A full 5% of all the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere today comes from the manufacturing of cement and concrete.  In the cement manufacturing process, about a ton of carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere for every ton of cement that’s made.  Liv Haselbach, an Environmental Engineering professor at Washington State University, thinks that can be changed.  She is working on a process to develop concrete that will reabsorb the CO2 back into the concrete.  And then, the CO2 will be captured, or sequestered in carbon emissions terminology, and taken out of the atmosphere permanently. 

The 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago will soon get a $350 million retrofit aimed at reducing electricity use in the tower by 80% over five years.  The 4.5 million sq.ft. building will employ upgrades in the glass exterior, internal lighting, heating, cooling and its own green power generation utilizing wind turbines on its rooftops. 

According to an article in the NYT, "buildings are among the world’s largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. After the retrofit, energy savings at the Sears Tower, which is to be renamed the Willis Tower this summer, would be equal to 150,000 barrels of oil a year, officials said".

Kate Sheppard, political reporter at the online magazine, Grist, has a pretty straight-forward piece on what is currently in the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill or ACES (American Clean Energy and Security Act).  The bill is due to be voted on tomorrow in the House and can go to the Senate anytime in the next year and a half.  Since the bill is likely to be harder to get through the Senate, it will apparently be timed for discussion at whatever point Obama's numbers are highest and gas prices are up.  The goal of the bill is to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 3% by 2012, 17% by 2020, 42% by 2030 and more than 80% by 2050.

Call it the Mediterranean solution.  Roofs painted a light color reflect up to 80% of the sunlight that falls on them (vs. 20% on buildings with darker roofs), making them much cooler, thus requiring far less air-conditioning.  By reflecting the bulk of the solar radiation back into space, it lessens temperatures, smog and carbon emissions.

There has been a lot of focus on developing woody biomass projects recently.  President Obama has directed the DOE to develop biomass as part of their sustainable energy options.  Brian Baird, who chairs the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, held a hearing on wood products biofuels, also called woody biomass, last month.  Washington State, under the leadership of Peter Goldmark, is moving to incorporate woody biomass into their forest health program.

Before Gary Locke left office in January of 2005, he established a goal that all state agencies would use 20% biofuels by Sept. 1, 2009.  When Chris Gregoire came into office she strengthened the requirement, although there were still no penalties for noncompliance, and moved the date up to June 1, 2009 - next Monday.  Rather than using 20%, the total usage across all state agencies, was 2.07%, as of the end of 2008, when the last report was released.  Well, the state got to say it was 4.8% but that was only because the Ferry System, the largest user of fuel in the state system, was exempted for two years, in a back-door deal engineered by State Senator Mary Margaret Haugen.