Welcome to the IDT Energy Blog

Lighter Footstep has compiled a list of relative newbies to the green blogging space and highlighted blogs they felt worthy of mention (full article here).

What I like about this article: it focuses on up-and comers, not the heavy hitters.

What I don’t like about this article: the IDT Energy Blog is not on it! A glaring omission, in my opinion.

Here is the list, with my two cents inserted where necessary:

1. Daily Fuel Economy Tip: Tips that help you increase your gas mileage and save money at the pump.

2. Eco-Chick: “The blogteam at Eco-chick includes a model who has a degree in entomology, an alternative health freak who’s used herself as a guinea pig, a science nerd, a news junkie and a Barcelona-based expat; the site is run and hosted by an anarchist webmaster.”

Intriguing, if a bit tricky to navigate.

3. Ecorazzi: According to Lighter Footsteps, it’s “People magazine for the Green set — without all the wasted trees.”

Fun way to combine love of gossip with civic responsibility.

4. Frugal for Life

All about the money – clearly still finding its way.

5. Green Options

Kind of overwhelming, but seems like it is all there.

6. Jetson Green – For green building.

7. Maria Energia

Love the title. Covers a business angle.

8. No Impact Man

Too gimmicky. Begging to be made into reality show.

9. The Sietch Blog: solid content.

10. Vegetarian Meal Plans

Works if that’s your thing…

Thanks to Gizmodo for the latest on Sony’s eco-friendly odo line, which includes:

Spin N’ Snap camera
Push POWER Play viewer
Crank N’ Capture video cams
Pull N’ Play headphones
Solar array Juice Boxes (equivalent of batteries)

How do they work?

“The Spin N’ Snap is probably the most intuitive—you twirl it around your fingers (well, you turn the hole, so hopefully you can twirl it, otherwise it might be tedious) to charge it and then use the same holes as the viewfinder. The others work similarly: You turn the crank on the video camera, tug the cords on the headphones and roll the viewer along a table to charge it up.”

Reminds me of children’s toys – not in a bad way, of course.

According to the AP:

“European light-bulb makers said Tuesday they want to phase out the standard incandescent light bulb in eight years, replacing it with more eco-friendly, energy-efficient lamps.

The switch could lead to significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from domestic lighting, and savings of $9.4 billion for European consumers, said the European manufacturers. The group includes General Electric Co., Havells Sylvania, and Philips.”

It’s interesting that the proposal comes from industry insiders and not as a concerted governmental effort. The article mentions that the proposal has huge environmental gains for everyone, and results in financial savings for consumers, but fails to mention what business benefits the manufacturers enjoy. These are businesses, after all…

Fascinating!

From New Scientist.com:

“In Holmes County, Ohio, home to the world’s largest Amish community, an estimated 80% of Amish families now have photovoltaic panels. They use solar power for basic electrical needs like home lighting, powering sewing machines, and charging batteries for lights on horse-drawn buggies. The Amish have gone solar partly for safety concerns - gas lamps are a fire hazard - and partly out of legal requirements - transportation codes require electric lights on horse-drawn buggies. Another reason they are embracing solar power is to avoid connecting to the electric grid, something they feel would endanger their efforts to remain separated from the rest of American society.”

But if a majority of America goes solar, would they go on the grid? Is it separation or dependency that is the issue here?

Some of the dialogue is about as interesting as hearing about how ethanol is made, but the display of green cars is neat. You can see of the sleeker models that you may not spot on the road.

Despite the recent press downplaying the positives of hybrids, this trend is on the up and up.

Benjamin Maresca saw a Hummer H1 advertising Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream shops, and felt that did not jive with the company’s stated environmental goals. He shot off an email to the company – turns out the Hummer was using biodiesel, a perfectly respectable choice, environmentally.

But check out the reaction of the owner of the ice cream store who had sent the Hummer on its mission and the email that he sent to the Ben & Jerry’s rep and Marcesca:

“Instead, Yunis seemed to break the basic rules of ‘netiquette’ by copying Maresca on an e-mail to Perkins in which he called him an ‘imbecile,’ ‘hypocrite,’ ‘intellectually challenged’ and a ‘nincompoop.’

He then characterized Maresca as one of those people that “would ‘Rock the Vote’ for a Hillary/Obama ticket, and frankly we just don’t care anymore…

Speaking of the e-mail he said: ‘I really have no comment on them. The guy (Maresca) is an idiot.’

Yunis later added, ‘The person is a complete moron, and that’s as simple as I can make it for you.’ “

Click here for more delicious details on the incident.

The New York Times Magazine has slew of articles covering all aspects of green design:

Why Are They Greener Than We Are?
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
When it comes to designing buildings that are good for the environment, Europe gets it.

The Accidental Environmentalist
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
Whether with paper, old containers, glass or steel, Shigeru Ban makes buildings that waste nothing. Just don’t call him green.

An Eco-House for the Future
Diller Scofidio + Renfro show how sustainability can have style.

The Zero-Energy Solution
By MARK SVENVOLD
How a system installed in your own backyard may one day power your house and your car.

Al Gore Has Big Plans
By JAMES TRAUB
Another book, another slide show, another global rock concert — another run?

This Old, Organic House
By ADAM GOODHEART
Americans have been experimenting with green architecture since the very beginning.

The Worm Turns
By ROB WALKER
How one company strives to turn invertebrate excrement into a hip brand.

Hollywood and Green
By EDWARD LEWINE
Ed Begley Jr., the star of the HGTV reality show ‘‘Living With Ed,’’ tries to make his two-bedroom house in Los Angeles as environmentally sound as possible.

All joking aside, according to this TreeHugger article, the environmental damage of working from home may outweight the benefits (full story here).

EcoGeek comments on the New York Times piece about yellow cabs going green:
“Holy Moly. I guess these are the kinds of things you have to do quickly if you want your city to produce 30% less carbon in a mere 30 years. Bloomberg’s plan will see a 20% increase in hybrid taxis every year for the next five years.
The current standard taxi, the Crown Victoria, gets about 14 mpg in the city. It’ll be replaced by a wide variety of new taxis, from the smaller Prius, to the Ford Escape hybrid SUV. 13,000 Taxis is a lot to replace, but apparently a 20% per year churn is about what taxi companies deal with in New York, so, basically, every new cab they buy will have to be a hybrid.”
Will cab fare prices go up as a result?
Will people use more public transportation or walk as a result?
What do you think?

According to theWatt, the overall energy cost of a hybrid car exceeds that of its conventional counterparts. From the article:

“A Honda Civic has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $2.42/mile, compared to the Honda Civic Hybrid which has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $3.238/mile. This means that although the hybrid version has better fuel efficiency, over the entire life of the car, the Honda Civic will be using less energy than the Honda Civic Hybrid.”

It’s worth eyeballing the comments on this one, which cast aspersions on the data cited in the study. What do you think?