Focusing on the top 20%

Even if every house on your street looks the same, there's a good chance they're emitting vastly different amounts of pollution, according to a new study published by Environmental Science and Technology.

Researchers found that 21% of the households in the investigated region were responsible for 50% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. If those homes cut their emissions in half, the total emissions for the whole community would be reduced by 25%.

Wondering if you are in the top 20%? Get a home energy assessment and start saving right away. 

Greenhouse Gas emissions come from more than your car

Here is a very cool way of thinking about the footprint of what we buy from the Seattle Climate Action Plan. 

Massachusetts has best solar policies

The folks over at Solar Power Rocks have gone through the solar policies of all 50 US states in order to rank them all. 

Go ahead and give yourself a big ole' pat on the proverbial back Massachusetts, you're tops in the nation for solar power! With an overall score of approximately 4.4 out of 5 possible suns (the other stars are great, but it's ours that provides all the clean renewable energy), Massachusetts narrowly edges out Maryland and New York as the friendliest state in the nation for investing in a residential solar power system. 

For a quick glance at the results, here's a colorful infographic from Solar Power Rocks

Palo Alto going 100% renewable

The city of Palo Alto (CA) has set a goal of 100% carbon-free power for its municipal utility. To achieve this goal, they are going solar in a big way…and with some mindblowing results.

The utility just signed 80 MW worth of contracts with 3 solar plants (40 MW, 20 MW, and 20 MW) at a great price: 6.9 cents/kWh over a 30 year term. Try building a new nuke or coal plant at that price.

The total output of these 3 solar plants are enough to serve about 18% of the city's load, well over the 65,000 residential customers in the city.

When these contracts come online, the city will be powered by 48% renewable energy by 2017. Quite a bit higher than the current state requirement of 33% by 2020.

And the cost impact? 1/11th of a penny per kWh. That's right. When the city approves renewable energy contracts they calculate the difference between the levelized cost of the renewable resource and the levelized cost of a comparable amount of non-renewable market power for the same period (doing their best to estimate the all-in delivered cost for both products, adjusting for time-of-delivery, transmission costs, capacity value, etc.) They use that difference to determine the net impact of the contract on the City's average retail rates. So far, they calculate the total rate impact of all of their renewables contracts to be in the range of 0.11 cents/kWh.

The plants are to be built on distressed agricultural land in Fresno, Stanislaus, and Los Angeles counties. To better ensure project viability, developers put up $30 – $35/kW in development assurance.

One more time, so it sinks in: Palo Alto is buying 80 MW of solar at 6.9cents/kWh, on track to reach 48% renewables by 2017, and all at a cost-premium over non-renewable market rates of a de minimis 0.11 cents/kWh. Truly remarkable.

These guys are early contender for utility solar champion of the decade.

http://blog.cleantechies.com/2013/06/20/palo-alto-municipal-utility-going-big-on-solar/

2.5 million gallon spill from Northern Alberta pipeline

Northern Alberta pipeline was only five years old before massive 2.5 million gallon toxic spill.

The substance is the inky black colour of oil, and the treetops are brown. Across a broad expanse of northern Alberta muskeg, the landscape is dead. It has been poisoned by a huge spill of 9.5 million litres of toxic waste from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta, the third major leak in a region whose residents are now questioning whether enough is being done to maintain aging energy infrastructure. 

"Every plant and tree died" in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha First Nation, whose members run traplines in an area that has seen oil and gas development since the 1950s.

Neither Apache nor Alberta initially disclosed the spill, which was only made public after someone reported it to a TV station late last week. Bob Curran, a spokesman for the ERCB, defended the late release of information, saying it took 10 days to determine the size of the spill. "The second we knew the volumes, we put out a news release," he said. Asked how it could take so long to determine the severity of a large spill, he said Wednesday: "We didn't know it was over 42 hectares. We found that out last night."  [Globe and Mail]

The spill has affected 42 hectares (104 acres) near Zama City, Alta., less than 100 kilometres from the Northwest Territories border. The local Dene Tha First Nation has reported extensive damage to vegetation and forest in the spill area; aerial photos show a broad strip of trees that have turned brown.

But Mr. Wall said it is "kind of puzzling" why the pipeline leaked, given its relative youth.

It was what he called a "premium flex line that was coated inside and out" and designed for decades of use. "We just need to get this all cleaned up, get it reclaimed, do the remediation – then we'll figure out what happened."

He declined comment on how long the leak had continued before it was detected. Based on the browning of trees, the Dene Tha suspect it has been a longstanding spill – perhaps dating back to the winter. [Globe and Mail]

Still finding tar balls on Gulf Coast beaches

Finding tar balls linked to the BP oil spill isn't difficult on some Gulf Coast beaches, but the company and the government say it isn't common enough to keep sending out the crews that patrolled the sand for three years in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

A photo from Auburn University researchers shows various sized tarballs (marked with red dye)

Tourist John Henson of Atlanta disagrees, particularly after going for a walk in the surf last week and coming back with dark, sticky stains on his feet. Henson said there were plenty of tar balls to remove from the stretch of beach where he spent a few days, regardless of what any company or government agency might say.

Environmental advocates and casual visitors alike are questioning the Coast Guard decision to quit sending out BP-funded crews that have looked for oil deposits on northern Gulf Coast beaches on a regular basis since the 2010 spill spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf after an explosion and fire that killed 11 workers.

The patrols ended this month as coastal monitoring reverted to the way it operated before the spill: The Coast Guard investigates beach pollution reported by the public through a federal system, the National Response Center, and conducts cleanup operations as needed. [Fox News]

Sea level is rising at an alarming pace along the east coast

Sea level is rising and at an alarming pace - especially along the east coast. [UCS]