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Friday, June 5, 2009

Port of Long Beach goes electric!

According To Paul

It's been a long time coming, but we have finally achieved the first "cold ironing" of a tanker in the Port of Long Beach. Cold Ironing is the term for plugging a ship's electrical system into the on-shore grid to supply power so that the ship's giant diesel engine can be turned off while it's docked. Normally, these engines crank out massive amounts of pollution, equal to "a day's worth of driving by 187,000 cars", according to estimates by the Port of Long Beach.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) initiated suits against the ports over 7 years ago to make this happen, and it was a long difficult fight, but the NRDC's attorneys persevered and eventually won. This event marks the first of what we hope will be the electrification of all the tanker and cargo ships while docked in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. For too long, the people living downwind of the ports have suffered the ill effects of this pollution with heart and lung disease, cancers and asthma rates that are significantly higher than average.

An earlier post of mine highlighted the hybridization of the tugboats that guide these massive ships into berth, further extending the benefits of electrifying what had been exclusively internal combustion-powered vehicles. Every kilowatt hour used to replace the burning of petroleum helps us to clean our environment, saves us money and reduces the need to fight wars over oil.

Paul
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Port of Long Beach takes 'giant step' toward pollution reduction

Port officials unveil what is billed as the world's first electrical shore-side power system for tankers, which are notorious fuel guzzlers and air polluters.
By Ronald D. White 
June 4, 2009
Docked in Long Beach on Wednesday with a fresh load of oil from Valdez, the Alaskan Navigator didn't look like much of a trailblazer.

The massive tanker sat silently, with a few thin cables draping down to some gray metal boxes. Missing was the incessant rumble of diesel engines, which on an average cargo ship would be running constantly to keep electrical systems going -- burning quite a bit of diesel fuel and generating a significant amount of pollution.
But the 941-foot Navigator, anchored at the BP oil terminal's Pier T on the Long Beach port's main channel, isn't average. The vessel, owned by Alaska Tanker Co. of Portland, Ore., was plugged into what is billed as the world's first shore-side electrical grid.

Only the Navigator's sister ship, the Frontier, is similarly equipped. Oil tankers are notorious fuel guzzlers and air polluters because of the power that's needed to pump vast amounts of crude out of a ship. It's the rough energy equivalent of a day's worth of driving by 187,000 cars, according to the Port of Long Beach.

At a ceremony formally unveiling the port's dockside power system, port Executive Director Dick Steinke described it as "another giant step" toward cleaning up the air.

The project cost $23.7 million and took three years to complete, port officials said. The port contributed about $17.5 million to the project and BP paid the rest.

Roger Brown, regional vice president of BP, said the emissions reductions amounted to 50% even when factoring in pollution created by power plants in generating the electricity.

ron.white@latimes.com

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Lighting Up the Darkness in Rural Africa

Check out this very cool article from the NY Times about a solar powered LED lantern that Phillips is using to change lives in Ghana.


Dave

Farm To School Programs

A friend turned me on to this article on connecting school lunch programs with local farms.  What a concept?  Better nutrition and supporting local farms which decreases food miles as well as helping to bolster the local economy.


Check it out.


Dave

Farm to School Programs: a lesson in win-win relationships

May 28th, 2009 by LeeAnn Smith MPH, RD

This September the federal Child Nutrition bills which cover the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, will be up for evaluation and amendment during the reauthorization process. This window of opportunity arises every five years for lawmakers to improve upon child nutrition programs. The nation’s burgeoning childhood obesity epidemic is forcing health leaders and politicians alike to prioritize childhood nutrition. This is an opportune time to position school food as a key factor in improving health and nutrition of American children who, on average, receive 35 to 40 percent of their daily calories from school meals.

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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Clean Power Supplies For The Future?

This is a pretty good post from Edmunds.com about an article in Energy and Environmental Science on the dangers of cellulosic ethanol as an answer to our energy needs.  I've often felt that biofuels are not a long term solution (although in reality I don't think there will be a silver bullet solution but a hodge podge of different ones) and the findings in this study are interesting to see.  According to the study, wind powered battery electric vehicles are the least environmentally damaging solution to our transportation needs.  Interesting reading and worth checking out.


Dave

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EWG's Bottled Water Study

The Envirnmental Working Group just released a study of major bottled water brands that is worth a look.


Check it out.
Dave


"Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry does not disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts. Instead, the industry hides behind the claim that bottled water is held to the same safety standards as tap water. But with promotional campaigns saturated with images of mountain springs, and prices 1,900 times the price of tap water, consumers are clearly led to believe that they are buying a product that has been purified to a level beyond the water that comes out of the garden hose.

To the contrary, our tests strongly indicate that the purity of bottled water cannot be trusted. Given the industry's refusal to make available data to support their claims of superiority, consumer confidence in the purity of bottled water is simply not justified."


Vote For Me?

Someone sent me this link where my blog is part of a best local blogs contest. I never really thought of it as being local, but I guess it is on some level since I live in LA. Anyway, if you feel so compelled, please drop in and drop me a vote.

Thanks

Dave

What's the deal with Tetra-Paks?

Reprinted from Triple Pundit.


Tetra Pak Promotes Packaged Sustainability, Part I

Tetra Pak is a 60-year-old Swiss packaging and food processing company. It's likely that Tetra Pak wrapped up many of the products sitting in your kitchen cupboards right now. One of its flagship packaging products is the rugged, paper-based cartons that are widely used for selling soy milk, soups and other liquid food and beverages. Last week I participated in a twitter conference that Tetra Pak hosted in order to spread a message of sustainability around this packaging type, also called aseptic paper packaging.

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Goodbye GM

I try to keep politics out of this blog as much as I can but i really can't overlook this one. I'm the first to say that there are things I don't agree with about Michael Moore, but when he's right, he's right. Check out his ideas for what we, the new owners of GM, should be doing with our new company now that they've filed for bankruptcy protection.

Dave

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Monday, June 1, 2009

Wisdom

Newlygreens Interview

This is an interview I did back in February for a show called Newlygreens. It's a bit long but I figured I'd throw it up anyway.

The "Why Should I" Series for Kids

The "Why Should I" series for kids includes books on Nature, Energy and Water as well as Recycling. This is a great (and affordable) series of books that will introduce your kids to the concepts that are going to make their futures more liveable.  We at SustainableDave feel that educating children is a huge part of tackling the problems that we face and the "Why Should I" series is a great way to start the process.

Available at Amazon.com and your local library.

 

Kind of Cool Visual Reminder

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Inspiration

Wow. All i can say is if these deaf kids from China can do this, kicking your plastic bag habit really shouldn't seem like such a challenge.

Enjoy.

Dave