Concentration of CO2 in the Atmosphere

State Dept. Turns a Blind Eye to Ugly Reality of Tar Sands

“The State Department study turns a blind eye to the ugly reality that extracting and refining dirty tar sands oil will spew into our atmosphere more and more of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. To my mind, global warming is the most serious environmental crisis facing the world today and President Obama should […]

Low Energy Ventilation

GET Staff

With a goal for energy efficiency, buildings for our future have very low levels of air leakage, so mechanical ventilation is usually essential. There are three basic ventilation strategies—natural ventilation, spot ventilation, and whole-house ventilation.

Controlling moisture can make your home more energy-efficient, less costly to heat and cool, and more […]

Methane

By George Harvey

Farm biogas installation near Neuerkerode, Lower Saxony, Germany. Photo by Elmschrat.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, more than twenty times as bad as carbon dioxide. It also stays in the atmosphere for a long time, once released. This means it is better to burn it, even if no benefit […]

What is the Deal with Heat Pumps?

By Richard Faesy, Energy Futures Group, Inc.

Heat pumps seem to be in the news recently. In April, Efficiency Vermont launched a new program promoting them and Green Mountain Power recently launched a heat pump rental program that appears to be wildly successful. They expected to hear from about 200 customers but instead received inquiries […]

Save Money and Energy with “Smart” Thermostats

By Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss

Spending $200 or more to replace that older, still functioning thermostat with a new whiz-bang “smart” variety might seem like a waste of money, but it can be one of the best small investments a homeowner can make, given the potential for energy and cost savings down the line.

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Geothermal + Solar = Efficiency

By George Harvey

When Don and Judy Jordan decided put build a house, they wanted to share it with Judy’s parents, who are in their mid-80s. This meant addressing some unusual needs for warmth, as they had spent twenty years in Florida, and special consideration for potential special needs. Given four adults and a potential […]

Congress Should Put a Price on Carbon Pollution

By Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

More than 700 companies that drive the U.S. economy – including Microsoft, Owens Corning, General Motors, the Portland Trail Blazers and candymaker Mars – have signed a declaration calling for national action on climate change. This is a remarkable shift in how some of the […]

Carbon Tax

Why it is necessary, and why it is fair

By George Harvey

The US EPA has estimated the social cost of letting carbon dioxide escape into the atmosphere at $12 to $116 per ton. Since this can be hard to understand, it may need an explanation.

The social costs of carbon emissions are all around […]

Bird Mortality and Wind Turbines

Staff article

A new study has been released called,A Synthesis of Human-related Avian Mortality in Canada. All but one of its seven authors are from wildlife divisions of Environment Canada, a department of the federal government. The study can be found at: www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss2/art11/.

It has some notable information. The report says over 272 million birds […]

How Wind Farms Change Property Values

By George Harvey

On January 9, a report was published, called Relationship between Wind Turbines and Residential Property Values in Massachusetts. It is a product of a joint effort by the University of Connecticut and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The report examines 122,000 home sales over a period between 1998 and 2012. The wind farms […]