Blog & news round-up 10/16: Corn heated homes, Solar Decathlon, big oil complaints, and more

The surge in climate change discussion from yesterday's Blog Action Day wasn't the only green thing going on this week. Sustainable energy was put into practice by the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon, the City of Austin, as well as some local cooperatives in Maryland. Also, Saudi Arabia and comedian Stephen Colbert both came out for the outdated fossil fuel industry. You decide which is more ridiculous.

As I'm sure you know, yesterday was Blog Action Day. 1Sky celebrated by posting 10 posts from staff and interns covering different aspects of the fight for climate action. With 27,000 posts written for Blog Action Day it would be futile to try to round them up here. Instead check out these other round-up posts covering some notable participants:

• Blog Action Day's round-up
• Grist: Bloggers of all stripes grab a piece of the climate pie for Blog Action Day 2009
• Change.org: Blog Action Day 2009: bloggers vs. climate change

The Washington Post reported this week on some Marylanders taking impressive action to reduce their carbon footprints. The members of the Save Our Sky Home-Heating Cooperative, the Preserve our Planet Corn Cooperative, and the City of Mount Rainier, MD erected a granary to provide corn fuel to heat their homes (seen at right). The corn is burned in pellet stoves and certain fireplaces and reduces carbon emissions 85%!

The alternative energy-fest this week doesn't end there. The Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon wound down yesterday after more than a week of sustainable energy education and competition. Team Germany came out as the winner, but I can tell you first hand that all the entries were mind-blowingly impressive. Change.org put together a great photo essay showing some of the solar houses being built. See more pictures at the Solar Decathlon website.

As Energy Secretary Chu said in a video on the DOE YouTube page:

What we see are glimpses of what will be in the future homes of tomorrow. ... It's fabulous. It shows how exciting things can be, it shows when students get together how ingenious they are. Some of this stuff we hope will be regularly installed maybe five to ten years from today.

With cities like Austin, TX showing that it would be possible for them to power the whole city on solar power, those students' work should come to good use in no time.

The Information is Beautiful blog was featured last week for one of their great infographics, and this week an equally cool visual aid comes to us from the people at GOOD magazine. GOOD diagrams the money from the federal stimulus bill going to green jobs and how it is being used in all 50 states. Click on the thumbnail below to see the full image.

In what sounds like one of SNL Weekend Updates' 'Really?!' segments, Saudi Arabia is now asking for compensation if wealthy countries, such as the U.S., reduce their oil consumption. Natural Resources Defense Fund policy director Jake Schmidt responded as well as Seth or Amy could, saying:

It is like the tobacco industry asking for compensation for lost revenues as a part of a settlement to address the health risks of smoking.

Finally, last night on The Colbert Report Stephen gave a 'Tip of the Hat' to Bonner & Associates, coal lobbyists who sent forged letters to Congress opposing climate legislation. Colbert congratulated the lobbyists for representing an often ignored group: "nonexistent Americans."