Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell

Energy Updates | Technology Updates

September 2009:

• “Poplar pulp may be converted to biofuel” Link
• “What is Obama’s plan for the Northwest’s imperiled salmon?” Link
• “New York launches green building program” Link
• “California Juggles Clean Energy Standards” Link
• “China’s Potent Wind Potential” Link

August 2009:

• “Couple turn Pemco on to potential for solar energy, even in cloudy Seattle” Link
• “LEDs Are As Energy Efficient as Compact Fluorescents” Link
• “Is biogas the way to San Jose’s energy independence?” Link
• “House Bill Will Spur 20% Electricity-Price Hike by 2030 — EIA” Link

July 2009:

• “Boosting Energy Efficiency Could Save U.S. $1.2 Trillion” Link
• “Gasoline use at a four-decade low in Northwest, report says” Link
• “White House Announces New Lighting Standards” Link

June 2009:

• “Wind could power the entire world” Link
• “Synthetic Tree Soaks Up Carbon 1000x Faster Than the Real Thing” Link
• “Microsoft unveils energy management software” Link
• “Sainsbury’s brings green power to the checkout with ‘kinetic plates’” Link
• “New LED bulb has built-in remote for dimming and tuning” Link
• “CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER SET TO GROW.” Link
• “THE NATURAL FIX? THE ROLE OF ECOSYSTEMS IN CLIMATE MITIGATION A UNEP RAPID RESPONSE ASSESSMENT” Link
• “Rooftop wind turbine will be sold at your corner hardware store” Link
• “Dept. of Energy buildings don’t meet Dept. of Energy guidelines” Link
• “Laser Doubles Efficiency of Traditional Lightbulbs” Link
• “Australia wind farm gets go-ahead” Link
• “Electricity superhighway moving forward” Link
• “Using recycled tires to build quake-resistant buildings” Link
• “India’s Draft Solar Power Plan Sees 200,000 MW Installed by 2050″ Link
• “Investment in Green Energy Quadruples in 4 Years” Link

May 2009:

• “Amsterdam Becomes First European City to Install Coulomb ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations for Electrical Vehicles” Link
• “China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules” Link
• “Coming Soon: A New Eco-Label for TVs” Link
• “Obama unveils mpg rule, gets broad support Change driven by 30 percent cut in CO2; will cost $1,300 per vehicle” Link
• “Coming Soon: GE to Sell Smart Dashboard, Heat Pump, Appliances” Link
• “Energized about our first Google PowerMeter partners” Link
• “Wind, Solar-Powered Street Lights Only Need a Charge Once Every Four Days” Link
• “Military Seeks Fuel Efficiency With Ships and Electric Vehicles” Link
• “Study: More Efficient Ways To Burn Ethanol” Link
• “TfL To Begin Testing of Intelligent Speed Adaptation Technology” Link
• “Sea Salt Holds Clues To Climate Change” Link
• “How to fuel a car on waste plastic” Link
• “Paterson Orders Agencies to Switch From Bottled Water to Tap” Link
• “Fuel Savings Through Better Flight Paths” Link

April 2009:

• “Ban gasoline cars from 2015: Norway Finance Minister” Link
• “Q&A: Agassi’s Better Place idea–brilliant or nuts?” Link
• “84% Reduction in Jet Fuel Carbon Emissions Possible Using Camelina, New Analysis Shows” Link
• “Plug-in Standards Necessary for Consumer Acceptance of Electric Vehicles Like the Chevy Volt” Link
• “San Diego will finance residents’ solar panels” Link
• “California Seeks to Curb Appetite of Power-Hungry TVs” Link
• “Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP) Selects SmartSynch/AT&T Solution for 10,000 Unit Point-to-Point SmartMeter™ Trial Deployment Throughout Texas Market” Link
• “Data Centers Move to Cut Water Waste” Link
• “EPRI selected to facilitate development of smart grid roadmap” Link
• “Wind Now Employs More People Than Coal” Link
• “Empire State Building to Get Green Makeover, Saving $4.4M Per Year” Link
• “Global downturn brings cleaner air to Beijing” Link
• “New virus-built battery could power cars, electronic devices” Link
• “Biofuel from Canal Algae to Power Venice by 2011″ Link
• “Secretary Salazar: U.S. Offshore Wind Resources Could Lead America’s Clean-Energy Revolution” Link

March 2009:

• “Recession triggers interest in efficiency” Link
• “Stop pouring hot water down the drain!” Link
• “Amsterdam wants to be all-electric by 2040″ Link
• “U.S. Department of Transportation Posts New Fuel Economy Standards for Model Year 2011 Cars and Light Trucks” Link
• “AT&T to Offer Wireless Smart Grid Technology to Utility Companies” Link
• “Spain Sets Wind Power Generation Record” Link
• “Con Ed Plans New York Solar Project” Link
• “Obama Drafts Van Jones as Green Jobs Adviser” Link
• “Governors envision eco-friendly fuels at I-5 rest stops” Link

February 2009:

• “Solar Panel Drops to $1 per Watt: Is this a Milestone or the Bottom for Silicon-Based Panels?” Link
• “Climate Initiative’s Streetlight Retrofit Will Save Money, Improve Light in L.A.” Link
• “Mayor Newsom Unveils Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations for San Francisco” Link
• “Mapping a Global Plan for Car Charging Stations” Link
• “Microsoft crunches numbers on energy, carbon” Link
• “Biggest Solar Deal Ever Announced — We’re Talking Gigawatts” Link
• “Why sustainable power is unsustainable” Link
• “Rider Paradox: Surge in Mass, Drop in Transit ” Link

January 2009:

• “Electric Power Industry 2007: Year in Review” Link
• “Stimulus Package, $54 Billion in Energy Incentives” Link
• “Flat-screen TVs to face energy-efficiency rules in California” Link
• “Ethanol’s Federal Subsidy Grab Leaves Little For Solar, Wind And Geothermal Energy” Link
• “U.S. becomes “Number One” in wind:” Link
• “Big solar power plant planned for northwest China” Link
• “California to Rate Cars on Global Warming in the New Year” Link

December 2008:

• “US Becomes Largest Wind Power Producer in the World” Link
• “Storing the Breeze: New Battery Might Make Wind Power More Reliable” Link
• “Bay Area mayors endorse $1 billion plan for electric cars” Link
• “Spent Coffee Grounds as a Versatile Source of Green Energy” Link
• Bring Back DC Link
• “GE ceases investing in incandescent technology” Link
• “Hawaii Says Aloha to an Electric Car Network” Link
• “Obama Picks Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu for Energy Secretary” Link
• Stanford Report: “Wind, water and sun beat other energy alternatives, study finds” Link
• “U.S. Firms Join Forces to Build Car Batteries” Link
• “BYD Launches China’s First Electric Car For Nearly $22,000” Link
• “Japan Turns to Technology to Lift Fishing Industry” Link

November 2008:

• Big City, Brighter Lights: Gotham’s New LED Streetlamp Plan Link
• LEED 2009 PASSES MEMBER BALLOT:New Rating System Resets the Bar for Green Building Performance Link
• “Electric Utilities in North Carolina and Florida join forces for plug-in Vehicle Trial” Link

October 2008:

• “Hawaii to Ban New Coal Plants, Expand Renewable Energy Usage to 70% by 2030” Link
• The European Union energy ministers agreed to ban incandescent light-bulbs beginning in 2010. The US is scheduled to ban the filament light bulbs between 2012 and 2014.
• (H.R. 1424) As part of the $700 billion financial rescue plan is a tax relief package promoting renewable energy development and extending dozens of tax breaks that expired this year or next year. Major elements of the bill: Extends for 8 years the 30 percent tax credit for both residential and commercial solar installations Eliminates the $2000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations. Link

September 2008:

• “Power grid can’t handle wind farms” Link
• “World’s Largest Solar Plants planned in California” Link
• “Google is America’s largest investor in Geothermal Research” Link

August 2008:

• “IBM is getting involved in smart-grid technology”:
• “Giant Retailers installing solar panels on their roofs” Link

July 2008:

• “Finding and Fixing a Home’s Power Hogs”: Link
• Arctic Oil Link
• Solar Energy Project Moratorium Update: Link
• New gallon milk jug design uses less energy Link

June 2008:

• “U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects” Link
• Portugal’s solar farm Link
• H.R. 6049: Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 Link

Technology Updates (back to top)

September 2009:

• “Official: FCC to propose ‘Net neutrality’ rules” Link
• “Calif. advances tough flat-screen energy standards” Link
• “For Teens, Has Texting Replaced Talking?” Link
• “Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.” Link

August 2009:

• “When the Internet breaks, who ya gonna call?” Link
• “Major Carriers Shun Broadband Stimulus” Link
• “U.S. Marine Corps Bans Social Networking Sites” Link
• “Are the Glory Days Long Gone for I.T.?” Link

July 2009:

• “Comcast rolls out wireless Web” Link
• “A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics” Link
• “Government Launches Web Site to Track IT Spending” Link
• “US sets final emergency responder wireless pilot” Link
• “Major Outage at Seattle Data Center” Link
• “Italian company uses RC toy submarines to run cables through sewers” Link

June 2009:

• “St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) – June 20, 2009 – C1 Business MONTICELLO WINS FIGHT OVER BROADBAND STATE SUPREME COURT UPHELD CITY’S RIGHT TO INSTALL HIGH-SPEED NETWORK
  The way has been cleared for the city of Monticello to build its own state-of-the-art phone, video and Internet broadband service to compete with local phone and cable companies. The Minnesota Supreme Court earlier this week rejected an appeal by Bridgewater Telephone Co., part of TDS Telecommunications of Madison, Wis., to overturn two lower court decisions favoring the city. The phone company argued the city didn’t have the authority to issue $26 million in revenue bonds to…” Link
• “The federal government is about to spend big on health-care IT. Too bad the medical industry has a vested interest in inefficiency.” Link
• “Comcast Embraces IPv6″ Link
• “House backs 15-cent charge on Internet access to fight online crime” Link

May 2009:

• “Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate” Link
• “Homeland Security to scan fingerprints of travellers exiting the US” Link
• “On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired” Link
• “Database of All UK Children Launched” Link
• “Google builds Street View trikes to map UK footpaths” Link
• “Taxis and buses face automatic speed limiting” Link
• “Chopra Confirmation Hearing Scheduled” Link
• “News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch” Link
• “Verizon to Support Bans on Driving While Texting” Link
• “A Laptop, a Child, a Dollar — And a Promise” Link
• “Study: E-waste build-up will plateau by 2015″ Link

April 2009:

• “The Dubious Promise of Digital Medicine” Link
• “Cablevision: 101Mbps For $99.95” Link
• “Microsoft Offers Secure Windows … But Only to the Government” Link
• “Internet television moves from the computer to the living room” Link
• “Denver online news site gets just 6% of its subscriber target” Link
• “ROCKEFELLER INTRODUCED LEGISLATION CALLING FOR UNIVERSAL ADOPTION OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS” Link
• “TLC ISSUES REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON “TAXI TECHNOLOGY 2.0”” Link
• “Chopra named Obama CTO, White House tech plans coming together” Link
• “The Importance of Data.Gov” Link
• “FCC Seeks To Improve U.S. Broadband Access” Link
• “Government to go it alone on FTTH NBN” Link
• “Guardian wants Government to look at Google News” Link
• “Clearwire plans Silicon Valley ‘sandbox’ WiMax network” Link

March 2009:

• “City considers using fiber optics” Link
• “City of Seattle Launches Traveler’s Information Web Site” Link
• “BT Reveals First Fibre Optic Broadband Rollout Plans” Link
• “One Number to Ring Them All” Link
• “Enhances Cybersecurity and Technology Research and development.” Link
• “Obama picks Net neutrality backer as FCC chief” Link
• “Tax Credit for Open Source Developers” Link
• “DTV coupon program back on track” Link
• “Vivek Kundra named federal CIO” Link

February 2009:

• “Some TV stations get ready to cut analog signals” Link
• “Congress Approves Broadband to Nowhere” Link
• “Technology giants propose white space plan” Link
• “EAC Certifies MicroVote EMS 4.0 Voting System” Link
• “$2 billion for broadband cut from stimulus band” Link

January 2009:

• “Seattle takes the lead in our annual list of the most broadband-connected U.S. cities.” Link
• “High-Speed Internet Grants Find Support in House” Link
• “Obama’s big idea: Digital health records” Link
• “The official presidential portrait was shot on a digital camera for the first time. ” Link
• “Circuit City to shut down” Link
• “Choices Narrowed for First U.S. CTO” Link
• “Every day, Americans toss out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers, making electronic waste the fastest-growing part of the US garbage stream” Link

December 2008:

• “Notebook Sales Outpace Desktop Sales” Link
• “Bush Data Threatens to Overload Archives” Link
• “Broadband Stimulus Plan: How About Some Data First?” Link
• Senate Bill 3663: “A bill to require the Federal Communications Commission to provide for a short-term extension of the analog television broadcasting authority so that essential public safety announcements and digital television transition information may be provided for a short time during the transition to digital television broadcasting.” Link
• “With control of 63% of the world’s Internet searches, as well as ownership of YouTube, the NY Times reports that Google is the most powerful Internet Gatekeeper.” Link
• “Last year, consumers spent $733 million on Cyber Monday, and it’s expected to be even bigger this year.” Link
• “Free Web Plan Being Pushed by FCC Head” Link
• “China’s .cn Now the Second Most Popular TLD” Link
• “FBI: Copper thieves jeopardize US infrastructure” Link
• Logitech produces one-billionth computer mouse Link
• “AT&T to Cut 12,000 Jobs as Landline Losses Grow” Link
• “Five PC power myths debunked” Link
• “Obama: Broadband, Computers Part of Stimulus Package” Link
• “Ecofont” Link
• “Telstra, has been kicked out of the bidding process to build a national broadband network (NBN) estimated to be worth $15 billion” Link

November 2008:

• “Cable Industry to F.C.C.: Don’t Ask About Our Rates” Link
• “Barack Obama promised to appoint the US’ first Chief Technology Officer.” Link 1 Link 2
• “FCC Unanimously Approves White Space Wi-Fi” Link

October 2008:

• Broadband Data Improvement Act Senate.1492 Link
• “Why we need unlicensed white-space broadband spectrum” Link

September 2008:

• In the 4th quarter of 2007, American cell phone subscribers for the first time sent text messages more than they phoned according to Nielsen Mobile” Link
• New York issues RFID-Encoded Drivers Licenses Link
• Last Thursday night 9/18/08, King5 turned off its analog broadcast for five seconds at 5PM and 10PM and broadcast digitally only
• Another Telco sues Municipality for laying fiber network: TDK telecom is attempting to sue the town of Monticello, Minnesota for deploying their own fiber network.
• A recent study by Speed Matters, an affordable broadband advocacy group, released rankings for each state in the US. Washington ranked 10th amongst the 50 states.
• On Monday, Sept. 8th, 2008: Wilmington, NC will be the first television market in the US to switch to DTV by shutting off their analog transmitters.
• Comcast will cap data transfers at 250 GB per month in October

August 2008:

• “Ottawa fiber optic cables”: Link
• “GENI to replace Internet, gets 12M funding” Link
• Ottawa introduced a new ‘GPS fleet tracking system’ for some of their buses to improve service.

July 2008:

• “FCC votes to Punish Comcast for throttling bandwidth” Link
• “Google URL index hits 1 Trillion”
• “China surpasses US in number of Internet Users” Link
• “Telecoms sue cities around the nation to stop construction of publicly owner fiber optic systems” Link

June 2008:

• “Cell phone law” Link
• The “Modern” day computer of being able to store a program by memory hardware turned 60 years old this past Saturday, June 21, 1948. The “Baby” computer had 1024 bits of memory. By comparison, an average computer today with 1 gigabyte of memory stores about 8 billion bits of data.
• Seattle Tech Job Market Update: Link
• Court Backs Cable Competition Link

May 2008:
April 2008:

• San Francisco parking space tracking: Link

Digital Television Transition Updates

• The Digital TV Transition: What You Need to Know About DTV
• Visit the City’s website on the digital television transition
• 6/22/09: “Digital pioneer KCTS gets static over switch; Comcast update” Link
• 6/10/09: “TV switch from analog to digital happens Friday, ready or not” Link
• 6/04/09: “Get ready for digital TV switch” Link
• 2/04/09: “Congress postpones digital TV transition to June 12, 2009″ Link
• 1/29/09: “Senate approves bill to delay digital TV” Link1
  Link2
• 1/28/09: “House defeats bill to delay digital TV transition” Link
• 1/26/09: “Senate OKs 4-month delay to digital TV changeover” Link

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