzer, buddy.
The irony of course is that a coal company's name will now adorn the arena of a hockey team named The Penguins. Climate change is causing a ripple effect that is warming the arctic and antarctic air and water, which is melting the ice at alarming rates, rates that are even more aggressive than the scientists predicted at least a decade before climate change and global warming were even brought to our attention. Real life penguins live in these areas, and the burning of coal and other fossil fuels will advance the melting of glaciers, which lead to the demise of animals such as polar bears and penguins unless something is done to drastically cut he amount of greenhouse gas emissions we are putting into the atmosphere. This is not likely to happen because corporations like Consol, who could be investing in ways to sequester their CO2 emissions, are instead investing their money on PR campaigns like the billboards and advertisements we see all around Pittsburgh, and now they are spending money on naming rights, which they will use as a strategy to further enhance their image and spread the word that they are actually the good guys, and that they are doing the right thing when it comes to developing this thing, this myth known as "clean coal.'
Bravo gentleman, and a big thank you to Mario Lemiuex, Ron Burkle, and the rest of the owners and management of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey franchise for bringing us the Consol Energy Arena, or "Clean Coal Place", or "We are the power behind America" arena, or whatever the hell these imbeciles and climate change deniers decide to call it.
This might be one of Obama's best cabinet selections to date. Dr. Steven Chu is your typical energy secretary, as he is not a politician or energy industry executive. Some had speculated that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was in the running to be Energy Secretary, and as Bill Richardson's two year tenure as Energy Secretary showed, politicians are the wrong choice as our nation's top energy chief The Wonk Room blog over at Think Progress had a nice write up on the announcement and this paragraph tells why Steven Chu is such an awesome choice as our next energy secretary.
It’s hard to decide if the selection of Dr. Chu is more remarkable for who he is — a Nobel laureate physicist and experienced public-sector administrator — or for who is not. Unlike previous secretaries of energy, he is neither a politician, oil man, military officer, lawyer, nor utility executive. His corporate ties are not to major industrial polluters but to advanced technology corporations like AT&T (where he began his Nobel-winning research) and Silicon Valley innovator Nvidia (where he sits on the board of directors). Chu is a man for the moment, and will be a singular addition to Obama’s Cabinet.
Here is a 9 minute clip of Dr. Chu at the last National Energy Summit. He is wicked smart when it comes to all things energy - he gets climate change, energy efficiency, and clean tech.
Popcity recently published an Op-Ed by Andy Hannah, CEO of Pittsburgh clean tech startup Plextronics. Hannah just returned from the Middle East, where he was on a trade mission with the US Department of Energy. Following his trip Mr. Hannah wrote about what he thinks the incoming administration needs to do to position the United States as the world leader in the clean technology and renewable energy.
The following are Hannah's steps for success:
Collaborate. Participate with other nations, such as the UAE, where the vision is to be the world leader in energy technology.
Compete. Establish a competitive platform that “reaches for the moon”. Let’s build a new city that has net zero carbon emissions or overhaul an existing city so that it has net zero carbon emissions. Let’s build a cluster of companies in a city that drives more than half of its economy from the export of energy technology.
Use our assets. All of our government properties could convert its energy sources from traditional energies to clean and alternative energy technology.
Win. What are the global visionaries expecting to achieve? Let’s double the ante.There are many efforts already in progress across the United States to establish excellence in clean and renewable energy technology.Sometimes they are loosely connected and most times they are independent in their efforts. As a country of ingenuity, invention and determination we need to harness all of those traits and drive a coordinated, nationwide effort to ensure that America’s clean-tech intellectual property is tomorrow’s oil.
Chris found 
