Agriculture, transportation and small businesses exempt from Boxer-Kerry

Only 2% of companies are covered by the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, but that 2% represents 70% of US emissions, says Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the bill’s co-sponsor.

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“We have always been about innovation, we have always been about discovery. That’s in our DNA. The truth is we also face more complex challenges than generations past,” said Mr. Obama to a packed room of MIT students, faculty and other Massachusetts dignitaries.

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The new green-themed Reclaim made by Samsung is more than your standard phone with slick green branding — though there’s a bit of that too.

What’s green (or blue), smaller than a deck of cards and will remind you to unplug the charger from the wall after charging? The Reclaim, the new green-themed smart phone made by Samsung for Sprint, is loaded with a bunch of green content, a handful eco-conscious accessories and an attention to sustainable packaging that make it more “green” than most other phones out there.

But you can’t just slap a case made from forty percent corn plastic, dip it in green paint and call it green, can you? The folks at Sprint sent me the new Reclaim so I could answer those questions myself.

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Less than a week after switchable EV battery pioneer Better Place announced a newly expanded agreement with French car maker Renault, the company’s founder and CEO, Shai Agassi appeared as a guest on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report in hopes of getting that sought-after ‘Colbert Bump’.

The Colbert Bump, as it is known, is a phenomenon wherein people (places, companies, ideas) that appear on the Colbert Report receive a sudden boost in popularity for their cause.

The deal announced by Agassi in Frankfurt builds on an agreement reached between the two companies in August and will be to install the Better Place battery system (and build-out the charging network) for the Renault Fluence ZE for sale in Israel and Denmark. The Fluence ZE was one of four models in Renault’s new line of electric cars unveiled last week at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

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The Optibike OB1 electric bike gets an equivalent of 2,287 MPG.* Could bikes like these be the future of transportation?

Ever wonder what happens when you cross the finest mountain bike components money can buy, an 850w brushless DC motor and a 20ah lithium-ion battery with motocross styling and sensibilities? You get the Optibike OB1, an electric bike that can get up to 45 miles on a nine-cent charge, and what is arguably the finest electric bicycle in the world.

In fact, the Optibike OB1 even found a spot in the California Academy of Sciences museum, touted as “the future of transportation.” There are only 24 OB1’s made per year. When one of them is bought, the owner becomes part of an elite club of enthusiastic riders. And for four fun-filled days in August, I was lucky enough to be a member of that club — or at least able to pretend like I was after being provided one for a short term test drive.

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From green gadgets and gizmos, to DVDs and loose-leaf teas, I get the occasional product sent to me for a review.  In most cases, I like to give it a thorough once-over before I’m comfortable putting a stamp of (dis)approval on it.

If I take a long time to review a product, it is usually because: the product stinks and the manufacturer wouldn’t want me to publish anything anyway; the product really stinks and I don’t want to waste my time or my readers’ time with it, or; the product is actually quite good and the length of time spending reviewing it is extended because I’m trying to find something bad to say about it — but can’t. In the case of the DOT-it LED lights Sylvania sent me, the reason for my slow turnaround is definitely the last one. These lights are great.

The first of the two lights sent to me by Sylvania was the DOT-it Golden Dragon (pictured top). The ninja-sounding Golden Dragon is the Cadillac of Sylvania’s puck-style LED lights.

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Utility withdraws from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the troubled coal industry group

Duke Energy, the North Carolina-based electric utility announced on Wednesday it would be leaving the clean coal lobbying group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), over differences with the organization’s opposition to clean energy and climate legislation being considered by Congress.

Officials from Duke Energy said that “While some individual members of ACCCE are working to pass climate change legislation, we believe ACCCE is constrained by influential member companies who will not support passing climate change legislation in 2009 or 2010.”

Duke said that ACCCE’s position is not consistent with Duke Energy’s work to pass economy-wide and cost effective climate change legislation as soon as possible.

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The long-awaited commercial deployment of the world’s most efficient solar technology looks like it will now be near Phoenix, in a 1.5-megawatt, 60-unit deployment of Stirling Energy Systems’ solar thermal collectors.

Announced late last week, the 60-dish Maricopa Solar project will be the first commercial-scale solar facility built using Stirling Energy Systems/Tessera Solar’s SunCatcher concentrating solar technology.

The SunCatcher consists of a solar concentrator in a dish structure that supports an array of curved glass mirrors. Iterations of the SunCatcher have been among the world’s most efficient machines for solar-to-grid electric conversion for twenty years, most recently breaking the record last year with the highest-ever conversion rate of 31.25%.

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To help us wade through all the green hyperbole, a growing list of sustainability ranking projects has emerged including the Princeton Review Green Honor Roll, the College Sustainability Report Card, and the Sierra Club’s just-released Cool Schools ranking. Each of the guides uses a different methodology but all of were helpful when formulating the following compilation of the top green colleges and universities in the United States.

Recognizing that defining the word ‘green’ can be problematic in its own right and that there are tons of colleges doing really great things in terms of sustainability, this list is certainly incomplete and/or inexact. Think we missed something? Have an example of campus sustainability that needs to be told? Tell the world in the comments section. In alphabetical order:

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Compromise plan has some Greens opposing passage

The Australian government’s ruling coalition has come to terms on an agreement that would quadruple the renewable energy target set by the previous government in 2001 and is in line with the renewables target set by the European Union in 2008. The coal-centric Australia currently gets eight percent of its electricity from renewables, including hydroelectric power.

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Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota)

The sustainability initiatives at Carleton College rank right up there with those you’ll find at the Ivies and other large, well-endowed universities. Carleton unveiled its own 1.65-megawatt wind turbine in 2004, the first of its kind in the nation. The school is also proud of its LEED-certified buildings and campus wide compost and single-stream recycling programs.

Image via resedebear

College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine)

Named by Grist as the “Greenest college in the world,” College of the Atlantic earned that honor for a reason: because it was the first college to be a net-zero carbon emitter in the country. Since then, hundreds of other universities have made similar such pledges. Since the college opened in 1972, it has specialized in healthy, local and frequently organic eats. There is also a thriving campus community garden and a nearby organic farm, which is owned and operated by the school.

Image via College of the Atlantic

The Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington)

Evergreen State College maintains a thriving organic farm that produces enough food to have leftovers after selling to the campus food service. It also has a massive composting program in place, replete with a compost reactor, worm bins, and food-scrap collection at residence halls.

Image via wonderjunkie

Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vermont)

On track to become carbon neutral by 2016, Middlebury made steps toward their goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2016 by building a biomass gasification plant that replaces one million gallons of fuel oil annually with locally and sustainably produced wood chips. The plant generates steam for heating, cooling and electricity and reduces the college’s net carbon dioxide emissions by an impressive 40 percent. Middlebury is home to the country’s oldest undergraduate environmental studies program and currently is the home institution of resident scholar Bill McKibben, well-known climate activist and author of The End of Nature.

Image via cogdogblog

Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)

Also listed in the top tier of US News and World Report’s annual ranking of colleges in the country, the Ohio liberal arts college has always been considered a little lot left of center. Sustainability is taken seriously at Oberlin including a wastewater processing system that creates reusable grey water via the natural cleansing methods that occur in a wetland. As part of Oberlin’s Buy Local program, about 35 percent of the total food budget is spent on items sourced from approximately 30 local farms and a local dairy.

Image via La Sequencia

University of California at Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, California)

One of the top five renewable energy purchasers of any university in the country, the UCSC Banana Slugs’ green power program is the result of a ballot initiative that was approved in May 2006 by the student body. UC Santa Cruz has even developed a sustainability vision statement which says the university will strive to integrate sustainability into every aspect of the three pillars of university education: research, teaching, and public service.

Image via davidsilver

University of Colorado at Boulder (Boulder, Colorado)

Home of the nation’s oldest student-run environmental center, established Earth Day 1970, and the nation’s first collegiate recycling program, established in 1976, the University of Colorado in Boulder has long been at the forefront of campus sustainability.

Image via University of Colorado

University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire)

The first college to run off of a landfill gas cogeneration plant which covers 85% of heating, cooling and electricity, The University of New Hampshire also buys buy food from 54 local farms thereby supporting local farmers.

Image via UNH Office of Sustainability

University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont)

The University of Vermont supplies 60 percent of campus power needs with renewable energy; composts more than 20 tons of waste each month. And when those frigid winter winds come blowing off nearby Lake Champlain, students and faculty are thankful they can ride free on biodiesel-powered shuttles.

Images via zappowbang

University of Washington at Seattle (Seattle, Washington)

Despite campus growth in the same period, overall energy use actually decreased at ‘U-Dub’ by 10 percent between 2000 and 2005. The university buys 100% of their energy from renewable sources, and has a hybrid and electric fleet of over 300 vehicles.

Image via Wonderlane

Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)

Home of the legendary School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale has always been well regarded in terms of its academic programs in the environment and natural resource sciences. Enter the 21st century and Yale hasn’t lost a step. The Connecticut Ivy now has a forward-looking office of sustainability and publishes one of the best regarded environmental blogs on the internet.

Image via loop_oh

Honorable Mention…

The following colleges and universities were also repeatedly in the top tier of the green rankings.

Arizona State University

Dartmouth College

Dickinson College

Harvard University

University of California Berkeley

University of California Los Angeles

University of Oregon

Warren Wilson College

Americans used more solar, nuclear, biomass and wind energy in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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New 30% tax credit for advanced energy manufacturing industries

The Department of Energy on Thursday released the details of a new $2.3 billion manufacturing tax credit, enacted earlier this year as part of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The tax credit of 30% is for investment in new renewable energy manufacturing facilities and re-equipped or expanded facilities.

The idea behind the stimulus is to grow the domestic manufacturing industry for clean energy, stimulating economic growth, creating jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building a long-term strategy for addressing them.

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Millions of nuts, bolts, pieces of metal and carbon, and whole spacecraft from thousands of missions and launches form an orbiting garbage dump spinning around the Earth at speeds up to 22,000 mph.

After the recent collision between a Russian and U.S. satellite, concern for the growing hazard of space junk is becoming even more acute within the international space community. In recent months, NASA and the European Space Agency have both diverted resources into monitoring space debris and researching ways of mitigating and—some day—removing it.

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The fragile ecosystems of the Eastern Himalayas have been proven to harbor incredible biological diversity in recent years — a diversity now threatened by global climate change, a new report finds.

A new report (pdf) by the WWF, The Eastern Himalayas: Where Worlds Collide, describes more than 350 new species discovered in the last decade including 244 plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, 2 birds, 2 mammals and at least 60 new invertebrates. But all of the species discoveries made in the Eastern Himalayas in the last decade may be overshadowed by a rapidly changing climate.

“These exciting finds reinforce just how little we now about the world around us,” said Mark Wright, WWF’s conservation science advisor, adding that the Eastern Himalayas are a region of extraordinary beauty, with some of the most biologically rich areas on the planet.

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President Obama announces $2.4 billion in grants to speed the manufacturing and deployment of the next generation of batteries and electric vehicles

As part of the $787 billion stimulus package approved in February, Congress agreed to include $2 billion in research and development grants for advanced battery technologies, and today, speaking in Elkhart, Indiana, the President announced that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will fund 48 new advanced battery and electric drive components manufacturing and electric drive vehicle deployment projects in over 20 states.

The President said the announcement marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made.

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I’m such a geek. This week, I’m headed to the legendary Red Rocks Park in Morrison, Colorado, for four sold-out nights of music from the Vermont-based band, Phish, at what is arguably one of the greatest outdoor music venues in the United States, if not the world. And I will, at some point or another, be thinking about the New Deal.

That’s right, in the middle of some twenty-minute swirling, epic jam, my mind will undoubtedly stray a little and wonder about the millions of unemployed Americans that were employed during and after the Great Depression building thousands of roads, bridges, post offices, schools, dams and, well, amazing places like Red Rocks.

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Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota)

The sustainability initiatives at Carleton College rank right up there with those you’ll find at the Ivies and other large, well-endowed universities. Carleton unveiled its own 1.65-megawatt wind turbine in 2004, the first of its kind in the nation. The school is also proud of its LEED-certified buildings and campus wide compost and single-stream recycling programs.

Image via resedebear

College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine)

Named by Grist as the “Greenest college in the world,” College of the Atlantic earned that honor for a reason: because it was the first college to be a net-zero carbon emitter in the country. Since then, hundreds of other universities have made similar such pledges. Since the college opened in 1972, it has specialized in healthy, local and frequently organic eats. There is also a thriving campus community garden and a nearby organic farm, which is owned and operated by the school.

Image via College of the Atlantic

The Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington)

Evergreen State College maintains a thriving organic farm that produces enough food to have leftovers after selling to the campus food service. It also has a massive composting program in place, replete with a compost reactor, worm bins, and food-scrap collection at residence halls.

Image via wonderjunkie

Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vermont)

On track to become carbon neutral by 2016, Middlebury made steps toward their goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2016 by building a biomass gasification plant that replaces one million gallons of fuel oil annually with locally and sustainably produced wood chips. The plant generates steam for heating, cooling and electricity and reduces the college’s net carbon dioxide emissions by an impressive 40 percent. Middlebury is home to the country’s oldest undergraduate environmental studies program and currently is the home institution of resident scholar Bill McKibben, well-known climate activist and author of The End of Nature.

Image via cogdogblog

Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)

Also listed in the top tier of US News and World Report’s annual ranking of colleges in the country, the Ohio liberal arts college has always been considered a little lot left of center. Sustainability is taken seriously at Oberlin including a wastewater processing system that creates reusable grey water via the natural cleansing methods that occur in a wetland. As part of Oberlin’s Buy Local program, about 35 percent of the total food budget is spent on items sourced from approximately 30 local farms and a local dairy.

Image via La Sequencia

University of California at Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, California)

One of the top five renewable energy purchasers of any university in the country, the UCSC Banana Slugs’ green power program is the result of a ballot initiative that was approved in May 2006 by the student body. UC Santa Cruz has even developed a sustainability vision statement which says the university will strive to integrate sustainability into every aspect of the three pillars of university education: research, teaching, and public service.

Image via davidsilver

University of Colorado at Boulder (Boulder, Colorado)

Home of the nation’s oldest student-run environmental center, established Earth Day 1970, and the nation’s first collegiate recycling program, established in 1976, the University of Colorado in Boulder has long been at the forefront of campus sustainability.

Image via University of Colorado

University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire)

The first college to run off of a landfill gas cogeneration plant which covers 85% of heating, cooling and electricity, The University of New Hampshire also buys buy food from 54 local farms thereby supporting local farmers.

Image via UNH Office of Sustainability

University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont)

The University of Vermont supplies 60 percent of campus power needs with renewable energy; composts more than 20 tons of waste each month. And when those frigid winter winds come blowing off nearby Lake Champlain, students and faculty are thankful they can ride free on biodiesel-powered shuttles.

Images via zappowbang

University of Washington at Seattle (Seattle, Washington)

Despite campus growth in the same period, overall energy use actually decreased at ‘U-Dub’ by 10 percent between 2000 and 2005. The university buys 100% of their energy from renewable sources, and has a hybrid and electric fleet of over 300 vehicles.

Image via Wonderlane

Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)

Home of the legendary School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale has always been well regarded in terms of its academic programs in the environment and natural resource sciences. Enter the 21st century and Yale hasn’t lost a step. The Connecticut Ivy now has a forward-looking office of sustainability and publishes one of the best regarded environmental blogs on the internet.

Image via loop_oh

Honorable Mention…

The following colleges and universities were also repeatedly in the top tier of the green rankings.

Arizona State University

Dartmouth College

Dickinson College

Harvard University

University of California Berkeley

University of California Los Angeles

University of Oregon

Warren Wilson College

Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota)

The sustainability initiatives at Carleton College rank right up there with those you’ll find at the Ivies and other large, well-endowed universities. Carleton unveiled its own 1.65-megawatt wind turbine in 2004, the first of its kind in the nation. The school is also proud of its LEED-certified buildings and campus wide compost and single-stream recycling programs.

Image via resedebear

College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine)

Named by Grist as the “Greenest college in the world,” College of the Atlantic earned that honor for a reason: because it was the first college to be a net-zero carbon emitter in the country. Since then, hundreds of other universities have made similar such pledges. Since the college opened in 1972, it has specialized in healthy, local and frequently organic eats. There is also a thriving campus community garden and a nearby organic farm, which is owned and operated by the school.

Image via College of the Atlantic

The Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington)

Evergreen State College maintains a thriving organic farm that produces enough food to have leftovers after selling to the campus food service. It also has a massive composting program in place, replete with a compost reactor, worm bins, and food-scrap collection at residence halls.

Image via wonderjunkie

Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vermont)

On track to become carbon neutral by 2016, Middlebury made steps toward their goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2016 by building a biomass gasification plant that replaces one million gallons of fuel oil annually with locally and sustainably produced wood chips. The plant generates steam for heating, cooling and electricity and reduces the college’s net carbon dioxide emissions by an impressive 40 percent. Middlebury is home to the country’s oldest undergraduate environmental studies program and currently is the home institution of resident scholar Bill McKibben, well-known climate activist and author of The End of Nature.

Image via cogdogblog

Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)

Also listed in the top tier of US News and World Report’s annual ranking of colleges in the country, the Ohio liberal arts college has always been considered a little lot left of center. Sustainability is taken seriously at Oberlin including a wastewater processing system that creates reusable grey water via the natural cleansing methods that occur in a wetland. As part of Oberlin’s Buy Local program, about 35 percent of the total food budget is spent on items sourced from approximately 30 local farms and a local dairy.

Image via La Sequencia

University of California at Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, California)

One of the top five renewable energy purchasers of any university in the country, the UCSC Banana Slugs’ green power program is the result of a ballot initiative that was approved in May 2006 by the student body. UC Santa Cruz has even developed a sustainability vision statement which says the university will strive to integrate sustainability into every aspect of the three pillars of university education: research, teaching, and public service.

Image via davidsilver

University of Colorado at Boulder (Boulder, Colorado)

Home of the nation’s oldest student-run environmental center, established Earth Day 1970, and the nation’s first collegiate recycling program, established in 1976, the University of Colorado in Boulder has long been at the forefront of campus sustainability.

Image via University of Colorado

University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire)

The first college to run off of a landfill gas cogeneration plant which covers 85% of heating, cooling and electricity, The University of New Hampshire also buys buy food from 54 local farms thereby supporting local farmers.

Image via UNH Office of Sustainability

University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont)

The University of Vermont supplies 60 percent of campus power needs with renewable energy; composts more than 20 tons of waste each month. And when those frigid winter winds come blowing off nearby Lake Champlain, students and faculty are thankful they can ride free on biodiesel-powered shuttles.

Images via zappowbang

University of Washington at Seattle (Seattle, Washington)

Despite campus growth in the same period, overall energy use actually decreased at ‘U-Dub’ by 10 percent between 2000 and 2005. The university buys 100% of their energy from renewable sources, and has a hybrid and electric fleet of over 300 vehicles.

Image via Wonderlane

Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)

Home of the legendary School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale has always been well regarded in terms of its academic programs in the environment and natural resource sciences. Enter the 21st century and Yale hasn’t lost a step. The Connecticut Ivy now has a forward-looking office of sustainability and publishes one of the best regarded environmental blogs on the internet.

Image via loop_oh

Honorable Mention…

The following colleges and universities were also repeatedly in the top tier of the green rankings.

Arizona State University

Dartmouth College

Dickinson College

Harvard University

University of California Berkeley

University of California Los Angeles

University of Oregon

Warren Wilson College

The blade plant on the Isle of Wight was in the process of researching and testing the world’s longest wind turbine blade—a project that will likely continue thanks to the deal announced Monday.

The sluggish turbine market and political opposition to large-scale wind development in the UK are being cited as reasons for the plant closures by Vestas officials. Company officials said they would likely be shifting production of its onshore turbines to its facilities in Colorado.

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