Energy production and use account for 40% of America’s greenhouse gas emissions. Explore how EDF is helping to transform the U.S. electricity system by rewriting outdated regulations, spurring energy services markets, and modernizing our century-old electric grid—and beginning work in Europe, too. Our 2018 goal: Lock in an 8–13% reduction in overall U.S. carbon dioxide emissions below 2005 levels.

Featuring:
Cheryl Roberto, Associate VP, Clean Energy
Andy Darrell, Chief of Strategy, U.S. Climate & Energy

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This Webinar was recorded on March 4, 2015 at the EDF New York Office.

Featuring:
Fred Krupp, EDF President
Andy Darrell, NY Regional Director & Chief of Strategy, US Climate & Energy

New Yorkers are breathing a whole lot easier because of the NYC Clean Heat program Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) co-sponsored with the Mayor’s Office. Mayor Bloomberg announced on Thursday that concentrations of sulfur pollution have been slashed by 69 percent over the last five years.

Hear how this dramatic change came about and how we can replicate it elsewhere.

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This post is by Andy Darrell, vice president for Living Cities at Environmental Defense Fund.

The high cost of gas has pushed retail gas purchases down 2 to 3 percent. What are people doing instead? Taking public transportation!

The first quarter report from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) found that use of public transportation is skyrocketing in tandem with gas prices. Last year 10.3 billion trips were taken on U.S. public transportation — the highest in 50 years. Ridership on streetcars, trolleys, commuter rails, subways, and buses are all up. Even Amtrak ridership is soaring.

This shift presents an historic opportunity.

It was hard to get us Americans out of our cars when gas was cheap, but now we're trying public transportation in record numbers. And once people try it, odds are they'll prefer it, which is great news for the environment.

Good public transportation is more pleasant than a private car (you can't read while you're driving), and far cheaper. A calculator on the APTA Web site shows how much you can save by leaving your car parked at home.

The problem is that too few Americans have convenient and reliable access to public transportation. When the transportation bill comes up for reauthorization, Congress will have an opportunity to address this. Instead of the usual tired formula that favors roads over innovative transit, we need to fund public transportation that delivers real choices.

Public transportation doesn't have to mean gigantic investments in infrastructure. Shuttle buses can ease the growing parking problem at commuter rail stations. Bus Rapid Transit — buses that operate in dedicated lanes, bypassing traffic — can be as quick as a subway train, but are much cheaper to deploy.

Buses can be pleasant, too. Google provides shuttle buses for its employees with leather seats and wireless Internet access. New York City's new Select Bus Service has traffic-signal priority that boosts rush-hour service up to 20 percent.

Cities need the resources to try innovative ideas like these. It's time to reinvent our country's transit system to make public transportation accessible to everyone.

How would you rather get to the beach this holiday weekend — speedy and effortless Bus Rapid Transit, or creeping along bumper to bumper watching your fuel tank (and wallet) getting emptier?

In less than one year, congestion pricing in New York City has moved from public policy theory to near-reality, thanks to the determined advocacy of Environmental Defense Fund and our partners in the Campaign for New York’s Future.

This call was held on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 1:00 PM Eastern.

Featuring

David Yarnold, Executive Director
Andy Darrell, Vice President, Living Cities

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This post is by Andy Darrell, vice president of the Living Cities Program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Yesterday, the New York State Legislature failed to pass congestion pricing for New York City (see NY1 report), thus forgoing $354 million in federal funds.

Today more than ever, New York and America's other big cities need solutions for clean air and better transit – our health, climate and economy depend on it. Over the past year, an extraordinary majority of New Yorkers came together to support congestion pricing, and of course today's setback is very disappointing. But I believe that New York will continue to strive for innovative solutions, and Environmental Defense Fund is dedicated to working with leaders from across the state to help make those solutions real.

This post is by Andy Darrell, Regional Director for the Living Cities program at Environmental Defense.

There are way too many cars in New York City – no question about that. Congestion pricing – charging a fee to cars entering the city – is a simple and effective solution.

But some people weren't so sure about this when Mayor Bloomberg first proposed the plan. So last summer, a commission – on which I serve – was formed to study the issue and make recommendations.

Today, after six months of intensive research, public hearings and debate, we released a draft of our recommendations. And we want your feedback.

On Wednesday, January 16^th, the commission will hold a public hearing on the draft recommendations at Hunter College, Kaye Theatre, East 68^th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues at four o'clock. If you live in the New York area, I hope you will come – and please tell your friends. The commission is looking for input to shape its final recommendations, and the opponents of congestion pricing are sure to be out in force.

The commission's report comes at a good time. Over the holidays, for the first time in print, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver expressed openness to congestion pricing. The Daily News reports him saying, "I'm more open now than I was in the past, yes, because I think we do have to do something about congestion."

Editorial boards have been with us every step of the way. See, for example, a recent editorial in the New York Post.

Visit our web site for additional reports and materials, including an analysis of past public hearings, and a critique of alternatives proposed by opponents.

Our Living Cities staffers have been meeting with City Council members and State legislators to build support. Our goal is a strong commission report at the end of January and the approval of a congestion pricing plan by the end of March.

The author of today's post, Andy Darrell, is Regional Director for the Living Cities program at Environmental Defense.

In 1800, 3 percent of the world's people lived in urban areas. In the last year, that number is likely to have passed 50 percent [PDF]. The world is becoming urbanized at an extremely fast rate, and as the urban population increases, so does urban development.

This presents an opportunity in the fight against global warming, since energy use in buildings accounts for 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

You might think it costs a lot more to make a building energy efficient, but it doesn't have to. A building that produces half the usual emissions can cost as little as 1 percent more to build. How can that be?

Green buildings can be cost effective because payback is not only in future energy use. For example, if you spend more on high insulation windows, you may be able to save money with a smaller furnace.

Green buildings are going up all over the world:

• Federal Building, San Francisco – 50 percent less energy use than standard office towers.
• Bank of America Tower, NYC – planned LEED Platinum certification.
• Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China – net energy footprint of zero.
• Le Phare (The Lighthouse), Paris, France – powered by wind turbines.

But it's not all about new construction. Retrofitting existing buildings is just as important as making new buildings energy efficient. New York City's PlaNYC, a plan for managing the city's growth through 2030, says that while new construction is one focus area, "We have focused primarily on upgrades to existing buildings, since they will still form the overwhelming majority of our building stock by 2030." "[R]eplacing outdated lighting systems with more energy-efficient models" and "improved[d] standards for appliances and electronics … can achieve enormous savings" in usage and energy bills.

The renovation of the U.N. building, scheduled for completion in 2014, is a case in point. The revamped building will look the same as it always has, but its energy bill, which was $30 million in 2004, will be at least 40 percent lower.

How do you make a building green? Well, it depends on where it is. If it's a place that gets a lot of sun, solar energy might work. If it's a windy locale, wind turbines might be the better choice. Glass, no glass, windows facing the sun or not – these are all decisions that depend on the environment in which you're building. Standard buildings impose their artificially created climate on their environment. Green buildings work with the environment, rather than fighting against it.

You can learn more about sustainable urban development in Environmental Defense's Green Renaissance [PDF] report, which gives detailed descriptions of green buildings in New York City.

The Plan for a Sustainable New York City

On Earth Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced an ambitious and innovative environmental vision for the future of New York City. In this call, we'll discuss our partnership with the Mayor to take bold action on the environment.

Featuring:

• Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense President
• Dan Doctoroff, New York City Deputy Mayor
• Andy Darrell, Director of Environmental Defense's Living Cities Program

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Andy Darrell, today's guest, is director of Environmental Defense's Living Cities program, and a member of the advisory board that helped the mayor develop the plan.

For the past eight months I've been honored to be a part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's advisory council to develop a city plan for sustainability. The team has been meeting to hammer out ideas for making New York a world model of a "green" megacity.

Frankly, when I joined the Advisory Board, I didn't know where it would end up. With my colleagues at Environmental Defense, I put forward big ideas for healthy air, less traffic, green buildings and energy efficiency, more trees and parks and cleaned-up waterways. In December 2006, the mayor announced 10 bold goals, including achieving the cleanest air of any big city in the country, cutting greenhouse gases 30 percent from today's levels by 2030 and making sure that every New Yorker can walk to a park within ten minutes.

Great goals — but could they be made real?

Yesterday, the mayor announced the details of a bold, practical plan, called plaNYC, for creating a healthier city and leading the way toward a low-carbon, climate-friendly economy. As an advocate, it's rare to see a political leader step up in such a big way. Mayor Bloomberg has proposed congestion pricing, energy reform and many other steps in one visionary framework.

Most important, Bloomberg is promising to "fight like heck" to make it happen. This is a guy who brought a smoking ban to NYC, tackled failing schools and got trans-fats out of city restaurants. Frankly, I believe him. And Environmental Defense will be there every step of the way, fighting like heck for a greener city.

It was truly satisfying to hear him lay out the plan at the American Museum of Natural History yesterday, knowing all the months of work and thought that went into it. I am thrilled that we have this opportunity to make New York an environmental world capital. What, exactly, will that mean?

I was born in NYC and now my wife and I are raising two kids here. As I walk with them through the streets of Manhattan I often wonder what the city will hold for them in 20 years. Will my kids breathe clean air, have parks to play in, be able to enjoy the sidewalks without the black diesel soot that sometimes coats their skin?

New York is already a cultural capital, drawing people and ideas from around the world. It's a financial capital, too, with Wall Street a powerful engine of growth. But can it become the world leader in how to green a megacity? And can it compete with London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and other megacities if it does not solve these challenges?

We're already a good way there, with a great transit system and magnificent parks. But our roads and subways are getting old. Our streets are clogged with traffic (quick – what's faster, walking across midtown or riding a bus?). Our apartment and office buildings are far from models of energy efficiency (how many of us open windows in winter when there's too much heat?). And our air doesn't meet healthy air standards. It's time to change all that.

New York's population is projected to swell by nearly a million people by 2030 – that's like adding most of Boston and Denver to the five boroughs. Green building technology and energy efficiency are keys to making the city more livable even with all the new New Yorkers. How we handle that growth will set an example for other cities around the world.

And one of the best things we can do to improve our quality of life, even as we grow, is to cut traffic congestion. It's not just about being stuck in gridlock. Traffic is also one of the fastest-growing sources of the pollution that causes global warming. One third of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. comes from transportation.

And traffic is killing us, as our new ad campaign says. Living near a heavily-trafficked roadway, as more than 2 million city dwellers do, increases risks of asthma, cancer, lung and heart disease.

One key to fighting traffic is congestion pricing. Environmental Defense has been a proponent of congestion pricing for decades. In fact, when the Nobel-prize winning economist Bill Vickrey — the "father" of congestion pricing — died ten years ago, my colleague Jim Tripp wrote in our newsletter that "EDF [as we were known back then] intends to honor his memory by aggressively pursuing transportation congestion pricing proposals both in New York and in California."

Ten years later, here we are – and it's great to be part of the team. I'm thrilled that New York is the first American city to make pricing part of its plan. Places like London have used a pricing system to encourage less driving in the city at peak times, and achieved drops in both traffic delays and pollution. (See more on congestion pricing and the results in other cities.)

With a bold "greenprint" for the city's future, I'm proud that my kids and I will be part of the vibrant, cleaner, greener city of the future.

Pollution emitted from cars, trucks and buses is linked to asthma, lung and heart disease, and cancer.Our new report, All Choked Up: Heavy Traffic, Dirty Air and the Risk to New Yorkers [PDF], describes the recent science showing that these risks increase as you get closer to congested roadways.

Andy Darrell, director of Environmental Defense's Living Cities program, discussed the report on ABCNEWS radio yesterday.

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