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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_42_22.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>UCSF bioengineering graduate student Alvin Tamsir places E.coli bacteria onto a petri dish in the lab. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Reported for \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/\">KQEDnews.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco have hacked into the genetic wiring of billions of individual bacteria and outfitted them with the kind of on/off switches normally found in computer chips, not living organisms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The switches, which are built out of genes, allow the bacteria to listen for chemical signals and respond, much like computer chips that can perform powerful tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The switches may one day help the development of biofuels that are cheaper and more powerful than gasoline, or a new suite of pharmaceuticals that could more effectively target and kill tumor cells with fewer side effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Scientists have been trying to engineer bacteria to be more programmable, to do various things, but biology is hard to program” said Alvin Tamsir a doctoral student at UCSF. “I want to generate the technology so that bacteria can be more programmable in a more predictable way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasmir was the lead author of a study on the subject that was published last week in the journal, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature09565.html\">Nature\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_12_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>UCSF bioengineering graduate student Alvin Tamsir. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By building new molecular circuits into bacteria, Tamsir and his team can now make the bacteria perform specific tasks, much like the millions of wires which comprise the electrical circuitry of a modern computer chip enable the dizzying array of complex calculations and tasks a computer can do in micro-seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all part of the new field of synthetic biology, where principles from computer science, electrical engineering and genetics, along with other sciences, mix together to reveal the tools and strategies for reprogramming the cellular machinery of living organisms like bacteria and yeast. Scientists and companies in the Bay Area and elsewhere, working on other synthetic biology project, already are developing a new generation of drugs and biofuels with bionic bacteria and yeast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of these drugs that we are working on right now require 40 genes. And you have to control when those genes turn on and for how long and in what order, and for all that, you need a circuit,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.voigtlab.ucsf.edu/\">Christopher Voigt\u003c/a>, an associate professor at UCSF’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and the senior author of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamsir and Voigt looked to the world of electrical engineering, where circuits bring the necessary level of control to millions of precisely timed calculations that a computer chip must complete to execute any task, like spellchecking a document or surfing the web.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do these tasks, microscopic switches called “logic gates” are etched into the silicon of computer chips. The logic gates function according to a set of rules and are connected with wires that make up a circuit on the chip. Each of these logic gates receives an input, such as an electrical current, from the wires, and responds based on the kind of gate it is. For example, if it’s an “AND” gate, it will turn on and send its output of an electrical signal to the gate next to it, but only if it is getting inputs from the two wires that feed into it. If it’s an “OR” gate, it will turn on even if it is getting a signal from just one of the wires connected to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In computers, complex tasks like opening a document or performing a calculation can be boiled down to simpler calculations performed by these logic gates,” said Tamsir. A modern Pentium chip can have more than a million logic gates, each one performing a tiny piece of the calculation or task at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But you don't have an engineer at Intel that is choosing exactly where each wire goes,” said Voigt. Instead, programming languages have automated the process, quickly and reliably reproducing on the computer chip the precise circuits of logic gates needed to carry out functions specified by a computer engineer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are trying to create a programming language for cells,” Voigt added, “and ultimately have it so you can take any function you can imagine and convert that into a DNA sequence that carries out that function.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_84_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Four colonies of E. coli bacteria cells plated onto a petri dish. Each colony contains a billion cells. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But scientists can’t exactly take the hardware of tiny gates and wires on computer chips and insert them into living bacteria like E. coli. So Tamsir and his team had to engineer genes that would reprogram the DNA of E. coli, instructing it to make logic gates out of proteins that would help the bacteria perform more like a computer to carry out a specific task – in this case, to make a fluorescent yellow protein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In computer chips, the metal wires that feed into a logic gate are physically separated so that the inputs going into one logic gate don’t cross with the wires of a nearby logic gate. But this isn’t the case with living bacteria. “Every gate is a molecule and they're all being run based on molecules and they're all crammed together in the bag that is the cell,” Voigt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the scientists created eight different colonies of bacteria, each with their own discrete logic gate, only four colonies were used at a time to see if they could link up to form a circuit that would yield the fluorescent protein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One logic gate in one of the bacteria colonies may need two inputs, like a sugar and an antibiotic, to release its molecular output, such as an enzyme, that would then act as an input for a second set of logic gates. But this next set of logic gates may have been designed so that it produces its own molecular output only if it doesn’t receive the sugar and antibiotic inputs that triggered the activity of the first logic gate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s by combining multiple gates together that you get different behavior. And that's how electrical circuits behave - they use a lot of logic gates and combine them in various ways to get various functions,” said Tamsir. Similarly, the scientists were able to modify the behavior of their bacterial circuits by simply moving the location of the bacteria colonies in the petri dish, since each colony operated with its own set of logical rules for responding to the chemical inputs feeding into it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Tamsir_3a_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem> An illustrated wiring diagram showing two different kinds of logic gates (NOR and Buffer) operating in four bacteria colonies on a petri dish. The last bacteria colony, indicated in brown, completes the circuit to make fluorescent yellow protein. (Credit: Alvin Tamsir, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamsir built 16 different kinds of genetic logic gates to program the bacterial 'computers'. Each one successfully suppressed or promoted the production of the fluorescent yellow protein depending on how it was linked together in the bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hard part,” said Tamsir, who has worked for more than two years on this research, “was combining different genetic parts so that when they are put together, they function as you want them to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other researchers are taking note.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have begun the process of creating a characterized library of elements which can be used by other labs to build more complex systems,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.bu.edu/ece/people/faculty/a-g/douglas-densmore/\">Douglas Densmore\u003c/a>, an assistant professor of computer and electrical engineering at Boston University who read the \u003cem>Nature \u003c/em>paper describing the UCSF team’s research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamsir and his team now want to increase the complexity of their bacterial circuits by building even more sophisticated logic gates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voigt added that there are roughly 200 to 300 circuits that regulate different biological activities in E. coli bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s the good news – that it’s not millions,” he said. Unlike a computer chip, “the bacteria don’t require a lot of gates and if we had 100 gates, we could do some pretty amazing things,” Voigt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By designing more complex gates and more of them, he said a scientist could be “in full control of programming bacteria.” This arsenal of expanded logic gates could then coax the bacteria to produce more than just a biofuel or a low-cost malaria drug, like the one developed using synthetic biology by \u003ca href=\"http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/\">Amyris Biotechnologies\u003c/a> in Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything you see in biology -- such as a corn plant growing -- those complex processes are being implemented by natural circuitry,” said Voigt. “And one of the reasons that we can't access those functions is because we don't have that refined level of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the new system of logic gates snapping together to form synthetic circuits, the UCSF scientists have expanded that level of control and consequently, what bacteria or yeast could be programmed to do, like some day make synthetic wood, silk or antibiotics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_55_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>UCSF bioengineering graduate student Alvin Tamsir handles test tubes containing E. coli bacteria. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.lifetechnologies.com/home.html\">Life Technologies\u003c/a>, a biotech firm based in Carlsbad, has partnered with Voigt’s lab to generate a software package that would allow other scientists to specify the kind of logic gates they want to run in the bacteria being used in their experiments. After a few keystrokes and some processing by the computer, the scientists would receive a recipe for making those logic gates, which could then be sequenced from the sugars and phosphates which make up genes, and inserted into their bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Tamsir, the research is incredibly challenging but also extremely rewarding, a vital part of his doctorate degree in bioengineering which he hopes to complete in May. The 26 year-old scientist grew up tinkering with circuit boards and even derived programming inspiration from Lego Mindstorms, a line of robotic toys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found out about the field of synthetic biology through Chris Voigt's lab. Right then, I knew that this was the right field of study for me,” he said. “It combines my love for computer programming with my love for biology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.767050 -122.391139\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Scientists have been trying to engineer bacteria to be more programmable, to do various things, but biology is hard to program” said Alvin Tamsir a doctoral student at UCSF. “I want to generate the technology so that bacteria can be more programmable in a more predictable way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasmir was the lead author of a study on the subject that was published last week in the journal, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature09565.html\">Nature\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_12_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>UCSF bioengineering graduate student Alvin Tamsir. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By building new molecular circuits into bacteria, Tamsir and his team can now make the bacteria perform specific tasks, much like the millions of wires which comprise the electrical circuitry of a modern computer chip enable the dizzying array of complex calculations and tasks a computer can do in micro-seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all part of the new field of synthetic biology, where principles from computer science, electrical engineering and genetics, along with other sciences, mix together to reveal the tools and strategies for reprogramming the cellular machinery of living organisms like bacteria and yeast. Scientists and companies in the Bay Area and elsewhere, working on other synthetic biology project, already are developing a new generation of drugs and biofuels with bionic bacteria and yeast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of these drugs that we are working on right now require 40 genes. And you have to control when those genes turn on and for how long and in what order, and for all that, you need a circuit,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.voigtlab.ucsf.edu/\">Christopher Voigt\u003c/a>, an associate professor at UCSF’s Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and the senior author of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamsir and Voigt looked to the world of electrical engineering, where circuits bring the necessary level of control to millions of precisely timed calculations that a computer chip must complete to execute any task, like spellchecking a document or surfing the web.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do these tasks, microscopic switches called “logic gates” are etched into the silicon of computer chips. The logic gates function according to a set of rules and are connected with wires that make up a circuit on the chip. Each of these logic gates receives an input, such as an electrical current, from the wires, and responds based on the kind of gate it is. For example, if it’s an “AND” gate, it will turn on and send its output of an electrical signal to the gate next to it, but only if it is getting inputs from the two wires that feed into it. If it’s an “OR” gate, it will turn on even if it is getting a signal from just one of the wires connected to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In computers, complex tasks like opening a document or performing a calculation can be boiled down to simpler calculations performed by these logic gates,” said Tamsir. A modern Pentium chip can have more than a million logic gates, each one performing a tiny piece of the calculation or task at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But you don't have an engineer at Intel that is choosing exactly where each wire goes,” said Voigt. Instead, programming languages have automated the process, quickly and reliably reproducing on the computer chip the precise circuits of logic gates needed to carry out functions specified by a computer engineer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are trying to create a programming language for cells,” Voigt added, “and ultimately have it so you can take any function you can imagine and convert that into a DNA sequence that carries out that function.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_84_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Four colonies of E. coli bacteria cells plated onto a petri dish. Each colony contains a billion cells. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But scientists can’t exactly take the hardware of tiny gates and wires on computer chips and insert them into living bacteria like E. coli. So Tamsir and his team had to engineer genes that would reprogram the DNA of E. coli, instructing it to make logic gates out of proteins that would help the bacteria perform more like a computer to carry out a specific task – in this case, to make a fluorescent yellow protein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In computer chips, the metal wires that feed into a logic gate are physically separated so that the inputs going into one logic gate don’t cross with the wires of a nearby logic gate. But this isn’t the case with living bacteria. “Every gate is a molecule and they're all being run based on molecules and they're all crammed together in the bag that is the cell,” Voigt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the scientists created eight different colonies of bacteria, each with their own discrete logic gate, only four colonies were used at a time to see if they could link up to form a circuit that would yield the fluorescent protein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One logic gate in one of the bacteria colonies may need two inputs, like a sugar and an antibiotic, to release its molecular output, such as an enzyme, that would then act as an input for a second set of logic gates. But this next set of logic gates may have been designed so that it produces its own molecular output only if it doesn’t receive the sugar and antibiotic inputs that triggered the activity of the first logic gate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s by combining multiple gates together that you get different behavior. And that's how electrical circuits behave - they use a lot of logic gates and combine them in various ways to get various functions,” said Tamsir. Similarly, the scientists were able to modify the behavior of their bacterial circuits by simply moving the location of the bacteria colonies in the petri dish, since each colony operated with its own set of logical rules for responding to the chemical inputs feeding into it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Tamsir_3a_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem> An illustrated wiring diagram showing two different kinds of logic gates (NOR and Buffer) operating in four bacteria colonies on a petri dish. The last bacteria colony, indicated in brown, completes the circuit to make fluorescent yellow protein. (Credit: Alvin Tamsir, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamsir built 16 different kinds of genetic logic gates to program the bacterial 'computers'. Each one successfully suppressed or promoted the production of the fluorescent yellow protein depending on how it was linked together in the bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hard part,” said Tamsir, who has worked for more than two years on this research, “was combining different genetic parts so that when they are put together, they function as you want them to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other researchers are taking note.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have begun the process of creating a characterized library of elements which can be used by other labs to build more complex systems,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.bu.edu/ece/people/faculty/a-g/douglas-densmore/\">Douglas Densmore\u003c/a>, an assistant professor of computer and electrical engineering at Boston University who read the \u003cem>Nature \u003c/em>paper describing the UCSF team’s research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamsir and his team now want to increase the complexity of their bacterial circuits by building even more sophisticated logic gates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voigt added that there are roughly 200 to 300 circuits that regulate different biological activities in E. coli bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s the good news – that it’s not millions,” he said. Unlike a computer chip, “the bacteria don’t require a lot of gates and if we had 100 gates, we could do some pretty amazing things,” Voigt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By designing more complex gates and more of them, he said a scientist could be “in full control of programming bacteria.” This arsenal of expanded logic gates could then coax the bacteria to produce more than just a biofuel or a low-cost malaria drug, like the one developed using synthetic biology by \u003ca href=\"http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/\">Amyris Biotechnologies\u003c/a> in Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything you see in biology -- such as a corn plant growing -- those complex processes are being implemented by natural circuitry,” said Voigt. “And one of the reasons that we can't access those functions is because we don't have that refined level of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the new system of logic gates snapping together to form synthetic circuits, the UCSF scientists have expanded that level of control and consequently, what bacteria or yeast could be programmed to do, like some day make synthetic wood, silk or antibiotics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/12/UCSF_SynBio_Merrell_55_21.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>UCSF bioengineering graduate student Alvin Tamsir handles test tubes containing E. coli bacteria. (Credit: Susan Merrell, UCSF)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.lifetechnologies.com/home.html\">Life Technologies\u003c/a>, a biotech firm based in Carlsbad, has partnered with Voigt’s lab to generate a software package that would allow other scientists to specify the kind of logic gates they want to run in the bacteria being used in their experiments. After a few keystrokes and some processing by the computer, the scientists would receive a recipe for making those logic gates, which could then be sequenced from the sugars and phosphates which make up genes, and inserted into their bacteria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Tamsir, the research is incredibly challenging but also extremely rewarding, a vital part of his doctorate degree in bioengineering which he hopes to complete in May. The 26 year-old scientist grew up tinkering with circuit boards and even derived programming inspiration from Lego Mindstorms, a line of robotic toys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found out about the field of synthetic biology through Chris Voigt's lab. Right then, I knew that this was the right field of study for me,” he said. “It combines my love for computer programming with my love for biology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/11/home-energy-score3001.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Along with your Home Energy Score you also get a list of cost-effective energy upgrades for your home. Click \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/11/home-energy-score1.jpg\">here\u003c/a> for a larger version of the image.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most men of my generation a first car was like a right of passage. The car could be an old beater, or a muscle car; it didn’t matter so much as long as we felt unique driving it. And we all knew the basic nomenclature—horsepower and miles per gallon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have a dream that someday homeowners across the land will feel about their houses and apartments the same way people of my generation felt about their first car. They will all know the basic nomenclature—kilowatt-hours and/or Btu per square foot per year. Or something like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This Tuesday I found out my dream is becoming a reality. The Department of Energy announced a project, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.homeenergyscore.gov\">Home Energy Score\u003c/a>, to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• increase the energy literacy of homeowners;\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• support a growing segment of the economy—people who do energy audits and retrofits on houses (think jobs, jobs, jobs);\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• put our nation on a path of energy independence through conservation;\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• make our planet a healthier place to live in; and\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• do all of the above without creating any new legislation or spending taxpayer dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project is being piloted in nine cities throughout the United States and the plan is for it to go national by later 2011. The key components of the program include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• a set of Workforce Guidelines for people entering the home energy field—what they need to do the job and do it well, and gain the trust of their customers;\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• a software program that will allow home energy professionals to do a one- or two-hour audit of a home, give it a Home Energy Score from one to ten, compare it’s energy use to its neighbors, and immediately provide the homeowner with a list of cost-effective energy retrofit options; and\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• low interest loans from qualifying lenders to finance the retrofits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon every homeowner and me will be able to brag about our houses to friends, relatives, coworkers, and neighbors—as we used to brag about our cars. “I have a 1951 California Bungalow with three bedrooms, two baths, and it only uses 500 kilowatt-hours a year for heating and cooling. It’s got a Home Energy Score of 9. So, what are you living in?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.8686 -122.267\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• increase the energy literacy of homeowners;\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• support a growing segment of the economy—people who do energy audits and retrofits on houses (think jobs, jobs, jobs);\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• put our nation on a path of energy independence through conservation;\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• make our planet a healthier place to live in; and\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• do all of the above without creating any new legislation or spending taxpayer dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project is being piloted in nine cities throughout the United States and the plan is for it to go national by later 2011. The key components of the program include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• a set of Workforce Guidelines for people entering the home energy field—what they need to do the job and do it well, and gain the trust of their customers;\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• a software program that will allow home energy professionals to do a one- or two-hour audit of a home, give it a Home Energy Score from one to ten, compare it’s energy use to its neighbors, and immediately provide the homeowner with a list of cost-effective energy retrofit options; and\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• low interest loans from qualifying lenders to finance the retrofits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon every homeowner and me will be able to brag about our houses to friends, relatives, coworkers, and neighbors—as we used to brag about our cars. “I have a 1951 California Bungalow with three bedrooms, two baths, and it only uses 500 kilowatt-hours a year for heating and cooling. It’s got a Home Energy Score of 9. So, what are you living in?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.8686 -122.267\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/10/drill.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Ben Bustamante works on Leslie's house—for free! Photo Courtesy of Leslie Jackson.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/video/science-on-the-spot-banana-slugs-unpeeled/?embed=1\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(TEST)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When \u003ca href=\"http://www.homeenergy.org/\">Home Energy\u003c/a>’s part-time Associate Editor Leslie Jackson got home from a trip to New Orleans, where she did research on the rebuilding since Hurricane Karina, she got a message on her phone. It was \u003ca class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Pacific Gas and Electric Company\" href=\"http://www.pge.com/\" rel=\"homepage\">PG&E\u003c/a> calling to tell her that since she had been accepted into their \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/care/\">CARE\u003c/a> program, for households whose income falls below a maximum requirement, they wanted to come out and weatherize her home. CARE is a program of discounts on energy bills for qualifying households.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you qualify for CARE, you also qualify for \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/energypartners/\">PG&E’s Energy Partners Program\u003c/a>, meaning you can have your home weatherized for free. Leslie is a renter, but that doesn’t matter, as long as her landlord agrees to have his property enhanced—well duh, who wouldn’t, for free! We’ve paid for these services already, through our energy bills. The \u003ca class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"California Public Utilities Commission\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Public_Utilities_Commission\" rel=\"wikipedia\">California Public Utilities Commission\u003c/a> (CPUC) collects the money and directs how it is spent by the utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leslie called PG&E back and within two days Elvis Tobar came out to do get things started and do a visual inspection. Ben Bustamante came a few days later to inspect the furnace and do a more thorough audit. “I was shocked when they called,” says Leslie. “And I was shocked when they said they would send someone out so soon. But they did! And I was impressed and pleased when someone showed up within the set time window.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ben found opportunities and had some concerns. Leslie will get a new refrigerator, CFLs, insulation in her attic, a faucet aerator in her kitchen, and a low-flow showerhead. She has knob-and-tube wiring in her attic, so the attic insulation won’t be installed until she has the wiring inspected. She could have gotten new lighting fixtures and had two new windows installed but she and the landlord wanted to keep the look and feel of the 1920s California bungalow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And PG&E would have weatherstripped her doors and windows and air sealed her attic, but there was a problem. The vent from her gas furnace terminates in the home’s de-commissioned chimney. That and a well-sealed house are a bad combination. It is easy to depressurize a tight house—all it takes is turning on an exhaust fan. In a leaky house, makeup air can come into the house from all the seen and unseen holes in the building envelope. In a tight house, the makeup air may come from the chimney—taking dangerous combustion gases like CO with it into the home. “I’ll talk to my landlord about fixing the furnace vent. It has to terminate outside and above the house,” says Leslie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time of this writing, Leslie found out that the refrigerator, which was supposed to take eight weeks to arrive, is coming next week!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone I’ve talked with from the Energy Partners program so far has given me the sense that lots of people who quality for this service turn it down because of privacy and other concerns,” says Leslie. “And that’s a shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.8043722 -122.2708026\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest/\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/10/window-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>What's your home energy efficiency hot button? Photo by Leslie Jackson.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a hot and heavy dialogue taking place in an online group that I belong to, made up mostly of people who are in the business of auditing homes and then making homes more energy efficient, healthy, and comfortable. The main gist of the discussion is, Do we rely on the government to encourage people to make their homes more efficient, or is it up to the market? Does this sound familiar? Tune into any election debate in the country and you will hear some version of the same discussion/argument.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As in just about everything else in life, the answer is not either/or, but both/and. That is the conclusion of a study recently completed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), “\u003ca href=\"http://drivingdemand.lbl.gov\">Driving Demand for Home Energy Improvements\u003c/a>”. The government has already poured billions of dollars into improving building efficiency in this country. Since about 40% of the nation’s electricity is used in buildings, the down payment in energy efficiency will bring much more than it’s value in saved energy, lessened green house gas emissions, and energy security. But government money isn’t enough. The energy efficiency community is scratching its collective head trying to figure out how to motivate people to save energy at home. The conclusion of the LBNL report is that, while government tax incentives and rebates are important, it is up to local governments, retailers, and large and small home performance companies to sell energy efficiency. And every location and every homeowner is different, with different values and needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What works for you? 1) Increased comfort; 2) saved energy and money; 3) a saved planet; 4) less chance we’ll go to war again over oil resources; or 5) keeping up with the Jones? Yes, social scientists have discovered that one of the primary motivating factors in saving energy is peer pressure. Even a simple message on your utility bill comparing your energy use with the average energy use in your neighborhood has been effective in getting people to retrofit their homes or make simple adjustments in their lifestyles to save energy. You may or may not hear the word “audit” or “retrofit.” The social science data also suggests that audit makes us think about our taxes, and retrofit sounds like going backwards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does “increasing your home’s performance” motivate you to keep your thermostat at 780F on a hot day? Does “cut your energy bill by 30%” cause you to type “home performance contractor” into Google to find a local contractor? Does the possibility of seeing yourself as an energy hog get you moving to insulate your attic? Join the conversation by commenting on this blog entry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.8768 -122.251\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/09/borenstein.jpeg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Economist \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/\">Severin Borenstein\u003c/a> of the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley.Photo Credit: Steve Greenberg \u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We face a series of energy challenges,” said the speaker, economist \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/\">Severin Borenstein\u003c/a> of the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley. The occasion was the Monday night plenary talk at the biannual meeting of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.aceee.org/\">American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy\u003c/a> (ACEEE) on energy use in building, held in late August at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove. Borenstein is often called to speak to groups about the economics of energy when energy prices are high, and he is less popular as a speaker when prices go down. To individuals, high energy prices are a problem, but this doesn’t represent a market failure according to him. Market failures exist when the price of oil does not reflect the real macroeconomic, geopolitical, and environmental costs associated with its purchase and use.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the United States, we import two-thirds of our oil from other countries, many that are not interested in our mutual well-being, and many whose leaders use oil revenue to enrich themselves and oppress their people. We sometimes go to war with these countries. And our dependence on fossil fuels such as oil is degrading our environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what is a government to do? The best choice according to Borenstein, Bill Gates, and others, is to tax “brown” energy, energy that costs us too much environmentally and in the other ways mentioned above. But people want their oil and gas cheap, and there is no political will to initiate carbon taxes right now in the United States or elsewhere. So the second best choice, which is the best choice in these circumstances, is to use information, regulation, and subsidies for green energy and green jobs. The trick is to know in what circumstances to apply what solution, and how to apply that solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Information can empower consumers to make better choices, but in some situations limiting consumer choice through regulation and standards is the better choice. Borenstein used the example of baby food. No one wants to choose between baby food certified fit for human consumption and the other kind. And subsidies can be good, but not subsidies that artificially favor one technology over another. Subsidies that attempt to pick a winner would only work if at the stage of research and development some government official could reliably know which technologies will survive the “valley of death” and make it successfully to the market. But government support of certain research and development that could have broad application in the market is good. Borenstein used the example of PV. The technology has matured through its infancy as part of the NASA space program, and through advances in integrated circuit, or “chip” design that took place largely through private companies in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borenstein calls himself cynical. Maybe it is better to call him a realist—a very knowledgeable and articulate realist who people in charge of government energy policy should listen to, even though the winds of popular opinion make it hard for them to do the right thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.7749295 -122.4194155\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cow-power-not-cutting-it\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/4-44CowPower_300.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Cows at Fiscalini Farms in Modesto, California.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years ago, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/video/from-waste-to-watts-biofuel-bonanza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we visited a Central Valley dairy\u003c/a> that was taking an innovative approach to its waste problem. Instead of collecting thousands of pounds of cow manure in open holding ponds, Joseph Gallo Farms uses it in a renewable energy technology known as a methane digester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane gas is a natural byproduct of cow digestion. It’s produced as bacteria inside their stomach break down food. That process continues on the back end (so to speak) as cow manure decomposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is also a powerful contributor to climate change – about 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide. The UN has estimated that 18 percent of greenhouse gases worldwide come from livestock. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/science/climatewatch/specialseries/methane.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out this story\u003c/a> from KQED’s Climate Watch for more on the sources of methane.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By capturing methane, dairy digesters keep it out of the atmosphere. But they also create a source of renewable energy. Methane is a natural gas — it can be burned just like propane. So, Gallo Farms pipes the methane over to a generator, which produces enough electricity to run the farm and their cheese plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since our visit, the story has taken an interesting turn. Both Gallo Farms and another dairy with a digester, Fiscalini Farms, are located in the San Joaquin Valley – an area with some of the worst air quality the country. The air district is consistently considered in “non-attainment” – which means they aren’t meeting the federal limits on air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While both dairies’ digesters are reducing one kind of pollution, greenhouse gases, they’re actually adding to another kind. Generators, like any other combustion engine, produce nitrous oxide pollution – or NOx – which is a component of smog. Given the smog problem in the valley, the local air district decided to put a pollution limit on the dairy digester generators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, both dairies have struggled to meet to the limits. Unlike pipeline-quality natural gas, the methane (or biogas) that comes from a digester varies in quality, which affects how much pollution is produced in the generator’s exhaust. John Fiscalini of Fiscalini Farms has spent $200,000 on a pollution control device that reduces NOx pollution. But he says it’s been a challenging process and he’s concerned that other dairies have been discouraged by his experience with regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more on Fiscalini’s story and more about the challenges facing dairy digesters, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cow-power-not-cutting-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">check out this week’s radio story\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2010/08/27/reporters-notes-cow-power-not-cutting-it/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/images/radio_icon_light.gif\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cow-power-not-cutting-it\">Listen to Cow Power Not Cutting It\u003c/a> radio report online and check out the slideshow below for more on how dairy digesters work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.710486 -121.12798\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By capturing methane, dairy digesters keep it out of the atmosphere. But they also create a source of renewable energy. Methane is a natural gas — it can be burned just like propane. So, Gallo Farms pipes the methane over to a generator, which produces enough electricity to run the farm and their cheese plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since our visit, the story has taken an interesting turn. Both Gallo Farms and another dairy with a digester, Fiscalini Farms, are located in the San Joaquin Valley – an area with some of the worst air quality the country. The air district is consistently considered in “non-attainment” – which means they aren’t meeting the federal limits on air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While both dairies’ digesters are reducing one kind of pollution, greenhouse gases, they’re actually adding to another kind. Generators, like any other combustion engine, produce nitrous oxide pollution – or NOx – which is a component of smog. Given the smog problem in the valley, the local air district decided to put a pollution limit on the dairy digester generators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, both dairies have struggled to meet to the limits. Unlike pipeline-quality natural gas, the methane (or biogas) that comes from a digester varies in quality, which affects how much pollution is produced in the generator’s exhaust. John Fiscalini of Fiscalini Farms has spent $200,000 on a pollution control device that reduces NOx pollution. But he says it’s been a challenging process and he’s concerned that other dairies have been discouraged by his experience with regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more on Fiscalini’s story and more about the challenges facing dairy digesters, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cow-power-not-cutting-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">check out this week’s radio story\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2010/08/27/reporters-notes-cow-power-not-cutting-it/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/images/radio_icon_light.gif\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cow-power-not-cutting-it\">Listen to Cow Power Not Cutting It\u003c/a> radio report online and check out the slideshow below for more on how dairy digesters work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.710486 -121.12798\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Go Big Green: Stanford Lightens Its Carbon Load",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-044b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>A view of Stanford’s campus, taken from Hoover Tower. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Originally reported for \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/\">KQEDnews.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1888, when famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted drafted his master plan for \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford University \u003c/a>in Palo Alto, he drew the academic buildings along an east-west axis to efficiently make use of heat and light from the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more than 100 years later, a new generation of eco-centric builders and designers are embarking on a $250 million project to raise, retrofit and re-power buildings across the 8,000-acre campus, in the hopes of slashing Stanford’s greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels in just 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan tackles energy demand in existing and new buildings, while also laying the groundwork for a new energy supply loop that powers, heats and cools the 125 biggest buildings on the main campus. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of the most far-reaching efforts in the nation for a major research university to make a total transformation of a complete campus energy system”, said Joe Stagner, a civil engineer who directs Stanford’s Department of Sustainability and Energy Management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the steep price tag, the university estimates that by going greener it will save be saving lots of green – $639 million by 2050 through lower utility bills and operating costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the plan, which received preliminary approval by the Stanford Board of Trustees last fall, the energy savings are expected to build up with time. By 2050, the campus is projected to emit only 50 percent of the greenhouse gases it emitted in 1990.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s a minimum, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop at 50 percent”, said Fahmida Ahmed, manager of \u003ca href=\"http://sustainable.stanford.edu/index.php\">sustainability programs\u003c/a> at Stanford. She and Stagner wrote the new \u003ca href=\"http://sustainablestanford.stanford.edu/sites/sem.stanford.edu/files/documents/StanfordEnergyandClimatePlan_11-10.pdf\">energy and climate plan\u003c/a> that serves as the university’s sustainability roadmap and presented it to the Trustees in October 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Stanford has pursued recycling, composting and energy efficiency since the 1980s, until just a few years ago, it lacked a single, cohesive campaign to shrink the university’s carbon footprint – a task made more urgent by Stanford’s steady growth spurts. By 2025, two million square feet of new academic buildings and housing are expected to be built for 2,400 additional faculty, staff and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole idea to attack greenhouse gases gained momentum in 2006 and 2007,” said Stagner. “University stakeholders, including faculty from the Woods Institute to members of Students for a Sustainable Stanford and faculty and even some alumni, all of them let the university’s leadership know that they wanted Stanford to be more sustainable”, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On average, the campus generates 262,000 metric tons – nearly 580 million pounds – of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases each year through direct sources such as generating electricity each day at an aging campus power plant, and indirect sources such as airline trips and commuting miles driven by faculty and staff. If no new initiatives are undertaken, pursuing instead a “business-as-usual” level of energy consumption and energy generation, Stanford is expected to produce 325,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2020 and nearly 400,000 metric tons by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stagner and his team realized early on that energy conservation improvements alone could not achieve substantial greenhouse gas reductions for a campus growing at such a fast clip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had to come up with a comprehensive energy model that includes energy demand on one side and energy supply on the other side to inform how to best prioritize our work, to see what had the best return, environmentally, and the best bang for our buck”, said Stagner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest environmental gains, his team discovered, would come from overhauling the campus’ natural gas-fired power plant which has operated for more than 20 years and accounts for nearly 90 percent of the campus’ greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Stanford is situated in a Mediterranean climate, many of its buildings need simultaneous cooling and heating. Currently, the cooling system pipes chilled water into buildings to cool them and also remove excess heat that builds up inside them. As the water extracts the unwanted heat from buildings, it warms and is piped back to the central energy facility where massive cooling towers exhaust the excess heat from the water into the atmosphere. The loop continues, with the water being re-chilled at the central energy facility and sent back out to the buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conversely, heat and hot water are supplied to buildings in a separate loop. It uses steam, which is made as a byproduct of burning natural gas to generate electricity to power the buildings. The steam cools into hot water after it has been sent to the buildings, and then it is sent back to the central energy facility, where it is reheated and sent back out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October 2008, during a year-long audit of the campus’ hour-by-hour energy use, Stagner experienced an ‘a-ha moment.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I took a look at the data and saw that the potential for reusing the waste heat to heat the campus was much larger than we had hoped for and got very excited about the possibilities,” said Stagner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stagner realized that nearly half of the campus’ heating needs can be met through bypassing the cooling towers and reusing most of the heat which would otherwise be exhausted into the air. This new scheme of heat recovery is being called “regeneration.” Through it, the campus will also cut its water use by nearly 20 percent since less water would be used by the cooling towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project won’t happen overnight, however. It will take five to 10 years, and university crews will have to dig up 10 miles of underground pipes that are currently designed to distribute steam – not hot water — to buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When all of that is finished, the campus will be able to burn less natural gas to make electricity and will instead be able to buy electricity from utilities or from direct suppliers using renewables like solar and wind to green up the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The electricity will power up to five new multimillion-dollar “heat recovery chillers.” The machines will form the backbone of the new energy loop, where warm water that would have been sent to the cooling towers instead will now be sent for further reheating and piped back out as 170-degree water to provide heat and hot water to buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of this year, Stagner will present to Stanford’s trustees an update of the heat recovery system and the broader energy and climate plan, which is receiving one last peer review to see if further greenhouse gas reductions are possible under it. But he and his team are already moving forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-006b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Stanford’s new heat exchange unit. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://sustainablestanford.stanford.edu/heat_recovery\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/Stanford_steamhot-water-conversion_b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Campus map showing the buildings where pipes carrying steam will need to be replaced by pipes carrying hot water. Photo and image copyright Stanford University\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a patch of land behind Memorial Auditorium, for the past six months, workers have been installing a $750,000 heat exchange station next to Stanford’s new business school, the Knight Management Center, which will open later this year. The station is needed to convert the steam currently made by the campus power plant to hot water, which will then be distributed through new pipes snaking underground that will serve 12 new and existing buildings when it fires up next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other universities, including the University of Rochester in New York and Auburn University in Alabama, also have converted from steam to hot water to meet their heating needs, but not to the extent Stanford plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the engineering plans, Stanford also is working to change the behavior of its students, professors and staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We live in an eco-minded area,” said Ahmed, whose office worked with students to create a \u003ca href=\"http://sustainable.stanford.edu/sites/sustainable.stanford.edu/files/documents/SustainableLiving_at_Stanford_New.pdf\"> guide to sustainable living\u003c/a> that describes how to reduce water and electricity use and act sustainably beyond the dorms and dining halls. “But for conservation to be a part of daily experience there needs to be incentives that we relate to and feel encouraged about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Stanford program, for example, establishes an annual baseline of average kilowatt-hours used for an individual school or administrative unit based on past consumption trends. Then, it allows that school or unit to keep whatever money is saved if it falls under its budget for energy spending. In three years, the program yielded a three percent decrease in energy use and $830,000 for the energy-saving participants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, a penalty component was added, so now departments that go over their budgets are supposed to pay back to the university the cost of excess electricity they used. The Office of Sustainability wouldn’t reveal which departments were penalized, pointing out instead that “there are sometimes valid reasons for their energy usage going up” and that the budgets for electricity use “can and will be revised over time as a trend appears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If an academic department isn’t responsible for its energy expenditures or budget, it is in the same position as a renter in an apartment who isn’t responsible for paying for the utilities. The renter has no incentive for energy efficiency or water efficiency. It’s just human nature,” said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford junior Ishan Nath wrote an \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanforddaily.com/2009/11/09/editorial-extend-energy-incentives-to-student-residences/\">editorial last fall in \u003cem>The Stanford Daily\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, calling for an expansion of the incentive program so students could pocket some of the cost savings from lower energy use in their dorms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems that the double benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while saving money is something we should be taking advantage of in any place we can and I think it’s really important that Stanford is leading in this direction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another key part of the Stanford plan to reduce greenhouse emissions is to retrofit existing buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are nearly 200 buildings on campus that are larger than 20,000 square feet, roughly the size of a small supermarket. A 2004 study found that 12 buildings accounted for 33% of the campus’ electricity use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put together a new program to look at a single building in detail and go top to bottom and find energy savings opportunities,” said Scott Gould, a senior energy engineer with the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management who oversees the Whole Building Retrofit Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, the campus approved $15 million in funding to retrofit these energy-intensive buildings, many of which contain research labs built in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Some have annual energy bills of $2 million to $3 million each.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two building retrofits are currently taking place, one at Gilbert Hall, which houses the biology department, and the other at the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. The fume hoods in them are being fitted with valves that can more efficiently regulate the flow and exhaust of air, so that instead of 10 air exchanges in an hour, there may only be six or eight. New valves also will control the total amount of air supplied to a room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a technology that wasn’t available in the ‘70s”, said Gould, whose job is compounded by the fact that the retrofit work needs to typically take place over short periods of time to minimize the impact to the still-active labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easier to design super-energy efficient buildings from the start than going back and retrofitting old ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-026b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>A view of the Y2E2 building. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greenest building on Stanford’s campus – and a model for future construction – is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Energy + Environment Building, known as “Y2E2.” Opened in 2008, the four-story, L-shaped building uses 38 percent less energy and 90 percent less total water than older buildings – the latter feat accomplished in part by using recycled water for flushing toilets and rainwater for irrigating landscaping. Four atriums funnel natural light through angled skylights, and they also serve as the building’s lungs, drawing in fresh air and circulating heated air through vents that open and close automatically throughout the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-010b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>A skylight inside the Y2E2 building. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-007b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Looking down the atrium inside the Y2E2 building. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford also has solar power demonstration projects at seven locations on campus but they generate enough power currently to meet only two percent of the campus’ energy needs. Ahmed acknowledged that solar power has the potential to meet 10 percent of the sunny campus’ energy needs, but the university is continuing to track progress on solar power technology before committing to its wider use on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, students seem pleased with the university’s level of planning and implementation around sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a period of tremendous uncertainty in what’s going to happen with California’s climate policy,” said Nath. “Without knowing that, it’s impossible to fairly plan for what type of renewable energy to use, and it’s difficult to compare the financing to see what’s the best decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Ten Hoeve is president of the \u003ca href=\"http://inversion.stanford.edu/swep/drupal/\">Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project\u003c/a>, a group run mostly by graduate students trying to promote renewable energy at Stanford. “I believe I speak for the group when I say that we are very pleased with the new climate and energy plan”, Ten Hoeve said, while complimenting its Office of Sustainability for being “open-minded” to opportunities to cut Stanford’s carbon load.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s plan focuses on more near-term energy supply and conservation steps to curb campus emissions, but doesn’t fund much renewable energy at the moment. A chart laying out the expected emissions savings as color-coded wedges from building retrofits, heat recovery and other initiatives, has a wedge that corresponds to emissions savings through electricity generated by renewable means, like solar, wind and geothermal power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten Hoeve pointed out that the ‘green electricity’ wedge doesn’t kick in fully, however, until 2035. “If Stanford were to produce its own renewable energy, through a few well-sited local wind turbines for example, it would be great PR for the university at little to no cost, which is why we hope it will happen sooner than later”, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some students think that an array of solar panels, such as the one adorning the Y2E2 building, do more than just green the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to have them in places where people can see them and when they come to Stanford, they’ll say, ‘oh, maybe solar panels are developing enough to be used on a wide scale’”, said Nath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Junior Eli Pollak, a member of \u003ca href=\"http://sustainability.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/index.php\">Students for a Sustainable Stanford\u003c/a>, said he’s impressed by the Stanford plan, but would have liked to have seen more students involved in drafting it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In keeping with Stanford’s educational mission, it would have been beneficial for the administration to have drawn on the intellect of the students and the students could have gained real-world experience to address climate change and see how a large institution approaches climate change and energy planning,” Pollak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford isn’t alone in trying to improve energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/\">American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment\u003c/a> has recruited nearly 700 college and university presidents to cut more than 30 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually across their campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The niche that we were filling was helping people learn from each other,” said Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, an organization that has created a tool to help universities and colleges that have signed the climate commitment measure and report their annual greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first university to have achieved carbon neutrality, Rowland said, is the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, which it did in part by purchasing renewable energy credits to offset its greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford has declined to join the organization ever since 2006 when it was first asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stanford commits to reductions it can meet. Committing to carbon neutrality without having the solutions at hand must have seemed not very authentic to the administration at the time,” said Ahmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s energy and climate plan also does not endorse the use of carbon offsets or renewable energy credits, citing in part their “regulatory uncertainty,” which suggests the university is more focused on projects campus officials can directly observe, control and monitor to track the progress on its emissions reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chancellors of the 10 campuses that make up the \u003ca href=\"http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/\">University of California\u003c/a> system have, however, signed onto the ACUPCC. The UC campuses have set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2014 and to 1990 levels by 2020, while also eliminating all waste sent to landfills by 2020. After these targets have been met, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sustainability/documents/policy_sustain_prac.pdf\">UC sustainability policy \u003c/a>directs the campuses to pursue carbon neutrality “as soon as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past five years, the UC system has saved $15 million by replacing aging lighting, heating and ventilation systems and expanding the monitoring and metering of campus buildings,” said Matthew St. Clair, director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sustainability/\">UC sustainability efforts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Berkeley, energy efficiency projects such as changing leaky heating and cooling systems and installing more efficient lighting in its buildings, some of which are more than 100 years old, has cut the campus’ electricity use. At Tang Center, home to the university’s health services, an analysis revealed that the air circulation system was running 24 hours a day. So a new air circulation system was installed, saving the university each year enough electricity to power 46 single family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC campuses are also exploring projects that will generate a total of 10 megawatts of on-site renewable energy by 2014. To date, three of them – Irvine, Merced and San Diego – have one-megawatt solar panel arrays installed at each of their campuses. The solar array at Merced spans nearly nine acres and provides the campus with nearly 20 percent of its annual energy needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a public institution that includes a mission of public service, we need to demonstrate to the taxpayers and voters of California that we are being good citizens in reducing our environmental impact, cutting costs through efficient resource consumption and modeling sustainability leadership”, said St. Clair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Stagner said he similarly feels that colleges and universities don’t need to wait for a blueprint from the government to start tackling climate change, adding that they have a responsibility to “to help create the scientific, human, cultural, and political solutions to it, and to educate tomorrow’s leaders so that they may continue to work on this challenge and advance civilization toward a sustainable future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.427648 -122.166793\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new generation of eco-centric builders and designers are embarking on a $250 million project to raise, retrofit and re-power buildings across the 8,000-acre campus, in the hopes of slashing Stanford’s greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels in just 10 years.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-044b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>A view of Stanford’s campus, taken from Hoover Tower. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Originally reported for \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/\">KQEDnews.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1888, when famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted drafted his master plan for \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford University \u003c/a>in Palo Alto, he drew the academic buildings along an east-west axis to efficiently make use of heat and light from the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more than 100 years later, a new generation of eco-centric builders and designers are embarking on a $250 million project to raise, retrofit and re-power buildings across the 8,000-acre campus, in the hopes of slashing Stanford’s greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels in just 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan tackles energy demand in existing and new buildings, while also laying the groundwork for a new energy supply loop that powers, heats and cools the 125 biggest buildings on the main campus. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of the most far-reaching efforts in the nation for a major research university to make a total transformation of a complete campus energy system”, said Joe Stagner, a civil engineer who directs Stanford’s Department of Sustainability and Energy Management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the steep price tag, the university estimates that by going greener it will save be saving lots of green – $639 million by 2050 through lower utility bills and operating costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the plan, which received preliminary approval by the Stanford Board of Trustees last fall, the energy savings are expected to build up with time. By 2050, the campus is projected to emit only 50 percent of the greenhouse gases it emitted in 1990.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s a minimum, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop at 50 percent”, said Fahmida Ahmed, manager of \u003ca href=\"http://sustainable.stanford.edu/index.php\">sustainability programs\u003c/a> at Stanford. She and Stagner wrote the new \u003ca href=\"http://sustainablestanford.stanford.edu/sites/sem.stanford.edu/files/documents/StanfordEnergyandClimatePlan_11-10.pdf\">energy and climate plan\u003c/a> that serves as the university’s sustainability roadmap and presented it to the Trustees in October 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Stanford has pursued recycling, composting and energy efficiency since the 1980s, until just a few years ago, it lacked a single, cohesive campaign to shrink the university’s carbon footprint – a task made more urgent by Stanford’s steady growth spurts. By 2025, two million square feet of new academic buildings and housing are expected to be built for 2,400 additional faculty, staff and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole idea to attack greenhouse gases gained momentum in 2006 and 2007,” said Stagner. “University stakeholders, including faculty from the Woods Institute to members of Students for a Sustainable Stanford and faculty and even some alumni, all of them let the university’s leadership know that they wanted Stanford to be more sustainable”, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On average, the campus generates 262,000 metric tons – nearly 580 million pounds – of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases each year through direct sources such as generating electricity each day at an aging campus power plant, and indirect sources such as airline trips and commuting miles driven by faculty and staff. If no new initiatives are undertaken, pursuing instead a “business-as-usual” level of energy consumption and energy generation, Stanford is expected to produce 325,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2020 and nearly 400,000 metric tons by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stagner and his team realized early on that energy conservation improvements alone could not achieve substantial greenhouse gas reductions for a campus growing at such a fast clip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had to come up with a comprehensive energy model that includes energy demand on one side and energy supply on the other side to inform how to best prioritize our work, to see what had the best return, environmentally, and the best bang for our buck”, said Stagner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest environmental gains, his team discovered, would come from overhauling the campus’ natural gas-fired power plant which has operated for more than 20 years and accounts for nearly 90 percent of the campus’ greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Stanford is situated in a Mediterranean climate, many of its buildings need simultaneous cooling and heating. Currently, the cooling system pipes chilled water into buildings to cool them and also remove excess heat that builds up inside them. As the water extracts the unwanted heat from buildings, it warms and is piped back to the central energy facility where massive cooling towers exhaust the excess heat from the water into the atmosphere. The loop continues, with the water being re-chilled at the central energy facility and sent back out to the buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conversely, heat and hot water are supplied to buildings in a separate loop. It uses steam, which is made as a byproduct of burning natural gas to generate electricity to power the buildings. The steam cools into hot water after it has been sent to the buildings, and then it is sent back to the central energy facility, where it is reheated and sent back out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October 2008, during a year-long audit of the campus’ hour-by-hour energy use, Stagner experienced an ‘a-ha moment.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I took a look at the data and saw that the potential for reusing the waste heat to heat the campus was much larger than we had hoped for and got very excited about the possibilities,” said Stagner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stagner realized that nearly half of the campus’ heating needs can be met through bypassing the cooling towers and reusing most of the heat which would otherwise be exhausted into the air. This new scheme of heat recovery is being called “regeneration.” Through it, the campus will also cut its water use by nearly 20 percent since less water would be used by the cooling towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project won’t happen overnight, however. It will take five to 10 years, and university crews will have to dig up 10 miles of underground pipes that are currently designed to distribute steam – not hot water — to buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When all of that is finished, the campus will be able to burn less natural gas to make electricity and will instead be able to buy electricity from utilities or from direct suppliers using renewables like solar and wind to green up the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The electricity will power up to five new multimillion-dollar “heat recovery chillers.” The machines will form the backbone of the new energy loop, where warm water that would have been sent to the cooling towers instead will now be sent for further reheating and piped back out as 170-degree water to provide heat and hot water to buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of this year, Stagner will present to Stanford’s trustees an update of the heat recovery system and the broader energy and climate plan, which is receiving one last peer review to see if further greenhouse gas reductions are possible under it. But he and his team are already moving forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-006b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Stanford’s new heat exchange unit. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://sustainablestanford.stanford.edu/heat_recovery\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/Stanford_steamhot-water-conversion_b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Campus map showing the buildings where pipes carrying steam will need to be replaced by pipes carrying hot water. Photo and image copyright Stanford University\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a patch of land behind Memorial Auditorium, for the past six months, workers have been installing a $750,000 heat exchange station next to Stanford’s new business school, the Knight Management Center, which will open later this year. The station is needed to convert the steam currently made by the campus power plant to hot water, which will then be distributed through new pipes snaking underground that will serve 12 new and existing buildings when it fires up next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other universities, including the University of Rochester in New York and Auburn University in Alabama, also have converted from steam to hot water to meet their heating needs, but not to the extent Stanford plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the engineering plans, Stanford also is working to change the behavior of its students, professors and staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We live in an eco-minded area,” said Ahmed, whose office worked with students to create a \u003ca href=\"http://sustainable.stanford.edu/sites/sustainable.stanford.edu/files/documents/SustainableLiving_at_Stanford_New.pdf\"> guide to sustainable living\u003c/a> that describes how to reduce water and electricity use and act sustainably beyond the dorms and dining halls. “But for conservation to be a part of daily experience there needs to be incentives that we relate to and feel encouraged about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Stanford program, for example, establishes an annual baseline of average kilowatt-hours used for an individual school or administrative unit based on past consumption trends. Then, it allows that school or unit to keep whatever money is saved if it falls under its budget for energy spending. In three years, the program yielded a three percent decrease in energy use and $830,000 for the energy-saving participants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, a penalty component was added, so now departments that go over their budgets are supposed to pay back to the university the cost of excess electricity they used. The Office of Sustainability wouldn’t reveal which departments were penalized, pointing out instead that “there are sometimes valid reasons for their energy usage going up” and that the budgets for electricity use “can and will be revised over time as a trend appears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If an academic department isn’t responsible for its energy expenditures or budget, it is in the same position as a renter in an apartment who isn’t responsible for paying for the utilities. The renter has no incentive for energy efficiency or water efficiency. It’s just human nature,” said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford junior Ishan Nath wrote an \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanforddaily.com/2009/11/09/editorial-extend-energy-incentives-to-student-residences/\">editorial last fall in \u003cem>The Stanford Daily\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, calling for an expansion of the incentive program so students could pocket some of the cost savings from lower energy use in their dorms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems that the double benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while saving money is something we should be taking advantage of in any place we can and I think it’s really important that Stanford is leading in this direction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another key part of the Stanford plan to reduce greenhouse emissions is to retrofit existing buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are nearly 200 buildings on campus that are larger than 20,000 square feet, roughly the size of a small supermarket. A 2004 study found that 12 buildings accounted for 33% of the campus’ electricity use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put together a new program to look at a single building in detail and go top to bottom and find energy savings opportunities,” said Scott Gould, a senior energy engineer with the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management who oversees the Whole Building Retrofit Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, the campus approved $15 million in funding to retrofit these energy-intensive buildings, many of which contain research labs built in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Some have annual energy bills of $2 million to $3 million each.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two building retrofits are currently taking place, one at Gilbert Hall, which houses the biology department, and the other at the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. The fume hoods in them are being fitted with valves that can more efficiently regulate the flow and exhaust of air, so that instead of 10 air exchanges in an hour, there may only be six or eight. New valves also will control the total amount of air supplied to a room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a technology that wasn’t available in the ‘70s”, said Gould, whose job is compounded by the fact that the retrofit work needs to typically take place over short periods of time to minimize the impact to the still-active labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easier to design super-energy efficient buildings from the start than going back and retrofitting old ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-026b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>A view of the Y2E2 building. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greenest building on Stanford’s campus – and a model for future construction – is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Energy + Environment Building, known as “Y2E2.” Opened in 2008, the four-story, L-shaped building uses 38 percent less energy and 90 percent less total water than older buildings – the latter feat accomplished in part by using recycled water for flushing toilets and rainwater for irrigating landscaping. Four atriums funnel natural light through angled skylights, and they also serve as the building’s lungs, drawing in fresh air and circulating heated air through vents that open and close automatically throughout the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-010b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>A skylight inside the Y2E2 building. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/GreenU_Stanford_-007b.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Looking down the atrium inside the Y2E2 building. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford also has solar power demonstration projects at seven locations on campus but they generate enough power currently to meet only two percent of the campus’ energy needs. Ahmed acknowledged that solar power has the potential to meet 10 percent of the sunny campus’ energy needs, but the university is continuing to track progress on solar power technology before committing to its wider use on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, students seem pleased with the university’s level of planning and implementation around sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a period of tremendous uncertainty in what’s going to happen with California’s climate policy,” said Nath. “Without knowing that, it’s impossible to fairly plan for what type of renewable energy to use, and it’s difficult to compare the financing to see what’s the best decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Ten Hoeve is president of the \u003ca href=\"http://inversion.stanford.edu/swep/drupal/\">Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project\u003c/a>, a group run mostly by graduate students trying to promote renewable energy at Stanford. “I believe I speak for the group when I say that we are very pleased with the new climate and energy plan”, Ten Hoeve said, while complimenting its Office of Sustainability for being “open-minded” to opportunities to cut Stanford’s carbon load.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s plan focuses on more near-term energy supply and conservation steps to curb campus emissions, but doesn’t fund much renewable energy at the moment. A chart laying out the expected emissions savings as color-coded wedges from building retrofits, heat recovery and other initiatives, has a wedge that corresponds to emissions savings through electricity generated by renewable means, like solar, wind and geothermal power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten Hoeve pointed out that the ‘green electricity’ wedge doesn’t kick in fully, however, until 2035. “If Stanford were to produce its own renewable energy, through a few well-sited local wind turbines for example, it would be great PR for the university at little to no cost, which is why we hope it will happen sooner than later”, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some students think that an array of solar panels, such as the one adorning the Y2E2 building, do more than just green the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to have them in places where people can see them and when they come to Stanford, they’ll say, ‘oh, maybe solar panels are developing enough to be used on a wide scale’”, said Nath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Junior Eli Pollak, a member of \u003ca href=\"http://sustainability.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/index.php\">Students for a Sustainable Stanford\u003c/a>, said he’s impressed by the Stanford plan, but would have liked to have seen more students involved in drafting it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In keeping with Stanford’s educational mission, it would have been beneficial for the administration to have drawn on the intellect of the students and the students could have gained real-world experience to address climate change and see how a large institution approaches climate change and energy planning,” Pollak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford isn’t alone in trying to improve energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/\">American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment\u003c/a> has recruited nearly 700 college and university presidents to cut more than 30 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually across their campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The niche that we were filling was helping people learn from each other,” said Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, an organization that has created a tool to help universities and colleges that have signed the climate commitment measure and report their annual greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first university to have achieved carbon neutrality, Rowland said, is the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, which it did in part by purchasing renewable energy credits to offset its greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford has declined to join the organization ever since 2006 when it was first asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stanford commits to reductions it can meet. Committing to carbon neutrality without having the solutions at hand must have seemed not very authentic to the administration at the time,” said Ahmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s energy and climate plan also does not endorse the use of carbon offsets or renewable energy credits, citing in part their “regulatory uncertainty,” which suggests the university is more focused on projects campus officials can directly observe, control and monitor to track the progress on its emissions reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chancellors of the 10 campuses that make up the \u003ca href=\"http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/\">University of California\u003c/a> system have, however, signed onto the ACUPCC. The UC campuses have set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2014 and to 1990 levels by 2020, while also eliminating all waste sent to landfills by 2020. After these targets have been met, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sustainability/documents/policy_sustain_prac.pdf\">UC sustainability policy \u003c/a>directs the campuses to pursue carbon neutrality “as soon as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past five years, the UC system has saved $15 million by replacing aging lighting, heating and ventilation systems and expanding the monitoring and metering of campus buildings,” said Matthew St. Clair, director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sustainability/\">UC sustainability efforts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Berkeley, energy efficiency projects such as changing leaky heating and cooling systems and installing more efficient lighting in its buildings, some of which are more than 100 years old, has cut the campus’ electricity use. At Tang Center, home to the university’s health services, an analysis revealed that the air circulation system was running 24 hours a day. So a new air circulation system was installed, saving the university each year enough electricity to power 46 single family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC campuses are also exploring projects that will generate a total of 10 megawatts of on-site renewable energy by 2014. To date, three of them – Irvine, Merced and San Diego – have one-megawatt solar panel arrays installed at each of their campuses. The solar array at Merced spans nearly nine acres and provides the campus with nearly 20 percent of its annual energy needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a public institution that includes a mission of public service, we need to demonstrate to the taxpayers and voters of California that we are being good citizens in reducing our environmental impact, cutting costs through efficient resource consumption and modeling sustainability leadership”, said St. Clair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Stagner said he similarly feels that colleges and universities don’t need to wait for a blueprint from the government to start tackling climate change, adding that they have a responsibility to “to help create the scientific, human, cultural, and political solutions to it, and to educate tomorrow’s leaders so that they may continue to work on this challenge and advance civilization toward a sustainable future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/china.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Summer Study participants were treated to two insiders’ take on energy efficiency in China.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notes from \u003ca href=\"http://energyexperts.org/TrainingEducationandEmployment/EventDetails.aspx?ID=11862\">Asilomar: The 15th Biannual Summer Study, Energy Use In Buildings, of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy\u003c/a> (August 15–20, 2010).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer Study participants were treated to two insiders’ take on energy efficiency in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Levine was recently the director of the \u003ca href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/\">Environmental Energy Technologies Division\u003c/a> at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and is now working full time with the China Energy Group at LBNL, a group Levine founded in 1988.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>William Chandler is an expert in energy and climate at the \u003ca href=\"http://carnegieendowment.org/\">Carnegie Endowment for International Peace\u003c/a>, as well as the president of Transition Energy and the co-founder of DEED China—private companies with energy efficiency investments in China. Chandler was a 1992 ACEEE Champion of Energy Efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Levine and Chandler provided lots of information about energy efficiency policy and reality in China—past, present, and future. But more important, they each shared a wealth of insight that only comes with a long history of lived experience interacting with people developing energy efficiency in China. Imagine the amount of time they’ve spent in airplanes during the past 25 years!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One insight from Tuesday night’s plenary is the extraordinary progress China has made since 1980 to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, and lower energy intensity in an economy that has grown by leaps and bounds. Between 1980 and 2002, China’s GDP increased by a factor of 8, while its energy use increased by a factor of only 3. Between 1980 and 2002 energy intensity, or energy per unit of GDP decreased about 5% per year. From 2002 to 2005, energy intensity increased about 5% per year, mainly due to a huge increase in the production of steel and cement. But energy intensity then began to decrease again, dropping 16% between 2005 and 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking to the future, Levine outlined a likely scenario where China’s total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow, but then level off in 20 years or so, and then begin a slow steady decrease. But at its peak Chinese energy use per capita will stay well below that of the United States and below that of Europe. China’s emissions will not overwhelm us, according to Levine, because of several reasons, but mainly due to saturation in the appliance and transportation markets in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chandler urged cooperation with China in regards to energy efficiency policy, and warned that a lack of cooperation, “I won’t do anything if you don’t”, will be a suicide pact. We need to better explain to the west China’s successes and commitment to reduce energy use and carbon emissions, encourage China to be more accurate and transparent with its energy and emissions data, remove barriers to business between the United States and China, and resolve diplomatically the rift in relations between China and other nations that are part of the Copenhagen climate agreements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Can China do its part to mitigate climate change and obtain energy security for itself and other nations? Levine and Chandler both say, “Yes.” But only if the United States and other developed and developing nations do their part as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>37.7749295 -122.4194155\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/quest\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/china.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>Summer Study participants were treated to two insiders’ take on energy efficiency in China.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notes from \u003ca href=\"http://energyexperts.org/TrainingEducationandEmployment/EventDetails.aspx?ID=11862\">Asilomar: The 15th Biannual Summer Study, Energy Use In Buildings, of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy\u003c/a> (August 15–20, 2010).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer Study participants were treated to two insiders’ take on energy efficiency in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Levine was recently the director of the \u003ca href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/\">Environmental Energy Technologies Division\u003c/a> at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and is now working full time with the China Energy Group at LBNL, a group Levine founded in 1988.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>William Chandler is an expert in energy and climate at the \u003ca href=\"http://carnegieendowment.org/\">Carnegie Endowment for International Peace\u003c/a>, as well as the president of Transition Energy and the co-founder of DEED China—private companies with energy efficiency investments in China. Chandler was a 1992 ACEEE Champion of Energy Efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Renewables on Indian Land",
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"headTitle": "33×20: California’s Clean Power Countdown | QUEST | KQED Science",
"content": "\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/quest/2010/08/2010-08-09-quest.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/4-41indian_3001.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-19168\" title=\"4-41indian_300\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/4-41indian_3001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>Over the last few weeks, we've been following California's push to produce a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It's estimated that more than ten percent of the potential for clean energy in the US sits on land owned by Indian tribes. Some of these tribes are wondering whether green energy projects might be the casinos of the 21st century. But as Amy Standen reports the idea faces some tough obstacles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Casino Sound]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AMY STANDEN: The day the Golden Acorn casino opened, in August of 2001, Monique LaChappa stood right here, near the sliding glass doors, and watched as members of her tribe came in for their first look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MONIQUE LACHAPPA: I just watched everyone come in and I just... just the look on the tribal members faces that day... It was so exciting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: The casino changed everything for the Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a small tribe of 329 people living in the desert mountains 60 miles east of San Diego. It bought a fire department, educational programs, jobs. But one modest casino-- especially in a slow economy-- isn't enough to sustain this community, where unemployment is almost 50 percent. LaChappa-- who serves as tribal chairwoman-- and others here have set their sights on a very different kind of project-- one that sets the Campo apart from any other tribe in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Wind turbine sound]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Here, along a rocky spine of the Laguna Mountains is the only utility-scale wind farm on tribal land in the country, built in 2005. There are two dozen turbines, each 4 stories tall, supplying energy to 35,000 homes in San Diego County. Their huge blades sweep the sky with the steady whoosh of a heartbeat.\u003cbr>\nThis project-- called Kumeyaay 1-- is an enormous source of pride for the Campo people, in part because it makes use of a resource that until recently, didn't seem to offer a lot of options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LACHAPPA: Look where we're located. We're out here in the middle of nowhere. It makes it difficult for anybody who wants to be able to do more for their family, or send their kids to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: But income from this wind farm is limited... because the Campo don't own this project. Instead, they lease the land to a private company. The Campo are in negotiations to build a second wind project, three times the size of this one. This time, they plan to go in as co-owners, partnering with the Chicago-based private energy firm Invenergy and San Diego Gas and Electric. Ownership is a tough deal to strike -- one that's eluded other Indian tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MIKE CONNOLLY: This has killed a lot of deals on Indian country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Mike Connolly-- solidly built, with wire frame glasses and a gray ponytail-- is a former Campo tribal council member. He runs a consultancy firm that helps tribes get involved with renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CONNOLLY Because the tribes want to have ownership. But when they do the numbers, the see that ownership is just not economically viable. So they end up not doing it, rather than doing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: The primary problem, he says, has to do with the special legal status that tribes occupy: Tribes are sovereign nations, which means they can't take advantage of federal tax credits for renewable energy. And those can cut the price of a large wind project in half. Connolly says the lack of credits, of capital, combined with all the red tape surrounding tribal development threatens to leave American Indians out of the green economy. And that, he says, would be a terrible shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CONNOLLY: Especially when you think of the fact that Indian reservations are some of the poorest places in the country. I mean, there's this debate over double digit unemployment, we have reservations that have gone 4 or 5 decades of unemployment that's over 60 percent. And here you have an opportunity to build economies in Indian countries and to create a base that that's sustainable type of development that can go on and on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: On to places like the Morongo reservation, west of Palm Springs, where a grassy hillside rises behind the administration building. DeAnna Meetze would like to see this plot of land covered in solar panels, but she's been frustrated by some of the same tax hurdles the Campo face. Meetze says the history of tribes in this country has left other, subtler obstacles, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DEANNA MEETZE: With tribes inherently, there's a level of distrust among anyone who comes from the outside in. And you have to make sure you're dealing with someone of integrity, and that they're not there to take advantage of you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Those obstacles will subside over time, she says, especially if the federal government helps level the playing field. That process has begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PRESIDENT OBAMA: Too often, you face unique hurdles to developing these renewable resources...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: President Obama, speaking before the Tribal Nations Conference last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PRESIDENT OBAMA: We're securing tribal access to financing and thanks to the recovery act (FADE UNDER) for energy development...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Over the last two years, the pot of federal aid for Indian energy development has doubled to about $7 million a year. Tribes are also eligible for stimulus grants. And a new federal bill called the Indian Energy Promotion and Parity Act, would take the biggest step: making tribes eligible for the tax credits. The question is whether that bill will suffer the same fate as other energy legislation... so far, stalled out in Congress. For QUEST, I'm Amy Standen, KQED News.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Indian reservations hold an estimated 10 percent of the nation's renewable energy resources -- hot, windy tracts that suddenly seem more valuable than ever. The Campo tribe, near San Diego, has taken the lead, building the country's only utility-scale wind installation on Indian land. Plans are afoot to triple the project. But tribe members say tax incentives and other federal programs put Indians at a disadvantage.",
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"description": "Indian reservations hold an estimated 10 percent of the nation's renewable energy resources -- hot, windy tracts that suddenly seem more valuable than ever. The Campo tribe, near San Diego, has taken the lead, building the country's only utility-scale wind installation on Indian land. Plans are afoot to triple the project. But tribe members say tax incentives and other federal programs put Indians at a disadvantage.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/quest/2010/08/2010-08-09-quest.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/4-41indian_3001.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-19168\" title=\"4-41indian_300\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2010/08/4-41indian_3001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>Over the last few weeks, we've been following California's push to produce a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It's estimated that more than ten percent of the potential for clean energy in the US sits on land owned by Indian tribes. Some of these tribes are wondering whether green energy projects might be the casinos of the 21st century. But as Amy Standen reports the idea faces some tough obstacles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Casino Sound]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AMY STANDEN: The day the Golden Acorn casino opened, in August of 2001, Monique LaChappa stood right here, near the sliding glass doors, and watched as members of her tribe came in for their first look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MONIQUE LACHAPPA: I just watched everyone come in and I just... just the look on the tribal members faces that day... It was so exciting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: The casino changed everything for the Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a small tribe of 329 people living in the desert mountains 60 miles east of San Diego. It bought a fire department, educational programs, jobs. But one modest casino-- especially in a slow economy-- isn't enough to sustain this community, where unemployment is almost 50 percent. LaChappa-- who serves as tribal chairwoman-- and others here have set their sights on a very different kind of project-- one that sets the Campo apart from any other tribe in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Wind turbine sound]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Here, along a rocky spine of the Laguna Mountains is the only utility-scale wind farm on tribal land in the country, built in 2005. There are two dozen turbines, each 4 stories tall, supplying energy to 35,000 homes in San Diego County. Their huge blades sweep the sky with the steady whoosh of a heartbeat.\u003cbr>\nThis project-- called Kumeyaay 1-- is an enormous source of pride for the Campo people, in part because it makes use of a resource that until recently, didn't seem to offer a lot of options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LACHAPPA: Look where we're located. We're out here in the middle of nowhere. It makes it difficult for anybody who wants to be able to do more for their family, or send their kids to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: But income from this wind farm is limited... because the Campo don't own this project. Instead, they lease the land to a private company. The Campo are in negotiations to build a second wind project, three times the size of this one. This time, they plan to go in as co-owners, partnering with the Chicago-based private energy firm Invenergy and San Diego Gas and Electric. Ownership is a tough deal to strike -- one that's eluded other Indian tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MIKE CONNOLLY: This has killed a lot of deals on Indian country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Mike Connolly-- solidly built, with wire frame glasses and a gray ponytail-- is a former Campo tribal council member. He runs a consultancy firm that helps tribes get involved with renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CONNOLLY Because the tribes want to have ownership. But when they do the numbers, the see that ownership is just not economically viable. So they end up not doing it, rather than doing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: The primary problem, he says, has to do with the special legal status that tribes occupy: Tribes are sovereign nations, which means they can't take advantage of federal tax credits for renewable energy. And those can cut the price of a large wind project in half. Connolly says the lack of credits, of capital, combined with all the red tape surrounding tribal development threatens to leave American Indians out of the green economy. And that, he says, would be a terrible shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CONNOLLY: Especially when you think of the fact that Indian reservations are some of the poorest places in the country. I mean, there's this debate over double digit unemployment, we have reservations that have gone 4 or 5 decades of unemployment that's over 60 percent. And here you have an opportunity to build economies in Indian countries and to create a base that that's sustainable type of development that can go on and on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: On to places like the Morongo reservation, west of Palm Springs, where a grassy hillside rises behind the administration building. DeAnna Meetze would like to see this plot of land covered in solar panels, but she's been frustrated by some of the same tax hurdles the Campo face. Meetze says the history of tribes in this country has left other, subtler obstacles, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DEANNA MEETZE: With tribes inherently, there's a level of distrust among anyone who comes from the outside in. And you have to make sure you're dealing with someone of integrity, and that they're not there to take advantage of you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Those obstacles will subside over time, she says, especially if the federal government helps level the playing field. That process has begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PRESIDENT OBAMA: Too often, you face unique hurdles to developing these renewable resources...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: President Obama, speaking before the Tribal Nations Conference last November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PRESIDENT OBAMA: We're securing tribal access to financing and thanks to the recovery act (FADE UNDER) for energy development...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STANDEN: Over the last two years, the pot of federal aid for Indian energy development has doubled to about $7 million a year. Tribes are also eligible for stimulus grants. And a new federal bill called the Indian Energy Promotion and Parity Act, would take the biggest step: making tribes eligible for the tax credits. The question is whether that bill will suffer the same fate as other energy legislation... so far, stalled out in Congress. For QUEST, I'm Amy Standen, KQED News.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
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},
"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"planet-money": {
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"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
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