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Lately it seems that Capital Hill is weary about legislation pertaining to energy and/or climate Is it likely that a bill will pass before mid-term elections

In a recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC Chicago IL home to the headquarters of Sieben Energy Associates landed a spot on the organization’s list of leading “Energy-Smart” Cities Chicago was applauded for its city-wide sustainability efforts most notably those in buildings

Data centers—the modern digital warehouses—use massive amounts of energy to both power and cool servers As hardware costs continue to fall and energy costs continue to rise it seems only natural that data center operators are focusing their attention on becoming more energy efficient to reduce operating expenses

A slimmed down energy bill is expected to be introduced in the US Senate possibly today The focus is on off-shore drilling and transportation fuel shifting to natural gas for heavy trucks A section on a price-on-carbon is missing because the democrats could not get support for the 60 votes needed In regards to a climate bill “ Reid said Congress could revisit climate legislation in September but lawmakers and analysts doubt there will be much appetite ahead of the mid-term elections in November.” To learn more see the Reuters article at the link below http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2515434420100726

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has planned an energy bill debate for the week of July 26 He suggests that a “rough draft” of the proposed legislation will focus on carbon dioxide pollution cuts from the utility sector In addition to curbing carbon emissions the debate will likely address the BP oil spill efforts to boost renewable energy use and energy-related job creation You can find a good review of the energy bill movement on the Hill in the July 13 2010 article “ Energy Bill May Cut Power-Plant Pollution Reid Says ” from Bloomberg Businessweek

Sieben Energy Associates was proud to sponsor Team CANopy from Nagle Hartray Danker Kagan McKay Penney Architects and their giant canned food tree in the recent CANstruction design/build competition benefitting the Greater Chicago Food Depository

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last week, R. James Woolsey, chairman of Woolsey Partners and a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, outlined four strategies to reduce demand for oil. In the U.S., fuels derived from petroleum account for 95% of transportation needs but only 2% of electricity generation. Under the heading “How to End America’s Addiction to Oil,” Woolsey focused on strategies that are already available today: Improve internal combustion engine electronics to better regulate fuel consumption within automobiles. Switch to relatively inexpensive and domestically abundant natural gas for bus and interstate trucking fleets. Begin to add compatible alternative liquid fuels (such as from waste and algae) that do not require engine modification into gasoline and diesel. Expand and encourage the use of all-electric vehicles. Our initial response, Woolsey says, should be to depend more heavily on electricity, natural gas, and biofuels for transp ...

It is the Senate’s turn to evaluate climate change legislation and carbon pricing mechanisms. On June 26, 2009 The House of Representatives narrowly passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, with a vote of 219 to 212. The bill was co-sponsored by Representatives Henry Waxman (D–Cal) and Ed Markey (D–Mass); it is often referred to as Waxman-Markey. Title III of Waxman-Markey articulates a carbon pricing structure through a cap on emissions of the nation’s largest emitters using emission allowance permits. The trading of permits is intended to develop a market for efficiently reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. (For more information on H.R. 2454 read, “The Road Ahead for Energy and Climate Policy: An Overview of Possible Directions and Their Impact on Business,” by Dan Bailey at Sieben Energy Associates.)   Nearly 10 months after H.R. 2454 and following a riveting debate on healthcare, the Senate now has the opportunity to turn their attention ...

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change held an energy efficiency conference in Chicago on April 6 and 7. This year it was entitled From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency and coincided with their release of a report on the best practices in corporate energy efficency. Interesting keynote and luncheon speakers ranging from Suzanne Malec-McKenna, the City of Chicago’s Commissioner of its Department of Environment to John Rowe, Chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation, to former Senator John Warner, helped set the context for the conference—that the world is changing, and that fossil fuel-generated carbon emissions will surely become an economic factor within our society—with an associated cost borne by consumers.   Sustainability and environmental representatives of household name companies such as Toyota, IBM, Best Buy, PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, Coca Cola and the Mars Candy described their companies’ efforts to establish and attain sustainab ...

The Georgia Institute of Technology and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute have jointly released a report that summarizes the potential for energy efficiency in buildings across all 16 southern and mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia. Entitled “Energy Efficiency in the South,” the key metrics are astounding. The authors conclude that substantial (but by no means exhaustive) energy efficiency programs, implemented aggressively in businesses and homes across the entire region, have the potential to reduce utility bills by $41 billion, create 380,000 new jobs, limit the need for new power plants, and save 8.6 billion gallons of freshwater by 2020. Georgia Tech’s own press release about the study provides additional details and background about the co-lead researchers, Dr. Marilyn Brown of Georgia Tech and Etan Gumerman of Duke. Measures to reduce energy consumption often show the least traction in southern U.S. states, where the demand for air conditioning during periods of intense summer heat pl ...