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A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Chevron says "We are just meeting demand". So are they blameless?One afternoon when I was about nine years old, I was standing in the front yard with my younger brother trying to blow bubbles. We didn’t have any store-bought...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Oct. 23, 2022Last comment by Abe, on Nov 8, 2022 at 10:07 pm | 28 comments | 10511 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Is housing bad for the environment?I got an email recently from a resident expressing concern about the environmental impacts of building more housing. He writes: ==I “The construction of...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Oct. 30, 2022Last comment by Sherry Listgarten, on Nov 6, 2022 at 9:37 am | 21 comments | 11811 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Palo Alto's bold proposal to jumpstart home electrificationSix years ago Palo Alto set a goal to reduce city emissions to 80%...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Sep. 25, 2022Last comment by Sherry Listgarten, on Oct 3, 2022 at 8:39 pm | 28 comments | 14061 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
How my 80-year-old parents electrified their Foster City townhouseMy parents Eileen and Max live in a 52-year-old townhouse in Foster City. Up until a few years ago they drove a gas car, heated their home with a gas-powered furnace,...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Sep. 18, 2022Last comment by eileen , on Sep 25, 2022 at 10:58 am | 12 comments | 19241 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
We should not be operating our power grid via text alert, and other observations from the past few daysWell, that was an interesting few days. Our electric service should work quietly in the background. Instead it made headlines nearly every day. At times it appeared...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Sep. 9, 2022Last comment by Westbrook, on Sep 21, 2022 at 10:34 pm | 19 comments | 9410 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Will the power go out during this heat wave?Our local power providers and our grid operator (CAISO) are asking us to conserve electricity over the next few days as record-breaking heat and heavy use of air...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Sep. 4, 2022Last comment by Bystander, on Sep 12, 2022 at 1:27 pm | 34 comments | 12753 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
The curious case of the broken-not-broken gas meterEvery month I send Palo Alto Utilities a photo of my gas and electric meters and they bill me a few days later. (1) That has worked fine until this year. In...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Aug. 28, 2022Last comment by SRB, on Aug 30, 2022 at 11:54 am | 8 comments | 12345 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Living with a Heat Pump Water HeaterThis is going to be a pretty short blog post because it turns out it’s not all that interesting living with a heat pump water heater. It works, it’s...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Aug. 21, 2022Last comment by Sam Li, on Aug 30, 2022 at 3:48 am | 27 comments | 29941 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
What to do if you get a noisy Rheem/Ruud heat pump water heaterOne of the reasons that people have favored the Rheem/Ruud heat pump water heaters is because they are quiet. Rated at a low 49 dB, you could install one in most...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on May. 22, 2022Last comment by Sherry Listgarten, on Aug 20, 2022 at 2:04 pm | 20 comments | 37588 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Try this for healthier, more drought-resistant plantsA couple of weeks ago I was talking with a local landscaper. At one point I asked about mixing organic amendment into the soil. “Oh no,” she replied,...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jul. 31, 2022Last comment by Scott Denny, on Aug 13, 2022 at 2:17 pm | 8 comments | 14572 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
The Emissions Intensity of California's Electricity GridSometimes California’s electricity is powered almost entirely by gas turbines. Below is an example from January 12 of this year at 6 pm, when there was little...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jul. 24, 2022Last comment by BobB, on Jul 31, 2022 at 5:52 pm | 22 comments | 15451 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Palo Alto is #1! (in water costs)Are water rates in Palo Alto high? You bet. It’s not just that we charge a lot. Our tiers are also very steep. As a result, tree-friendly Palo Alto charges...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jul. 17, 2022Last comment by Sherry Listgarten, on Jul 18, 2022 at 4:15 pm | 7 comments | 16258 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Midpen's unambiguous ruling on e-bikesIt would have been a lot easier for Midpen’s board of directors to take the middle ground that was offered. The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jul. 10, 2022Last comment by Rossta, on Jul 13, 2022 at 12:24 pm | 15 comments | 15154 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
E-Bikes on Open Space Trails: Yes or No?On Wednesday, June 29, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) will decide where to allow e-bikes on its
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jun. 26, 2022Last comment by Joel Lachter, on Jul 9, 2022 at 3:14 pm | 19 comments | 16312 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Am I saving enough water yet?We are in our third year of drought in California and it’s not pretty. SoCal residents are under some
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jun. 19, 2022Last comment by BobB, on Jul 6, 2022 at 8:47 am | 39 comments | 16235 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Let's bury our CO2. What could possibly go wrong?We did not act early enough on climate change, and we continue to burn through our carbon budget too fast. As a result, we are faced with the need to capture and...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on May. 1, 2022Last comment by John, on Jul 4, 2022 at 8:22 am | 14 comments | 18438 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Will goopy straws and useless bags doom our efforts?Many readers of this blog are concerned about plastic waste. I understand why. We walk past discarded water bottles at concerts and games; we find disposable cups...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on Jun. 12, 2022Last comment by MichaelB, on Jun 18, 2022 at 8:13 am | 23 comments | 14295 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Are you ready to ditch disposables?Two years ago, in February 2020, I wrote about Palo Alto’s...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on May. 29, 2022Last comment by Sherry Listgarten, on Jun 3, 2022 at 5:27 pm | 15 comments | 18251 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
We need stable, climate-forward land use policiesWith the growing demand for renewable energy, domestic mineral supplies, new long-distance transmission lines, and subterranean repositories for captured CO2 and...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on May. 15, 2022Last comment by chris aoki, on May 18, 2022 at 1:07 pm | 4 comments | 12419 Views
A NEW SHADE OF GREEN
Need some help choosing a plant-based milk?A few weeks ago I found myself staring into a refrigerator case full of plant-based milks, with no idea which one to choose or why. A guy next to me was doing the...
Original post made by Sherry Listgarten on May. 8, 2022Last comment by Sherry Listgarten, on May 13, 2022 at 8:15 pm | 13 comments | 19551 Views
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