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The Obama administration is not wasting any time is setting up the political structures needed to fight climate change.  One of his first actions will be to establish a federal cap and trade system to limit carbon emissions.

Two thumbs up to President-elect Obama’s actions to make good on his campaign promises.  Stay tuned for details on his energy policy as developed by his energy policy transition team.

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Here are some great tips from the National Geographic Channel.  I really like their tip about adding sand or pebbles to your toilet to reduce the amount of water it uses each flush.  With water prices soaring, I appreciate any tips to conserve water and to save money on the water bill each month.

Feel free to add any tips you have discovered in the comments area below.

Geothermal energy is an abundant resource that has not been fully tapped.  Magma is usually located 25-40 miles beneath the Earth’s surface.  However, in some areas, it is only 4 miles beneath the surface.  Once the magma is reached (through drilling) a liquid, like water, is heated and turned into steam. The steam is then transported to a turbine above ground and released.  The steam rises and rotates turbines which generate electricity.  It is a pretty simple process, but it takes a lot of work to set up the plant to process the steam.  One key advantage of geothermal energy is that it runs 24 hours a day regardless of the weather conditions.

In fact, there is so much geothermal energy available that Google has committed itself to exploring the use geothermal energy in some capacity.  It only makes sense for Google to do so since it is such a large consumer of electricity.  (One of Google’s data centers alone consumes more than 100 megawatts of electricity. This is enough electricity to power a city the size of Tacoma, Washington or 82,000 homes.)  In fact, the CEO of Google recently spoke about his interest to exploit geothermal energy at a recent Commonwealth Club event.  The video of his talk about renewable energy is available after the jump.  (Warning: The video is about 45 minutes long. So, make sure that you have some time available to watch it.)

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Source: The Boston Globe

We are half way through the month of September and the winter season is looming ever closer. For those of us who live in northern regions, finding ways to stay warm and save money is second nature. The Boston Globe editors came up with 10 heating alternatives you can try to get through this winter, save your wallet and the environment at the same time. This list includes tips and tricks as simple as turning down the thermostat when no one is home, to investing in a completely new way to way to heat your home such as pellet stoves or biofuels. Whatever your preference is, this list has something for a variety of budgets and resources.

There has been a lot of talk about the generating clean electricity from coal lately from current Presidential candidates. It turns out that sequestering CO2 emissions from coal plants is not a pre-existing technology. The technology exists to sequester CO2 emissions, but no plant currently exists to do this on an industrial scale. Before the Americans decide what to do with any new electricity generation method we need to know the facts surrounding clean coal. The video above helps us understand a little bit about what clean coal means and I really appreciate the interview with a Greenpeace representative. So, what are the facts surrounding clean coal?

According to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, coal is responsible for roughly half of all electricity produced in the United States. In addition, coal is the most inexpensive source of energy in the United States. Furthermore, “America has more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves.” Lastly, “Using coal to generate electricity is less than a 1/3 of the cost of other fuels.”

Although I am not a fan of the methods used to mine coal, I am impressed by the industry’s attempt to change to meet environmental standards for the rest of the world. Furthermore, I am very excited at the prospect of clean AND inexpensive electricity. The only is that coal reserves have a finite amount of coal and America is bound to run out of it in the long term.

Source: University if Virginia

The picture above shows a desert plant named sedum, known for its ability to absorb water. It has been a popular greening tool in Europe and large US cities such as Chicago and Seattle for years, and New York is just one of many new cities to follow trend.

When planted on rooftops, sedum can absorb up to 70% of the city’s rainfall, which can get into the sewage system and pollute the waterways. It can also act as an insulator, reducing heat from rooftops that can be trapped in the building, lowering the use of air conditioning in the summertime.

With so much effort going towards making our world greener, this is one of the better ideas in my opinion. Instead of trying and failing to develop new methods to improve the environment, we are using nature to help nature. However, this method is still somewhat expensive to implement; more states should consider New York Governor David A. Paterson’s tax abatement plan for developers and building owners who install green roofs, this might alleviate the pain for some buildings who are considering this.

The citywide to worldwide benefits will outweigh the short-term costs in the long run.