Sea Lions vs. Salmon: Kill One to Save the Other?

Slate has a fascinating article today on the struggle to protect dwindling numbers of salmon in Oregon. 

For years, conservationists and fishermen have suspected that the sudden disappearance of large numbers of Chinook salmon was attributable to sea lions traveling up the Columbia River to find and eat the endangered species. At one point, it was suggested that the sea lions be killed or relocated to avoid further destruction of the Chinook population. This idea never took hold, but now it looks like some are taking matters into their own hands as several sea lions have turned up dead in recent months.

To read the full article, go HERE.

Climate Security Act Being Debated Today

This should be an interesting week for global warming legislation that has been bounced around the Congress since 2007. The Climate Security Act, written by Senators Joe Leiberman and John Warner, will be debated in the Senate starting today. 

The bill is very long, coming in at almost five hundred pages. It is the first piece of legislation introduced in the Congress that outlines a serious infrastructure for confronting global climate change in the United States. 

It does have serious enemies in both the left and right ends of the spectrum. Those enemies are fairly predictable. Businesses that make their money manufacturing products or energy are unhappy about new regulations that would limit their carbon emissions. Environmental organizations say that the legislation does not go far enough in setting tough standards and strictly enforcing those standards. 

The Climate Security Act boasts carbon dioxide emissions cuts of about 70% over the next four decades. The main thrust of the bill is a cap and trade emissions program that sets a specific emissions cap but allows regulated parties who exceed that limit to buy "pollution credits" from those who do not. Over time, the federal government lowers the limit more and more, hopefully encouraging innovative technology that are more efficient and less polluting. 

No one knows for sure the exact impact the bill might have on the economy. A report released by the EPA earlier this year shows the impact to be negligible, perhaps just a 1% difference in the overall growth of the economy (read more HERE). One source of revenue from the bill that should help pad any costs associated with its passage is the $6.7 trillion raised over the next four decades from the sale of those carbon emission credits. According to Senator Barbara Boxer, those funds will be used to help consumers deal with energy costs that might increase because of the new law.

The cost not taken into account by many conservative enemies of the bill is the cost of inaction. By doing nothing to lower our nation's carbon emissions, we face the real possibility of having to engineer systems to fight flooding, diseases, drought, etc. that will result from global climate change. Those systems will be very expensive.

The word in the Senate is that the bill will not pass, or will not pass by enough votes to override the inevitable Bush veto. Supporters of the bill are merely viewing this as a test run for the real attempt when a new President and Senate take over in 2009. 

To read more in the Washington Post, click HERE.

Best Buy Expanding E-Recycling Program

Usually you go to Best Buy to pick-up some new piece of electronic equipment to replace either an outdated piece or a broken one. Inevitably, this means something is going in the garbage. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Remember, electronics waste is just about the most toxic type of waste around. Embedded in those chips and bits are high quantities of dangerous metals and chemicals. Dumping televisions, computers, cell phones, batteries, etc. into the garbage results in drinking water pollution and the possible release of very dangerous compounds into the air. 

When its time to retire an old or broken piece of electronics equipment, make sure you are responsible. You can already recycle small items like cellphones, batteries, ink cartridges, etc. at Best Buy stores. Now, if you live near a Best Buy in Baltimore, San Francisco and several other cities (117 stores in all) you can also recycle large electronic equipment for free too.

The stores will accept 2 items per day, per household. They cannot take microwaves, air conditioners, or appliances. To recycle those items, contact your local garbage company. 

To get more information about the expanded Best Buy recycling program, click HERE.

A Must Read: Endangered Species as Political Pieces

From Newsweek's Project Green...

"Enlisting endangered species in the fight against global warming is either a brilliant tactical maneuver - or an arrogant abuse of law."

Read more HERE

Green McCain? Where Are the Votes?

Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has fought hard for many years to convince the media and voters that he is a "maverick." This is no easy task. Within the Republican party, nothing is more highly valued than cohesiveness and loyalty to GOP principles. If McCain wanted to continue receiving support from his party while appearing "independent" to the voters, he had to pull out a few tricks.

Apparently one of McCain's favorite tricks is simply failing to vote in Congress on issues he claims to support on the campaign trail. This allows him to talk from both sides of his mouth. He can tell voters he supports particular policies, while doing nothing in the Senate to help progress these policies. 

One policy area that suffers the most from McCain's maverick game is the environment. 

Earlier this year, the League of Conservation Voters released their annual scorecard of elected officials' records on environmental legislation. On the 2007 scorecard, the League graded McCain a 0%. The last year he scored in the single digits was in 1999-2000, the other time he ran for President. Why did the League give McCain such a dismally low score in 2007? Because he simply failed to vote, at all, on any of the 15 pieces of important legislation the League used to gauge environmental leadership. If you think the League's scoring was partisan, simply look to Republican Senator Susan Collins' 100% rating or Democratic Representative Dan Boren's 15% rating.

The League of Conservation Voters was not the only organization that noted McCain's failure to take a position in the Senate on environmental priorities.  Republicans for Environmental Protection noted that McCain missed all 14 of the votes on which they scored Senators for environmental leadership. They refused to give McCain a 0% for his performance, however, because they felt it was unfair to judge busy presidential candidates on the same scale as their Senate colleagues. Of course Hillary Clinton was able to attend many of these votes and received a 73% from the League of Conservation Voters, while Barack Obama received a 67%.

Lets drill down a little further to see more examples of McCain's lack of action in the Senate on environmental legislation. 

On February 6th, the Senate was preparing to vote on an expanded economic stimulus package that included tax credits for clean energy development. Hours before the vote, McCain landed at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC with plenty of time to participate in the vote. When asked whether he would get to the Senate and participate in the vote, he told reporters he didn't know if he could make it and that he had other meetings to attend. That stimulus package failed to meet the 60 votes necessary to pass cloture in the Senate...by one vote. The next day, a similar version of the economic stimulus package came to a vote in the Senate, without clean energy incentives. McCain voted for the revised package and it passed. 

To add insult to injury, the Sierra Club encouraged its members to contact McCain's office and complain about his failure to support clean energy incentives in the original economic stimulus package. His staff routinely lied about his vote and told callers that he has, in fact, supported the version of the package with clean energy incentives. When pressed by the Sierra Club and the media about their claims, McCain's staff simply said he would support clean energy incentives in the future. You can read the Sierra Club's claims HERE.

Another example of McCain's favorite campaign trick can be found in his flip-flop on the Climate Security Act, which is coming up for a vote in a few days. Back on May 9th, McCain was traveling around the country telling voters that he would be progressive on environmental issues, specifically global warming. With Joe Lieberman at his side, he promised he'd support the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill (the Climate Security Act) saying, "I hope it will pass and I hope the entire Congress will join in supporting it and the President of the United States would sign it." Yet, on May 28th he completely changed his tune and claimed that because the bill doesn't include enough funding for nuclear energy development, he would not come to the floor of the Senate and vote on it.

Now, I hope you are ready to dive into the minutiae a little further because McCain's complicated views on this Climate Security Act get even stranger with some additional research. On may 21st, a week before McCain said he wouldn't vote for the bill because of its lack of nuclear energy subsidies, Congress Daily reported that Lieberman and Warner were offering up an amendment to their bill that would greatly expand investment in nuclear energy development. The amendment will allow Senators to go on record supporting both nuclear subsidies and the Climate Security Act, a compromise one might think McCain could support, given his recent comments. However, he still will not participate in any of the votes relating to the Climate Security Act when the issue comes to the floor on June 2nd. 

With all the passion McCain displayed when making his public commitments to the environment on the campaign trail, you would think he could find time to vote on environmental legislation in the Senate. Apparently being a maverick is too burdensome to keep your promises. Or maybe McCain is being a little disingenuous with the voters.

Below are links to the sites where I obtained the information in this post...

• The League of Conservation Voters Scorecard
• The Republicans For Environmental Protection find McCain doesn't vote.
• McCain was in DC for the Economic Stimulus Package vote but failed to take a position, then lied about which position he did take.
• John McCain's vocal support on the campaign trail for the Climate Security Act, as written.
• McCain will miss the Climate Security Act vote.
• Even though a nuclear amendment will be available.

Former Chemical Weapons Test Site in DC

This afternoon, the Green Piece Blog attended a round table discussion hosted by Global Green USA and the DC Environmental Network. The topic of the discussion was a neighborhood in Washington, DC, called Spring Valley. 

The speakers at the discussion included officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the DC Department of the Environment. The story about Spring Valley they presented was fascinating.

Spring Valley was once home to a U.S. military chemical weapons testing site. During WWI, Germany successfully utilized chemical weapons to inflict great harm on their opposition. Around the time the U.S. entered the war, American University donated the land now known as Spring Valley to the military so they could create their own chemical weapons program in response to Germany's. 

The timeline for the development of the testing site begins with the year 1917 when the Bureau of Mines was assigned the task of developing chemical weapons similar to those used by the Germans. The Bureau of Mines had previously been developing gas masks that would protect soldiers from chemical exposure and the U.S. government felt they were best equipped to begin development of next generation chemical weapons. By 1918, a branch of the military was created specifically for chemical weapons development, called the Chemical Warfare Service. 

The Chemical Warfare Service used the Spring Valley site to test some of the world's most toxic chemicals as weapons. Two large, circular trenches were dug out to test mortars filled with chemical mixtures that were shot from cannons hundreds of feet away. Various species of animals and some humans were placed in or around these trenches and the impact of the chemical weapons were tested on them. Some of the military records indicate a wide range of effects from the weapons, including gaseous clouds that spread for great distances.

At some point in time, long after the conclusion of WWI, the U.S. Military began turning over their unused properties to agencies, state and local governments, and private businesses. These sites were called "Formerly Used Defense Sites" or FUDS. Spring Valley is one of these FUDS. Of the 9,000 FUDS turned over for civilian use, 2,500 contained possibly hazardous chemical waste. Specifically, 250 FUDS were once used for chemical weapons development, just like Spring Valley.

During the years after Spring Valley was turned over for civilian use, the area saw a great deal of development on the 660-acre site, including construction of 1600 residential and commercial properties, as well as the expansion of the American University campus. Throughout all of this development, nobody uncovered evidence of the chemical weapons testing until 1993 when a contractor working on a private residence dug up stacks of mortars (see picture above). 

The Army Corps of Engineers was assigned the task of investigating the chemical weapons site and clearing out any dangerous remnants of the military's tests. In 1995, the Corps felt they had completed the investigation and left, only to be contacted by the DC government with complaints about unfinished business. The Corps returned to Spring Valley in 1997 and have been working on the site ever since, with a planned completion of their work by 2011. 

According to the Corps, 96% of the properties in Spring Valley have been tested for unhealthy levels of various chemicals. Those tests have resulted in the remediation of 144 sites because of unacceptable levels of arsenic in the soil.

The Corps have used two important tools in seeking out possible exposure areas. First, they have used mapping technology to overlay maps from 1918 over maps from today to figure out what modern areas are former dump sites. Second, they have hired historians to uncover photographs and stories that might provide insight into how the military divided up Spring Valley for their experiments. 

One of the greatest discoveries by the historians is a photograph of deceased Sergeant Maurer who once worked on the Spring Valley site. In the photo, Sgt. Maurer is filling canisters with mustard gas and piling the canisters in a trench. On the back of the photo, Sgt. Maurer wrote the name of the site area, "Death Valley," and a description of what he was doing. Sgt. Maurer's grandson turned the photo over to the Corps after remembering stories his grandfather would tell when he drank about dumping mustard gas in holes by American University. The Corps used this photo, and others like it, to identify geographic landmarks which led them to the larger dump sites. 

Many of the exposed areas in Spring Valley are the yards of large, beautiful residential homes. On many of these properties, the Corps must rip up the grass and dredge  the soil to scrub and test it. In some cases, giant aluminum shelters are built to isolate the area and protect against the spread of toxic chemicals. Once the Corps is finished with its work, the homeowners receive a newly landscaped yard with freshly planted sod.

DC is home to a few toxic military properties. The Navy Yard area, for instance, is currently a "Superfund" site. Its safe to say that none of these other sites match the history and intrigue of Spring Valley.

If you'd like to read more about Spring Valley on the Army Corps of Engineers' website, click HERE

Idle or Restart the Car - Which Saves More Gas?

I don't own a car anymore, but there was a time when I would sit in the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant or wait in line at the toll booth and see fumes rising up from all the cars as they patiently idled. 

Watching all those wavy lines rise into the atmosphere, I wondered whether it was better to turn the car off or to let it run. I figured it is possible that restarting the car over and over would actually burn more fuel than just letting it idle for a minute while I waited. 

Today I found the answer to this puzzle on Slate.com's "Green Lantern" column. A reader wrote in, asking the Green Lantern to settle a marital dispute over the possible fuel savings of turning a car off rather than leaving it to idle. 

According to the Green Lantern, the idea that your car uses more fuel restarting than idling is outdated. A long time ago, cars used carburetors to flush fuel into the engine to start the car. However, all modern cars use electric fuel injectors which carefully measure the amount of fuel necessary to start the car. 

To prove the point, a study conducted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in Florida showed that unless you are idling your car for six seconds or less, turning the engine off will use less fuel. This study used as its test subject a six-cylinder car with the air-conditioning on. 

Another idle myth that can be smashed is the idea that your car needs to "warm up" in cold weather when it is first turned on. This isn't the case. The best thing for your car is to begin driving immediately after the engine is turned on. The Ontario Department of Transportation performed an experiment where they found that a car driven for 12 minutes in 14 degree (fahrenheit) conditions will warm up to the same level as a car idling for 30 minutes.

The Green Lantern estimates that if all Americans turned their engines off, rather than idling, for 10 minutes per day, the combined savings in carbon dioxide emissions would be miniscule. However, if all cars were updated with the same technology the Toyota Prius currently includes, we could reduce national fuel consumption by 10%. The technology in the Prius turns the engine off instantly any time the car comes to a halt. Pushing the accelerator turns the engine back on. This means that in traffic, at traffic lights, at the toll booth, etc., your car would be conserving gasoline. 

To read the full Green Lantern explanation on Slate.com, go HERE. 

Green DC: Get Outside

This post is part of a weekly feature where we will focus on events and issues, related to the environment, happening in our own back yard of Washington, DC. Come back next Wednesday for another post.

This past weekend in DC was one for the record books. An extraordinarily beautiful weekend with perfect temperatures. A look at next weekend's weather shows we can expect more great days with highs in the low 80's and lots of sunshine.

Now is the time to get out and enjoy the many outdoor activities our area has to offer before the miserable summer heat sets in and you race from one air conditioned room to another. 

The website dc.about.com has done a thorough job of laying out all the different outdoor experiences available in our area. 

Among the hiking paths listed by the site are the Rock Creek Trail, Great Falls, Sugarloaf Mountain and Bull Run Regional Park. You can see all of their trail recommendations HERE.

The site also lists great bike trails like the Capital Crescent Trail and the Mt. Vernon Trail. I've ridden on both of these trails, as well as the Rock Creek Trail, and I highly recommend them. They are all very safe with lots of nature to admire while you ride. You can read more about them HERE.

This weekend I'd like to try kayaking somewhere in the area. I've seen the kayakers down in Georgetown by the Potomac and it looks very relaxing. There are apparently lots of choices for kayaking, you can see them all HERE. 

Whatever you do this weekend, make sure you take some time to get outside and enjoy the weather. Just make sure you don't leave a footprint by leaving garbage behind or harming the natural environment. 

New Solar Powered iPhone?

The iPhone is by far the most overhyped consumer product in a very long time. Its hard to believe it was just one year ago that Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, went on stage and introduced the little miracle to the world. Remember the long lines of people sleeping outside to get their hands on a $400 cell phone? Well get ready because it looks like iPhone 2.0 is on the horizon.

Monday, June 9th at 10 AM (PST), Jobs will take the stage in San Francisco to address the loyal Apple developers and unveil the company's newest creations. Among the array of shiny gadgets expected to show up on the Moscone West stage in San Francisco is an updated iPhone with a faster internet connection, GPS, video conferencing and the ability to charge its own battery using solar power.

Rumors about the new iPhone's solar power capability started spreading when a patent application from Apple was uncovered that showed detailed drawings and descriptions of a mobile device with a layer of solar panels underlaid beneath an iPhone-like screen. You can view the patent HERE.

Apple would not be the first company to experiment with the idea of using solar panels to charge the batteries of gadgets. There are many consumer products that integrate this idea. There is the solar powered backpack that has solar panels on the back and power adapters inside so you can utilize the sun's rays to charge your gadgets while you're walking around outside. There is also the iSun, solar powered cell phone charger that connects to your cell phone and charges its battery using solar power. 

The problem with a lot of these solar powered chargers is that they are expensive and not very convenient to carry around. If Apple could effectively integrate the solar panels directly into the iPhone's screen, they could skip the middleman and allow users to charge their phones quickly by setting it on a window sill. 

Of course, solar powered phones will still have to rely on wall outlets for most of their battery charges. But if Apple combined its gifts in simplicity and design to create an iPhone that could partially rely on both solar and traditional electricity, it would be a promising sign of things to come. 

Video: Removing and Disposing of Old Carpet

Carpet may contribute to lower air quality for your home. There are a lot of great alternatives to carpeting that are healthier for your family and the environment. When you're ready to replace that tired carpet, remember to recycle the old and be innovative with the new.

Below is a video about recycling carpet and how to utilize the materials under your carpeting.

Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge

If you are a blogger and would like to participate in a project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, check out Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge. Green Piece Blog has signed up to participate and we encourage our blog neighbors to do the same. 

Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge

Drilling in ANWR Would Save $.75 Per BARREL

The Department of Energy (DOE) issued a report yesterday that undermines the GOP argument that drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would save consumers money at the pump. 

According to the DOE report, expected savings from drilling in the protected space would amount to 75 cents per barrel of oil. This information comes in a year when the $100/barrel record was broken only a few months ago and now oil is trading at $130/barrel. A few quarters per barrel will not make a dent in the price at the pump. 

The report was initiated by Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. His hope was that the report would uncover larger savings for consumers and would bolster support for opening ANWR. For several years, Senator Stevens has tried to open ANWR to oil drilling by sneaking provisions into budget bills or by using other legislative procedures. To this day, he has failed to successfully change the federal government's ANWR policy.

Adding insult to injury for Stevens were some other revelations in the DOE report. The report stated that opening up ANWR "is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices." The report also revealed that it would take 10 years to drill the oil out of the ground and get it to consumers. Finally, the DOE found that consumer demand for oil is predicted to decline in the future due to new fuel efficiency standards put in place by Congress last year. 

The only good news Stevens could find in the report was the section that said opening ANWR would extend the lifespan of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

Things have not been going well for Sen. Stevens' political career this year. A Grand Jury is investigating campaign contributions from employees of the oil pipeline corporation VECO (you can read about the investigation HERE). Polls in Alaska also have Steven's Democratic opponent beating him in a race for the Senate seat that will be up for a vote in November.

To read more about the DOE report, click HERE.

Greener One: How Green are Your Goods?

Getting information about the eco-friendliness of different products is pretty tough. Often, you cannot rely on the information from the manufacturer because it is skewed, exaggerated or misrepresented to increase sales. Google searching is tough because there is so much information out there, spread out over so many websites.

So what is a curious consumer to do? A new website called Greener One has just opened up shop on the internet to help us all out. It is similar to Wikipedia in that it invites educated citizens to contribute information on the ingredients, toxicity and lifespan of different products ranging from electronics to cleaning agents.
The long-term goal of the site is to become a go-to resource similar to "Consumer Reports" where consumers will look for reviews and information on a product prior to making a purchase. They can find out if the product is recyclable and whether it contains harmful ingredients.

If you want to check the site out, click HERE. It is in the beginning phases of development, but already there are several categories of product reviews available.

GM's Challenge X Comes to DC

The other day, the Green Piece Blog was invited to the arrival of GM's Challenge X teams in Washington, DC. After driving from New York to DC, stopping at a few places in between, the teams were going to finally arrive at their final destination, the Department of Energy headquarters.

Challenge X is a competition hosted by GM and the US Department of Energy that is designed to encourage young engineers to think about new technologies that will reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

This is the fourth year for the competition. In the first year, university teams from the US and Canada worked in simulation environments to test different engineering choices in a way that mirrored early vehicle design. At the end of the year, 17 teams received a stock Chevrolet Equinox "crossover SUV." In years two and three, those teams moved onto the next phase in vehicle design, integrating the advanced powertrain and vehicle subsystems into the actual automobile. For this, the final year, the teams moved into the final phase of development, implementing safety, comfort and marketing plans for their finished products.

Those finished products drove from New York to DC and arrived at the ceremony we attended. Waiting for the cars was a huge crowd of students waving checkered flags and wearing their team polos. The cars on the outside lall ooked the same, with the exception of different stickers plastered all over the windows and doors. They did, however, sound a little different from each other as they drove by. This was due to the different approaches each team used in making their vehicle more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.

The different factors each team could tweak in their vehicle included: HEV architecture, engine, fuel, transmission, energy storage, and motor. The teams chose to use a range of fuel options including reformulated gasoline, bio diesel, hydrogen and ethanol.

The first place winning team for the competition was Mississippi State University with their Equinox that contained a "through the road" parallel hybrid electric system with a 1.9L GM direct injection turbo diesel engine utilizing bio diesel fuel. Their car increased fuel economy of the Equinox by 38%. Second place went to the University of Wisconsin and third place went to Ohio State University.

Some other accomplishments of the teams included a vehicle from Virginia Tech that reduced its wheel-to-wheel petroleum use by 77%. Fourteen of the 17 teams successfully reduced the green house gas impact of their vehicles, including the University of Wisconsin's vehicle which reduced its impact by 52% compared to the stock Equinox.

Overall, this looks like it is a great project. Hopefully GM is serious about implementing some of the teams' great achievements into their line of vehicles soon.

Honda Preparing New Hybrid Models for '09

Honda is preparing to introduce several new hybrid models into their fleet of automobiles. Currently, Honda has the highest fleet fuel efficiency of any other carmaker in the United States. The new hybrid models will be sold in the US, Japan and Europe.

The new models Honda plans to release include a hyrid-only model that will compete directly with Toyota's Prius and a hybrid version of the Honda Fit. In addition, Honda is planning to release a re-vamped hybrid Civic and a "sportier" hybrid CR-V.

If you are thinking of buying a hybrid, it might be worth it to you to wait for these new models. The federal hybrid tax credit can be as high as $3,000 for a new hybrid. Unfortunately, the tax credit is phased out when a particular hybrid model sells 60,000 vehicles. As time passes, the tax credit drops until the IRS ends it completely. Already, all of the Toyota hybrid models have passed the 60,000 vehicle threshold and no longer qualify for the federal hybrid tax credit.

In other words, get your name on the waiting list at your local Honda dealership so you can get the highest level of the tax credit. Honda claims the mark-up for the new hybrids will be about $1,900.

If you want to compute the difference in cost between a hybrid and a non-hybrid over the course of a year or 10 years, THIS website has a great hybrid calculator. From my calculations, without the federal tax credit, you will begin saving money on gasoline for the hybrid after about 3 years.

And if you want to learn more about the federal hybrid tax credit, go to the IRS site HERE.

Must Read: Committee Votes to Overturn EPA Decision

Read the full AP story HERE on how the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has voted to overturn the decision of the EPA to reject California's request for cleaner air standard.

Green DC: Local Green Buying Guide

This post is part of a weekly feature where we will focus on events and issues, related to the environment, happening in our own back yard of Washington, DC. Come back next Wednesday for another post.

I've tried to list many of the eco-friendly places to shop in DC in the past. The website Gridskipper.com has also taken a shot at listing DC's green shopping sites. However, being a green consumer incoporates so many different factors that its nearly impossible to list every local farmers market, thrift store, organic market, fair trade shop, vegan restaurant, etc., in town.

So rather than waste perfectly good blog space trying to list all these green locations in DC, I'm going to rely on the New American Dream's Green Guide to DC.

This guide is essential for living and contributing to the DC community. It is a great resource on all of the local farmers markets, book stores, gardens, repair shops, flea markets and more. The guide also includes websites and contact information for several local community organizations or resources.

In addition to all the above-mentioned information, the New American Dream surveyed 50 businesses in Northwest DC communities and compared their performance in three categories 1)Save, 2)Local, and 3)Green. They then list not only the scores and rankings of these businesses so you know which is being a good neighbor.

I really could go on and on about this guide. It is very intuitive with lots of facts about the benefits of buying local and buying green. If you want to view the most comprehensive green guide to Washington, DC just click HERE.

As an aside, guides are also available for Nashville, Meadville, PA, Brooklyn and Wolfeboro, NH.

American Idol Finale Will Be Green

American Idol is one of my guilty pleasures. It is such a predictable formula and I am constantly rolling my eyes at the repetitive comments from the judges. Regardless, I tune in year after year, applying my best analytical skills to try to predict who will stay and who will go.

This year I'm not going to make any predictions about who will come away with the big record deal because I'm not a huge fan of either contestant. Instead, I'm going to focus on some of the