ClosingTheCircle

EPA Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick: a dangerous toy

Recently I explored the EPA’s Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick to see if it could help some people get a handle on their home energy problems, and the conclusion is it offers a few useful features, but mostly it is detrimental to your financial health. In some ways it really is worse than useless, for financially it will with certainty steer people completely wrong.

Home Energy Yardstick will…

What Energy Efficiency Said to Renewable Energy

The tortoise of energy efficiency(EE) always makes sure that we never get more than half-way there, and tries to convince Achilles that by the time he catches up, the tortoise will be ahead again, and he’ll never win, when in fact the reverse is the case. Renewable energy (RE) in the broadest sense is Achilles, who only by fallacious logic could fail to outrun the tortoise of energy efficiency.…

Improving Real Estate Value with Clean Energy

Real estate value can be enhanced with clean energy, while improving building resiliency at the same time.  Prioritizing energy savings tends to reduce resiliency: you are investing more money in being increasingly dependent on the given energy source. The economic magic lies in the fact that energy generated on-site with clean energytechnology moves energy from liabilities to assets permanently,…

Green Financial Literacy for Home Owners and Buyers

There is nothing that will have such a dramatic impact on property values as green energy in the next 20 years or more. Getting your green energy right will determine the difference between making money or losing money.

“Free solar panels”

New York’s 2014 Energy Plan – GHG-reductions ahead

Green Finance reform should be the central focus of our climate change efforts, for under proper analysis reducing Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions goes hand in hand with improving property values. The 2014 New York State Draft Energy Plan indicates a paradigm shift. The stated benchmark objectives are:

50% GHG emissions reduction by 2030

80% GHG emissions reduction by 2050

There is only one way to…

The Self-destruction of PACE finance

The PACE idea was powerful: Property Assessed Clean Energy. It was recognized that the switch to clean energy for existing buildings was going to be capital intensive, and PACE financing was designed to enable projects with longer paybacks, by providing longer term financing. Lenders were given the assurance of low risk because collection was done through property taxes. For the property owner,…

Energy Efficiency – Killing Us Softly

St. Patrick’s day reminded me that it is high time we learn to tell the real green from the fake stuff, beginning with energy efficiency, which has been unjustly conflated with sustainability, when in fact it does the opposite: it increases carbon emissions over time, except at a slower rate. It’s high time the FTC should start taking on green washing, beginning with such seriously misleading…

Renewable Energy, the Star of the Show

Renewable Energy has been the step-child of energy policy, which has been dominated by Energy Efficiency (EE). This emphasis on EE is really a relic of the energy crises of the last century, when it was thought the cost of energy and energy independence were the issue, and not so much the environmental dimension. Times have changed. Reducing Green House Gas emissions (GHG-emissions) now has taken…

NYC Energy Efficiency Paralysis – Open Letter to Mayor de Blasio

Energy Efficiency (aka EE) is the most confusing issue in the entire green dialog. It is about time that the FTC took actionagainst anyone claiming that energy efficiency is green all by itself. It depends. If you make a fossil-fuel-based system more efficient, arguably you are reducing GHG-emissions somewhat, but that is seriously deceptive: you are simply extending the competitiveness of…

Energy efficiencyas a single objective is a trap, because it prevents us from pursuing renewable energy and truly make inroads against GHG-emissions. Any user of energy, and that’s all of us, would want his systems to be efficient. But if your energy…

It is time to revisit geothermal heat pumps, and the battle of renewable energy versus energy efficiency. It has been noted with some regularity on this blog that NYC Clean Heat, and its comrade in arms the NYSERDA MPPare destroying real estate values in…

The Baucus Energy Tax Reform Proposal, which has reduction of GHG-emissionsas its focus, risks aggravating the very problem it is trying to cure. As drafted, for all its merit, and precedent-setting simplification, it would exclude an entire class of…

Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee proposed far-reaching energy tax reform. The principles  are solid, to quote:

“It is time to bring our energy tax policy into the 21st century,” Senator Baucus said. “Our current set…

We are still in an alternate reality, as in: “down the rabbit hole” in Alice in Wonderland, where planning the green future is concerned. Basically, we are stuck repeating the mistakes from 40 years ago, based on assumptions that might have been more…

Recent reports again draw attention to the notion that energy efficiency predicts lower mortgage default rates. Indeed, it seems obvious that energy-efficient homes are worth more, and that mortgage defaultrisk on such properties should be lower. This is…

Pursah's Gospel of Thomas (PGoTh) released under CC BY 3.0 License

Just ahead of his upcoming workshops in New York (Manhattan and Bronx), best-selling author Gary…

The question is going to be, will MLM ever be the same after the current spat over Herbalife is over? And the answer is that things will likely change materially, regardless of what regulatory actions follow from these developments, or even if there are…