GREEN IS ALMOST ALWAYS LOGICAL

Canadians, viewed as a logical country, in most cases, does mine oil from places like the Albian Sands project in Alberta. The New York Times green blog pointed out a most illogical head scratcher related to generation of electricity. Extracting oil from sand is an energy intensive endeavor (see Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent) and Canada proposes to use nuclear power instead of natural gas to generate the electricity needed to extract the oil. Since it's estimated that it takes a barrel of oil to create the energy to extract a barrel of oil from tar sands, Canada has proposed to build a $10 Billion nuclear plant.

Why is it necessary to generate more power? Because almost 74% of increased demand for Alberta's electricity is created by the needs of the oil sands project. Seems to create a loop of illogical reasoning? It would also make Canada the first country to use nuclear power to produce fossil fuels.

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SPECIAL DISTRICT FOR GREEN

Florida has a provision that can create a special taxing district that is not a city or a county. These districts can borrow money, issue tax-free bonds, award contracts and levy special assessments. Areas such as water management districts or redevelopment districts are the most common. The most infamous is, perhaps, Reedy Creek Improvement District, the land upon which the Disney conglomerate sits.

Currently, the Florida House unanimously passed approval to create the Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District, a special taxing district that would create revenues to finance green technology and infrastructure on 23,000 acres in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The actual Lakewood Ranch District was created in 2006 and indication

Indications are that the bill will also pass the Senate.

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BIG BEND BIOFUELS AND GREEN DRINKS

This week at Green Drinks, Marvin Johnsons, will present "Making Your Own Biofuels" (more info at Green Calendar).

Inspired by the sign seen recently in Perry's Huddle House billboard that said: we have biofuel, we made a trip back to Big Bend Biofuels to see what was happening with the veggie oil powered Mercedes. We also look forward to getting an update mid-summer from our friends at grease cars
featured in this previous post.

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WHEN IS A GREENHOUSE MUCH MORE?

photo by DEP

Central High School in Milton has a new state-of-the-art greenhouse as a result of a partnership with Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, the Santa Rosa County School Board, the Nature Conservancy, the University of Florida at Milton and Three Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council.

Students will learn about the varying ecosystems in which they live while they propagate, or cultivate native plants to be used in local wetland
and dune restoration projects including the endangered
Perdido Key Beach Mouse habitat, creating and restoring salt marshes in local marine ecosystems, and restoring seepage slopes at state parks and state forestry lands.

Could we also be propagating future environmentalists?

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THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF PARKS

Green Readers living in Tallahassee know the value of our wonderful parks system. The Trust for Public Land spent five years developing a protocol for measuring the actual dollars-and-cents value of urban park systems, including tourism, property, environmental, direct use, health and community cohesion factors. Economic Value of City Parks: Measuring Their Worth

Read the newly released full report here. It includes complete methodology, and some surprising results from the first five cities studied: Boston, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Sacramento and Philadelphia.

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NO NEED TO EVER BUILD ANOTHER NUKE PLANT?

I love this headline from the Scientific American. www.sciam.com
The new chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is quoted as
saying we may need no new nuke or coal plants--ever! his strategy
ibcludes dramatic energy efficiency + renewables.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

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THE ORIGINAL EARTH DAY

This was the original symbol of Earth Day in 1970. It seems the original conversations were more about the environmental impact of over-population rather than concern about climate change and global warming.

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WAKE UP AND SMELL THE PLANET

Free downloads of the book, Wake Up and Smell the Planet, are available until April 23rd if you sign up for the Screw Earth Day promotion. You're required to sign up for a Grist account.

In addition to being added to their mailing list, all this evidently registers one to win a 'grand prize' of tickets and airfare for two to the 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, featuring Bruce, Phish and Nine Inch Nails--no mention of carbon offsets or carpooling. Vote your conscience on this one, Green Readers.

You may want to start a new tradition and celebrate with an Earth Day Dinner. Download free ideas and recipes suggestions, host a pot luck and you probably don't need to order the cards they are their sponsor, Organic Valey, is promoting.

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CAR MANUFACTURERS TOO LATE?

The New York Times covering the NY car show yesterday quoted a woman
looking at the Dodge Circuit, one of five electric cars Chrysler is
developing:
'How come you've got to nearly go bankrupt before you come out with a
car like this?'

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

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PLUG IN AT SOLAR STATIONS

Doesn't it make sense to create a multi-layered infrastructure of 'refueling' stations for hybrids, bio-diesel, hydrogen and electric vehicles? If electricity were created though solar panels, these sustainable stations could power us along the ribbons of highway throughout the US.

The picture above is on the Amtrak station in Trenton, New Jersey. Think of the acres of pavement that could become shaded parking with roofs of solar panels. The Tallahassee airport could become a solar station and when returning from a trip on the dirigible, the car would be charged and ready to go.

According to Friends of the Earth, one station with ten charging spaces could generate 30,000 kWh annually, powering approximately 120,000 miles of zero-emissions electric driving per year or feeding the grid with clean power. More pictures and information on considering the possibilities of solar stations at their site.

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MORE GREEN TRANSPORTATION

Green Readers know the love of the Segway. A new vehicle prototype was announced this week by General Motors teamed with Segway Corporation. Called the PUMA for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, it is projected to travel 35 miles per hour and go up to 35 miles on an electrical charge. Since it's a prototype, it unlikely that anything that looks like the picture above will ever make it to market. I think I'll continue to yearn for a Segway.

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WILL ANY ENERGY BILL PASS THIS YEAR?

Bruce Ritchie over at FloridaEnvironments.com talks about the environmental bills that have passed the Florida Senate this year, but doesn't place much hope that these will pass the House. The SB 1154 that would require utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable and clean energy (solar, wind, biomass, nuclear, etc) by 2020 passed the Senate (called the '20 by 2020 bill'). The controversial penny gas tax was removed before the bill passed. With less than four weeks to go in the session, there is no companion bill in the House.

Rep. Franklin Sands, House Democratic Leader, wrote a letter to Speaker of the House, Larry Cretul, which you can read here, courtesy of tampabay.com expressing his disappointment that since the House had no energy bill proposal it had not only compromised the state's renewable energy goals, it had not considered the potential of green jobs in a time of the highest unemployment in Florida in decades.

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