Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered Wednesday’s news conference in Madison where Mayor Cieslewicz, ELPC and others released a plan called “Build for America: A Five-Point Plan to Get Our Economy Moving.” The national plan calls for increased funding for rail and public transit, investing in cleaner cars, and better maintenance of our roads and bridges. The Mayor and ELPC were joined by Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, WisPIRG and 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin as part of the national Transportation for America campaign.
Read the full MJS article.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Will Steger has been an eyewitness to the on-going catastrophic consequences of global warming. A formidable voice calling for understanding and the preservation of the Arctic and the Earth, Steger is best known for his legendary polar explorations. He has traveled tens of thousands of miles by kayak and dogsled over 40 years, leading teams on some of the most significant polar expeditions in history. He also is the founder of the Will Steger Foundation, which is dedicated to creating programs that foster international leadership and cooperation through environmental education and policy.
Through his expeditions, Steger has witnessed first-hand the effects of global warming. He talked recently with the Environmental Law & Policy Center about what he has seen–and the urgency of taking action now.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
On the heels of the Wall Street bailout and hours before the final presidential debate, community and business leaders joined together at Chicago’s Union Station to call on the next President and Congress to invest in better transportation policies for our changing 21st century needs.
Kevin Brubaker, ELPC’s Deputy Director, called for increasing support for rail and public transportation, saying that “Amtrak ridership in Illinois continues to break records. We’ve shown that if you build it, they will come. We need a forward-thinking transportation policy that reflects citizens’ desire to get around in a green and affordable way.”
Read the press release. Listen to the CBS radio story.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Let’s face it. America’s economy is bad shape. Some will seize upon the troubled times to argue that we should cut back on investing in clean energy and environmental protection. But that’s the wrong direction both for today and for the future.
For today, energy efficiency makes even more sense in tight financial times. Businesses can’t afford to waste energy and drain their bottom lines from high energy bills, while causing more pollution to our environment. Improving energy efficiency is an investment that can achieve a healthy return. Smart businesses view their energy efficiency investments as a profit-center.
ELPC’s colleagues at the Alliance to Save Energy explain this well. “Industry accounts for one-third of all energy use in the U.S. Energy-intensive industrial plants typically have enormous energy bills, sometimes running into the millions of dollars annually. Energy efficiency improvements offer the potential for a significant return on investment for the industrial energy consumer in the form of lower utility bills, as well as for the public in the form of reduced pollution and energy prices.”
The same is true for improving energy efficiency in our homes. “Investing in a home on your street could be more profitable than investing on Wall Street,” says the energy team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These days — no kidding! Energy efficiency lightens the load on our energy bills and bank accounts. It’s a safe and sound investment.
The U.S. is beginning to invest more heavily in clean renewable energy technologies and cleaner, more fuel efficient cars of the future. Let’s invest in the clean wind power and solar technologies of the future and not cede the next generation’s global leadership to other countries. Let’s produce the innovative clean cars here that can get 50 miles per gallon or better and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Let’s gain the green jobs of the future in a carbon-constrained economy, and not cling only to the declining jobs of old-technology cars and trucks with declining sales.
We should invest more in upgrading energy efficiency because it saves us money, creates jobs and avoids pollution today and over the next twenty years. America should invest in achieving technological breakthroughs with solar energy, greater utilization of wind energy, and gaining advances in new, more efficient battery technologies. America should invest in getting more domestically manufactured plug-in electric hybrids and other clean cars on the road as soon as possible. In today’s challenging economic times, these investments are even smarter, more sensible and more necessary going forward.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
ELPC’s Howard Learner has been outspoken on the huge global warming pollution impacts of the eight planned oil refinery expansions in the Great Lakes region. He shared his views with a conference in Toronto entitled, “How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin: Pipelines, Refineries and Emissions to Air and Water.” The University of Toronto’s Munk Centre sponsored the event and issued an accompanying report that spells out the pollution linked to the refinery expansions that are needed to process tar sands crude, along with the new pipeline networks needed to transport the oil. The report says this creates a “pollution delivery system” connecting Alberta to the Great Lakes region of Canada and the U.S. Read the Toronto Globe and Mail article.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
These are tough economic times, and in times like these, businesses can’t afford to waste energy and drain their bottom lines from high energy bills. Smart businesses view their energy efficiency investments as a profit-center, argues ELPC President and Executive Director Howard Learner in his Southwest News Herald OpEd:
“Let’s face it. America’s economy is bad shape. Some will seize upon the troubled times to argue that we should cut back on investing in clean energy and environmental protection. But that’s the wrong direction both for today and for the future.
For today, energy efficiency makes even more sense in tight financial times. Businesses can’t afford to waste energy and drain their bottom lines from high energy bills, while causing more pollution to our environment. Improving energy efficiency is an investment that can achieve a healthy return. Smart businesses view their energy efficiency investments as a profit-center.”
Learn more at Howard’s blog here at elpc.org.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
What is Energy Efficiency?
Basically, it’s all about doing more with less. The majority of our homes, businesses and appliances waste a huge amount of electricity because they’re not efficient and don’t use modern, energy-saving technology. Improving energy efficiency is the best, fastest and cheapest way to meet our energy needs while reducing global warming pollution from power plants.
Why Is Energy Efficiency Important?
Energy production is one of the leading causes of global warming pollution as well as other health and environmental problems. For far too long, the Midwest – and the U.S. as a whole – has been dependent on dirty fossil fuel energy sources for electricity generation. Reducing the amount of energy we use will reduce the amount of pollution we create.
With skyrocketing energy costs, improvements in energy efficiency – and reductions in energy usage – can not only reduce negative impacts to our environment and to our health, they can save us money! The more efficiently we use energy, the less we pollute and the more money we save. It’s as simple as that.
What is ELPC Doing to Advance Energy Efficiency?
Energy efficiency is a key part of ELPC’s Clean Energy Program. Using America’s energy more efficiently will improve environmental quality and public health by reducing both the pollution from coal plants and the environmental, public health and safety risks from nuclear plants. Efficiency saves consumers money and is the fastest, cleanest and cheapest way to meet our energy needs.
ELPC’s overall goal is to accomplish a transition from the region’s current resource portfolio, currently comprised almost exclusively of nuclear and older coal-burning plants, toward a more diverse, more sustainable and less polluting portfolio including wind energy, biomass and energy efficiency.
Monday, October 6, 2008
ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner argues at the Chicago Huffington Post that the recent economic downturn should be pushing us to invest in clean energy. Investing in energy efficiency cuts wasteful spending on high energy bills and prevents added pollution.
“For today, energy efficiency makes even more sense in tight financial times. Businesses can’t afford to waste energy and drain their bottom lines from high energy bills, while causing more pollution to our environment. Improving energy efficiency is an investment that can achieve a healthy return. Smart businesses view their energy efficiency investments as a profit-center.”
Read the full post.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A Climate Action Plan unveiled today by the City of Chicago calls for the city to slash emissions of global warming gases by the year 2020.
The plan–which was developed by a Task Force convened by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2007–was announced at a news conference at the Shedd Aquarium along with leaders from the business and the not-for-profit sectors, state and local government officials and residents.
ELPC President and Executive Director Howard Learner served on the task force and joined Mayor Daley and the city’s chief environmental officer, Sadhu Johnston, in announcing the plan.
The Mayor stressed that the effort will require an enormous amount of hard work and cooperation and the commitment of not only government but also every individual, business and institution in the city.
“This is an ambitious plan that contains many important ideas that will ensure Chicago continues to distinguish itself as an environmental role model for the rest of the nation,” Daley said.
Under the plan, the City will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels (1990 levels are the recommended baseline according to the Kyoto Protocol).
Other cities have set similar goals, but Chicago’s plan is the first to both identify emission sources and anticipated impacts, and propose ideas that specifically respond to that research.
The Chicago Climate Action Plan outlines a roadmap of 29 actions that might be taken for mitigating greenhouse gas in four areas: buildings; transportation; energy; and waste pollution. Experts identified these sources are being responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions in Chicago. The Plan also identifies nine actions that could help the city adapt to the changes already occurring.
Mayor Daley indicated several ideas included in the plan will be acted upon right away, including:
- A “Green Office Challenge” that will spur high rise office buildings to save energy, increase recycling and water efficiency and reduce paper.
- An updated Chicago Energy Efficiency Building Code, which will bring our current code up to international standards and be easier to understand.
- And innovative ways to help property owners save money by making their buildings more energy efficient.
Because the Chicago Climate Action Plan takes a long-term approach, it will be evaluated over time to determine where these actions should be modified or revised. This flexible approach allows for the accommodation of new technologies, new laws and new opportunities as they evolve.
The city unveiled a new Climate Action Plan website to support the initiative, including an $800 Savings Challenge calculator that lets consumers estimate global warming gas emission reductions–and dollar savings–from a variety of action steps they can take.
News coverage
What city wants you to do to cut greenhouse gases – Chicago Tribune
Chicago unveils multifaceted plan to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases – The New York Times
Chicago tackles climate change – Chicago Public Radio
Chicago outlines plan to slash greenhouse gases – Southtown Star/Associated Press
Press release - from the CIty of Chicago [pdf file]
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The naysayers keep arguing that reducing global warming pollution is too expensive, too hard, will cost too much money and will irreparably harm our economy. But the facts say otherwise, ELPC President and Executive Director Howard Learner argues over at Huffington Post:
“We’ve heard this refrain before. Seat belts supposedly would dramatically increase the costs of cars, make no safety difference and wouldn’t be used by drivers and riders. Catalytic converters supposedly wouldn’t really reduce pollution and would make cars unaffordable. Reducing sulfur dioxide that causes acid rain supposedly would cost electric utilities $2,000 – $3,000 per ton, cause electric rates to skyrocket and not help the environment very much….
“…So when you hear that economic disaster will somehow befall the United States if we step up and act to help solve our global warming problems, think about the facts, the above history, and Americans’ capacity for technological innovation, especially when given the right mix of regulatory and financial market incentives.”
Read the full post here.
