by Andy Silber

Should your next car have a plug?

One of my favorite stories ever on Prairie Home Companion was about a guy who couldn’t take the cold winters at Lake Wobegon anymore. He drove south until someone asked him about the plug hanging from the front of his car. He figured if it was warm enough that someone didn’t know what an electric block heater was, it was warm enough for him.

But starting late this year many people will be plugging in their car far south of Minnesota. Nissan is going to begin selling the Leaf, their fully electric car and Seattle is one of the initial markets.  Not long after that the Chevy Volt will go on sale. Seattle received a federal grant to build a large number of charging stations, some in public and others in the homes of people who buy these cars. Continue reading…

by Andy Silber

Should your next car have a plug?

One of my favorite stories ever on Prairie Home Companion was about a guy who couldn’t take the cold winters at Lake Wobegon anymore. He drove south until someone asked him about the plug hanging from the front of his car. He figured if it was warm enough that someone didn’t know what an electric block heater was, it was warm enough for him.

But starting late this year many people will be ..continue reading

By Andy Silber

On Father’s Day my wife asked want I wanted to do. I’m such an energy geek that I told her that I wanted to visit one of the wind farms that are popping up near Ellensburg, WA, just across Snoqualmie Pass from Seattle. So we loaded up our son and two dogs and drove two hours along I-90.

But first some history: in 2002 I founded the energy committee of the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club. At this time ..continue reading

By Andy Silber

War of the Currents: Round 2

The War of the Currents was fairly fought over 100 years ago and the winner was the undisputed better technology; a technology that has served us well. Electricity has worked its way into every facet of our lives and into almost every corner of the country. To be off-the-grid practically means to be Amish or The Unabomber. It’s so critical that when we had an extended power outage here in Seattle in 2006 ..continue reading

By Andy Silber

War of the Currents: Round 1

Before there was HD-DVD vs. BlueRay, Mac vs. PC, or Beta vs. VHS there was AC vs. DC. And if you think that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had a rivalry, check out Edison and Tesla, two of the greatest innovators ever and bitter foes in the War of the Currents.  This posting will be a bit more technical than I usually get, but I won’t assume you know anything about electricity and there ..continue reading

This is something I wrote several years ago, but the premise is just as sound now as it was then and timely based on the Mayor’s upcoming announcement.

Seattle Transit

Seattle’s current transit capacity is far below what is needed to serve its population. As population increases our current system will fall even farther behind what is needed. But since Seattle doesn’t currently control its transit future, we are unable to grow the system to meet our needs.

I propose that Seattle ..continue reading

The Gulf (between where we are and where we need to be)

I sit here on a Metro bus (21X if anyone cares) stuck on the viaduct because of an accident. I sit here thinking about the oil spill in the Gulf and the choices we make. Do I take the bus or drive or bike or walk to work? Where should I live? What job should I take?  Should we build the tunnel? Light-rail or monorail or buses or boats ..continue reading

This should never happen

On April 12th a lagoon holding cow manure failed, causing a spill of millions of gallons of waste into the Snohomish River. In the annals of industrial accidents this is pretty low on the horrific scale. But the tragedy is that the lagoon that failed should not have been there in the first place. Our attention is grabbed by failure and size, not by the slow, steady release of pollution that these lagoons routinely emit. ..continue reading

Today I attended a presentation in the Seattle City Council chambers about their goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. A distinguished panel made up of Congressman Jay Inslee, K.C. Golden from Climate Solutions, Alex Steffen from WorldChanging.com, and Jill Simmons from the City’s Office of Sustainability and Environment was joined by almost the entire council (Sally Clark was out sick).

The work on what climate neutrality means has just begun and plans on how ..continue reading

Comments for the 2010 Seattle City Light Integrated Resource Plan

by Andrew Silber, April 7, 2010

Introduction

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) process is a time for Seattle City Light (SCL) to look at our long-term vision and see if it connects to our values and our vision of the future. We are standing on the shoulders of giants who built an incredibly strong foundation. It is our responsibility to maintain and expand the vision of J.D. Ross and others who built one of the ..continue reading

Welcome to Andy Silber‘s Energy and the Environment Blog at Sustainable West Seattle. Let me start with letting you know a little bit about myself and what I hope to accomplish with this blog.

First education. My studies have been as a physicist, with a bachelor’s from U.C. Berkeley and a Ph.D. from MIT. Physicists look at energy they way that accountants look at money. We track it, we count it, and when the numbers don’t add up, we ..continue reading