Search 7D:

All tags » energy

 

Chances are, when you think about gasoline, it crosses your mind in an abstract way — as if where it comes from and how much of it exists is someone else’s problem. Thanks to “peak oil” expert Richard Heinberg, Americans’ naive attitude toward fossil fuels may be changing.... Read more

Eric Engler handed me the gun. “Careful,” he said. “The trigger’s sensitive.”

I slowly squeezed the . . . pop-pop-pop!

“Well,” I said, “I guess it is.”

I regrouped and recalled the advice I had just heard an overbearing father relay to his school-aged son: “Sight. Breathe. Squeeze.” I repeated that cycle six times before I hit my target — a glowing, incandescent light bulb perched inside an Oscar the Grouch-esque garbage can.... Read more

MONTPELIER — The terms “nuclear power” and “limited liability corporation” make strange bedfellows, and the idea of marrying the two doesn’t lie, er, sit, well with many Vermont lawmakers.... Read more

BURLINGTON — Even though the Queen City uses about as much electricity today as it did in 1989 — a feat of energy efficiency — Burlington can do better. It can augment and diversify its renewable-energy portfolio, stabilize electricity rates, increase reliability and reduce CO2 emissions — all without raising the cost to ratepayers. That’s the word from Barbara Grimes, general manager of the Burlington Electric Department, which is asking voters to approve a $39.6 million bond for six project initiatives on the March 4 ballot.... Read more

In his day job, Marshfield-based Andrew Perchlik is the executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont (see story this issue, “Green Miles,” as well as www.revermont.org). But on top of advocating all manner of alternative energy sources in the peak-oil era, he “moonlights” as a gallery owner, too. A virtual gallery, that is — see www.REimaginations.com. On it viewers will find artwork of a highly specialized sort: Every image features a wind turbine.... Read more

VERMONT — Two influential state senators from Windham County have introduced legislation that would require the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon to undergo an “independent safety assessment” before it could be re-licensed in 2012. A second bill from the senators calls on the state to explore other possible sites around Vermont for storing Vermont Yankee’s spent radioactive fuel in lieu of its current location along the Connecticut River.... Read more

Josh Tickell’s new film Fields of Fuel is a documentary, but it’s also an adventure story. It chronicles his cross-country journey in a van that runs on veggie oil.

In it, the 32-year-old author, public speaker and energy expert uses his “veggie van” tour to show how our dependence on oil is damaging our democracy and spoiling the environment. But Tickell also aims to inspire — he shows audiences that it’s possible, right now, to drive cars powered by something other than gasoline.... Read more

COLCHESTER — The bulbous human forms on Mark Lacroix’s front lawn gently bob and wobble under the weight of falling snow, like barroom drunks nodding off over glasses of beer. The inebriated effect seems apropos for the inflatable Homer Simpson, but less so for Frosty the Snowman or Santa Claus, who lies nearly flat on his back. But as Lacroix’s daughter brushes the snow off the air-filled lawn decorations, the roaring fans inside the figures perk them right back up.... Read more

In the world of industrial-scale electricity generation, some structures are so large and powerful that the sight of them takes your breath away. Their massive, spinning turbines can generate millions of kilowatt-hours of cheap and reliable energy for years at a time, while contributing virtually nothing to global warming.... Read more

BURLINGTON — With gas prices, global temperatures and pump-and-run shoplifting on the rise, two local business owners have a plan to lower fuel costs, curb global warming and assist environmentally conscious, cash-strapped drivers.

“All we are saying is give grease a chance,” say Mike Rimoin and Benjy Adler, both Burlington residents and part owners of The Skinny Pancake restaurant on Lake Street.... Read more