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Bay Area League Day - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:
Taking it to the Next Level

“First replace your 25-year old fridge, then put up solar panels.” That was one of the striking bits of advice given by keynote speaker Dan Reicher at the well-attended Bay Area League Day on January 29, 2011. “Starting with small steps and encouraging many people to take them can cut energy use faster than relying on larger efforts that require massive funding” he continued.

Dan Reicher, Executive Director of the Steuer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, gave the keynote talk by video from Colorado. He described the three pillars for Clean Energy:

• Technology—has developed solutions for most energy problems
• Policy—must include state, federal, and international policies
• Finance—need trillions of dollars to build and rebuild global institutions

Energy efficiency should be the foundation of clean energy economy. Technology is able to handle many problems but policy and financing have not kept up with advances in technology.

Californians got a good report card from Art Rosenfeld, Former Commissioner of the California Energy Commission who said that in this state we have kept electricity use per person fairly flat, while the United States as a whole has doubled use since 1973. Building standards have improved, and that is helpful, but the good weather is also a factor. We need to continue to improve building standards because that is an inexpensive way to save energy.

One novel approach that Rosenfeld discussed was encouraging builders to put white roofs on buildings as an energy efficiency measure. White roofs last twice as long as black roofs and save a lot of energy. As long as there have been buildings in hot cities, people have observed that whitewashing the roof makes houses cooler. As long as we have large cities, people observe downtown is hotter than suburbs. Cities would be cooler if roads were concrete-colored rather than dark. Concrete roads are stronger and last twice as long as asphalt roads. What about global warming? The whiter the world the more heat is reflected and the less global warming. Icebergs and the Arctic ice cap are melting so this will increased global warming. Anything we can do to make the world whiter is a reprieve on global warming. Scientists have wondered how big an effect this is. White roofs don’t cost any more than dark roofs. In California the Energy Commission has said that new flat roofs or retrofits should be white.

Richard Sinkoff and Douglas Herman of the Port of Oakland talked about the sustainability efforts of the port. The port of Oakland is the fifth largest in the United States and is a gateway port for imports and exports for Asia. The port of Oakland also owns Oakland Airport. The concept of sustainability was tailored toward environmental sustainability but has expanded to business practices and operations. The Port Authority asks how are we purchasing? What is our energy footprint? The emphasis is on three projects of the port—dredging, materials management, and deconstruction. Ninety-five percent of all dredge material from Port can be used to sustain sensitive habitats around the Bay. There should be no waste—everything can be thought of as materials that can be used again. The Panama Canal is opening a third channel so ships will become larger in the future, so this requires additional dredging. Hamilton Fields and Montezuma Headlands use material from Port’s dredging. The port has also developed a park -- Shoreline Harbor Park built of materials from dredging .

The second morning panel covered other areas of sustainability. Lori Steere of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, talked about water recycling. Water is becoming a problem in more and more parts of the world. Singapore has a limited water supply so they have turned to recycled water. In the US, the potential for recycled water is very large. Only about ten percent of wastewater is recycled. A lot of recycled water is used in irrigation for agriculture and industrial use, and wetlands renovation. In California we have been pioneers in recycled water use—started in Golden Gate Park in 1912. East Bay MUD recycles water. Water level at East Bay MUD’s water table is 120 feet below where it was in the past. By the year 2040 they hope to recycle 20 million gallons of water per day.

The use of hydrogen and other alternative fuels was presented by Jaimie Levin of the Alameda Contra Costa Transit District, which has introduced hydrogen buses in the AC Transit system. Greenhouse gases are reduced 43 percent by these buses because only steam comes out of their exhaust pipe. They hope to expand to six buses with fuel cells using hydrogen. Their new Seminary Station will take the station off the PG&E grid and use stationery fuel cells for all electricity.

Damian Breen of the Bay Area Air Quality District talked about electrical vehicle charging infrastructure. Passenger vehicles and trucks account for 25 percent of emissions. Electrical vehicle technology meets health goals and cuts emissions. In 1955 there were three million people and 1.7 million cars in the Bay Area; in 2010 there are seven million people and 5.3 million cars. Electric cars have zero emissions. There are three levels of charging. One is plugging the car into a regular household plug of 120 volts. The second level is using a plug like the one for a clothes dryer. Fast charging takes what comes out of an electric pipe. There is also a method which takes a battery out of car and replaces it with a fully charged battery. These quick changers are operating in Tokyo and may be built in San Francisco.

During the afternoon session speakers from the Alameda School District and from StopWaste.org talked about getting young people involved in clean energy and making plans for the future. Leaflets and sample products were available at the meeting giving further information about ways consumers can become more efficient energy users. Altogether those of us who were able to attend the session came away with our heads filled with plans and good resolutions for being more efficient energy users in the future. If you would like a refresher course in some of this material, the videos of the presentations will be posted on the Bay Area League website at www.lwvbayarea.org in a few weeks.