Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
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Colorado coal miners steamed over Clean Air-Clean Jobs
Not everybody is happy about to Colorado Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, which “requires Xcel to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 80 percent from several Front Range coal plants by the end of 2017, most likely sooner.”
GRAND JUNCTION — Legislation aimed at cleaning up Denvers air and turning Colorado into a model state for clean energy and jobs is feared as a job killer for the Western Slope’s coal country.
Sign-waving coal miners stole the show from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Monday night as they rallied outside the old Mesa County Courthouse. They gathered before the commissions first hearing on Xcel Energys plan to close or retrofit some of its Front Range coal-fired plants. The changes are being made to comply with the Colorado Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act.
Of course, the Western Slope natural gas folks are excited about it.
Read more: Coal miners rally in Grand Junction against clean-energy plans – The Denver Post.
Green buildings blocking cell phone signals
CU officials are working with cellular providers to better cover the campus | Jeremy Papasso
LEED-certified green buildings are great for the environment, but as it turns out, they maybe not great for your cell signal.
At the University of Colorado, where the number of bars on your cell phone goes up and down as you walk across campus, things are particularly grim in the newly constructed LEED buildings.
For most CU students, spotty cell phone reception has become the norm on campus and has gotten worse with the construction of new environmentally friendly buildings. University officials say they’re hard at work on ways to improve cell phone service on campus.
A recent analysis of signal strength found that there are weak spots across campus, particularly in newly constructed buildings that meet LEED environmental standards, said Greg Stauffer, communications manager for CU’s Information Technology Services.
“The problems in LEED buildings had to do with improved insulation and UV filtering windows affecting signal strength,” Stauffer said. “It was an unexpected effect of the new construction, but we’re working on addressing the issue as quickly as possible.”
Read more about CU’s cell signals at ColoradoDaily.com.
Got a blue car? Don’t drive on Mondays.
The city of Boulder is trying hard to get people to bike more, to walk more or to take the bus. They encourage RTD Eco Passes, they sponsor Bike to Work Day… but their latest campaign takes the cake for wacky. (Or cool, depending on your perspective.)
The “Driven to Drive Less” campaign — which will launch in a few weeks — will try to convince people to choose one day a week to not drive their cars based on color. Blue cars should stay at home Mondays. Silver cars should take a break Tuesdays. Red on Wednesdays… you get the idea.
The city wants to get thousands of Boulderites to participate. Would you give it a try?
Read more about the campaign at DailyCamera.com.
People frolic outside on Boulder open space
Here’s a video of, well, people frolicking on open space near Boulder. It’s all part of this crazy thing known as the Boulder International Fringe Festival. Check it out for yourself: www.boulderfringe.com.
Rogue composters no more
There's good news for Boulder residents without curbside compost service. Photo Credit: Orin Zebest.
I’ve gone so far as to sweet-talk a Whole Foods employee into letting me put a giant bag of frozen vegetable peels in their compost bin, even though it’s officially against their policy. A friend of mine took her scraps to a local bar out of desperation.
If you’ve ever stared wistfully at a neighbor’s curbside compost bin, perhaps even boldly throwing your own scraps inside, you’re not alone:
“Multi-family units are the holy grail, the ultimate challenge for recyclables and compostables,” says Dan Matsch, manager of the compost department at the nonprofit recycler Eco-Cycle. “You have a whole bunch of diverse people living in the same building. You have limited capacity.”
Happily, Boulder residents who live in multi-unit buildings without curbside service don’t have to continue being rogue composters. Matsch offers up painless, above-board ways to compost, and Shireen Miller, the city’s residential sustainability expert, describes how to get management on board with the bin: Composting without curbside.
After writing this, I talked to a couple of my neighbors and we came up with an informal plan to request service. With any luck, we’ll all be a legitimate composters soon.
Dear Sierra Club, why are you so fickle?
Sierra Club released its Cool Schools on Monday.
Yesterday, the Sierra Club released its “cool schools” ranking of the most eco-awesome colleges and universities in the country. Last year the University of Colorado at Boulder ranked #1. This year, #13.
CU wasn’t the only one on a roller coaster ride. According to a blog on the Chronicle of Higher Eductaion’s website:
Last year, the University of Colorado at Boulder ranked No. 1, while Green Mountain College was 35th. This year, CU is at 13th and Green Mountain is tops.
Dickinson College went from 19th in 2009 to No. 2, and Stanford University zoomed up from 26th to 5th. Yale University went from 14th to 26th, and Emory University fell 10 notches to 42nd.
You might assume from such fluctuations that sustainability programs went haywire in the past year. But little changed, it seems, other than Sierra‘s ranking methodology. Energy issues were given more weight in this year’s survey, Sierra editors say, but that answer probably won’t satisfy the longtime critics of these green ratings.
And the new emphasis on energy sources are what hurt CU. Dave Newport, director of CU’s Environmental Center, told the Camera that the university is at the whims of Xcel Energy, which still relies heavily on coal.
Read more about CU’s slip in Sierra’s green rankings at DailyCamera.com.
Goodbye Valmont? (Goodbye 44 pounds of mercury)
Protesters outside Valmont coal plant earlier this year.
After years of Xcel Energy arguing that there’s no conceivable way they would shut down the coal-burning generator at Valmont Station east of Boulder (in part because the boiler is one of the most efficient in the utility’s system), the company announced Friday, that actually they will shut the plant down by 2017.
For activists who have staged a number of protests at the plant over the last couple of years, the announcement was good news. (But better news, some said, would have been an announcement that the plant, which spews 44 pounds of mercury into the air every year, would close immediately.)
The three natural gas-fired generators a the plant will continue operating.
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com.
Car ownership: Who needs it?
“You’ll have to buy a car when you move out West,” they told me. “What a pain!”
Moving here from New York City, I discovered that Big Apple residents aren’t the only ones who can easily forgo car ownership. Living in Boulder without a vehicle parked in the driveway is possible, and it doesn’t have to involve being horribly inconvenienced or stranded.
The secret is having a serviceable bike, a few bucks for the bus, and a membership to the city’s local nonprofit carsharing organization called eGo CarShare:
“When you don’t have a car right in your driveway, you have to put some thought into it: Maybe I can just walk — it’s just down the street,” says Stephanie Sufilka, a Boulder resident who hasn’t owned a car in four years. Instead, she and her husband rely on the local nonprofit carsharing organization eGo CarShare.
CarShare members pay a nominal fee per hour and per mile — gas and insurance are included. Carsharing tends to be ideal for short trips like running an errand or transporting something heavy. Members get a discount on rentals at Enterprise, which is better for longer trips.
The organization has several vehicles, including a pickup truck, parked around Boulder and in Denver. Spotting them is easy: the signs say “Park your eGo here.”
Fort Collins is a “Smarter City” — Boulder isn’t
NRDC just named 22 “Smarter Cities” nationwide. Check out the research methodology on their site. You can also see where Boulder qualified for certain of their criteria.
To assess the efforts to limit municipal demand of energy and provide clean energy, Smarter Cities surveyed city governments about the city’s aggregate kilowatt hour consumption, top three fuel sources, whether it had completed a greenhouse gas inventory, energy conservation programs (including targets for reduced consumption) and processes to measure energy conservation. The Smarter Cities team sought advice from experts both in and outside of NRDC to develop its plan. “It was important to establish a clear and reasonable description of the factor by which the Smarter Cities team would compare cities’ performance—a description that was researchable, meaning there was comprehensive, pertinent and reliable data to collect,” says Brandi Colander, an NRDC attorney with NRDC’s Air and Energy programs and a Smarter Cities project advisor.
via American Cities Get Smart about Energy | Smarter Cities.
Center for ReSource Conservation up for $20,000 from Tom’s of Maine
I got a phone call at the end of last week alerting me that the Center for ReSource Conservation has been named as a finalist in the annual Tom’s of Maine ’50 States for Good’ giveaway.
That means they’re eligible to be named one of five groups that would be awarded $20,000 — and the voting takes place online. Anybody can cast a vote once a day through Sept. 10.
If it won, the CRC would be using the money to jump-start a program we’ve been hearing rumblings about for months: The ReSource Tool Library.
As the name suggests, a Tool Library is a place where citizens can borrow tools from a comprehensive, centralized tool inventory. By sharing resources, a Tool Library leverages communal purchasing power to ‘do more with less’, and puts tools in the hands of those with limited means. In today’s tough economy these are valuable assets for a program that also educates, conserves resources, and strengthens civic infrastructure.
CRC is the only finalist from Boulder, and there is one other finalist from Colorado: Rock the Earth, out of Denver.
