A.M. Greenlist: Fun, fights, and fuels
>> First, don't forget the fun Earth Day stuff happening today, from a picnic to the musical performances at Green Apple Festival on the Santa Monica Pier.
>> Enjoy a guilt-free cupcake tomorrow. Between Apr. 21 to 25, Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills will send the proceeds of its vanilla cupcakes -- decorated with green trees -- to eco-orgs including local groups TreePeople and Surfrider Foundation.
>> The fights between public and private utility companies in California point to the difficulty of setting up a system to cut greenhouse gases without other states' agreeing to the same goals. Our state law requires reducing greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, which means utilities need to cut back their coal use -- but much of that coal-fueled power's imported from other states. Public utilities import generally use more of this "dirty" power, which means they'll be more heavily affected by the laws than some of the for-profit utility companies.
>> The fight at Lovecraft Biofuels, Silver Lake's greasoline station, has gotten ugly, with the current and previous owners burying each other in legal files.
>> Meanwhile, a conference on California's Low-Carbon Fuel Standard took a look at our "complex "poly-fuel" future." The fuel standard requires that the average carbon footprint of vehicle fuels decrease by 10% from 2006 levels by 2020.
>> Staying home on Earth Day? Turn on PBS and watch cohosts of NPR's Car Talk Tom and Ray Magliozzi in "Car of the Future," a funny program that looks at the future in green automobiles. The show airs 8 pm on KCET; preview's below.
