March 5th, 2013
So many options, so little time. At least the choices for washers (though not dryers) have become ever more energy and water efficient. Here’s our advisory for 2013.

So many options, so little time. At least the choices for washers (though not dryers) have become ever more energy and water efficient. Here’s our advisory for 2013.
Tags: · appliances, conserve water, Consumer Reports, dryers, energy efficiency, Energy Star, Samsung, washers
The Obama Administration released its revised environmental assessment of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline on Friday, portraying the project as a relatively safe way to transport oil from fields in Canada and North Dakota to the US heartland and ports at Houston. The review has riled environmentalists and pleased oil interests.
Tags: · Climate Change, energy efficiency, environment, Fossil Fuels, Keystone pipeline, Obama Administration, pipeline review, tar sands extraction
A growing number of major U.S. companies, led by the nation’s largest big-box retailers, are installing rooftop solar power systems to help cut energy costs and increase profits, a new report says. According to the report, released by the Solar Energ…
Tags: · Costco, energy efficiency, Greener Businesses, Kohl's, renewables, SEIA, solar installations, Solar Power, Walmart

A green curtain at Kyocera in Kagoshima Sendai plant features morning glories and goya.
Tags: · diy, edibles, energy efficiency, green curtains, Kyocera, plants, shade, vines
A new report by the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy shows that energy efficiency is the least costly way to lower consumer electricity bills.
Tags: · ACEEE, electricity conservation, Energy Conservation, energy efficiency, energy efficient building, low cost electricity, report on energy conservation
The media seems intent on giving climate skeptics much more than equal time. On Monday, the New York Times printed a cover story about the last arrow in the climate skeptics arsenal, the argument that cloud cover will adjust to a warming world and let more heat escape to space.
Tags: · Amory Lovins, Andrew Winston, climate debate, Empire State Building, energy efficiency, energy savings, Hunter Lovins, OtherVoicesBlog, solving carbon emissions
College students looking for ways to make the world more sustainable found ways to use manure, coal byproducts, rice hulls and even spinach to save energy or create needed products from waste materials.
Tags: · college sustainability projects, college team competition, energy efficiency, EPA awards, Recycle & Reuse, Solar, waste capture
$1 Trillion – Profits earned by the top five largest oil companies Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and foreign-owned BP and Royal Dutch Shell came to nearly $1 trillion for the 10 years from 2001-2011.
$4 Billion – Total Annual US Subsidies to oil companies.
Tags: · Big Five oil companies, energy efficiency, oil and gas, oil subsidies, oil subsidies at $1 trillion, Renewable Energy, Senate debate on oil subsidies
While we are all enjoying the ho-ho-ho holiday season, we are perhaps less giddy when reminded that this also is end-of-year tax planning season. But the Alliance to Save Energy is urging American consumers to give themselves the gift of energy efficiency this holiday season – and reap the benefits when they file their 2011 federal tax returns – by taking advantage of tax credits for energy efficiency home improvements.
Tags: · Alliance to Save Energy, boilers, central air conditioners, energy efficiency, exterior doors, furnaces, heat pumps, insulation, roofs, storm doors, water heaters
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) CEO Rick Fedrizzi praised the job-creating infrastructure improvements proposed in the American Jobs Act, outlined by the president in a public address on Thursday.
“It is clear that we must rebuild and modernize our increasingly brittle built environment,” said Fedrizzi, the founding chair of the USGBC, in a statement. The USGBC promotes more efficient buildings and construction methods.
Tags: · American Jobs Act, energy efficiency, energy security, green building, Green Schools, greenrightnow.com, jobs, USGBC
The txchnologist blog, sponsored by GE, has assessed several famous rooftops in the Big Apple to see how solar could reduce the building’s electricity costs.
Celebrities like Madonna could save a lot — and could afford the installation costs — of solar, according to the blog, which challenges the wealthy and famous to think about it.
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, concerns about fracking, energy efficiency, GE, General Electric, greenrightnow.com, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase, Madonna, natural gas, natural gas fracking, New York City, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, water contamination from fracking, Wind Power
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
You’d think that new light bulb efficiency standards would be a pretty basic matter. Light bulbs, after all, didn’t change much for more than 100 years. At home, we used the classic household incandescent. At work, we toiled under rows of tubular fluorescent lights.
Astronauts blasted off to the moon. The Internet revolutionized communication. Light bulbs stayed the same.
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, CFL lights, energy efficiency, greenrightnow.com, LED lights, light bulb efficiency, light bulbs, Rep. Joe Barton