U.S. Fossil Energy Boom | ModeShift

Climate Change Is A New Global Organizing Principle

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 27, 2007September 28, 20075

Â NEW YORKÂ — The X Prize Foundation, which developed a new philanthropic idea called “revolution through competition,” toldÂ participants today at the Clinton Global Initiative that it would commit $300 milion in the nextÂ seven years to help solve global crises in each of the four CGI focus areas. The foundation said it is developing new prizes to increase access to renewable fuels, improve energy efficiency, and promote use of cleaner fuels. It also will have …

Flip: Finding A Heavy Breeze

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 18, 2007September 24, 20070

Â This entry in Mode Shift’s Flip category, which spotlights great online applications of multi-media technology,Â introduces a brand new mapping tool to help local government officials, utilities, and entrepreneurs identify suitable places to buildÂ commercial-scale wind turbines in Michigan. Developed by the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University, and dubbed the Michigan Prospecting Tool by itsÂ developers, Charles McKeown and Benjamin Calnin, the online toolÂ provides users an easy and elegant wayÂ to find the windiest places in …

Michigan’s Energy Schizophrenia

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 6, 2007September 20, 20078

Late last month I had the chance to spend the day with scientists at Michigan State University who are involved in carrying out the work of the new Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between MSU and the University of WisconsinÂ financed by a five-year, $125 million federal research grant. It isÂ one of three such centers across the country determined toÂ fillÂ America’s national gas tank with fuel made from plants. Bruce Dale, a chemical engineer at …

Before Grassoline, Settling A Dispute Among Experts

by Keith SchneiderAugust 23, 2007August 24, 200718

David Pimentel, an ecologist who spent all of his career at Cornell University after earning his doctorate in entomology in 1951, is one of the most respected environmental scientists of his generation. He was among the select group of young ecologists who in the 1960sÂ first identified the environmental and public health hazards of farm chemicals, and helped build the scientific case forÂ healthier, more environmentally-sensitive agriculture practices. The fact that organic cropsÂ are the fastest growing sector …

An Energy Alliance to Watch in Michigan and Elsewhere

by Keith SchneiderAugust 8, 2007August 8, 20070

John Bebow, the executive director of The Center For Michigan and a former reporter for the Detroit News and Chicago Tribune, reports in his weekly update that M and M Energy, a Florida-based energy development company, has proposed building a multi-billion dollar “polygeneration” coal-fired electric generating stationÂ on the site of a shuttered oil refinery in Alma.Â The company presented its plan to the state Senate Energy Committee in mid-April and has been busy shopping the ideaÂ in …

Banning Coal Power Plants in Ontario; Promoting Them in Michigan

by Keith SchneiderJuly 18, 2007November 18, 20075

Â The Canadian province of Ontario,Â which lies across Lake Huron from Michigan, and is home to about the same number of people (10.3 million there, 10 million here), has supported one of the planet’sÂ active conversations on the ties between a strong economy and a clean environment.Â Much of the dialogue centers of global climate change and the province’s coal-fired power plants, one of which, the Nanticoke plant on Lake Erie, is among the largest on the …

Green Neighborhood Grant Act in Illinois

by Keith SchneiderJuly 2, 2007October 31, 20073

Illinois, our neighbor to the west, has been doing a lot of things right of late for its residents, environment, and economy. It makes a Michigan resident a bit jealous.Â The Center for Neighborhood Technology and Bethel New Life, for example, convinced the Chicago Transit Authority to rebuild rather than tear down the elevated Green Line in the 1990s,Â helping to promote the revival of the city’s West Side. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley turned a tree-planting campaign …

Two Conversations on Energy in America; and Everything Else

by Keith SchneiderJune 27, 20072

You may have missed this little note out of Wall Street last week but many of the renewable and alternative energy funds are doing very well. The New Alternatives fund is up nearly 37 percent the last 12 months and 20 percent so far this year. The Guinness Atkinson fund is up 17 percent and 27 percent while the Wilder Hill funds, which launched last fall, are each up about 11 percent this year. By …

Public Opinion on Energy Bill: Conservation Trumps Production

by Keith SchneiderJune 19, 2007June 19, 20070

Ruy Teixeira, a journalist who does a very good job keeping track of public opinion at the Center For American Progress in Washington, published this analysis of where citizens think the energy bill being debated in Congress ought to go. The verdict: Towards green, efficient, conservation measures and not to new production.Â The money quote: “The public is also quite clear on its priorities when it comes to promoting energy conservation versus increasing the supply …

Toronto Transit City

by Keith SchneiderJune 18, 2007June 20, 20071

In 1954, the year that Detroit was busily completing the Lodge Freeway and starting construction on the city’s other major highways Toronto (see pix) opened 12 stations on the Yonge Street subway line, the city’s first. Since then Toronto has built three more regional rapid transit lines, 69 stations, and nearly 43 miles of subway and rapid transit track. The city’s subway and surface streetcar system carries 1.2 million passengers a day, many of whom …