Climate Change

“No good times, no bad times,
There’s no times at all,
Just The New York Times” 

Here’s some good, recent stuff from the venerable “New York Times.”

The “Business of Green” is a special section from a few weeks ago. (I wrote at some length over a year ago on their special of the same name.) This latest one’s got some great articles, including one on jobs: Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar. Here’s an audio slide show too on a “net zero energy” home. I mentioned an article in this vein, For Carbon Emissions, a Goal of Less Than Zero, by Matt Wald in my review of Earth: The Sequel from last week. 

Wald, in addition to being on the energy and environmental technology beat, has been the aviation industry reporter for years. Here’s A Cleaner, Leaner Jet Age Has Arrived from Wednesday. It’s about new materials, engines, and systems for safer, more fuel-efficient planes. Who could be against that? (I’ve also written about aviation a couple of times, here and here, and I had a great time this past summer writing about sustainability at airports for “Planning,” the magazine of the American Planning Association.) 

As further evidence of the strain that biofuels, among some other causes, are putting on the land, as I’ve reported on recently at Krugman on Food Prices and Biofuels and Are Biofuels A Bummer?, there was a front-page article the other day, As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Program. The long and short of it is that farmers are taking millions of acres out of the hugely successful federal Conservation Reserve Program in order to cash in on profits that haven’t been available to them for years. Who can blame them? However, what’s driving so much of this is a biofuels policy that is, according to more and more food, energy and environmental experts, misguided. See more from the “NY Times” on “The Food Chain,” examining growing demands on, and changes in, the world’s production of food. This is an important series for any number of reasons and the paper is to be commended for being on it. 

Finally, I wrote about the failure of the NY State Assembly to bring New York City’s congestion pricing plan to a vote, let alone pass it. See “This is the way the world ends …” just below. Well, the paper, given the importance of the issue and the worldwide implications, has a special section, including this video from Andy Revkin on New York City and congestion pricing. Where do we go now that the Mayor’s plan has failed? Read the op-eds from Owen Gutfreund and Gene Russianoff.

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!”

I’ve been preparing an article for the FPA on green building and coming up with some great stuff some of which I wanted to get out now.  There are some incredible projects out there and more on the drawing boards.  I’ve interviewed Kevin Hydes, chair of the World Green Building Council,  for the article.  (See Solar Boating and Green Building from May 14 for more about Kevin.)  He said that exciting projects are “blossoming” all over the world.

One of the ones that jazzed him the most was the reclamation - and vast improvement - of an area in Seoul that had been blighted for years by a freeway.  The Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project, described in this fascinating article, Buried Treasure, from “Civil Engineering  Magazine,” peeled the freeway away to restore a long-hidden stream and provide truly great access for the public.  It’s quite a fairytale – but it’s true.  “O brave new world…”

There is another exciting project across the Yellow Sea from Korea in Shanghai.  Dongtan is going to be built on Chongming, a 750-square-mile island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.  The world’s first “ecocity” is being built by the Chinese in partnership with international firms like Arup and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.  Arup’s website has a discussion of the project with several informative videos with their director of sustainability, Peter Head.  SOM’s website has a great overview with some vivid graphics.  Great stuff.  Finally, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development has an article focusing on the project but also giving an overview of China’s quest for sustainable projects.  (WBCSD has a big initiative on green building that I’ll discuss in my forthcoming FPA article.)  Dongtan is one giant leap for China. 

My friend, Mike Vickerman (see his guest post from July 2), was in town and was walking around Midtown Manhattan and was impressed by the building site that is to be the BofA Tower at One Bryant Park.  The Bank of America headquarters will be the world’s “most sustainable skyscraper.”  This interview with the architect, Bob Fox, takes you inside the project.  (GreenerBuildings.com is a superb resource.)  I hope to get a look inside another major Manhattan green commercial development soon – The Hearst Tower. 

In the Middle East, there’s a lot of construction, to say the least.  Kevin told me he’d heard that 17% of the world’s construction cranes are in Dubai.  Here’s just one exciting project from W.S. Atkins & Partners in Dubai:  The Lighthouse.  Only on the drawing board at this stage – but check out the website for the stunning design – this tower will employ “… passive solar architecture, many low energy, low water engineering solutions, recovery strategies for both energy and water and building integrated renewables – including large scale wind turbines and photovoltaics.”  Yee haw!

Finally, for now, I’m going to leave you with another new sustainable city design – in the middle of the desert.  The first project of the “Masdar Initiative,” in Abu Dhabi, will be a  “… 6 million square meter sustainable development that uses the traditional planning principals of a walled city, together with existing technologies, to achieve a zero carbon and zero waste community.”  Sweet.  See the project plan and some graphics from the architects, Foster and Partners.

There’ll be more here on green building for sure.  I just had to get some of these out for your viewing pleasure today.  Enjoy.

Dingell v Waxman (and others) – Congressman John Dingell has been in the House of Representatives since 1956.  He holds the seat held by his father from 1933 to 1955.  If you want to follow the federal energy legislation wending its way through Congress, you have to know the players and John Dingell is near the top of the list.  I’ve referenced Big John several times along the way here at the blog, but here’s another useful contribution from “The New Republic.”  (Registration is required, but it’s free.)  Henry Waxman, Dingell’s long-time nemesis, is another critical player, and a hero to old-time enviros like me.  When he was chair of the Health & Environment subcommittee of Dingell’s Energy & Commerce committee back in the 80’s and 90’s, they had some pitched battles.  The TNR article describes the present state of play – or conflict, as the case may be – between them. 

The Oil Drum – Without endorsing anyone’s particular approach to effecting federal legislation, I would simply point out a very useful blog, The Oil Drum – Discussions About Energy and Our Future.  They have a wealth of valuable information on the subject of energy, but particularly, though, they are following the federal legislation.  See this for an update and overview with some excellent links.

“One Planet Leader” – WWF (the NGO formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) had an eye-grabbing ad in “The Economist.”  “Serious about sustainability?  Ready for the next step?”  Well here’s the punch line:  “One Planet Leaders is an exciting new corporate responsibility programme for business managers and senior executives looking to explore, challenge and apply the latest thinking on sustainability issues.”  If you don’t think business and financial industry leaders are taking this stuff seriously, then here is further tangible evidence.  (You can also see my numerous blog posts referencing all this activity under Business and Economics.)

Media Notes – The Sundance Channel has a website, The Green, with some interesting content, including video.  Also, Hearst Corporation, has a new website in beta:  TheDailyGreen will be half information resource and half social network.  Here’s some more from MediaWeek.

Of course, world media event of the week, if not the summer, should be LiveEarth.  They announced today that “… more than 7,000 ‘Friends of Live Earth’ events are now registered in 129 countries, all 50 states…”  Saturday’s the day.  Even if you can’t make one of the concerts, or Al Gore’s not your main man, you will find a ton of useful information at their website.

Speaking of Al Gore (which I haven’t done in a while), he had an op-ed, Moving Beyond Kyoto, at the “NY Times” yesterday that, predictably, got a lot of attention. 

And speaking of the “NY Times” op-ed page, there is an offering today from the estimable Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, on congestion pricing:  Clear Up the Congestion-Pricing Gridlock.  (I’ve talked about Livingstone here before.  He was the driving force behind the creation of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.)   

Recycling – I noted two fascinating renewable energy stories the other day (June 25) from The Economist’s recent “Technology Quarterly.”  The truth about recycling is a slightly scary title given this venerable publication’s often-cynical take on things.  However, it is a nicely comprehensive, focused, and upbeat long piece about the enormous role that recycling is playing and can play further.  (I had my own stab at this a few years ago.  I offered the City of New York a master plan for solid waste management – Urban Gold – and it gathered more attention than I could have hoped for at the time.  There are several key elements to the idea, among them:  a materials recovery facility [or MRF], waterborne transportation, and the co-locating of the MRF with an “ecoplex” where the recovered materials could be manufactured into all sorts of useful items.)

I continue to be fascinated by the burgeoning of all sorts of new approaches to generating energy and saving energy.  I mentioned in my post from May 16 on the Large Cities Summit that George David, the CEO of United Technologies, had some fascinating things to say about using energy and the potential for radically reducing the amount of power we consume.  I also talked about the solar boat that’s just crossed the Atlantic in the post here.  I’ve touched on renewables any number of times.  It’s truly a brave new world.  So here are just a few tidbits that I wanted to share.

Geothermal at NY Airports and Ports – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey runs the three big New York airports:  JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark.  The PA Chairman announced an initiative on May 17 that promised to “reduce global warming impacts of airports, ports by 80 percent.”  Nice.  How?

geothermal heating and cooling of buildings;

on-site power generation through the use of fuel cells;

use of renewable energy from wind and solar projects;

having planes use docking stations to power up at airports rather than idling their engines;

using electrified tugs and other alternative fuel rampside equipment;

using planes like the A380 to carry more passengers on flights that also are more environmentally efficient, and;

offsetting greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing renewable energy credits.

Now I can tell you that when I was with the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation in New York City throughout most of the 1990’s, the Port Authority was one of our nightmares:  oil spills, leaking underground tanks, improper storage of hazardous material, etc.  They’ve come a long way, baby. 

Solar Flashlights – In a great “NY Times” article, we learn that “close to two billion people around the world go without affordable access to light.”  Along comes Mark Bent and he comes up with an idea and spends $250,000 to develop and manufacture a solar-powered flashlight.  Read all about it at his website, BoGo Light.  This couldn’t be a better story.  I guess it could if this program gets seriously funded.

Solar Cookers – There’s the even simpler technology of using the heat from the sun to cook food.  I talked about this in my post from May 12.  Sustainable development should mean deploying the best ideas that work easily and well and are cost-effective.  Solar cookers meet all those criteria.  This is a low-tech solution with enormous potential and should be funded commensurately. 

REEEP – On the policy front, check out the excellent work of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership.  They’re in business to “accelerate and expand the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency systems” and they’re operating all over the world.  This is exactly the sort of partnership of governments, business and NGOs that is really changing the face of things. 

Wind Fins – Here’s a technology in development that promises to allow much smaller-scale deployment to exploit wind power.  To read more about this pilot, being developed in Montana, check out this article:  Wind Fins To Help Farmers Turn Breeze Into Cash. 

Not incidentally, the source for this story, CarbonFree, has a great news service.  Subscribe and don’t wait for me to give you the heads up on these stories.

See How Your Car is Doing for MPG… and if you can do better.  Check out this gadget at the Sierra Club’s website:  MPG calculator.

Yesterday morning, they had a press conference to wind the summit up.  As I sat waiting for Ken Livingstone to start the proceedings, I thought about how long it had taken to get here.  Finally, there’s enormous momentum from governments at all levels, as well as from industry and finance, and all working with the environmental community who’ve been calling for precisely this sort of action for years.  I guess I feel proud to have been thinking and caring about this for pretty much my whole adult life.  I’ve been frustrated, often, over the years, that more progress hasn’t been made, not only on climate change, but on renewable energy and conservation, and on providing intelligent, safe, sustainable approaches to economic development, on environmental protection and resource conservation.  It is gratifying, though, to see the intensity and the focus now.  Let’s hear from David Miller, the Mayor of Toronto, about the importance of the private sector in all this.

I’ve seen and talked to some far-seeing and remarkable folks this week, like Mayors Miller and Anderson, Kevin Hydes from the World Green Building Council, and others.  I have to say that among a group of imposing figures, I’m really impressed by Ken Livingstone.  His heart and his brain are clearly in this fight.  He seems a warm, poised, really smart and well-spoken man, and he appears to have a fine, dry British sense of humor.

He’s also a straight shooter.  The C40 will be bringing pressure to bear on the G-8 group in advance of their meetings next month.  He cited one (unnamed) member of the G-8 as “in denial” on climate change.  The presidential administration will change on January 20, 2009, and we will see action on climate change from the White House then.  You can get very heavy odds in favor of that.  In the meantime, jurisdictions like these major international cities, and other cities throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world; the states of California and New York, among others; regional groupings of states out West and in the Northeast; other countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, as well as the European Union and critical agencies within the U.N. are not waiting.  In Congress, in spite of roadblocks being put up, momentum is also building. (Bill McKibben noted that, up until this year, Congress had produced “twenty years of inactivity—a remarkably successful bipartisan effort to accomplish nothing.”)

Here’s a release from the Greater London Authority summing up the summit.  Let me let Ken Livingstone get the last word in here about the importance of the work of dealing with the climate change crisis.  Good on ‘ya, Ken!

On Wednesday, L.A.’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, announced his city’s Green LA plan, which incorporates a commitment to 35% use of renewables by 2020.  The Green LA plan is not unlike “PLANYC” in emphasizing energy efficiency, renewables, mass transit and alternative fuels for surface transport, etc.

The afternoon session, “Cities Can Thrive in a Low-Carbon Economy,” was led by Steve Howard from The Climate Group.  They launched a new publication, Public Private Partnership: Local Initiatives 2007, that day and it was highlighted in the session.  Two panelists, the mayors from Berlin and Mexico City, both had initiatives in the publication:  Berlin’s partnership with Johnson Controls on energy efficiency in buildings, and Mexico City’s partnership with the World Resources Institute on transportation.  (For other case studies, see Climate Group’s publication above and the website of the Summit.  Some really, really innovative projects.) 

The big news of the day, of course, was the announcement of the Clinton Climate Initiative putting together a group of banks and industrial corporations to underwrite and perform a $5 billion program of retrofitting buildings to maximize energy efficiency.  Here’s a clip of Bill Clinton talking about the program.  Ken Livingstone said later, that when this is further funded and all up and running, the energy efficiency program could reduce carbon emissions by 10% globally.   Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, the heads of thirteen national Academies of Science, issued a statement, in advance particularly of the forthcoming G-8 Summit (see my post on “Meetings”), calling for an intensified focus on energy efficiency.  Beyond that, the 13 national leaders of their academies of science called for further efforts on reducing deforestation and also increasing technology transfer to the developing world, particularly of “leapfrog” technologies. You heard this expression often at the conference, from Ken Livingstone and others.

In a similar vein, IBM last week announced their $1 billion plan to upgrade their data centers and radically reduce energy use.  “Project Big Green” will address IBM’s needs at more than eight million square feet of data centers in six continents.  See this video for more. 

 ***********

On another note, I had the pleasure of talking with Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City about his city’s approach to solid waste management.  Here’s their webpage on “Salt Lake City Green.”   I got a moment to discuss with him my thoughts about solid waste management and how productive a holistic approach can be.  I articulated my ideas, gleaned from the best concepts and practices in urban sustainable development, in a comprehensive proposal for New York City’s modest 25,000 tons a day of municipal solid waste a few years ago and called the plan, Urban Gold.  The heart of the strategy is to co-locate a materials recovery facility (MRF) and other waste disposal facilities, such as pyrolysis or gasification plants (mentioned by London Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron at several points this week, I might add), with industries that would use the recycled materials as feedstock for their manufacturing.  Mayor Anderson was good enough to say that he’d look at the strategy.  

The Summit started in earnest yesterday.  Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, and Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, had some opening remarks, including these which are very direct indeed.  (The C40 is in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative.  I’ll have more to say about President Clinton and the CCI in a later post.)

In a separate panel later in the day, Livingstone gave considerable heart to NYC Mayor Bloomberg and other supporters of congestion pricing.  (I wrote about congestion pricing and New York’s big plans last month in Mike Bloomberg’s Earth Day.)  Livingstone cited the considerable success of the program in London and the acceptance by the public. 

It should be noted that in one year, the congestion charge has brought about a 38% drop in private cars entering London—twice the anticipated figure. There has also been a more than 80% increase in cyclists and a rise in bus passengers from four million to six million. This modal shift has been accompanied by substantial emissions reductions, including a 20% reduction in carbon emissions.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, the Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group on “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” reported on the state of the science and the good news and the bad news:  we are in very rough waters already with climate change and it’s going to get worse before it gets better, but we have the tools at hand to deal with the threat, if we apply the will and the energy.  I said it was up to political leadership and the publics they represent to address the problem.  He quoted Montaigne:  “Politics is the art of making possible what is necessary.”

George David, the CEO of United Technologies, had some fascinating things to say about using energy and the potential for radically reducing the amount of power that New York City consumes.  One chord that he struck that I heard later in the day is that the overall efficiency of power generation is 30% for central power stations and 70% for distributed generation.  You simply get much more energy output per Btu input when you locate the consumer close to the source of the power.  On the same panel, Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley noted they have three million square feet of green roofs and they have a “green technology permit system” to help expedite new and retrofitted smart green buildings.  (See my last post and the discussion of green building.)  Both Daley and Toronto Mayor David Miller emphasized the message that there is economic opportunity – I do love that word –  in green tech, and also that there are tremendous savings to be made by government, commercial interests and consumers in all of this. George David again came back to the idea of opening up power generation to small suppliers and suggesting that the federal government needs to promote net metering.

So, in the panel discussion I attended later on decentralized energy, there were some interesting tidbits.  Nicky Gavron, a deputy mayor of London, led the panel. Rotterdam and Copenhagen’s mayors talked about their district heating systems that are hugely efficient and comprehensive.  New York’s electric utility, Consolidated Edison, was represented by its CEO, and he talked about the highly efficient steam heating system we have.  Not incidentally, steam systems can also be engineered to provide cooling and are used this way.  The CEO of Britain’s largest electric utility, EDF Energy, also spoke.  They’ve got a considerable investment in renewables and are working with London to promote distributed generation through its new Climate Change Agency (LCCA). There were several folks in the audience who also spoke at Gavron’s urging, one of whom, Allan Jones, is with the LCCA, which is developing a number of important pathways for low-carbon energy.  Jones pioneered Woking’s innovative energy project where they’ve had nothing but success in saving money and cutting carbon use.  Tom Casten, head of Primary Energy, spoke rather passionately and well about local generation of power.  George David of UTC had earlier cited a number of 70% efficiency for local power.  Casten said 80%.  Here’s a convincing slide show from Casten that backs up his assertions.  See also this from the BBC on microgrids.  Finally, a consultant to Mayor Bloomberg on energy, Doug Foy, said that the City could be doing much more on locally generated power, as much as 2,000 mw or more.  Foy has had a distinguished career with 25 years as the president of the Conservation Law Foundation, and then he brought a new level of environmental thinking to Massachusetts, but resigned last year.

Thinking outside the box - or outside the grid - is what’s going to get us to healthy, low-carbon economies. 

The C40 Large Cities Climate Summit kicked off on a gorgeous spring day today in the Big Apple.  Thirty-two mayors are here with their delegations.  There are 46 cities represented, from six continents. There’s been considerable press on this, a couple of hundred by Google’s count, including this from Reuters “London mayor says cities lead on climate change” and this from one of our local radio stations, WINS “Clinton, Bloomy to Host International Climate Summit.”

JPMorgan Chase is the lead sponsor for this event and they made some news of their own with the announcement that they would make their climate change research publicly available.  Check out their climate change investment page.  This is good, solid, serious research that they’re putting out. 

I enjoyed going out today on the Swiss catamaran “Sun21” which just made the first transAtlantic voyage of a solar-powered vessel.  For a land-locked country, these Swiss are pretty good sailors!  You can go to the sponsoring organization’s website to see, among other things, a great little video.

But wait, there’s more:  The same folks, Transatlantic21, have created the “World Clean Energy Awards.” The jury for these awards, to be given in seven categories with the winners to be announced at the tenth annual Sun21 Energy Forum in Basel on June 15, included such luminaries as Amory Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute and Nicky Gavron, a deputy mayor of London and one of the organizers for the C40 group.  London, as you know, has been going full-tilt boogie to avert a climate change crisis, along with the U.K. government, and the rest of Europe for that matter.  (See my post from March 14.)  For a further look at what the Swiss have been doing, see information at SwissEnergy, such as this on renewables, and, from a consortium of companies, Solar Impulse, an attempt to go around the world in a solar airplane!

On the boat ride, I had the distinct pleasure of talking with Kevin Hydes, the current chairman of the board of the World Green Building Council. Their mission, among others, is to help foster the creation of national councils all over the world.  Kevin is the past chair of the USGBC.  They are the parent of the LEED Green Building Rating System which is the national benchmark for high performance green buildings.  LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” and has become a critically important tool in the green building movement.  The American Institute of Architects also has a Committee on the Environment (COTE) that has done, and is doing, pathfinding work.  I mentioned Randy Croxton (who I interviewed many years ago about the NRDC building in New York) and Kevin talked about Bob Berkebile, founding chairman of the AIA Committee on the Environment and a driving force.

Here’s Kevin in front of the Solaire which bills itself as America’s first environmentally advanced residential tower.  Kevin, when he was president of the USGBC, presented the LEED plaque that adorns the entrance.     

We were taken on a tour of the building, including seeing the photovoltaic arrays, the water reuse system, the apartments with all Energy Star high-efficiency appliances and low-emissivity windows, and the green roof where water is captured and filtered and which also diminishes the ambient heat.

All in all, I had a hugely informative and enjoyable afternoon.  More to come tomorrow on the C40 Summit.

Since billions of people live in cities, with more coming every day, the infrastructure needed to support them needs building, rebuilding and rehabilitation, expansion and enhancement. There’s power generation and transmission, the delivery of drinking water and the treatment of waste water, housing and parks, schools and hospitals, transportation, and commercial and industrial development. All this activity requires energy and energy, as we know, is primarily carbon-based throughout the world. As I pointed out in my post, “Mike Bloomberg’s Earth Day,” the Big Apple’s carbon dioxide output is on a par with that of Switzerland, Norway and Ireland. New York City has 8.2 million folks with probably 800,000 more on the way in the next several years. The OECD reports that “60-80% of worldwide energy consumption occurs in urban areas.”

The fascinating event I attended yesterday, the Regional Plan Association’s annual assembly, focused on the problem of global climate change and how to address it. Robert D. Yaro, RPA’s president, said that climate change will influence planning for the foreseeable future. Former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio spoke about the imperatives of minimizing our carbon footprint and said that economic advancement and environmental sensitivity were not incompatible. The present N.J. Governor, Jon Corzine, was to have given the morning’s keynote address but, because of a recent terrible car accident in which he was involved, was replaced by Gary D. Rose, the Chief of N.J.’s Office of Economic Development. Corzine has an ambitious energy master plan that’s being developed now that will require a 20% increase in energy efficiency and 20% of electricity from renewables. This echoes the plan proposed by N.Y. Governor Eliot Spitzer recently. Rose, like Florio, emphasized the opportunity in developing a “clean and green tech economy” and that this sort of activity could “support the next great wave of economic growth.”  (See my last post - opportunity is what I’m seeing, and I’m sure glad that I’m in the company of folks who know their way around high finance, venture capital, and economic development. See also my post from March 9 on “The Business of Green,” and the mention of venture capitalists and their enthusiasm for renewables.)

The Assembly Chairman, Theodore Roosevelt IV, is an investment banker and certainly knows his way around these matters. He’s also the Chairman of the Lehman Brothers’ Council on Climate Change. John Llewellyn, a Kiwi with an impressive track record as an economist at the OECD, and now the Senior Economic Policy Advisor to Lehman Brothers, gave a stunning presentation on the realities of climate change and their implications for corporations. Llewellyn tells CEOs that the science is sound, the climatology is too, that the economic analysis shows that no matter how bravely and well we address global warming, we are going to have impacts:  2 to 3% of global GDP is going to be destroyed by the impacts of climate change annually. (See the Stern Review from the U.K. and its analysis of economic consequences as referenced in my post from March 30.) You can find much of Dr. Llewellyn’s compelling presentation on The Business Of Climate Change - Challenges and Opportunities here. (There’s that word “opportunity” again.)

There were six breakout sessions:  on carbon markets, protecting water resources under the pressures of climate change, transportation options, siting, green building, and the one I attended, “Tilting at Windmills? Opportunities for Green Power Generation.” One of the panelists was Jim Gordon, President of the Cape Wind project. He reported that NRDC has characterized Cape Wind as the largest single GHG reduction project in the U.S. He also reported that in the six years that the project has been going through the regulatory process, 20 offshore projects have been built in Europe and 25 more have been approved. He gave us a heads up too to a book that’s coming out next week:  Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound.

Another panelist was Dr. Stephen Hammer from Columbia University’s Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy. He’s been running the Urban Energy Project there and they’ve been looking at the renewable energy potential for New York City and have found four main sources:  landfill gas, tidal, wind, and solar photovoltaic. I asked him after the session about whether or not they’d been looking at distributed generation, fuel cells, microturbines and the like, and he said they were working on this now. He further mentioned “microgrids” – “Small networks of power generators in ‘microgrids’ could transform the electricity network in the way that the net changed distributed communication.” See this from the BBC. Finally, I asked him if they were looking at geothermal and he said no. I mentioned this new report on geothermal from M.I.T. and the fact of a landmark geothermal project in downtown Manhattan. Maybe I’ve put a bee in his bonnet.

Mike Bloomberg was the luncheon keynote speaker, promoting PLANYC, and he promised that New York City was going to become the first truly sustainable American city in the new century. He said the stars were aligned and that it was time for action. As I said once before here, quoting Winston Churchill:  “I never worry about action, but only inaction.”

Cities for Climate Change is doing a lot of important work. I think this is a compelling thought from the mayor of Charlotte, N.C.:  “We are the ones building roads, designing mass transit, buying the police cars and dump trucks and earth-movers. We’re the ones lighting up the earth when you look at those maps from space. Together we have huge purchasing power and if we invest wisely, that can have huge implications for the environment.”

I’m going to another exciting event in ten days:  the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. Much more soon on how cities are approaching the climate change crisis.