Climate Blogs Exposed: More Innovation from Google, Oil Ad Parody, Struggling McMansion Sales--10/3

This week, Stephen Colbert aired a parody on Big Oil’s greenwashing campaign. But like any good parody, there is some truth behind the comedy. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Colbert was hired to help produce some of the advertisements for big oil. Think Progresses’ Wonk Room reports:

The fossil-fuel industry is on track to spend one billion dollars this year propagandizing oil, coal and natural gas. As the Public Campaign Action Fund found, “In the first half of 2008, the major industry players, American Petroleum Institute, BP, Chevron Texaco, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Hess Corporation, and Royal Dutch Shell, spent $92.2 million on broadcast and cable advertising; $14.9 million on radio advertising; $57.5 million on print advertising in magazines and newspapers; $5.3 million on Internet advertising; and $4.0 million on other media.”

Google is not only paving the way when it comes to innovation online, they are also working to make renewable energy cheaper than coal! In addition to a new initiative that calls for 100% reduction in coal and oil, Google is also researching how to retrofit the American grid to become a “smart” grid system. It’s Getting Hot in Here reports:

The bill: $4.4 trillion. If we begin in 2010, this means an annual investment of $220 billion by the private sector and the government, with the majority of it coming from the private sector. It will also mean savings of $1 trillion by 2030 due to the lower price of renewables compared to oil, as well as other factors. These savings exclude the potential of energy efficiency, which is not aggressively considered in Google’s plan. According to estimates, America can cut its energy use by up to 30% by simply having smarter building codes, using more efficient appliances, and increasing fuel efficiency.

Google continues its quest in environmental action! The EPA has finally taken advantage of some tools on the Internet as they recently released a new visual, using Google Earth, that show the possible sites for the development of renewable energy. EnviroWonk reports:

The program allows the user to choose from a sidebar list of renewable energy types – various categories of solar, biomass and wind power. When one or several of these categories are checked, the map displays colored dots indicating locations that have shown high potential to produce the indicated type of energy.

I think we can all agree that America’s economy is struggling. Despite what skeptics of green energy have told us, drilling is not the answer. Investing in clean energy and efficiency will allow for businesses to profit from the ultimate return on investments. Can your business afford to waste energy and money? Howard Learner from the Huffington Post reports:

The Alliance to Save Energy explains this well. "Industry accounts for one-third of all energy use in the U.S. Energy-intensive industrial plants typically have enormous energy bills, sometimes running into the millions of dollars annually. Energy efficiency improvements offer the potential for a significant return on investment for the industrial energy consumer in the form of lower utility bills, as well as for the public in the form of reduced pollution and energy prices."

Want a Prius? How about paid utility bills for 5 years? No. This is not some scam! As economies across the US stumble, McMansion developers are really feeling the squeeze. In response to the collapsing housing market, they are offering incentives for people to purchase homes away from city centers where they work. Kaid Benfield from NRDC’s Switchboard reports:

The latest evidence to come across my personal computer screen comes from Plainfield, Illinois, in Will County, about 40 miles from the Chicago Loop. "Ground zero for sprawl," one of my friends calls it. One of the new subdivisions around Plainfield is Chatham Square, developed and offered by Gladstone Homes, and featuring houses from 3000 to 4000 square feet once priced at over half a million each.

What did we miss? Let us know the comments section below!