>> Solar power project faces opposition from environmentalists because power company San Diego Gas & Electric's pushing for a 150-mile high-voltage transmission line that'll run through the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. (via Grist)
>> The technology for five solar thermal power fields planned for the Mojave Desert is being tested in Israel. A company called BrightSource is behind the project, described as the world's "highest-performing, lowest-cost" sun-energy system.
>> Starting this winter, L.A. plans to seed clouds to boost rainfall. Critics call the measure desperate, pointing out that public funds may be better used for water conservation measures, as the results of seeding are unpredictable and could cause landslides.
>> Heal the Bay's L.A. River cleanup project attracted more than 2,500 volunteers, who fished out "plastic bags, foam cups, beer bottles, spray paint cans and smashed shopping carts" from the Glendale Narrows.
>> New eco-channel Planet Green gets a thumbs down from Troy Patterson at Slate.com: "Planet Green turns the entire Earth into a lifestyle accessory, often to uniquely awful effect." Troy does concede that "Some of the home-improvement shows are engaging and impressive, and a forthcoming show called Greensburg, about the reconstruction of a tornado-ravaged town in Kansas, has promise."
 >> Speed date environmentalists. A Green Speed Dating event happens on Sunday, 6:15 p.m. - 9 p.m., at The Hideout, 112 W. Channel Rd., Santa Monica.
>> Take a staycation in downtown L.A. Eric Richardson of blogdowntown wonders, however, whether downtown L.A.'s public transportation system is up to the task, especially for those evening hours and the weekends.
>> Get rid of those vinyl shower curtains -- and vinyl in general. "Vinyl shower curtains sold at major retailers across the country emit toxic chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems, according to a report released today by a national environmental organization."
>> Start a no-dig garden and grow your own food using "a low-water, sustainable technique." Farmer Pat Marfisi practices what he preaches in the Hollywood Hills: "I haven't watered in 10 days," he says. "This is what I want people to know: You can have beauty and abundance without a lot of water."
>> Grow your own alfalfa sprouts using cheesecloth, clean pantyhose, or other alternatives.
>> Follow the trend and get on the bus.
"The MTA released its May ridership numbers for its buses and rail
lines and ridership on the rail side was up six percent over May 2007
from 7,192,173 in May 2007 to 7,625,541 this past May."
 Summer's almost here, so get some sun! Besides enjoying the beach, maybe this is the summer you'll start harnessing some of the solar energy for your home -- especially since Californians have lots of rebates and financing options available for home solar systems.
If you're fuzzy on the short- and long-term costs and benefits of installing solar panels, a sun-powered event happening on Monday can help. Titled "Solar by the Numbers: 2008 Financing Options for Home Solar Systems," this informative panel will illuminate "new ways to finance the installation of solar electric and solar thermal systems ... -- options that weren’t available even a year ago."
When: Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, Multi-Purpose Room (2nd floor), 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica
Cost: Free; reserve a space by calling (310) 458-4992
The event's put together by Solar Santa Monica, part of Santa Monica’s Office of Energy and Green Building Programs, so the panel discussion will be most relevant to Santa Monica residents, as well as solar manufacturers and installers, financiers, and real estate investors who do work in Santa Monica.
Speakers include Gary Groff of New Resource Bank, one of Solar Santa Monica’s financial partners; Nat Kreamer of Sun Run, a company that provides solar electricity through a guaranteed power purchase agreement; and Maurice “Mo” Rousso of Helio Micro Utility Inc., which offers renewable energy financial products.
If you do sign up to get state rebates for installing solar power, make sure you really do take action within 12 months. The San Francisco Business Times reported earlier this month that "More than one in eight homeowners and businesses that signed up for lucrative state solar power rebates have dropped out without installing a system, leaving $9 million in "stranded" incentives trapped in the California Solar Initiative program." This means new people who sign up -- and actually install a solar system -- will qualify only for smaller rebates. Be a good neighbor; keep the solar promises you make.
Photo by Mike Spasoff via Flickr
Got a lightbulb joke? Send it in to Sierra Club, which today kicked off its new campaign, Lightbulbs to Leadership. The goal: to "remind Americans that it takes more than changing lightbulbs to fix global warming –- it takes changing the will of our leaders." Here's the front page joke on the Lightbulbs to Leadership site right now: Q. How many conservatives does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. None. They liked the old one so much that nothing could compare to it.
The campaign's trying to spread the message with short animated parodies, all themed around lightbulb jokes.
Lightbulbs to Leadership won't be all sarcastic doom and gloom; the campaign will also highlight the economic benefits of moving toward a Clean Energy Economy. So send in your best joke -- and push our leaders to do more than just change their lightbulbs.
Sadly, the city of L.A. hasn't even managed to change out its lightbulbs yet -- costing taxpayers like you and me millions in inflated energy costs.
>> Too many Californians are not actually installing solar systems after signing up to get rebates. "More than one in eight homeowners and businesses that signed up for lucrative state solar power rebates have dropped out without installing a system, leaving $9 million in "stranded" incentives trapped in the California Solar Initiative program." This means new people who sign up -- and actually install a solar system -- will qualify only for smaller rebates. (via Treehugger)
>> The top 5 coolest green building products, as voted on by 679 home-building professionals. A tankless water heater tops the list. (via Jetson Green)
>> The California Energy Commission gave $1 million to San Francisco to build a grease-to-biodiesel facility, expected to be completed this December. Some private biodiesel producers aren't happy about it.
>> The next Green Business Networking event happens from 6-9 p.m. tonight at the Ambrose Hotel, 1255 20th St., Santa Monica. Cover's $10; free wine and organic appetizers once you're in.
>> Missed the L.A. River Ride on Sunday? Damien Newton at Streetsblog LA has a pictorial recap. Ride vicariously.
Photo by Mike Spasoff via Flickr
Last year, the Los Angeles Film Festival had a "Green Day," showcasing 50 short eco-films and lining a block in Westwood with a few green booths (photo above). This year, the festival has declared its plans to incorporate environmentalism into more aspects of its festivities, happening June 19-29.
Most impressively, the festival is supporting local food: "catering will use organically-grown produce purchased from local farms within a 150-mile radius of Los Angeles," announces the press release -- though exactly how much of the food will be local isn't specified. The festival will also use biodiesel-fueled generators.
Aside from those, the steps are rather unremarkable things to be sending out a press release about, in the vein of "We'll use recycled paper -- then recycle it! Also, we'll buy carbon offsets!"
Still, the greening's a step forward for the film and television industry, which is known as the second largest contributor of criteria air pollutants in the L.A. metro area. SoCal film festivals' efforts to go green is something I noted last year, when all of them started sending out press releases about how they plan to include an eco-themed film or two. Hopefully these efforts will get darker green each year.
Photo by Siel
>> A Q&A about the subway to the sea, written by Steve Hymon of Bottleneck Blog. Summary of his post: The route for the subway hasn't been picked yet, the money isn't there, and assuming those obstacles are overcome, it'll still be 2 years until the line starts getting built.
>> Summer excursions, car-free! That's the next live Web chat topic with Metro Board Chair Pam O'Connor, happening noon to 1 p.m. on June 18 at metro.net/chat. According to Metro's press release, "Chair O'Connor will also be available to discuss the potential half cent sales tax dedicated to Los Angeles County transit projects and other transportation issues."
>> The L.A. River Ride happens tomorrow! Tune up your bikes now, and register on-site early tomorrow morning; online registration's now closed.
>> L.A.'s Bike Advisory Committee comments on the City’s Bike Master Plan. Top item on the BAC's comments: "Identify why many policies and recommendations in the previous bicycle master plan have not been implemented." The BAC's action comes after much critique from the bicycling community about BAC's inaction and ineffectiveness -- perhaps a contributing factor as to why not much has been done with the previous master plan.
>> Yet another reason why nuclear energy's unpopular: "Under current plans, the casks of nuclear waste material awaiting burial at Yucca Mountain could be sent into a "chaotic melee of bouncing and rolling juggernauts" in an earthquake, according to Holtec International, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of nuclear waste storage systems.
Photo by Liz O. Baylen, L.A. Times
 >> 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
 >> Water: The new dwindling resource. Writes Mark Clayton in the Christian Science Monitor: "Global water markets, including drinking water distribution, management, waste treatment, and agriculture are a nearly $500 billion market and growing fast, says a 2007 global investment report. But governments pushing to privatize costly-to-maintain public water systems are colliding with a global “water is a human right” movement." Earlier: Water Week.
>> L.A. River: May lose federal protections. "The city's river can't even float enough boats to qualify as a full-fledged navigable waterway, according to the Army Corps of Engineers." Earlier: June 8: A popular day for touring the L.A. River.
>> Nuclear: Not attracting investors. "Capitalists instead favor climate-protecting competitors with less cost, construction time, and financial risk. The nuclear industry claims it has no serious rivals, let alone those competitors — which, however, already outproduce nuclear power worldwide and are growing enormously faster." (via grist)
>> BioBlitz: Biodiversity, measured in the Santa Monica mountains. "More than just a species count, it aims to connect scientists who might not typically work together and to give non-scientists a firsthand look at what biodiversity -- the wealth of different life forms that exist on the planet -- is all about."
>> Coral reefs: Biodiversity, disappearing. "The culprit here is carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming and that also is turning our oceans into an acid bath," writes Margaret Wertheim, co-creator of the Crochet Coral Reef Project, in an op-ed.
>> Debunked: Some gas saving myths. Neither filling up in the morning nor changing your air filter will improve your gas mileage.
Photo by Third Eye via Flickr
 >> Oil companies are hardly going green, writes Edward Silver in Money & Co. "In February, BP said it would regard its impressive solar and wind operations strictly for their equity value and might spin them off. So much for Beyond Petroleum. More recently, Royal Dutch Shell withdrew from a landmark wind project in Britain and in 2006 sold the lion’s share of its solar interests to a German firm."
>> Exxon didn't pass any green proposals considered at the shareholder meeting yesterday. "All were opposed by Exxon's board of directors," and the directors prevailed. Earlier: Exxon good at making money, not good at embracing change.
>> Chevron paid to have me shot in Nigeria, writes Larry Bowoto in an op-ed about his federal lawsuit against Chevron Corp.
>> Signs of green energy growth: Junk mail goes eco, moving beyond oil schemes to “Renewable Energy Technology System” schemes. (via Grist)
>> Real new green energy coming down the pipeline: "green crude" made from algae that could be used for fuel.
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