Energy News: What’s Happening This Week
David vs. Goliath: Residents in a Colorado city are fighting their local coal monopoly for the chance to move their city to clean energy. The coal company has more money – a LOT more money – but the organizers have more heart. This short 6-minute video is well worth watching.
40,000 jobs sound pretty good: According to the new 2013 second quarter clean energy report form Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), clean energy and sustainable transportation projects launched this year created close to 40,000 green jobs in the U.S.
Meanwhile in Illinois …
When “cheap, clean” coal is neither: In southern Illinois, a highly publicized new coal-fired power plant is making residents pay more – a lot more – for their energy.
And some are calling the “pro-coal” school curricula in Illinois propaganda for the coal industry.
Building thinks it’s a forest: In Seattle, an impressive low impact (sustainable) building’s secret is that it mimics a forest.
Businesses start thinking big: Companies investing in energy efficiency to bring down their costs are starting to do not just basic energy audits, but use “big data” to make smart choices (which also happens to be good for the environment).
Church goes solar: Hominy Baptist Church in Candler, N.C., just broke ground to begin the new Ferguson Family Life Center, with enough solar panels to potentially power the whole building. “The environment is an important issue to us. We talk about it. We preach about it,” Yelton said.
Liz Schmitt is Creation Care Campaign Associate for Sojourners.
Image: Green energy concept, CarpathianPrince / Shutterstock.com
