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The Greenwash Brigade

Entries tagged with 'oil'

Obama & co: Make 2009 the Year of Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency has helped US oil consumption fall more than 5% this year, with coal and natural gas demand about equal to 2007. This lower overall fossil fuel use is poised to translate into greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) that are ~2.5% below the 2007 level to the lowest net emissions since the 1990s! If we ramp up efficiency further, we can cut emissions further in the year ahead.

Even a financial crisis has a green lining

In case you haven't noticed, Americans' super-sized personal debt didn't catch up with us until energy prices skyrocketed. Over the last few years, oil's price has quadrupled, coal has tripled, and natural gas nearly doubled.... If we try to emerge from the current economic downturn with a business-as-usual energy approach, oil and other fossil fuel prices may knock us back into the recession ditch as they rise along with our demand.

An oil man who gets the energy big picture

His strong investments, by ordering the first GW of wind turbines for his record-breaking wind farm, shows he is not just a green talker, but also a green walker.

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

NOTE: The opinions expressed by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of American Public Media or its employees. American Public Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers.

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