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Introduction to Solar Energy Systems


Next in the BCAN Speaker Series:
*'Introduction to Solar Energy Systems'*
*Thursday, November 19th, 2009, 6 - 8:30 PM

/_JEFF BLANKMAN_/* of Sunnyside Solar will answer your questions on practical aspects of getting started with photovoltaic or solar thermal systems in the home or office. He is also an expert in energy efficiency analysis. Also */_CHERYL WADE_/*, solar energy advocate and co-owner of the solar-powered Mill Valley Garden Center (which takes the locally grown concept to a new level). She will discuss opportunities and barriers with net metering: selling excess energy back to the grid. Questions &amp; Answers, light fare. Free of charge. $5 optional contribution appreciated. Sponsored by the Baltimore Climate Action Network: <a href="http://www.baltimoreclimate.org">http://www.baltimoreclimate.org</a>;. Mill Valley General Store, 2800 Sisson St., Baltimore 21211 RSVP appreciated but not required: mail@baltimoreclimate.org or 410-812-1447.
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Utilities Lagging On Efficiency Goals


As millions of Marylanders face sticker-shock every time they open their utility bill, Maryland PIRG is working to hold our state’s utility companies accountable to lower bills.

None of our state’s utilities are on track to meet the Maryland PIRG-backed statewide energy efficiency goal that could lower bills nearly $4 billion by 2020.

Slow Progress
BGE was the first utility to have its initial slate of programs approved by the Public Service Commission (PSC), but even once all those programs are implemented, the company will fall dramatically short of the statewide goal. The state’s other utilities just got their initial programs approved in August, more than two years after the law was passed.

High Cost Of Delay
Every month the utility companies delay has consequences. Another family will have to choose between paying for groceries and keeping the lights on. Our power grid becomes less reliable and more vulnerable to brownouts and blackouts, and money that could be used to help boost our local economy instead ends up going into the pocket of energy company executives.

Holding Utilities Accountable
This fall, Maryland PIRG staff will meet with the regulators and urge them to crack down on the utility companies. And in January we’ll hold a series of news conferences throughout the state to release a scorecard that assesses how well each of the utility companies is complying with the law.

We’ll bring that research along with citizen support to decision-makers at the Public Service Commission and the Maryland General Assembly to urge them to hold BGE and PepCo’s feet to the fire and require them to put their money where their mouth is on energy efficiency

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Time is running out for Parks & People's Fall Tree Sale!! Take advantage now!


To anyone with a desire to improve the environment, help fund a non-profit or simply beautify a space.
Time is almost out for Parks &amp; People's Fall Tree Sale. You have less than two weeks to purchase native Maryland trees and help Baltimore become greener!
Please consider purchasing one or more native Maryland trees for your home, work or perhaps even a greening project. You have the opportunity to choose from 11 different species of tree, including Sugar Maple, Red Maple, River Birch, Eastern Redbud, Black Walnut, Eastern Red Cedar, American Sycamore, Bald Cypress, Swamp White Oak, Pin Oak and Red Oak. All orders must be received by Parks &amp; People no later than Monday, October 26, 2009. (This includes coupons.) Procedes from this sale help to keep Parks &amp; People greening the envirionment and educating youth as well as adults about our environment and how to protect it.
*Special for this sale* $25 off of trees costing over $50 with Marylanders Plant Trees Coupon!

To order, please download and mail in our order form (along with any coupons), or call 410-448-5663 x101 and place an order over the phone (coupons must be signed and dropped off or mailed in), or swing by our office and fill out a form here. Trees ordered will be available for pickup on Saturday, October 31st from 9 a.m. until noon.
Order forms can be found and downloaded from <a href="http://www.parksandpeople.org/programs_social_enterprises_tree_sale.html">http://www.parksandpeople.org/programs_social_enterprises_tree_sale.html</a>;
Coupons can be found and downloaded from <a href="http://www.trees.maryland.gov/pdfs/coupon.pdf">http://www.trees.maryland.gov/pdfs/coupon.pdf</a>;
All mailed-in orders should be sent to Parks &amp; People Foundation Stieff Silver Building 800 Wyman Park Drive Suite 010 Baltimore, MD 21211. Please note on the envelope that contents are for our Fall Tree Sale.
We thank you in advance for your purchases and greening efforts!
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Weekly Announcements and Upcoming Events from the Office of Sustainability


Take SustainLane’s Local Action Challenge for Baltimore

SustainLane’s Local Action Challenge is a way for you to make a difference on the ground level in Baltimore . As global decision-makers prepare to hammer out a new climate treaty at the December 2009 Climate Conference in Copenhagen , the Hopenhagen movement inspires local, on-the-ground action in communities across the US . Grab a camera, and join the movement. Take SustainLane’s Local Action Challenge, and win prizes every week! For more information visit http://www.sustainlane.com/local-action and look for Baltimore ’s page.

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Cars, Air Pollution and Health


Update Oct. 2009: Driving a car is the most polluting act an average citizen commits.
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Cars have two opposite personalities. One is friendly and attractive the other is destructive and can be lethal.
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Emissions from passenger vehicles increased in Canada and the US despite attempts to make engines more fuel efficient and despite the addition of antipollution devices. The two main reasons were: 1. vehicle use increased 2. in the US and Canada, cars were getting bigger; pick-up trucks, vans and sports vehicles often replaced smaller, lighter passenger cars. An average new vehicle in 2003 consumed more fuel that its counterpart in 1988. In the USA in 1987 cars averaged 25.9 miles to the gallon. Fuel efficiency dropped to 24.6 miles/gallon by 1998 and is dropped further as larger vehicles replace smaller ones.

Despite scientific evidence of climate change, governments in most affluent countries have avoided their responsibility to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The USA is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide. US emissions have increased to 7 billion tones of CO2 in 2004, 16 % higher than emissions in the late 90's. The UK has done better reducing their emissions to about 0.6 billion tons, 14% below 1990 levels.
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Advertising and Delusions

Television Ads for sports and recreation vehicles show solitary, impeccable machines in wilderness locations. One TV ad shows a couple making a mad dash to escape the city core in their expensive, luxury upholstered clone of the land-rover. The ads are selling a fantasy of wilderness, fresh air and escape. Is the consumer is completely deluded? These vehicles are mostly found in suburban driveways and in the traffic jams of polluted cities. They have nowhere to go to escape the environmental degradation they help to create. 4x4 drives and large tires are rarely useful in cities and are not suited to highway driving. You see these machines, submerged in suburban driveways by the floods they helped to create
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Some Buildings Not Living Up to Green Label


The Federal Building in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, features an extensive use of natural light to illuminate offices and a white roof to reflect heat.

It has LEED certification, the country’s most recognized seal of approval for green buildings.

But the building is hardly a model of energy efficiency. According to an environmental assessment last year, it did not score high enough to qualify for the Energy Star label granted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which ranks buildings after looking at a year’s worth of utility bills.

The building’s cooling system, a major gas guzzler, was one culprit. Another was its design: to get its LEED label, it racked up points for things like native landscaping rather than structural energy-saving features, according to a study by the General Services Administration, which owns the building.

Builders covet LEED certification — it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — as a way to gain tax credits, attract tenants, charge premium rents and project an image of environmental responsibility. But the gap between design and construction, which LEED certifies, and how some buildings actually perform led the program last week to announce that it would begin collecting information about energy use from all the buildings it certifies.
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“The plaque should be installed with removable screws,” said Henry Gifford, an energy consultant in New York City. “Once the plaque is glued on, there’s no incentive to do better.”

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The Age of Stupid, to be released on September 21


The Age of Stupid is the new four-year epic from McLibel director Franny Armstrong. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The Age of Stupid USA Trailer from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

Showing September 21st 2009 at

Germantown
Owings Mills

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No Impact Man



Colin Beavan -- celebrated green blogger, author, subject of the No Impact Man documentary, T.A. Board member, and all-around good guy -- spent a year living with zero net environmental impact in the heart of Manhattan. His family of three lived without creating trash, using electricity or traveling on anything but a bicycle or scooter. They discovered that living simply was not only better for the environment but also created a much higher quality of living.

His book detailing the journey goes on sale September 1 and a documentary about the project opens in theaters nationwide September 11. For listings go to NoImpactMandoc.com.

If you'd like to try living like Colin and his family, you can. The No Impact Project is challenging people to try and live with no impact for one-week. They'll put participants on a team and guide them through the steps day-by-day. They promise that you'll discover for yourself that less really is more. Sign up at NoImpactProject.org.
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EVs: First clarification on impact in cities


First clarification on impact in cities

Three key issues my Stanford and Cal students have ferreted out.

Do EV pay their road tax? In California, we pay 3 cents/mile in road taxes. IF an advanced EV gets 5 miles/kwh, that works out to 15 cents/kwh, more than double the average price of electricity in California. TAX THOSE MILES

Even with taxed electricity, EV still cost 30-50% per mile as much as gasoline cars to run. Even a small “rebound effect” (see the June 2000 issue of Energy Policy, which I edited) is important – if the cost of a mile drops by 2/3, then at a rebound of 10% that still means more miles driven. Not a good thing necessarily. Worse if the electricity is not taxed.

Unless the electricity come from a meter that charges during charging according to what CO2 the utility is emitting at that time, its not at all clear what the CO2 balance is for countries with lots of coal (US, Germany).

Plug in hybrids (PHEV) are touted in the US as 120 mpg (&lt;2 l/100 km!) by supporters who assume most of the driving is done with electricity AND then only counting the gasoline. More realistic is that most of the PHEV will be driving at least half or more in the gasoline mode. The net fuel and CO2 savings are hard to estimate, but not big unless the electricity is essentially carbon free.

In the early 1990s Eric and I were at conferences where many cities bragged how they were giving EV owners free parking or free access to bus only lanes. Why? Is the emissions saving worth the likely extra driving? And is it fair as we do in California and DC (and for the time being Stockholm) to offer “green vehicles” free parking, car pool lane privileges, or free access over tolled bridges or congestion pricing cordons?

I just wonder if this is winner—picking all over again? In the US much of our past is about loser-picking!

Lee Schipper, Ph.D
Project Scientist
Global Metropolitan Studies

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