A.M. Greenlist: City's conventional lightbulbs = wasted taxpayer money

>> L.A. city offices aren't installing CFLs fast enough, says city controller Laura Chick, who found only 102 out of 958 buildings managed by the city's General Services Department have installed energy-efficient fluorescent lighting. Installing just those bulbs costs about $5 million -- and saved the city $1.5 million off the city's annual electricity bill. Earlier: Energy Week: Roundup of savings

>> Why're people still fighting over the Expo line? Steve Hymon writes about his chat with Damien Goodmon, who's leading a group trying to force a chunk of the Expo to be built underground instead of at grade. "I asked Goodmon why he thinks high school students –- many presumably pretty smart kids –- will get hit by the train at Farmdale when there will be crossing gates.... He rejected the comparison to Blair [High School, located 2 blocks from the Gold Line light rail] -– saying many more students will cross tracks at Dorsey. He also rejected my assertion that his own argument over environmental justice and racism has a sour tinge -- that perhaps he's suggesting that Dorsey students, many of whom are minorities, aren’t smart enough to stay off active railroad tracks."

>> More solar for SoCal. Southern California Edison plans to buy 245 megawatts of power -- enough electricity for about 160,000 homes -- from solar plants to be built in the Antelope Valley by ESolar Inc. The plants are expected to begin operating in 2011.

>> No, nuclear isn't cheap, clean energy, writes Joseph Romm in Salon. "Nuclear power still has so many problems that unless the federal government shovels tens of billions of dollars more in subsidies to the industry, and then shoves it down the throat of U.S. utilities and the public with mandates, it is unlikely to see a significant renaissance in this country. Nor is nuclear power likely to make up even 10 percent of the solution to the climate problem globally."

>> Discovery's new green channel Planet Green debuts at 6 tonight. Check out the lineup, including Alter Eco, "an eco lifestyle and makeover series" presented by a very grizzly-looking Adrian Grenier.

>> Going on a carbon emissions diet? Umbra of Grist recommends a few carbon footprint calculators to get you started. 

Photo by Adam via Flickr

Comments

[sheila]

every single one of these stories points towards ONE solution - point of use renewable power and conservation is the only sustainable option. you can't waste energy, kill off wilderness areas, bury radioactive waste, and destroy homes and neighborhoods with massive new powerlines!!! that era is OVER.

everyone needs to appeal to their elected reps (local, state and federal) to get OUR money diverted back to US so we can install our own local, clean, reliable energy and profit from excess energy we feed to the grid. if we don't, they will continue destroying our beautiful places (LADWP, the waster of all the electricity in the first story is going to destroy the Joshua Tree region with massive powerlines and "wind and solar farms" instead of letting us have solar panels!!!), they will continue devaluing our properties, decreasing the reliability of their overly-centralized grid, and increasing our dependence on The Man for power that belongs to us!!!