AlternativesMagazine

By Jeff Spross SolarCity and Best Buy have announced a deal allowing customers to get low-cost and low-hassle solar power for their homes. It’s what’s called a third party leasing agreement. Rather than purchasing a solar array outright, they lease the system from the provider — SolarCity, in this case. It’s just that the system is installed on the roof of the homeowner. The benefit for the customer is they don’t have to worry about installation and maintenance — the provider handles that — and there are no big upfront costs. The customer just pays the provider a set amount each month for the electricity, and that cost is usually slightly lower than the going market rate. Meanwhile, as the provider, SolarCity gets a guaranteed revenue stream for whatever period of time the lease agreement covers. Partnering with Best Buy allows SolarCity to make use of the chain’s already-existing network of stores to reach as many customers as possible. Upfront costs, maintenance, permits, and in

By Andrew Breiner.  PHOTO CREDIT: Trans Tech/Motiv Power Systems The first-ever electric school bus, introduced in November, started picking up students in Central California’s Kings Canyon Unified school district this week. And three more should be operating soon, according to a press release from developers Trans Tech and Motiv Power Systems. The California Air Resources Board was a major factor in getting the first two electric buses on the road, contributing $400,000 to the pilot program in the form of cost-offsetting vouchers. Similar programs in Chicago and New York could contribute to the availability of electric buses there as well. A federal highway program supplied the funding for the third and fourth buses currently on their way. While the electric buses cost around twice as much as similar gas buses, Jim Castelaz, founder and CEO of Motiv Power Systems, said that was balanced by fuel and maintenance costs. It costs “1/8 as much to fuel and 1/3 as much to maintain,” he sa

By Emily Atkin There is an abandoned house in Alberta, Canada, where Alain Labrecque used to live. Tucked in the farming community of Peace River, it is a place brimming with personal history, rooted to his grandfather’s land where his parents and eight aunts and uncles grew up, and where Alain’s own children were born.  Now, Alain’s property and the surrounding area are primarily home to large, black cylinders of oil. As a family with a rich history of working for and benefiting from the oil industry, never in their wildest dreams did Karla and Alain think they would be the ones fighting this fight. “You’ve gotta understand, I’ve worked for oil sands, I was a contractor,” Alain said in an interview with ThinkProgress. “I’ve never been negative toward oil. Never thought this would happen.”    READ >

If the pipeline is approved and the fuse lit, climate scientist James Hansen says it's: "Game over for climate." Environmental opponents don't mince words on the Keystone XL pipeline. Some call it the "fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet" because of the carbon emissions from the oil it will carry. Backers say the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline could lower U.S. dependence on unstable foreign sources of oil and create thousands of jobs. Yes, it could create jobs — but not as many as some claim. The State Department estimates that during construction, the project would create 3,900 one-year construction jobs and 38,200 indirect ones, but during operation, only about 50 jobs. Keystone's owner, Calgary-based TransCanada, says the pipeline would generate about 9,000 construction jobs. But hardly any permanent jobs in the U.S. The State Department's review says the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would carry heavy oil sands from Hardisty, Alb

With people dying of starvation around the world, the California drought, plus all that fresh water, land, fertilizer and energy wasted, AND yet we still have an obesity epidemic?? You have to say . . . . WTF By Brad Plumer Each year, about 40 percent of all food in the United States goes uneaten. It's just tossed out or left to rot. And that's a fairly large waste of resources. All that freshwater and land, all that fertilizer and energy — for nothing. By one recent estimate, Americans are squandering the equivalent of $165 billion each year by rubbishing so much food.  But these statistics don't tell the full story. How does the food actually get wasted? For that, here's a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council that tries to track food waste up and down the system, from "farm to fork." 1) Farming: Roughly 7 percent of the produce that's grown in the United States simply gets stranded on fields each year. Some growers plant mo

Though President Obama has not made a final decision on whether he will green light the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, it will no doubt create a firestorm, especially with the environmentalists, if he does. Labeled the Dirtiest Pit on the Planet, the Alberta tar sands During a recent survey, when asked about the Keystone Pipline project, most people didn't know much about it except that it will generate a lot of jobs and reduce US reliance on Mideast and Venezuelan imports.  They knew less about the kind of crude oil it would transport, or the environmental consequences, and none realized it was a mining procedure and not conventionally drilled.  And proponents want to keep it that way. The dumbing down process at its best. Back in 2010, in our November edition , and before it became politically newsworthy, we published an article, "The Dirtiest Pit on the Planet." It discribed the Alberta tar sands oil field as one giant nightmare. This is the oil the K

A record-high 71 percent of Americans consider the environment as one of their top priorities when they shop.  That's up from 66 percent in 2008. However, almost three-quarters of them wish companies would do a better job helping them understand environmental terms and issues. In reality, while we all would prefer to buy green products and buy them from greener companies, all things equal, it's hard to know which "purposeful brands" are really getting the job done. As consumers, we don't have enough knowledge readily available to help make meaningful choices. So, we're skeptical and, at times, confused. Right now, the confusion is preventing progress because everybody can talk about "going green" but no one really knows what anyone is doing specifically. That makes it easy for some companies to not do much. When companies are more transparent, and that information becomes easily available and in one consistent format, consumers can make smarter