Florida's Coast

Do we really need a ballot vote on offshore drilling in Florida in 2010? A amall group in Pinellas County have formed an organization to get offshore drilling off Florida's coastline. Evidently tired of waiting for the Florida Legislature, they are moving forward. Full story at Tampa Bay online.

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KEEP THE RIVER GREEN

Earl Morrogh of Apalachicola Riverkeeper showed a video of the river at Green Drinks Wednesday night. The scenes coaxed many to envision themselves joining the kayak flotilla, enjoying hundreds of varieties of flora and fauna, including 315 identified bird species.

The origins of this amazing 107 mile-long river begin in the Appalachian Mountains and feeds the Apalachicola Bay, home to those yummy oysters I enjoyed at last night's dinner. More on this vital watershed at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's website.

photo: Jackson Blue Spring by DEP

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GO SOLAR AFTER CUTTING ENERGY USE

The City of Tallahassee acknowledges the impact that reduction in consumption can have on the future. It estimates that current and future demand side management (conservation) eliminates the need for additional power generation plants at least until 2016. This estimate is based upon current rates of savings.

Last count, over 1,000 households signed up for the Energy Challenge sponsored by CONA. Will Tallahassee's daily rains lower everyone's utility bills for this month?

Deep Patel wrote a blog post, 30 Days to a Greener You that was reprinted, in part, last month by the Environmental News Network. It outlined the first step to solar is reduce then produce - conscientiously lowering our power consumption as a first step before investing in solar panels.

Will participants in the energy challenge significantly reduce their electric consumption in these next months and will any use the savings as an incentive to purchase solar panels?

Is the City of Tallahassee Utilities ready to offer an extra financial incentive to make this happen? With solar net metering available for City of Tallahassee utility customers, any solar units can track savings and 'spin the meter backwards' creating savings credit on their utility bill.

First Presbyterian Church joins the Unitarian Universalists in installing solar panels. After a lengthy and thoughtful study of their consumption of the earth's resources and the impact of our ever growing carbon footprint, congregants concluded that conservation is an essential component of their stewardship of our Earth.

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GREEN CAREERS

Tallahassee Community College now offers the Green Suide Certifiction Program as a part of its ecotourism program. TCC also offers short courses in Solar Thermal Systems and Photovoltaic Systems. More information on the left under Green Musings.

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CAP AND TRADE MOVES FORWARD AS 'GREEN' STRATEGY

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee will begin hearings tomorrow (Monday) on this approach to reducing carbon emissions. There's an article in the NY Times with a short, historical look from 1989 to present.

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Yes! GREEN MOTHER'S DAY CARD

My teen, sparing no expense, sent me not one, not two, but three Mother's Day E-cards. Was it his commitment to the environment, rejecting paper cards? Or was he just being cheap because he had no cash? Probably a little of both, but like they say, it's 'the thought that counts!'

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SOLAR POWERED AIR CONDITIONING?

A Florida installer, Ed Taylor owner of American Solar Energy is putting the first solar powered air conditioning unit on a home in Lakeland.

The unit, produced by Sedna Aire and manufactured in Malaysia, uses a solar absorption system for its cooling. It incorporates solar collectors into the energy production, but still uses electricity to operate, and claims to use 50% less electricity than conventional air conditioners.

The 'environmentally friendly' coolant (refrigerant) is superheated by the sun which means the compressor doesn't have to do anything but pump, so the unit saves electricity (this is not freon, but R407C--peruse this engineer's guide for more than you probably ever wanted to know about the application of R407C).

When one thinks about the way that air conditioners work, they concept isn't all that efficient: compressing the freon from a cool, low-pressure gas to a hot high-pressure gas that then flows through the condenser to become cooled liquid that absorbs the heat from the building, that then changes back to gas to repeat the cycle. . .

Under this solar concept, the hotter it gets outside, the more efficient the unit would be, while conventional units, the hotter it gets, the harder the unit has to work. The solar concept may go back to the 1970's when a gas-fired unit was manufactured by Crosley (don't know if this is related to the Crosley manufacturer of automobiles).

The solar assisted unit costs about twice the conventional air conditioner, but in hot climates like Florida, they could pay for the difference through utility bill cost savings.

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THIS IS GREEN BUT MAYBE UGLY?

This is the new Toyota Scion iQ concept car that is purported to be Toyota's answer to the SmartforTwo. It's already on sale in Japan and was shown at the recent international car show in New York City.

This version does have a back seat, however, it's more for a bag of groceries than an adult. It also has nine (9) airbags, including one in the rear window, front wheel drive and could get 65 mph. Retail price is estimated at $13,000.
There may also be an electric version out in 2012.

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ARE YOU ENERGY CHALLENGED?

Residents of Tallahassee and Leon County neighborhoods! Have you signed up for the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CONA) Energy Challenge? 900 residents have signed up so far and the deadline has been extended to May 15th. The goal is to reach 1,000, so if you're in, remind your neighbors. The challenge will go through October 15, 2009.

Indianhead and Waverly Hills are the two neighborhoods with the most participating households. What specific energy action will you and your family take to reduce energy consumption to reduce carbon emissions?

Here's the link: Tallahassee Energy Challenge

What's the largest energy reduction you can accomplish?

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Honey Festival

Tupelo Honey Festival, May 16 at
Smiley Apiaries, Wewahithcka.

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Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

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GO GREEN, LIVE GREEN, GO BLEAH?

The book, Go Green, Live Rich, by David Bach may actually be a better read than the title would lead one to believe. Check out a book review from Kimberly over at Central Florida Green Guide.

Some suggestions like: workers turning off their computers at night when leaving work can save millions of dollar. Manny Joanos spoke at a recent Green Drinks about how Leon County schools has wisely adopted some of these simple green efficiencies and is seeing significant savings.

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NOT SO GREEN TALLAHASSEE?

Should Green Tallahassee change its name to 'muddy brown?'

The Florida House passed a bill to remove limits on off-shore drilling, but didn't want to take up any renewable energy bill. Fortunately, the Senate didn't pass the off-shore proposal, but the Orlando's 61.5 mile high speed commuter system, SunRail, is also dead. For any of you who have recently tried to negotiate crosstown traffic in Orange and Seminole counties, one has plenty of time stuck in congestion to ponder what it would be like had Florida actually built the long ago proposed 'bullet' train that was to whisk passengers across the middle of the state. Paula Dockery continued to rally vigilantly against the high speed rail project, despite support from many legislators, while drivers waste much more in gas consumption idling in traffic than they would have spent on a proposed $2 per day surcharge on rental cars. Of note, U.S. Congressman Allen Boyd was the only Florida Democrat who did not sign on to a letter from Florida's Congressional delegation to Gov. Crist and Florida legislators in support of SunRail.

It looks like the only thing about Florida Forever will be its traffic congestion.

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MAY IS CLEAN AIR MONTH

View particle pollution levels in real time at Florida Department of Environmental Pretection's website.

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