Pepsi’s New Green PET Bottle

PepsiCo is one of the leading food and beverage businesses in the world. Since 2010, it has been focusing on protecting the earth’s natural energy resources with competent use of soil, water, power and finding and focusing on innovative ways to do so.Recently PepsiCo developedthe world’s first plastic bottle made entirely from renewable and plant-sourced raw materials. This, in contrast to the traditional PET bottle leaves less carbon trace on our planet.A trend-setter and leader in green sustainabilityThe latest in PepsiCo’s green efforts is the ‘green’ bottle – manufactured from raw materials which are bio-based like: corn husks, switch grass and pine-barks. Soon bi-products from its own food business, like potato peels, orange peels...

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Phasing Out Some Low-Cost Heating Oil

New air quality regulations are in effect in New York City. They call for major changes to the use of low-cost home heating oil. Sou...

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Heating oil vs Natural Gas Part 2

So here we go again, oil is taking a trip to the summit of “Mt. How the hell can I afford to fill my oil tank”! A barrel of oil is now $111 and climbing faster than Stallone in Cliffhanger with no end in sight.  What can you do to help the situation? That’s correct, convert to Natural Gas!&nb...

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Google Invests $168 Million Towards the World’s Largest Solar Power Tower Plant

Yesterday Google announced that they will be investing 168 million dollars into BrightSource Energy, making this their largest investment in renewable energy thus far. BrightSource is a farm in the Mojave desert that employs an Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System to produce clean, solar energy by utilizing fields of heliostats to concentrate the sun’s rays. The concentrated rays are directed towards the top of a tower where a receiver converts the rays into steam that powers a traditional turbine and generator to make electricity. The Ivanpah Power Tower will reach approximately 450 feet tall and will use 173,000 heliostats, each with two mirrors, and by the time the plant is...

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Obama touts 'clean energy' in Pennsylvania

A wind-turbine and wind-farm builder President Barack Obama will visit helped reduce wildlife death and injury, Pennsylvania's wildlife chief said.Gamesa Technology Corp. -- part of a Spanish company of the same name that is reorganizing its manufacturing arm to increase its U.S. presence -- is one of 30 companies voluntarily helping "avoid, minimize and potentially mitigate any adverse impacts the development of wind energy may have on the state's wildlife resources," the Pennsylvania Game Commission said. The Gamesa plant, 40 miles northeast of Philadelphia -- where Obama is to hold a "town hall" meeting with workers Wednesday about "building a 21st century clean-energy economy" -- provided "real-world examples of how this voluntary agreement...

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Air Products starts solar energy project in Pa.

An eastern-Pennsylvania company that manufactures industrial gases is installing solar panels at its headquarters and hopes to use solar energy to power half of its administrative buildings.The Morning Call of Allentown reports that Trexlertown-based Air Products and Chemicals is installing hundreds of thin-film solar panels -- manufactured by Air Products' customers -- as part of the nearly $9 million project. The company hopes to be cranking out 2 megawatts of energy by summer."We are going to produce power during some of the highest-priced power periods in the summer," Steve Pastore, Air Products' director of energy supply, told the newspaper. That will significantly reduce Air Products' demand for power, while also cutting it energy costs,...

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Former Gov. Culver forms energy consulting firm

Former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver plans to open a consulting firm that will focus on helping small businesses find less expensive ways to generate renewable energy.  Culver had made building the state's renewable energy industry a priority in office, and he said he sees demand increasing as gas prices continue to rise and with the unrest in the Middle East.  "More and more Americans see renewable energy as part of our energy portfolio," Culver told The Des Moines Register.  Culver, a past chairman of the Governor's Wind Energy Coalition and Governors Biofuels Coalition, said he considered several options after losing the November election but decided to create the group because it will give him flexibility to do many things, such as marketing, business...

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First Wind Turbine Erected at Lower Snake River Wind Project

Puget Sound Energy late last week erected its first wind-power turbine among the wheat fields and rangeland of southeast Washington’s Garfield County, where PSE is constructing its 343-megawatt Lower Snake River Wind Project - Phase I.“This project, like our existing Hopkins Ridge and Wild Horse wind facilities, is supporting a cleaner, greener energy future for Washington state,” said PSE president and CEO Kimberly Harris. “But more than that, it is creating good jobs and a stronger, more secure energy future for our nation.”The first of the project’s 430-foot-tall turbines was completed Friday afternoon by the turbine manufacturer, Siemens Energy. When all 149 turbines are erected and operating in spring 2012,...

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Schumer Wants To Save NYC From 12% Con Ed Rate Hike

Now that a federal ruling has raised the amount that power generators can get, which would then result in a 12% rate hike for Con Ed customers, on top of another previously-scheduled 4% rate hike, we need a hero to stop this madness. And Senator Charles Schumer is signing up for hero duty: Schumer told the Post that he spoke to the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, "I told him how upset we were about FERC's decision, and how we thought they left out some very key information, and about how we wanted a rehearing. He said there will definitely be a rehearing."Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg, and other officials think that FERC is giving Con Ed the extra money because it mistakenly thinks the city won't guarantee property...

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A Plea for Presidential Leadership on Sustainable Energy

When President Obama ran for President, it seemed to me that he really understood the need to transition our economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy. After eight years of Dick Cheney's Texas oil industry energy policy, it was a relief to hear Obama's perspective. As the campaign evolved, and certainly once he took office, the President decided that political expedience required that he favor nuclear power and deep sea oil drilling. My guess is that he is now a little less enthusiastic about these technologies. In fact, every so often he resumes his rhetorical push for renewable energy.The President inherited an economic disaster that by necessity, dominated the agenda of his first two years in office. With the economy beginning to pick...

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Feds Invite Startups to Be America's Next Top Energy Innovator

The Obama Administration is offering a deal to America's entrepreneurs: With a strong business plan and $1,000, startup companies that qualify can get an option agreement to license some 15,000 patents and patent applications for groundbreaking energy technology developed by the country's 17 national laboratories.Starting May 2 and continuing through December 15, the Department of Energy is cutting upfront fees and streamlining the paperwork for the licensing of national lab patents and patent applications. The deal offered through the "America's Next Top Innovator" challenge represents a big cut in price and red tape. Typically, the upfront fees run $10,000 to $50,000.Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the limited-time offer this week....

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City Power & Gas at NYC Pillow Fight 2011

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