Winds of Change Newsletter, December 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Climate of Change: It's Easy to Save Money Being Green

Gas Down, Savings Up

Cutting global warming gas emissions, which some US politicians (who get big funding from the likes of ExxonMobile) have warned could hurt industrial competitiveness, has been good business for BP and will save the oil company $650 million, a company official told Reuters news in August.

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Denial is not good for business, nor life on earth

According to The Oregonian, a report by more than 50 Northwest economists shows that unchecked global warming poses an imminent threat to Oregon's $121 billion economy. If you care about jobs, the economists say, you better care about climate change. Temperature increases, rising sea levels and altered rain and snow patterns are already affecting Oregon's agriculture, forestry, tourism and hydroelectric industries. That's 25 percent of the state's economy. So it is no longer "good for business," if it ever was, to ignore climate change. The future of the Northwest depends on creativity, innovation and aggressive action to confront climate change.

Odds are that's true for West Virginia too!

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Jobs with a future

The mission of the two-year-old D.C.-based Apollo Alliance is to mobilize a grand-scale federal commitment to energy independence, with the triple-whammy promise of creating good jobs with new technology, bolstering national security with energy independence, and saving the planet from carbon emissions. Despite the fossil-fuel-funded "leaders" we are stuck with right now, Apollo is making strides. In Pennsylvania, the alliance pushed a renewable portfolio standard -- backed by a coalition including both steelworkers and enviros -- that requires 18 percent of the state's electricity to be generated from clean sources by 2020. Because of the policy, a Spanish wind company plans to build development offices and a manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, a venture that could create up to 1,000 new jobs over five years.

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Big Business, Big Future

The fastest growing energy technology in the world is grid-connected solar photovoltaic, which grew in capacity by 60 percent per year from 2000 through 2004, to cover more than 400,000 roofs in Japan, Germany, and the United States, according to a Worldwatch Institute report. Second is wind power capacity, which grew by 28 percent last year, led by Germany, with almost 17 gigawatts installed as of 2004, the report finds.

"Renewable energy has become big business," said Eric Martinot, lead author of the report.