Yay reader correspondence! One of our faithfuls emailed us this awesome story about solar panels being installed on houses at North Carolina’s Lejeune Marine Corps base. The panels are provided by FLS Energy and are used to heat water - according to NPR’s article, Camp Lejeune “is quickly becoming the largest [community] in the continental U.S. to heat water with solar energy.”

FLS’ solar panel heating system works like a greenhouse, heating fluid inside the house and transferring that heat into a 40-gallon, 180-degree water tank. They seem to specialize in installing solar panels in places that use a lot of hot water which, as is the case with Camp Lejeune, isn’t directly paid for by residents. The idea here, or at least one of them, is to show how inexpensive renewable energy can be. And the locals are agreeable to it; Sgt. Kirk Paulsen’s quote about the panel installation being “a milestone in our history books for the Marine Corps, for the state of North Carolina and for the continental U.S.” is well taken, as is his sentiment that “we’re conserving it for our children’s children’s children.”

This isn’t the first time that the military has tried out renewable energy, and their R&D wizards can improve it further if given the opportunity/funding. Their endorsement of things like solar power would provide a solid example for the rest of us, too, especially those of us whose political leanings are traditionally hostile to green energy. Most importantly, as the reader who sent this in pointed out, it’s more proof that “the anti-renewable energy crowd isn’t living in complete reality…their ideas just haven’t kept up with the way tech has advanced, especially in areas like solar.” Semper Fi!

For those of you following the California governor’s race (or, god forbid, actually living in California), the two most prominent candidates are former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and longtime political gadfly/current CA attorney general/former CA governor Jerry Brown. Brown recently spoke at Microsoft’s Mountain View campus, where he laid out his clean energy plan. To wit, he wants to place solar panels along the banks of freeways, school roofs, and pretty much anywhere that’s flat and catches direct sunlight. He also wants a requirement that new homes and commercial buildings use “zero net energy,” and he supports state global warming law AB 32, which Whitman opposes. So far, Silicon Valley is siding with Brown.

There’s more to Brown’s plan, but the more important question is whether or not he’ll really go through with it. Brown is one of the most baffling politicians around, and he swerves from hippy-dippy liberal to fascist loon with equal dexterity. Granted, he’s not quite as bad as “California Uber Alles” made him out to be, but he’s built his career as a public servant on a foundation of unpredictability, so it’s hard to get too excited when he announces big plans like this. In any case, it’s good to see higher-profile candidates campaigning on an aggressive green platform - the less voters see green/clean energy as an irrelevant fringe issue, the better.

We talked about the Charm City Circulator, Baltimore’s new system of hybrid buses, back when it had just started up; now that it’s been running a while, we thought we’d check in and see whether or not the locals took to it.

As it turns out, they have. The C3 is free, first of all (not that bus fare in Baltimore is all that expensive), and it shadows popular MTA bus routes. It’s also a cleaner ride around town than MTA buses, and not always late to designated stops, either. And riders are generally pleased with the experience. “This is the best thing ever!” says someone on the C3 Facebook page, noting that “your wonderful bus delivers me from…my hotel to the hospital and allows me to spend my cab money on other Baltimore attractions.” Yelp.com also yielded happy riders, with one reviewer asking “what’s not to like?…10 minute headways means there’s always a bus coming.” People are responding well to the idea of a hybrid bus, too - Baltimore is a much greener city than is often assumed.

In fact, Baltimore Brew has suggested just limiting MTA service to express buses and transit hubs and letting C3 cover everything else because, so far, it’s a better system with more money and community support. And, as the article points out, Baltimore’s public transportation network is beyond redundant and it’s time to finally trim down their 3 or four badly-run options into one or two that actually work. That the C3 is at the top of this list already says a lot about the potential for greener transportation in general, despite how often naysayers try to shrug it off as a gimmick or a fad.

We must say, we’re proud of Baltimore for offering such a nice service - we’ve ridden the C3 a couple of times and really enjoyed the experience. Let’s hope the city government and the MTA are paying attention.

One of our esteemed readers made some very interesting points in a recent email - the latest in an ongoing dialogue we have about alt. energy and the various roadblocks our country keeps building in front of it. We’re reposting some of the more interesting tidbits here, with links for context.

“The administration is finally using the oil crisis to press for his clean energy program. The link there is obvious, and I only wish he had started to do so sooner. However, questions have been raised about how much the spill will hurt the President’s ability to achieve his agenda, even on energy, which is ironic because you’d think that, in a sane world, a crisis like this would actually HELP push an energy bill through Congress. People have started making comparisons to Carter and the Iran Hostage Crisis, which is a bit unnerving.”

He continues:

“Even without the lost political capital, NPR has an article that I think raises issues about whether or not the U.S. will be ready to accept investment in alternative energy under any circumstances. They note that even as the oil spill ruins Louisiana’s coastline and fishing industry, residents may not be willing to back limits on offshore drilling because oil is such an important part of the state’s economy. Which is why Louisiana’s Senators push to keep the cap on damages, even as oil seeps onto their state’s beaches. It reminds me of the argument that Kevin Phillips made in American Theocracy: Superpowers rise, in part, because of their ability to create and adapt to new and innovative sources of energy. However, over time, the people and institutions devoted to that source of energy become overly powerful and entrenched. As such, the super power’s ability to change to a new, “better” source of energy is inhibited, and they are overtaken by another, more flexible nation that is able to utilize that new technology.”

It’s a weird country we live in, folks. Seriously though, a lot of brilliant stuff was said here. If anyone else out there has anything to add, leave a comment or shoot an email to kiefda03 -at- gmail -dot- com.

In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, which is going to be impossible to clean up if it keeps going the way it’s going, the few genuinely progressive voices in Congress are speaking up about oil and our dependence on it and better places to allocate federal money. Smart Growth America, for example, is championing the Kerry/Lieberman climate bill because of its proposed investments in clean energy production, and specifically clean transportation. Kerry pimped the bill himself on Huffington Post and basically promised the sun and stars if it passed, but there’s still a lot of opposition to the bill from the usual suspects, namely oil puppets and the “nuclear or nothing” crowd that shits up every alt-energy discussion. Click on the Smart Growth America link above to tell your Senators not to neuter this bill, if you feel so inclined.

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist who - unlike Obama - is an actual socialist, chimed in recently too, positing that the oil spill in the Gulf has exposed offshore drilling for the stupid, wasteful idea it really is. He also brings up how much gas money America could save “just by raising our fuel efficiency standards to 35.5 miles per gallon for cars and trucks,” and ends by proposing that all of our fortunes would be bettered “if we take bold action in energy efficiency, public transportation, advanced vehicle technologies, solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal [energy].” In other words, it would behoove us to actually move forward on initiatives like the Kerry/Lieberman bill (which could actually be a lot tougher on corporations than it is) and quit trying to appease doomsayer conservatives with no ideas of their own beyond more of the same.

Lots of manly car chat in this update, but first here’s an amusing hater from Townhall.com - it’s clear from his directionless rant about cap and trade (and Obama, and unions, and all the usual GOP scapegoats) that David Harsanyi doesn’t really understand what he’s angry about. Not that it’s impossible to rationally oppose wind and solar power, but he clearly has no grasp of them beyond their convenience as buzzwords. Guys like this would get in the way if they weren’t so retarded.

Among actual adults, however, there’s a lot to talk about. Arizona’s electric car enthusiasts are soon to benefit from a $99.8 million stimulus-act grant that will help local company Ecotality Inc. roll out 12,000 charging stations and show people how to use them once the Nissan Leaf hits the streets later on this year. Whether or not Mexican residents will be allowed to drive them remains to be seen.

The Leaf won’t be the only option with a sissy name, though. Norwegian electric car maker THINK is $40 million closer to expanding operations to North America, and has plans to start production at its U.S. plant in Elkhart, Indiana next year. THINK cars are currently assembled in Finland. We didn’t get retail prices from THINK, but they’re probably (and hopefully) less than the current $50,000 tag on Toyota’s first hydrogen car. Not exactly the best way to deflate criticism that hydrogen car research is too expensive, but Toyota reps are insistent that “production cost should be covered within the price of the vehicle.” At least they understand that they have to cut that price in half before making any serious pushes to sell these things in America - we have enough reasons to hate rich people already without their cars getting fancier.

And with that, we must dash, but it’s good to see electric cars and similar tech. gaining momentum despite laughable resistance from guys like Harsanyi. Seriously, “three-cornered-hat-wearing Visigoths?” What a tool.

Wow, it’s been a while since the last update. Sorry about that! Finals and one of us having to throw hours of his life into the Pit of Eternal Suck that is the Maryland Film Festival kinda got in the way of the blog for a minute there, but we’re back! And we’ve got some interesting news this time.

Electric cars are whisper-quiet compared to conventional automobiles, which poses a unique hazard to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. The scenario of an impaired pedestrian walking right in front of a car because he or she didn’t hear it coming has been brought up a lot, and while one would think people would help keep each other safe in situations like that, the sad truth of it is that investments in human kindness rarely see returns.

So electric car manufacturers are going for the next best thing: Star Wars. Yep, the Daily Mail reports that “regulators in the European Union, Japan and the United States are considering allowing manufacturers an array of sounds - from the conventional [engine noises] to sci-fi sounds from Star Wars” so pedestrians can hear them coming. There’s even talk of allowing manufacturers to create their own “signature sounds” for their electric vehicles, which strikes us as a potentially terrible ringtone-for-your-car situation, but the basic idea is (pardon the pun) perfectly sound. Car noises alert people to oncoming cars, and also inform drivers of whether or not the car is accelerating or decelerating. Plus, all the hopeless dorks at Corn Car HQ want our cars to sound like the Millennium Falcon.

What other sound packages would be cool to include with electric cars? Anyone?

Cars.com just put out a list of 2010’s greenest American cities and, whaddaya know, seven out of the top ten are on the West Coast (mostly California and Oregon). The top twenty branches out a little bit to include Charlottesville (VA), Fairbanks (Alaska), and several cities in the Midwest. Baltimore, sadly, is #103, in spite of all the recent green efforts - rooftop gardening, hybrid buses, etc. - we’ve undertaken. It’s even more depressing when you consider that Washington DC, a mere 30 minutes south of us, is #20. We’re at a loss to explain why that is; DC has a lot of the same problems Baltimore does in terms of corruption and money being scarce for things that actually matter and wealthy suburbanites leaving the city’s urban center to rot. Perhaps DC’s status as the federal government’s company town keeps enough money flowing to start up green city projects.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Detroit, which is turning green in the most literal sense of the word, at #140. Detroit certainly doesn’t have the money to buy hybrid buses or solar paneling - they can barely sustain a population - and city services have been cut to the point where parts of the city are becoming “rejungled,” AKA overtaken by weeds and plant life and, in some extreme cases, impromptu marshland sprouting from large puddles. It sounds and is horrible, but people are looking at Detroit as a site for urban farming efforts because of this, and entire abandoned neighborhoods are being bought to turn into greenhouses and communal farms. The response of Detroit’s remaining population will certainly be interesting, and varied, but the green movement’s eye for opportunity is one of its better qualities, and since everyone else has abandoned Detroit, kudos to them for thinking something can still be done there.

We’ve gone a little far afield from our original topic, but it’s also worth noting that this listing defined “green cities” by how many of their residents are “researching hybrid cars, crossovers and SUVs” thus far in 2010. Hybrids are great and all, but that’s not a complete sample of green efforts by any stretch of the imagination. Taking more green projects into account, we wonder how those numbers might change.

As we all know, the government is parceling out money left and right for some long overdue infrastructural maintenance - roads (which we’ll get to in a minute), education, and energy efficiency are three higher-profile projects being tackled by the Obama administration.

Trouble is, all the energy efficiency targets are urban, and rural homeowners are afraid of getting lost in the dust. And whether they’re living off the land or just yuppies pretending to homestead, we can’t afford to ignore them. Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina realized this too, which is why they’re drumming up support for a bill to “finance energy efficiency upgrades on 1.6 million homes nationwide, including 225,000 in South Carolina.”

ECSC sees this as the next logical extension of the Rural Electrification program, and is trying to build on efforts made in other states, namely Virginia and Arkansas. Under those programs, “homes are audited to determine what improvements would be most cost-effective. Then a low-interest, no down-payment loan is structured with monthly payments on the customer’s power bill that come to no more than the savings achieved from the upgrades.” It’s a pretty sweet deal, especially when you weigh it against the usurious loaning practices of nearly every modern bank or credit company, but it hasn’t had many takers thus far. ECSC hopes to change that with better marketing, and it would be nice if some of the ideas we saw at the Solar Decathlon this summer caught on thanks to this program. SEEDpod Solar Housing in particular would be helpful, since it’s adaptable to whatever climate it’s built in.

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood continues to impress us. He recently said on his blog that “people across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized,” sentiments he’d already made clear during a speech to bicycling advocates. Naturally, car manufacturers and their Republican puppets are pissed; The Big Money’s Matt DeBord said that “we can talk all we want about light rail and urban mass-transit and even flying cars and jetpacks—when push comes to shove, we’re Americans and we drive.” We found his quote particularly funny; as if other civilized places didn’t have well-maintained public transit/national rail services. But hey, the American taxpayer is ENTITLED to shitty unsustainable infrastructure, even if he or she actually wants to change it.

LaHood, a suburban Republican, is definitely an interesting character: while it’s not surprising that a Republican would dig his heels in like this, since Democrats can’t be relied upon to stand up for themselves, but it’s seriously hurting our heads that an outspoken Republican is on the correct side of an argument for once, especially given LaHood’s record of kicking back money to campaign donors. Still, green advocacy needs his kind of stubbornness, and we’re glad he’s here to provide it. Maybe some actual progressives will take note of his attitude and try it themselves.