Green Options

Want to add your two cents’ worth to the incoming Obama administration’s call for New Deal-type investments in the US? You can help ensure a better future — and a greener one at that — by endorsing the Post Carbon Institute’s new proposal: “The Real New Deal: Energy Scarcity and the Path to Energy, Economic and Environmental Recovery.”

Written by Post Carbon Instituters Richard Heinberg, Asher Miller, Daniel Lerch and Andrew Calvo, “The Real New Deal” calls on President-elect Barack Obama to completely redesign our economy and society to wean it from its dependence on cheap (and soon-to-be not-so-cheap) fossil fuels.

“Our 21st century nation’s dependence on 20th century fossil fuels is the root of the economic and environmental threats we face,” the report’s executive summary states. “A coordinated, comprehensive transition to an economy that is no longer dependent on hydrocarbon fuels and no longer emits climate-changing levels of carbon — a Real New Deal for a post-carbon world — will be the Obama Administration’s greatest opportunity to lead the nation on a path toward economic, energy and environmental recovery.”

I’m a huge fan of Traditional Medicinals tea, so I’m pleased to learn that the company has just completed the largest solar powered tea factory on the planet. Traditional Medicinals’ 70,000 square foot Sebastopol, CA headquarters will use 1450 solar panels that generate 430,000 KWh of power— that’s 75 percent of the company’s total energy needs. The rest of the factory’s energy use will be offset by wind energy credits.