CONTENTS:
Hardly a Holiday
Model Homes in Montgomery County, MD
Tax Breaks in the Southern States
On the Manager’s Amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Bill: Kateri Callahan, President, The Alliance to Save Energy
Raising the Roof on Green Buildings
Making the Grade in California
Energy Hog on the Loose!
Green Schools Comes to the Capitol
Industrious Ukraine
GridPoint: Making Cities Smarter
Alliance Campaign Trail: the Drive $marter Challenge
BTU (British Thermal Unit)
QUAD
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Welcome to the Alliance to Save Energy's monthly newsletter e-FFICIENCY NEWS!
Industry Leader Interview: Dan Beard
 A champion of energy efficiency, Dan Beard is the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the person charged to lead House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Green the Capitol initiative. Appointed by Pelosi and approved by Congress in January of 2007, Dan has the daunting challenge of ‘greening’ the nation's most historic buildings, with their millions of square feet of infrastructure. Well suited to lead Speaker Pelosi’s Green the Capitol initiative, Dr. Beard brings to this position an extensive background in managing environmental issues.
As Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation in the Interior Department, Beard guided the agency on a more environmentally responsible path by promoting water conservation among agricultural and urban water users. He also served as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Public Policy at the National Audubon Society. He holds a Master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Read the full interview...
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Policy Front
Hardly a Holiday
The gas tax holiday plan suggested by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and supported by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is an empty solution to a complex problem. As Alliance President Kateri Callahan wrote in letters to all three presidential candidates (two imploring McCain and Clinton to reconsider the proposal, one praising Senator Obama (D-IL) for rejecting it): “There is no quick fix [for record-high prices for gasoline and oil], and rash action, even made with the best of intentions, can do more harm than good over both the short and long terms.” Read More...
Model Homes in Montgomery County, MD
On April 22nd – Earth Day – The Montgomery Country Council in Maryland passed one of the most ambitiously efficient pieces of legislation in the nation: a requirement that all new single-family homes and townhouses satisfy the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR standards, which encourage the use of energy-efficient windows, effective insulation, and tightly-sealed structures. Read More...
Tax Breaks in the Southern States
Energy-related tax breaks and other incentives are the spring trend in the southern states, as bills passed in Georgia and presented in South Carolina this month would seem to indicate. Read More...
On the Manager’s Amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Bill
Senator Barbara Boxer (D) gave the energy efficiency community a pleasant surprise in the Manager’s Amendment that she recently offered as a substitute to the Lieberman-Warner climate change legislation (S. 2191). The amendment would increase funding for energy efficiency to levels on the order of $25 billion annually from 2012 to 2050. Read the full Alliance press release...
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Builder's Notes
Raising the Roof on Green Buildings
National Coatings Corporation (NCC) is prepared to green the rooftops of an important client: the city of Los Angeles. Read More...
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School News
 Josh Garman poses with the Energy Hog during Whirlpool Corporation’s “Take Your Daughter or Son To Work Day” in Benton Harbor, MI. Energy Hog on the Loose!
Clocking miles and saving kilowatts, the Energy Hog has been stirring up trouble and inspiring energy education in classrooms around the country by helping over 11,000 kids discover the wonders of energy: where it comes from, how to use it, and why it should be saved. Read more about the Hog’s travels around the country.
Green Schools Comes to the Capitol
The District of Columbia (DC) Public Service Commission has approved funding for a Green Schools Program in the District of Columbia, starting in the 2008-2009 school year under the auspices of the DC Office of the Environment. Students in up to 18 DC schools are soon to have energy efficiency on the mind with Saving Energy for DC Schools (SEDS). Stay tuned to find out which schools are participating.
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International Spotlight
Industrious Ukraine
This month, the Alliance International Team, in collaboration with International Resources Group (IRG), finished one of its largest international programs: the Ukraine Industrial Energy Efficiency Initiative. The program produced 14 essential feasibility study reports based on the outcomes of energy audits performed by Ukrainian energy service companies (ESCO) at the industrial plants. One of the projects – the replacement of a natural gas-fired boiler at a building materials plant by a new boiler that uses wood waste fuel – has already been accepted for financing by the Export-Import Bank of Ukraine. Read the full article...
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Features
GridPoint: Making Cities Smarter
Edison might have been the grandfather of modern electrical engineering, but according to clean tech energy company GridPoint Inc., it really is time to reinvent the wheel. Read the full article...
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Alliance Campaign Trail: the Drive $marter Challenge
 On Tuesday, May 20, 2008, at a press event held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the Alliance to Save Energy and the Wal-Mart Foundation, together with 16 other partners, launched the Drive $marter Challenge – drivesmarterchallenge.org – a fuel-efficiency campaign to help U.S. consumers lower their gasoline costs by using less. Read the full article...
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Glossary
BTU (British Thermal Unit)
The quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 lb of water from 60 degrees F, to 61 degrees F.
- It takes143 BTUs to melt a pound of ice.
- A gallon of gasoline contains 100,000 BTUs.
- Of the 10,600 BTUs of fossil fuel energy that it takes to deliver one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity to your home, only 3,412 reach the outlet. That’s nearly two-thirds of the energy lost during the generation and transmission of the electricity.
QUAD
1,000,000,000,000,000 BTUs – or, a quadrillion BTUs
- The US consumes about 100 quads annually.
- But: Energy Efficiency and conservation improvements are now saving about 50 quads of energy per year – that’s one third of our energy economy.
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Summer Reading
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a 60-page report entitled, The Size of the U.S. Energy Efficiency Market: Generating a More Complete Picture. Read More...
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Events
World Energy Engineering Congress - WEEC
Gaylord National Convention Center on the Potomac, Washington, DC
October 1 to 3, 2008
http://www.energycongress.com
Event Contact: Ted Kurklis, WEEC Exhibit Manager: (770) 271-7869; ted@aeecenter.org
The Virtual Energy Forum
Date: June 10 & 11, 2008
http://www.virtualenergyforum.com
2008 Regional Energy Conference and Vendor Showcase: Lights, Power, Action!
September 18 & 19, 2008
Boston, MA
http://www.iso-ne-conference.com
Contact: (617) 337-9500 x245; info@iso-ne-conference.com
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