EcoLink Archive
O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8
Events
Green Building Conference & Expo
If you are interested in green building — whether you are a homeowner, building professional, architect, designer, or supplier — Remodel Green 08 is the place to be on Fri., Oct. 31 and Sat., Nov. 1. Eastern Michigan University’s beautiful new Student Center, with more than 14,000 square feet of exhibition space, will host two full days of exhibitions, technical demonstrations, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and keynote speakers with just one focus: green remodeling.
See for yourself what all the excitement is about in the hottest sector of the construction industry — the expo will be loaded with local green service providers and products. Learn first-hand about green remodeling and home building techniques from leading industry experts and observers like building scientist and author Joe Lstiburek, and HGTV’s Scott Morgan. Tamara Dean, author of “The Human-Powered Home,” will be giving a special presentation for expo attendees on Saturday. You don’t want to miss this expo!
Some of the topics covered in the two-day conference and expo include: certification systems such as ENERGY STAR, LEED-H, ANSI, Build America, etc.; green design, energy-efficient lighting, and interior air quality; geothermal and solar-thermal energy; recycled materials, urban trees, and reducing home and job site waste; methods and materials for mechanical ventilation systems, and much more!
Remodel Green 08 is being organized by Clean Energy Coalition, Recycle Ann Arbor, and NARI of Southeast Michigan. The event, sponsored in part by Fireside Homes and Architectural Resource, is open to the public. AIA-registered professionals can earn up to 10.5 learning units, and most conference sessions offer health, safety, and welfare credits. To register or receive more information about fees and event schedules, please visit www.remodelgreen.org.
back to top3rd Annual Ecology Center Fall Fundraiser
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The Ecology of Health |
Tickets are on sale now for a very special evening at Washtenaw Community College’s Morris Lawrence Building in Ann Arbor featuring guest speaker: Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., an internationally recognized expert on the links between the environment and human health. The evening will include dinner, a keynote speech, and a post-event book signing.
An enthusiastic and sought-after public speaker, Steingraber has keynoted conferences on human health and the environment throughout the U.S. and Canada and has been invited to lecture at many universities, medical schools, and teaching hospitals — including Harvard, Yale, and Cornell.
One of Steingraber’s many highly acclaimed books, “Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment,” presents cancer as a human rights issue. It was the first to bring together data on toxic releases with newly released data from U.S. cancer registries.
Steingraber’s 2001 book, “Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood,” explores the intimate ecology of motherhood. Both a memoir of her own pregnancy and an investigation of fetal toxicology, “Having Faith” reveals the alarming extent to which environmental hazards now threaten each crucial stage of infant development.
Steingraber is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Ithaca College. She received her doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan and master’s degree in English from Illinois State University. She is also the author of “Post-Diagnosis,” a volume of poetry, and co-author of a book on ecology and human rights in Africa, “The Spoils of Famine.”
For sponsorship and ticket information, contact Stephanie at 734-761-3186 ext. 110.
back to topNews
GreenCurrents or GreenWash?
By Ted Sylvester
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If you are one of 14,000 residential or business customers in Southeast Michigan who have signed up for DTE Energy’s GreenCurrents program since it began in April 2007, you may be disappointed to know that the premium you pay on your monthly electric utility bill for environmentally friendly renewable energy buys a grand total of zero renewable energy. No wind power. No solar. No geothermal. Not enough “green current” to power even one light bulb!
“Detroit Edison’s GreenCurrents program is long on ‘GreenWash’ and short on actually delivering renewable energy,” according to David Wright, the Ecology Center’s Clean Energy Program Director and a member of the City of Ann Arbor’s Energy Commission. “Detroit Edison does not purchase any renewable energy for GreenCurrents customers, the program is incredibly expensive, and it is structured so that it will always be expensive,” says Wright, who is part of an effort by the city and the environmental organization to change the way GreenCurrents operates.
As promoted by DTE Energy, Detroit Edison’s parent company, the GreenCurrents program provides the company’s 2.2 million residential and business electric customers in Southeast Michigan an opportunity — for a premium — to purchase “blocks of renewable energy” or an option to match 100 percent of their electricity consumption with “renewable resources.”
That kind of misleading marketing language, says Wright, is just part of the problem. Detroit Edison, he explains, while using GreenCurrents to promote renewable energy, does not actually purchase any renewable energy for its GreenCurrents customers. Instead, the company purchases renewable energy certificates (RECs).
RECs are tradable environmental commodities which represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource. In the case of the GreenCurrents program, Edison buys RECs from two wind farms, one near Cadillac and one in the Thumb area, a biofuel (manure into electricity) farm near Lansing, and a landfill generating station near Muskegon.
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DTE GreenCurrents leads you to believe this is one of the sources of your "green" energy. Harvest Wind Farm, Huron Co. |
It is significant, says Wright, that not even one kilowatt-hour of electricity is purchased by Detroit Edison with the premiums paid by GreenCurrents customers. “By not directly purchasing any renewable energy, GreenCurrents customers pay the full price for Detroit Edison's existing fossil-fuel and nuclear generation resources and a premium to buy a REC,” says Wright.
GreenCurrents customers should also know, says Wright, that Detroit Edison spent over 85% of its $1.1 million in program expenses in 2007 on marketing and administration; less than 15% went to purchase the renewable energy certificates. However, GreenCurrents premiums totaled less than $250,000, leaving the utility over $900,000 in unrecoverable expenses for the year.
Now, Detroit Edison is asking the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to increase electricity rates on all of its customers by $5 million to cover the 2007 shortfall, as well as future unrecoverable expenses. “Detroit Edison wants all customers to subsidize their overly expensive and ineffective voluntary program, which markets renewable energy while only purchasing a derivative,” says Wright. “The costs of this voluntary program belong to the company that decided to market these derivatives or to the participating customers. It is inappropriate to have voluntary programs result in rate increases for utility customers not participating in the voluntary program.”
Wright favors a different approach. “The Ecology Center and City of Ann Arbor proposal fixes all of these problems with the GreenCurrents program,” he says. “Our proposals are based on one of the nation’s most successful utility-sponsored voluntary green power programs, Austin Energy's GreenChoice program.”
Renewable energy does not have significant variable costs like those associated with conventional generating resources, and renewable energy can be purchased for a fixed price over a long term. GreenChoice and other successful voluntary programs pass this long-term fixed price feature to the participating customers. This long-term fixed price feature is a benefit and in some cases has provided green power prices lower than base utility rates. This benefit, says Wright, can only be achieved if the utility makes a renewable energy purchase instead of a derivative REC purchase.
To make GreenCurrents work for its customers, the Ecology Center and the City of Ann Arbor are requesting that Detroit Edison replace their energy charge and the GreenCurrents premium with a renewable energy charge. Under the proposal, Detroit Edison will use the renewable energy charge to enter into long-term fixed-price power purchase agreements with Michigan-based renewable energy developers.
These proposed changes to the GreenCurrents program will result in Detroit Edison actually purchasing renewable energy and providing the economic benefit of that purchase to participating customers. “With the utility purchasing energy, there will be no need for $5 million dollars to market and administer a derivatives program,” says Wright.
On behalf of the Ecology Center and the City of Ann Arbor, Wright encourages DTE customers to send e-mails to the MPSC indicating your support for program changes. In addition, renewable energy advocates and supporters of GreenCurrents reform are urged to attend an MPSC consumer forum at Ann Arbor’s Forsythe Middle School on Monday, October 13 at 6 pm.
Listen to the following interviews on WEMU:
back to topJan. 16, 2008 - A comparison of renewable energy programs offered by utility companies. Guest: David Wright, the City of Ann Arbor Energy Commission
Jan. 23, 2008 - DTE's "Green Currents" renewable energy program. Guest: Trevor Lauer, DTE Energy
There's No Time Like Now:
Act To Protect Michigan Kids From Toxics
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With an election just a few weeks away and the holiday season just around the corner, there’s no time like now to let Michigan lawmakers know how important it is to protect kids from toxic chemicals found in children’s toys and products.
Please join the organized efforts of the Ecology Center, which has teamed up with a coalition of health and environmental organizations to form Healthy Michigan, Healthy Kids, in a campaign to pressure state congressional candidates into supporting the HMHK Platform to protect children from toxic threats found in consumer products.
The HMHK Platform has five planks: eliminate added toxic chemicals in children’s products; identify and prioritize chemicals of concern; inform consumers; foster cooperation and planning; and grow Michigan’s green economy.
You are strongly urged to take a few minutes of your time, visit HMHK’s website, learn more about the forward-looking HMHK Platform, and send an e-postcard to the candidates running for Michigan House of Representatives in your district. Your action can help strengthen a campaign that has already garnered signatures of support from 55 percent of Michigan House Democratic and Republican incumbents.
Lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals simply do not belong in toys or any children’s products. Unfortunately, as the recall of nearly five million toys and children’s products containing lead in the U.S. in the first seven months of 2008 demonstrate, our federal system has failed to protect Michigan’s children from toxic toys.
At a time when many Michigan families are hurting, providing incentives for investment in Green Chemistry and safer product development could also give a boost to our economy. The state has already shown leadership in growing green job opportunities when Governor Granholm signed the state’s first-ever Green Chemistry Executive Directive in 2006. Legislation based on HMHK’s Platform will go even further to support Green Chemistry development and innovation.
Supporters of the HMHK Platform include the Ecology Center, Clean Water Fund, Michigan Nurses Association, Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Environment Michigan Research and Policy Center, Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan, Association for Children’s Mental Health, and Voices for Earth Justice, and East Michigan Environmental Action Council.
More information on the HMHK Platform can be found online at www.healthymichigan.net.
back to topEcology Center Welcomes Archer Christian
By Lauren Darmain
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Archer Christian, Ecology Center Director of Grants and Foundation Relations |
The Ecology Center extends a belated welcome to Archer Christian, who joined our staff in April as the Director of Grants and Foundation Relations. The job is a perfect fit for Archer, who loves to write and also enjoys research, fundraising, and building relationships with others.
Archer brings unique credentials to the organization after working for years and in various capacities with the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SAWG), an education and advocacy organization covering the 13 southern states. Southern SAWG provides assistance and training to farmers, community organizations, and farmer support organizations with the goal of building local food systems and transforming the production of food and fiber.
After five years in Michigan, all the while telecommuting as Southern SAWG’s Interim and then Executive Director, Archer wanted to become more involved in her new home state. She found herself drawn to the Ecology Center through a web search. “I was impressed with the organization’s grassroots and policy-change work around environmental toxics; and it fit well with my agriculture and land use background,” she said. “I’m also excited about the work the organization does on climate and energy issues, since it can have such far reaching impacts.”
Archer is particularly interested in seeing the Healthy Food program grow, emphasizing how “important it is for all people to have access to safe, locally-produced food — it builds a healthy earth and healthy community.”
Her mother, who loved trees, inspired her interest in environmental advocacy. “I grew up in a small town in central Virginia, on a street lined with mature sycamore trees,” said Archer. “When I was eight years old, the city came to cut down one of those precious friends. My mother, usually a proper and retiring Southern lady, stood in front of that tree and wouldn’t let them take it.” Because of her persistence, the city gave up and the tree remained. “It was very powerful to see my Mom speak up like that; to see that people could stand up for a part of nature and say ‘No!’” said Archer.
Archer likes to paint and expects to return to that hobby now that an extended house renovation with her partner, Carol, is complete. But, she “would rather be out in nature, no matter what the weather is like,” and enjoys jogging and hiking with her partner and their mostly black lab, Jetta. “I also like to get together with others and talk about the big issues in life and in the world,” she added. “We can all work toward greater consciousness and compassion.”
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EcoLink — October 2008
An online publication of the Ecology Center
Comments and questions are welcome.
Please send to EcoLink Editor
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