How Can I Make My Home More Energy Efficient?

Making your home energy efficient is something every homeowner should do, and not only in the winter months.

According to the US Department of Energy, drafts from underneath doors and other spaces in the walls can waste 5 to 30 percent of energy use per year. Below, are 6 tips on how to make your home more energy efficient and save money in the process:

1. Use a programmable thermostat. Lowering the heat on the thermostat when your out of the house or sleeping can be the most cost-effective way to make your home more energy efficient. Programable thermostats make this easy, since you can see the temperature to a degree; for every degree you lower the thermostat, you’ll on average save between 1 and 3 percent of your heating bill (and the same applies for air conditioning).
2. Caulk where caulk is needed. Even small leaks, cracks, or gaps can reduce a home's energy efficiency. It is important to seal up any gaps by caulking and weatherstripping. These gaps are commonly found where two different building materials meet, such as corners, around chimneys, where pipes or wires exit, and along the foundation. Also, caulk window and door frames to make sure they are airtight.
3. Upgrade or replace windows and doors. One of the most effective ways to save on your home utility bills and increase energy efficiency is to have the proper windows installed in all the rooms of your house. Experts in window installation San Diego agree that the initial cost of installation is more than paid for by the money saved. According to EnergyStar.gov, replacing single pane windows with energy efficient windows will save 7 to 24 percent of your heating and air-conditioning bills and between $126 to $465 annually. In addition to windows, installing storm doors can seal drafts and reduce air flow. Replacing a regular doorr with an energy efficient storm door can help increasing energy efficiency by 45 percent.
4. Improve insulation. Over 40 percent of the heat lost in the average home is through loft space and walls, and as much as 20 percent of your energy bill can be saved by good loft insulation. Adding insulation to walls, ceilings, and the attic can greatly improve your homes energy efficiency.
5. Upgrade or replace light bulbs. Replacing incandescent lightbulbs with energy saving bulbs, also called compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), can save three-quarters of the electricity used by incandescents. Although they cost a few dollars more, the money saved in electricity costs make them a well-worth it purchase. And of course, turn off lights (and other equipment) when not in use. High utility costs often include paying for energy that is completely wasted.
6. Take advantage of tax incentives for home. In energy efficient San Diego, homeowners get tax for credits up to 30 percent for their solar panel installations. But California isn't the only state that gives tax incentives for home improvements. Energy efficiency rebates and tax incentives are available to all US homeowners to offset the costs of home improvements.

Following the above tips is a simple way make your home more energy efficient. And not only will your home save a lot of energy, your family will also save money thanks to reduced utility bills.

Did TransCanada Lie?

A judge has halted construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas in result of the newest lawsuit that had come out of the Keystone XL debacle. A Texas resident is claiming that TransCanada, the company behind the pipe, lied to Texans when it said it would be using the Keystone XL pipeline to transport crude oil.

The pipeline will be designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast through Texas. Although the pipe requires permission from Obama to cross country lines - which is denied last year, inter-country has begun.

As we reported earlier this month, an appeals court ruled that TransCanada could use eminent- domain law to seize land in Texas to build the Keystone XL pipeline. This left many Texans asking, "What is eminent domain?" They soon realized, however, that it meant the the state could physically take their property and hand it over to TransCanada.

One such resident, Michael Bishop, who had has land taken for the construction of the pipeline, wanted to check the validity of the taking. A Texas judge examined the plea, and ordered TransCanada to temporarily discontinue working on the private property where it has been building part of an oil pipeline for a two-week injunction.

The previous court case ruled that tar sands oil are a form of crude oil, which is a common carrier that pipelines are allowed to use eminent domain to carry. However, tar sands oil does not meet the definition as outlined in Texas and federal statutory codes which define crude oil as “liquid hydrocarbons extracted from the earth at atmospheric temperatures. When tar sands are extracted in Alberta, Canada, the material is almost a solid, and can only be in liquid form when heated and melted down.

TransCanada had not mentioned that the tar sands would be refined. This not only violates the orginal definition, but now environmentalists are concerned that if the pipeline leaks or spill occurs, the heavy tar sands will contaminate water and land - as tar sands are more difficult to clean than is regular crude oil. In addition, refining the product will further air pollution in the Gulf Coast.

Since the onset of the pipeline design, several landowners across the country - not just in Texas - have brought lawsuits to the courts to fight the company’s land condemnations. In the majority of the cases, construction has been allowed to resume despite injunctions held prior. In such cases, the landowner is awarded compensation for their land. Several times, such as for Bishop, the landowners can not afford to hire a comdemnation attorney and are forced to settle.

In 2013 California To Stil Lead Solar Race

California is in the lead for solar panel installation, but New Jersey is a close second – and getting closer. New Jersey has intended for increased solar photovoltaic growth within the coming year. 

A key part of the state’s plan to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy is for many home owners and housing developments will be installing back-up solar generation, either grid-tied or off-grid, which can provide power during future major outages. Despite the close race, California is projected to lead the solar race again in 2013. 

Similar to California, New Jersey has launched their own initiatives to deploy solar photovoltaic systems and to diversify their energy portfolio. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, in the second quarter of 2012, California again led the nation in installed solar capacity, with a total of 217 MW, while New Jersey had 103 MW.

Although New Jersey is making solar strides in the right direction, according to new research from Santa Clara, California-based NPD Solarbuzz, CA is projected to keep its position at number one in 2013, much thanks to its combination of policy initiatives. In 2012, energy efficient San Diego was named the country's top solar city, and the city is not ready to lose that title anytime soon.

California has one of the most ambitious Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements goals in the nation: It requires both public and investor-owned utilities to procure 33 percent of all electricity delivered to retail customers from renewable sources by 2020.

California’s Go Solar California Campaign contains several policy initiatives to help the state become more solar friendly. The California Solar Initiative (CSI), for example, is the largest rate-payer-funded solar rebate program in the US. It serves homeowners who are customers of investor-owned utilities, and has supported California’s baseline market demand for solar panels.

The New Solar Homes Partnership provides financial incentives and other support to builders of new, energy efficient solar homes. This, together with the CSI and the several other rebate programs offered through the dozens of publicly owned utilities in the state are key components of the Go Solar California initiative.

The CSI offers San Diego solar customers different incentive levels based on the performance of their solar panels, including such factors as installation angle, tilt, and location rather than system capacity alone. This performance framework ensures that California is generating clean solar energy and rewarding systems that can provide maximum solar generation.

In CA, Even The Prisons "Go Green"

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been going green, and the resulting estimated reduced electricity costs for the state are proof of its success.

California is known for its green initiatives. For example, just this year San Diego solar power projects have given the city the title of the country's most-solar city. However, the state wanted to reach out from just the cities and expand its solar initiatives. In order to preserve its reputation and reduce energy costs simultaneously, state and county officials, teamed with solar companies and utility systems, came up with the idea of powering correctional facilities using clean, green solar power, and using excess power for the local grid.

The prison sustainability initiative, which started in 2006, is now in full force. It is expected to save the state's taxpayers more than $45 million. Many of the prisons are located in remote, deserted areas, which in fact are prime locations for solar panel placement.

The solar prison-power plants are located at California Correctional Institution, Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, Ironwood State Prison, and North Kern State Prison. The solar energy generated by the systems is approximately 25 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to

provide enough clean energy to power around 65,00 homes, and offset more than 730 million pounds of CO₂ emissions over the next twenty years. This offset is the equivalent of removing 72,000 cars off the road.

In total, the prison sites have over 83,000 panels installed on the sites. The installations in total cover 25 percent of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation energy costs and use.

Thanks to the solar prison initiatives, San Diego solar projects won't be the only ones making headlines! 

Keystone XL Allowed to Use Eminent Domain

An appeals court ruled that TransCanada Corp. can use eminent- domain law to seize land in Texas to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Keystone XL pipeline proponents hope it will transport Canadian tar-sands crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries. The Keystone Pipeline System is a pipeline system to transport synthetic crude oil from northeastern Alberta, Canada to multiple destinations in the United States, which include refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma, and proposed connections to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

One of the main issues with Keystone XL, in addition to its various environmental harms, is that the construction of the pipeline will require taking private land from landowners throughout the country, using eminent domain. Although the government will have to provide just compensation for any land taken, several landowners have hired an eminent domain lawyer to review their cases and fight against the taking. Such cases have been ongoing in Texas for the past year.

The pipeline opponents in Texas claimed that a 2011 TX Supreme Court decision withheld condemnation powers from interstate pipelines that transport out-of-state crude into Texas - only intrastate pipelines transporting hydrocarbons within state borders should be allowed to use eminent domain, the landowners and their condemnation lawyer said in court filings.

This would imply that TransCanada could not use eminent domain, as the company doesn’t meet the definition of a “common carrier” under the 2011 ruling and shouldn’t be allowed to use state eminent-domain laws to take private property. The lower court rejected the farmers’ claim, and the case moved to the appeal's court.

The appellate panel agreed and upheld the dismissal, finding that the Texas law doesn’t limit the right of eminent domain to pipelines within the state’s borders. Now, officially under Texas law, TransCanada is a common carrier and will be able to take any land needed for the construction and maintenance of the pipeline. 

TransCanada has consistently won in all lawsuits along the Keystone XL pipeline route through Texas. Thanks to the court's permission, if President Obama approves the pipeline, then TransCanada can legally start to build the southernmost leg of its 2,151-mile pipeline between western Canada and the US refining industry complex on the Texas coast. 

Solar Power Comes to the San Diego Zoo

Solar San Diego sustainability initiatives this week unveiled a solar-powered vehicle (EV) charging station at the San Diego Zoo. Now environmentally-cautious citizens can visit the Zoo guilt-free, in addition to reducing their gas consumption, helping CA reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce green house gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Solar energy is received in the form of sunlight, which when converted into electricity becomes solar power. Photovoltaic solar panels can harness solar energy from sunlight and make it possible to convert solar energy to solar power. Solar power can then be used for any residential, industrial, and commercial purpose - including charging an EV.

The San Diego Gas & Electric’s sustainable communities program initiated their project to supply the San Diego Zoo’s parking lot with solar panels by installing enough solar panels to supply five EV charging stations powered by ten photovoltaic canopies.

In total, the San Diego Zoo parking lot solar panels are projected to provide about 90 kilowatts of energy -- enough energy to supply up to sixty residential homes. In addition, the local power grid utilities will purchase any surplus electricity generated, which can then be used for the local community.

A common criticism of solar panels is that they are only efficient and cost-effective when their is direct sunlight. In response, the San Diego Zoo decided to integrate batteries to store the energy generated by the solar panels so that the solar station in the parking lot can provide electricity to EVs and the local grid even if the sun has set or a certain day is overcast. 

Renewable energy sources, such as solar power, provide visitors and citizens a more efficient way to travel around the state. In addition to the electricity generated, the panels will also provide shade for up to fifty vehicles, both EV and non, which is another energy-saving technique. 

The project dovetails with the Zoo’s broader goal of encouraging “the application of sustainable design driven by science and the natural world.” Educational tools were placed at the solar panel site as well as online. The San Diego Zoo is hoping that its project can become a model for other businesses to follow.

Town Outlaws Fracking, Gets Gripe From Oil and Gas Industry

Longmont, Colorado, became the state's first town to ban hydraulic fracturing, the oil-drilling technique more commonly known as fracking. The town's anti-fracking movement is motivating other cities in similar situations to push for outlaws as well, while the oil and gas industry, on the other hand, is in fierce opposition of such prohibitions and gearing up to file lawsuits against the ban.

According to the EPA, hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation process that can be used to maximize the extraction of underground resources, such as oil and natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing allows oil or natural gas to move more freely from the rock pores to production wells that bring the oil or gas to the surface as the result of millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals being pumped underground to break apart the rock. The process of hydraulic fracturing begins with building the necessary site infrastructure including well construction. 

The oil and gas industries claim that hydraulic fracking is environmentally safe, but those in opposition, mostly environmentalists and concerned citizens, have raised concerns regarding: 1) related water contamination and air pollution, and 2) the well pads and drilling towers that would sprout up in their communities.

It all started when the Longmont townspeople were informed of plans to construct wells near the town's Union Reservoir and a playground/recreational area within the community. Supporters of the prohibition, however, were not as concerned about climate change and environmental issues, but rather on the principle of "not in my back yard" - commonly abbreviated is NIMBY. 

The oil and gas industries devoted much time and money into suppressing the citizen uprising. The energy industry spent more than $500,000 in mailers and news advertisements claiming that the ban would drive away businesses and lead to expensive court and legal battles. The aim of the opposition was to urge voters to reject the proposal on Election Day.

Despite the opposition, the ban was passed on Election Day, 60 to 40. However, the ban now faces legal scrutiny and fights at all levels of government - very similar to the situation occurring with the passed legalized Marijuana law, also in Colorado.

Colorado Governor John W. Hickenlooper (D) warned Longmont residents prior to the election that the ban will most likely result in a lawsuit from the state. The reason for this is because the state claims that only it has the authority to regulate drilling - not the municipalities. The state already sued the town once over previous city regulations that limited drilling in certain locations, such as those near schools and homes.

The primary lobbying group for the energy industry within the state, The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, had called the ban confrontational and goes against the private property rights of the companies - claiming that they have the legal rights to any and all oil and gas underlying Longmont - despite the fact that many residents may need to hire an eminent domain attorney if their property is ever taken for such a venture.

Hydraulic fracturing throughout the country has allowed drilling companies to unearth large, new reservoirs of oil and natural gas over the past few years. Although the drilling companies oppose such bans, depending on how the Longmont situation unfolds, other cities in similar situations may follow suit.

Protesters to Obama: Reject Keystone XL and Act on Climate Change

Within two weeks of President Obama's re-election, protesters gathered outside the White House to call on the president to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and to act on climate change.

The Keystone Pipeline was announced in 2005 and became operational in 2010 - transporting crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Illinois, United States. The Keystone XL extension was then announced in 2008, which would extend the pipeline from Alberta throughout the country to the Gulf of Mexico.

The US State Department announced last year that they would wait until after the 2012 election to make a decision of whether or not to go through with the controversial project. Obama decided to put the project on hold because its construction would harm an environmentally sensitive area in Nebraska. However, for this reason, the company behind the pipeline - TransCanada - changed the route to avoid the area. Due to the new proposed route, proponents and activists alike believe that the president may now accept the project.

The protestors gathered in hope that Obama will hear their call to reject the presidential permit required for the pipeline to cross from Canada into the US. They are hoping that his acceptance speech promise to address climate change means that he will reject the pipeline.

Several environmental groups, citizens, and politicians have raised concerns about the potential adverse impacts of the Keystone XL extension. For example, there is the possibility of water and soil contamination from the 500,000 to 700,000 barrels of crude oil that would be transported via the pipeline daily. Several wildlife habitats and migratory bird routes may be affected. Several citizens may be forced to move from their homes as their land is taken for the project, requiring assistance of an eminent domain lawyer. And of course, it cannot be failed to mention that promoting fossil fuel based projects can increase green house gas emissions and climate change.

Bill McKidden, the founder of 350.org, helped organize the protest. He said that the protest was to remind the president and the administration of the activist's commitment to preventing the Keystone XL pipeline from happening. The State Department, however, does not anticipate finishing its review of the Keystone XL project before the first quarter of 2013.

Solar Power at San Diego State University

Solar power in San Diego State University (SDSU) is making headlines, as researchers have been able to generate solar-powered electricity using just sun and air. Sun and air may seem like the obvious ingredients needed to make solar power, but in fact, many concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies use superheated air to power a generator need water sources.

Although solar power is a great alternative to using fossil fuels - and can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions - the current method of producing solar power uses water, a non-renewable natural resource. 

Current CSP systems use mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight (also called solar thermal energy) onto a small area that can convert the light into energy. Solar-powered electricity is produced when the light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine - most commonly a steam turbine - connected to an electrical power generator. This turbine uses heated water to generate the steam which then powers the generator. The SDSU researchers have developed new technology to use as an alternative to water-based CSP systems. This innovation is an advancement, as the ideal location for CSP systems is in the desert.

The new CSP technology uses carbon nano particles to make the thermal absorption process in air more efficient - the light is converted into heat more effectively when it is absorbed by the nano particles. This method is more efficient when compared to the traditional method, which heats the air by pushing it through tubes. This system drives a combustion turbine as opposed to a steam turbine.

After the technology was successfully tested, plans are now in order for the system to be scaled up and put into use in the field at the National Solar Thermal Testing Facility at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. The lead researcher involved in the project was awarded a grant of $3.9 million from the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) SunShot Initiative.

The DOE SunShot Initiative is a national initiative to make solar energy costs more competitive with other forms of energy by 2020.

For more information on solar energy in San Diego, visit Solaire Energy Systems.

San Diego Area Synergistic Solar and Wind Project

Thanks to legislation, policies, and citizen motivation, California has become one of the top solar states in the country and San Diego solar has outreached any other city within the state. However, there is one problem about solar power: you need the sun, and half of the day is without it. The same critic has been given to wind power, but that you need the wind.

As solar and wind power are intermittent sources of renewable energy, grid operators may experience complications when trying to manage the supply and demand for electricity and keep it in balance.

In California, however, the answer was clear: build a combined solar and wind power plant. This type of combination is optimal for a region like Southern California when the winds blow strongly at night during all seasons and the sun is strongest during the day.

In Southern California in the Tehachapi-Mojave region a 140-megawatt Pacific Wind farm was placed nearby a 143-megawatt solar power station in Catalina to create a hybrid wind-solar power plant. The wind farm launched in August and the solar power station is estimated to begin generating power by the end of 2012.

The foothills of the mountains in the Tehachapi region roll into the Mojave desert. This natural environment creates some of the country’s highest winds in addition to the most intense sun exposure - making the region ideal for both wind and solar power plants.

The synergistic effect of wind and solar power combined in one project not only allows for more efficient energy generation but also a more efficient use of transmission lines that carry the generated electricity to the national grid. In fact, a transmission line is currently being built to jointly carry approximately 5,000 megawatts of the renewable energy from the region to the coastal cities. These types of lines will be used 15 to 25 percent more than tradition solar- or wind-only lines.

Solaire energy systems combined with wind is an innovative approach to more efficiently generating renewable energy. However, it may not be appropriate in all regions within the country. The combination of mountains and desert in the Tehachapi-Mojave, for example, are perfect for such a venture.

Is Hurricane Sandy Linked to Climate Change?

Many people are questioning the links between Hurricane Sandy and climate change. Although ignored in all three presidential debates, Sandy may be an indicator that climate change should be on the minds of not just presidential candidates, but all citizens of the global world.

Hurricane Sandy, the tropical cyclone that hit the United States in late October 2012, was the largest Atlantic hurricane in diameter on record. For the Mid Atlantic and Northeast US, the damages caused by Sandy reached over $20 billion - making this hurricane the more expensive hurricane in history.

Many scientists claim that although no single weather event can prove that climate change and global warming are occurring, the known effects may have intensified the storm. There are several conditions caused by climate change that have been studied.

Global warming causes more moisture to be in the air. According to a 2011 article published in the journal Climate Research, increased global heating leads to greater amounts of moisture in the air through evapotranspiration and the water holding capacity of air increases by about 7 percent per 1°C warming. More moisture + a higher water holding capacity = more water vapor in the atmosphere. Storms supplied with more moisture thus produce more intense precipitation events, which is a common source of damage from hurricanes.

According to a 2012 publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, both sea level and temperature have been steadily rising since 1955. Elevated sea levels (from melting ice) can lead to more intense storm surges, and hot oceans can lead to more intense hurricanes because warm water fuels storms - relatively cooler air condenses vapor rising from water below and the heat released from the condensation gives the hurricane energy. According to the 2012 study, these changes can only be explained by the increase in atmospheric green house gases.

The world - including the presidential candidates - cannot ignore this issue for much longer. Scientists predict that the annual number of increasingly intense hurricanes will increase twofold over the next 100 years. Thanks to Sandy, climate change is starting to get some recognition. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York City said in statements that “there has been a series of extreme weather incidents. That is not a political statement. That is a factual statement. Anyone who says there’s not a dramatic change in weather patterns, I think is denying reality.” 

So even if the hurricane onset was normal, these factors may have led to a stronger, longer storm than might have been if these conditions were absent. If true, then climate change may be setting up a world that is more hospitable to the generation of extreme weather events like hurricanes.

Texas Keystone XL Pipeline Protests Continue Unabated

Inside Climate News reports tree-sitters blockading the path of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas closed the first month of their campaign on Wednesday with fortitude and a fresh arrest. The blockade is part of a larger protest around the state that has seen lawsuits, restraining orders and 32 arrests—and that shows no sign of abating.

The tree protesters, ensconced on 80-foot-high platforms, passed the misty Wednesday morning in calm, receiving encouraging text messages and walkie-talkie calls from activists outside their encampment in Winnsboro, a tiny town about 100 miles east of Dallas.

A half-hour's drive away, the day began with much more activity. Cherri Foytlin, a 40-year-old mother of six, approached the entrance to a pipe yard storing construction materials for the Keystone XL. She swung shut two metal gates, looped thick metal chains around her waist and locked herself to both doors. For about an hour and a half Foytlin sat chained on the ground before being arrested. According to Ramsey Sprague, a spokesperson for the Tar Sands Blockade, the activist group behind the tree encampment and other Texas protests, Foytlin hindered several trucks from entering and exiting the site.

TransCanada, the pipeline's builder, told InsideClimate News construction is moving along as planned.

"These efforts by protestors to keep hard working Americans from getting to their jobs is not impacting construction," David Dodson, a spokesperson, said.

Foytlin, whose husband is an offshore oil rig worker, is an environmental justice advocate from Louisiana known for her criticism of recovery efforts following the 2010 BP oil spill.

Sprague, the blockade spokesperson, was driving to meet Foytlin at the county jail when he spoke with InsideClimate News. He said she was charged with criminal trespassing on a "critical infrastructure facility," a Class A misdemeanor, which carries the highest penalty for that offense. Sprague said it was the first Class A charge against the protesters, and that bail had been posted at $2,500. As with the other 31 arrests, the Tar Sands Blockade raised money to pay the bail.

The protestors—who are mainly Texas residents and landowners—launched the civil disobedience in mid-August around Houston and in Oklahoma. Work on the pipeline's southern leg, renamed the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project, started in Texas on Aug. 9 after it received government approval in July. The tree blockade began on Sept. 24. A handful of activists have been arrested at the tree site. The other arrests took place on properties along the pipeline's route.


The protests have drawn increasing attention around the country, particularly following the Oct. 4 arrests of actress Daryl Hannah and Eleanor Fairchild, a 78-year-old Texas landowner. The pair stood in front a bulldozer that was clearing a path for the pipe on Fairchild's farm in Winnsboro. The women were charged with criminal trespassing. A week later, two reporters for the New York Times were handcuffed and detained by an off-duty police officer working as a security guard for TransCanada.

Foytlin, the latest person arrested, spoke with InsideClimate News shortly after she left the Titus County jail on Wednesday evening. She explained that she flew to Houston three days earlier to learn how Texas landowners were being affected by the pipeline construction.

New Strategy for Environmental Goals

Naoko Ishii, the CEO of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) announced the launch of the GEF effort to develop a “GEF 2020 Strategy” at the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP11), which occurred this month.

The GEF is the largest public funder of global environmental projects. It partners 182 countries with international institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector to help resolve environmental problems and support sustainable development. 

The "GEF 2020 Strategy" will set certain long-term goals for the global environment and position the GEF as an innovator and a partner in supporting the achievement of these environmental objectives worldwide.

Naoko Ishii assured that the strategy would support the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets as well as hold up to any assistance that the GEF may receive from the CBD COP. The Aichi Targets design a plan to create global policies with the purpose of protecting endangered species and threatened ecosystems, expanding protected areas, and promoting a broader understanding of the economic value of biodiversity.

The GEF strategy underlines the necessity that GEF must focus on scaling up programs that globally impact the environement, including biodiversity, climate change, forest preservation and international waters. The strategy will promote the integration of the evaluation of natural caption in to all relevant decision-making. 

Texas landowners join environmentalists to block Keystone XL pipeline

Protests continue in Texas over construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, if constructed, would run oil from the Canadian tar sands fields to refineries on the Gulf Coast. In a blockade now entering its fourth week, dozens of environmental activists working with local Texas landowners have set up camp in the pipeline’s path with tree sits and other nonviolent protests.

The landowners made the move to join the protests against the pipeline after it became clear their private property would be overtaken by eminent domain lawyer teams working for Transcanada, but the controversy over the pipeline is not simple. 

Proponents, like Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, say the $7 billion pipeline will bring new jobs to Texas and lessen national dependence on foreign oil. The pipeline will stretch from Canada to Texas and be capable of moving 830,000 barrels a day of a crude form of oil called tar sands. 

“I’ve recently learned that a bunch of out-of-state, self-appointed ‘eco-anarchists’ think they know better than Texans and have arrived to save us from ourselves,” Paterson wrote in a recent editorial defending the Keystone XL Pipeline. “They’re trying to block the Keystone Pipeline Gulf Coast Project, the pipeline that’s under construction in East Texas that will create thousands of jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.”

Over the last four weeks, environmentalists and homeowners have built seven elevated platforms and chained themselves to trees to protest the pipeline, while officials from TransCanada Inc., the company building the pipeline, have installed floodlights and loud generators, which have disrupted the protesters and prevented them from sleeping.

Property rights lawyer working with the movement have said the unfavorable conditions can create a dangerous atmosphere for people who live in trees, possibly making them fall from lack of sleep.

Nine protesters, surviving on canned food and bottled water, have been carrying out a tree-sit for more than two weeks to block the path of the pipeline near Winnsboro, Texas. Other Occupiers have chained themselves to logging equipment, locked themselves in trucks carrying pipe to construction sites and hung banners at equipment staging areas.

The pipeline has sparked a wave of challenges to Texas' eminent domain laws by condemnation lawyer teams, which TransCanada used to acquire some land for the project. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Texas homeowners last month, according to Texas StateImpact. Still, the protests rage on.