Surf City Earns Energy ‘Smarter City’ Status

August 9, 2010

by Sarah (Steve) Mosko

  • Appeared 9 Aug 2010 in Surf City Voice.

Huntington Beach is recognized by National Resources Defense Council for energy efficiency

Residents of Huntington Beach (HB) can take pride in being the only Orange County city that landed a spot this year on a list of 22 ‘Smarter Cities’ nationwide being recognized by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for setting good examples for the rest of nation in the areas of green power, energy efficiency and conservation.

The announcement came at the end of July, and Long Beach is the only other city in southern California earning this distinction. The NRDC extended initial consideration to all 655 U.S. municipalities with populations of at least 50,000.

HB and other Orange County cities made an initial cut because the county’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, as measured for 2002 by a North American monitoring program called Project Vulcan, averaged 1.8 tons per capita which met the qualifying per capita cut off of less than 2.5 tons. That HB alone made the final list reflects both the city’s record in improving the energy efficiency of its city facilities and its community outreach efforts to empower residents to save energy and money.

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What Smells About Ethanol Fuel

July 1, 2007

Appeared in San Fernando Valley Sierra Club newsletter in July 2007.

What Smells About Ethanol Fuel

Sarah S. Mosko, Ph.D.

Pick your poison -- ethanol pollutes the air and MBTE pollutes underground water. Illustration by Willis Simms.

Pick your poison — ethanol pollutes the air and MBTE pollutes underground water. Illustration by Willis Simms.

From President Bush on down, it seems everyone is talking up “biofuels”, especially corn-grain ethanol, as the panacea to the country’s energy woes… global warming, air pollution, increasing prices at the pump and dependence on foreign oil.

Automakers are promoting flex-fuel cars that run on either E85, a gasoline mixture that is 85% ethanol, or straight gasoline. Agribusiness giants like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland are trumpeting their ethanol, fermented and distilled from corn, as they boost production to meet rising domestic demand. However, just because a fuel can be made from plants does not make it inherently “green” or ever plentiful enough to replace gasoline.

A reputable analysis concluded that conversion of all U.S. cropland to produce corn strictly for ethanol would not suffice to fuel the current fleet of American autos.1

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