Did you know that even though your appliances and electronics are technically turned off, they're still using power and wasting your money? It's called phantom load and it costs you more than you think. According to Cornell University and thedailygreen.com, your TV probably uses more electricity during the 20+ hours per day you're NOT watching it than when you actually have it on.
Nowadays, turning your electronics "off" doesn't really mean they're off. It actually means they're on standby and they're still sucking up electricity. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, phantom load might be adding an extra $100 to $200 to your electricity bill each year. Add that up for all Americans and that's $10 billion in wasted energy each year, enough to require at least seven power plants! And that's for appliances we're not even using.
Posted by: Jenna Hartwig Wade in video, news on
Mar 9, 2010
Yesterday, 13 U.S. Senators, including Al Franken from Minnesota, signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid, urging him to ensure that legislation does not weaken the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to protect human health by regulating coal-fired power plants and other global warming polluters.
I recommend that you take 10 minutes to watch this powerful new video, in which Peter Sinclair lays out the basic evidence - from many fields of research - that global warming is occurring and is primarily caused by human choices to burn coal, oil, and natural gas.
Late Saturday, SEIU Local 26 janitors announced victory in their contract negotiations, winning good, green full-time jobs with affordable health care for over 4,000 janitors in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. SEIU Local 26 was ready to strike as soon as today (Monday) if a contract agreement was not reached. See Saturday's announcement of the contract victory and SEIU Local 26 members' reactions:
Efforts are afoot in Washington, DC - particularly in the U.S. Senate - that would dramatically impair national work under the Clean Air Act to reduce global warming pollution from cars and trucks and industry. Here's what's at stake: on April 2, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. In December 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued findings that the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming constitute a danger to public health and welfare here in the United States. Some of those human health impacts include mortality from more frequent and intense heat waves and degraded air quality that negatively impacts people with respiratory diseases and asthma. The worst of the health impacts are likely to be felt by the very young and older Americans - children and senior citizens - particularly in urban areas and among low income populations. The EPA findings are a crucial step in work to require reductions in global warming pollution.
Despite recent rebuttals to the contrary, global warming is a real threat to Americans. Even the U.S. military agrees. In the new video "Climate Patriots: A Military Perspective on Energy, Climate Change and American National Security," recently released by the PEW Project, leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces weigh in on their experiences gearing up for and preventing climate change. The overall gist: climate change will increase terrorism, will require more military spending, and will create a need for a greater U.S. military presence abroad. So we need to be taking action now.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's TIGER grants have just been announced. These are the last bit of federal stimulus funding for transportation--$1.5 billion for which there were over 1,400 applications, totaling nearly $60 billion. What's truly great about Department of Transportation Secretary LaHood's decisions is that most of the funding is being directed toward truly innovative, multi-modal projects that typically aren't prioritized highly. There are few traditional highway projects in the mix. Each state received funding for one project. Many are for rail (both freight and passenger) or transit projects, port improvements, bike/pedestrian accommodations, and even a wind power project were selected. Minnesota's award is $35 million to help renovations for St. Paul's Union Depot which will be the transportation hub for the east end of the Central Corridor light rail project, a relocated destination for local Amtrak passenger rail service, and a station for intercity and local bus connections.
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