Green Leaf Report

Recently the Texas Public Utilities Commission gave initial approval to adding nearly $5B in transmission lines to the state, expected to help bring West Texas wind to the major Texas cities.  I asked my friend Vanessa, who has worked in the wind industry for years, if she thought the approved package is a good […]

T. Boone Pickens came out with the Pickens Plan  for reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil this week. It seemed to hit every newspaper, website and television station around.  I’ve written about him several times before- there are always parts of his plans that I agree with, and parts I’m concerned about.  But that’s […]

Fast Company and BusinessWeek are currently running opposing articles on T. Boone Pickens and his wind/water plans for North Texas. The Fast Company article addresses his plans for a $10B wind farm in the panhandle and mentions the water project as almost an afterthought, while the BusinessWeek article talks about the $100M Pickens’ has […]

I’m a little surprised at some of comments I’ve received on my recent wind energy posts.  The engineer in me cringes at the description of the technology as “useless.”  In the past decade or two I’ve seen some pretty lame applications of technology, and wind energy just doesn’t fall into that category in my […]

At the WindPower 2008 conference I spoke with a University student from North Carolina manning the North Carolina Renewable Energy booth.  He was part of a community outreach program for solar and wind; when I asked him how that was going for him, he said people in North Carolina tended to complain in the […]

One of the things that surprised me about the WindPower 2008 show was that so many of the exhibitors primarily serve the oil and gas industry, and are now moving into wind.  I expected to see a lot of pretty serious environmentalists- I’m not sure if I thought everyone would have long hair, beards, […]

We’re surrounded by big and small wind companies at the WindPower 2008 show, but many of the exhibitors at the show are also from the non-profit, educational and government realms.  This huge cross-section of the industry really inspires hope that a lot of very intelligent people together will help break some of the dependencies […]

Today, on the first full day of the WindPower 2008 conference, we attended press conferences and worked the exhibition floor some more.  The expiring federal production tax credit (PTC) is getting a lot of attention and a lot of press.  If this tax credit does not get extended this year, the wind energy industry […]

I arrived today at the WindPower 2008 conference in Houston - I’m so excited to attend!  So far we’ve only attended for one partial day, but I’ve already met some great new people and learned things about wind that I didn’t know I didn’t know.
After our registration, we headed over to the […]

At a time when traditional technology firms, mortgage companies, home builders and more are laying off employees, wind energy, solar energy, and various alternative fuel companies are actively recruiting.  I see articles repeatedly touting green jobs as a great growth area.  But how do we balance the green industry growth opportunities with the risk […]

My Earth Day resolution this year was to continue to chip away at the personal and professional challenges to living right.   In honor of Earth Day, this past week I’ve:

Planted another tree in my yard. It’s an apricot tree- so hopefully it will have a dual role of absorbing CO2 and providing local fruit.
Updated […]

About a year ago I spoke with a friend of a friend who works in renewable energy investments in Northern California.  He encouraged me to move to either US coast, because that’s where the innovations and investments were happening. I asked about all the start-ups in Austin, and he told me, no, nothing was really happening in […]

The Energy Bill of 2007 did not pass the Senate with the much discussed renewable energy plans in place.  The Senate voted as follows on December 13th:
Republican Senators Voting ‘Nay’ on Cloture Vote for Energy Bill Tax Title
Stevens (AK), Sessions, Shelby (AL), Kyl (AZ), Allard (CO), Martinez (FL)
Chambliss, Isakson (GA), Craig, Crapo (ID), Brownback, Roberts (KS)
Bunning, […]

I’m very excited that the energy bill just passed in the House with renewable energy incentives in place; some of these details are listed below. It’s a good start, but we need to get this past the Senate..  Solar Nation has a coordinated letter-writing campaign: http://capwiz.com/re-action/go/GENenergyvote.  Add your voice today!
“Among its provisions, the energy […]

I just noticed in a previous post how similar the words politician and pollution are when my spelling abilities temporarily lapsed.  With that in mind, I wrote letters to my two Texas state senators this week for their political pollution in blocking the energy bill provision that would support renewable energy standards.  We could have this […]

We all need optimism to survive; we all need to feel like we matter, that we can make a difference, don’t we?  I’ve changed my life over the years to try to lessen my impact, to live a more environmentally aware lifestyle; the changes can be so small, but I feel better with each one. My […]

It’s hard to believe that communities don’t want wind turbines, but Heather Green and Mark Scott wrote an interesting article for Business Week on this issue.  Communities are worrying about bird migrations, noise and the pretty horizon, but I think the ultimate issue is the fear of change and of the unknown.  I’m sure the windmills in […]

Last year I researched switching my energy company and I picked Green Mountain Energy, a provider of wind energy.  I have had no complaints; the service and billing have been excellent.  When I researched switching, I was warned by one of my coworkers not to go with Green Mountain because of the lousy experiences […]

Surprise surprise, north Texas in August is hot. We peaked at 104 degrees today, and now are being warned on the news of possible rolling energy blackouts. I’ve never understood why north Texas hasn’t embraced solar power; we hardly ever have a cloud in the sky, why are we relying on fossil fuels? Rolling blackouts gives us […]