Increasing our industrial energy efficiency could spur more than $200 billion in new private investment in the United States and create up to one million jobs, according to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.*

Manufacturing and power generation creates large amounts of heat, which typically escapes through smokestacks into the air. With currently available, proven technologies we can capture this energy and use it to heat additional buildings or generate more electricity cheaply and reliably. Simply put, improving industrial efficiency means we can get more power from the same amount of natural gas, coal, and other fuel sources.

The country’s first power plant—Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station built in 1882 in New York—took advantage of the useful heat generated when making electricity both to produce additional electricity and warm neighboring buildings. Edison’s same technology can be used nearly everywhere—in large and small industrial factories, hospitals and college campuses, commercial buildings, apartment buildings, and single-family homes.

This readily available technology is already at work in every state. Altogether, utilizing harnessed heat contributes 85 gigawatts of electricity capacity annually, or almost 9 percent of the nation’s electricity. We could double that amount. Greater energy efficiency for the industrial and manufacturing sector will:

Creates new American jobs. Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimates up to one million, highly skilled jobs could be created.
Saves money making American companies more efficient and competitive.
Stops us from wasting energy: making companies more self-sufficient and able to operate during black-outs.

02-01-12_harness_heat_list_final
It is not exactly solar and electric vehicles, but very important to stopping global warming and kicking our addiction to fossil fuels.

Americans strongly support a 60 mpg standard by 2025 and they will pay more for
fuel efficient vehicles.
In a September 2010 Mellman poll released by the Go60 coalition voters showed
overwhelming support for setting strong fuel efficiency standards for America’s new
vehicles1.
This support was strong across party lines – 96% of Democrats, 81% of Independents and
75% of Republicans. Support for standards remains strong whether voters are in the
northeast (85%), Midwest (89%) and South (84%) and West (82%).
http://www.go60mpg.org/sites/default/themes/go60mpg/pdf/Voters-Support-Fuel-Efficiency.pdf

In a Republican press conference denouncing Obama’s decision on the XL Pipeline from Canadian tar sands, Speaker of the House John Boehner claimed that canceling the pipeline would destroy tens of thousands of jobs. But the only independent study done on the matter, from the Cornell Global Labor Institute, found that the pipeline would create between 500 and 1,400 jobs, almost all temporary construction jobs. The State Department, meanwhile, estimates it would create 5,000 to 6,000 jobs.

By way of contrast, just a few months ago the GOP rallied to vote down the president’s American Jobs Act, which, according to a Moody’s Analytics estimate, would have created 1.9 million jobs. That a short-term pipeline project has become the heart of the GOP jobs program is a kind of reductio ad absurdum of the conservative economic agenda.

The pipeline also wouldn’t have served the (somewhat illusory) goal of “energy independence.” Americans will have no special claim on the oil piped through it. As recent reports have shown, the vast bulk of that oil will be exported to petro-hungry areas like Europe and Latin America. TransCanada officials have admitted in congressional testimony that opening Canada’s oil to export will boost its value and thus increase its price for Americans. More likely, any change in the price of oil or gasoline will be a faint signal lost amid natural fluctuations.

There are, of course, ways to create American jobs and strengthen American energy security. Most of them are under attack by the very same Republicans lamenting the loss of Keystone XL. For instance, the GOP has vowed to block extension of the Production Tax Credit that supports wind power developers. According to a study commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), that could lead to the loss of 37,000 jobs — good, permanent jobs. The Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for renewables has, according to DOE, created 60,000 direct jobs in the wind and solar industries. The GOP is trying to kill it too. (Both AWEA and DOE have reason to trumpet their economic benefits, of course, but their numbers are generally taken seriously by investors.)

Supporters of clean energy can win the messaging battle if they can focus the conversation on what kind of jobs Americans want, which is to say, what kind of country Americans want. Do we want ephemeral jobs building oil infrastructure that overwhelmingly benefits those who happen to be sitting on top of the oil? Or do we want high-skill jobs in manufacturing, engineering, design, and a dozen other trades, in industries that will dominate the 21st century, with profits that stay in U.S. communities? Do we want to continue cooking the planet, or do we want to lead the way toward solutions?

Charlie on an electric lawnmower at the Drag Races June 2011.

The global average temperature last year was the ninth-warmest in the modern meteorological record, continuing a trend linked to greenhouse gases that saw nine of the 10 hottest years occurring since the year 2000, NASA scientists said on Thursday.

A separate report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the average temperature for the United States in 2011 as the 23rd warmest year on record.

The global average surface temperature for 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline temperature, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said in a statement. The institute’s temperature record began in 1880.

The first 11 years of the new century were notably hotter than the middle and late 20th century, according to institute director James Hansen. The only year from the 20th century that was among the top 10 warmest years was 1998.

These high global temperatures come even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina ocean temperature pattern and low solar activity for the past several years, said Hansen, who has long campaigned against human-spurred climate change.

The NASA statement said the current higher temperatures are largely sustained by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is emitted by various human activities, from coal-fired power plants to fossil-fueled vehicles to human breath.

Current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceed 390 parts per million, compared with 285 ppm in 1880 and 315 by 1960, NASA said.

Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/19/us-climate-warmest-idUSTRE80I29320120119

Check this out.

As long as we are talking about the Trek to Change the World, from Maine to Washington State, let’s remind ourselves of other great efforts. Minddrive.org I blogged about.
Their update is that they hope to raise $100,000 [about half way there now] and leave on their Trek in June 2012. Previously, the fabulous Green Endurance team from England drove from Alaska down the the southernmost town in the world, at the south tip of South America in 140 days, 70 days of driving and 70 days of visiting. They completed their journey in November of 2010. History. But they have more planned for the future, natch !

You saw my recent post on Minddrive.org, the high school kids with their hopes for a coast to coast run in a four wheeler. Now comes www.trektochangetheworld.com. ALex Foster and crew will take their electric trike with solar panels charging the batteries from Maine thru the South to Washington State. Check out their web site. We support them ! Go Trekkers !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M69GBL0IDzI
This video is under 3 minutes. Check it out. Help save these cuties.