Ameren offers green incentives

Customers willing to pay an additional 30 cents a month will be offered incentives to offset the cost of going green, according to a recent article in the Journal Star.

The goal is for customers to install more energy-efficient light bulbs, purchase Energy Star qualified appliances, and to properly dispose of old appliances.

The plan was filed Thursday with the Illinois Commerce Commission and will offer rebates and incentives during the first of the year.

 

Green reality check

An article in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune, detailed the rather hefty price tag on a truly green Chicago.

The article seems to question the reality of the Chicago plan, which is still being drafted and is scheduled for release next year.

Here are some highlights:

• The primary goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 25 percent from 1990 levels.
• To do that, $2.7 billion needs to be invested in transportation improvements. (Let’s not forget the CTA’s budget blues.)
• Existing homeowners need to spend $1.65 billion through 2010 to reduce energy consumption 30 percent.
• Existing Chicago buildings would need to cut energy consumption by 30 percent to reach the goal of a 44 percent reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide and equivalent gas emissions by 2020.
• Daley already broke a promise to use green energy for at least 20 percent of the city’s electricity by the end of 2006. According to the article, “nearly all of the power for City Hall and other government buildings still comes from nuclear-and coal-powered plants.”

 

Green LEEDers

Source: Chicago Mayor’s Office

The U.S. Green Building Council will launch its LEED-for-homes program, a nationally accepted benchmark for the design and construction of green buildings.

A two-year pilot program first launched in 2000, but the organization’s official debut will take place at the conference this weekend.

 ”At least 335 houses have earned LEED certification since the pilot program began in August 2005, and 8,000 more are in the pipeline,” said Emily Mitchell, the LEED-for-Homes assistant program manager, in an article on the Environment News Service Web site.  

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley unveiled the Chicago Green Homes program and the Green Home Remodeling Series last month to kick off Green Building Month.

 

Chicago not green enough

Despite an ambitious plan by Mayor Richard M. Daley to make Chicago the greenest city in America, a Sunday article in the Chicago Tribune sets up the long path towards achieving this environmentally-friendly goal.

Over the last 18 years, Daley has “planted half a million trees, built more than 80 miles of landscaped medians, and negotiated 2 million square feet of green roofs,” the article states, but Chicago Transit Authority budget woes may drastically reduce the amount of public transportation available forcing many Chicagoans to get back in their cars and back on the crowded roads. Not exactly the greenest idea.

The Tribune also reported in July that the city’s emissions of pollution have skyrocketed since 2001, although the Chicago Climate Exchange could bring those numbers back down.