Planet Relations

According to the California Department of Water Resources, California agriculture irrigates 9.6 million acres using roughly 34 million acre-feet of water (1.1 trillion gallons) diverted from surface waters or pumped from groundwater. This water produces amazing results. California produces over 250 different crops and leads the nation in production of 75 commodities. California is the [...]

The U.S. electric power industry withdraws an estimated 136 billion gallons of freshwater per day for generating and then cooling the steam that drives electric turbines. That’s roughly 41 percent of the country’s total withdrawals according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Recent guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that “changes in the [...]

For the last seven years, Building Design and Construction magazine has provided annual updates on the green building movement. They’ve discussed the green building movement (2003), sustainability (2004), life cycle assessment (2005), green building bottom line (2006), industry perspectives (2007), climate change (2008), and now water performance (2009). In early November, prior to the 28,000-person-attended [...]

Last week, the California Legislature reached an agreement to overhaul California’s water system. The plan is comprised of four policy bills and an $11.14 billion bond. After the all-night negotiating session, Governor Schwarzenegger held a press conference announcing the legislation. He later signed several of the bills. On Monday, he signed SBX7-2 at a ceremony [...]

Following in the wake of the $3.4 billion smart grid stimulus funding, the Department of Energy yesterday announced roughly $30 million in grants to seven hydroelectric facilities nationwide. The projects will produce about 187,000 MWh/year, enough to power more than 12,000 homes. An important theme of the announcement was the incremental generation potential of the [...]

Leading up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, there’s much speculation about the roles that both the United States and China will play on the world stage. China and the US together account for 40 percent of greenhouse gases. The goal of the conference is to reach an international agreement to cut [...]

An article in London’s Observer newspaper details a creative plan to install modern day drinking fountains in underground, bus, and railway stations across London and the south-east before the 2012 Olympics. According to the article, Hydrachills will be installed at Hammersmith bus station and at the Tower Bridge museum to help lure the roughly 400,000 [...]

In June, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a ruling under the Endangered Species Act that water deliveries in California must be curtailed by an additional 5 to 7 percent (330,000 acre feet) to prevent further loss of protected species. The species in question included the Chinook salmon, the Central Valley steelhead, the southern population [...]

There’s much talk about how climate change will affect weather patterns, causing more intense events such as hurricanes and tornadoes. In California, one consequence of the greenhouse gas buildup is a change in precipitation type; climate change is expected to cause a shift from snow to more rain during winter months (i.e., a diminished snowpack), [...]

This site has been largely ignored since I took a full-time position back in September 2008 with KEMA, Inc., a global technical and management consulting firm focused on the energy industry. As I wondered how best to archive old content including past articles that I'd written for green building publications, these pages have remained static. [...]