For the past six years, Frontier Group and Environment America Research & Policy Center have tracked the growth of solar energy in America’s largest cities in our report series Shining Cities. Of the 57 cities we’ve surveyed in all six editions of the report, 81 percent more than doubled their total installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity between 2013 and 2018.
That’s important progress, especially given the mounting crisis of climate change. But even though solar power continues to become more affordable with every passing year, the rapid growth of solar energy in our cities is not guaranteed to continue. The…
Modern society can take some cues from the natural world
In the natural world, nothing is wasted. Every fallen leaf and piece of fruit is decomposed, digested by microorganisms and fungi in the soil and converted into nutrients that new plants can use to grow — beginning the cycle again.
Our modern society is quite different. When we are done eating an apple, we toss the core in a trash can, and it is most likely brought to a landfill or burned in a trash incinerator. Its nutrients are not returned to the soil. It does not help more crops to grow. This is a dead-end street.
There is a…
Colleges leading the transition to 100% renewable energy on campus
When I was a student at the University of Maine, I worked at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center helping to test wind turbine blade models. In that facility, students and staff were developing the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine in the Americas. Other colleges and universities around the country have helped develop many of the other technologies we need to transition to a 100 percent renewable energy system — from solar panels to heat pumps to electric buses.
As students, professors and citizens call for action on climate change, colleges across the country are now stepping up and using…
Highlighting the choices our communities need to make to tackle transportation’s contribution to global warming
All of Frontier Group’s staff commute to work primarily by walking, biking or running. The following stories of how we adopted our commutes illustrate some of the challenges of starting, and the joys of continuing this habit. These stories also highlight the choices our cities and towns need to make to tackle transportation’s contribution to global warming, and to make our communities happier, healthier places to live by allowing everyone to commute sustainably.
Trevor Stankiewicz, policy associate: Denver
As the newest member of Frontier Group, it’s impossible not to be inspired by how committed all of my colleagues are to commuting to work in a…
Biking or walking to the office is valuable for everything from exercise to contemplation
Recently, on a call with my Frontier Group colleagues, I shared that I wanted to write a blog about why I love bike commuting. To my delighted surprise, others jumped in and said, “we all should!” It was then that I realized for the first time that all of my co-workers primarily bike, walk or run to work.
We are a rare breed — according to Census data, only about one out of every 33 Americans walks or bikes to work. In much of the country, active commuting is difficult, demanding or downright dangerous. If we are going to succeed…
The 2018 election is now behind us, with a new Congress, new governors and new state legislators about to grapple with America’s biggest challenges.
Every two years, Frontier Group analysts take a step back to review the “lay of the land” on their issue areas. This is the seventh in a series of posts over the past several weeks reviewing the problems and opportunities facing the American people, our communities, and our environment.
Waste — whether in the form of plastic bags stuck in trees, food dumped into landfills, or excessive product packaging sent up in smoke in an incinerator…
One afternoon during the summer of 2013, hundreds of pounds of toxic ash and steam exploded out of a hazardous waste incinerator and onto nearby homes in East Liverpool, Ohio. This ash contained toxic chemicals and levels of lead and arsenic that the Ohio Department of Health said could be hazardous to small children. Lead has long been known to damage children’s brains and nervous system development.
The regional EPA official responsible for investigating this incident determined that the hazardous waste incinerator — Heritage Thermal — had repeatedly released illegal amounts of pollution into the air, including during that explosion…
It has been nearly eight weeks since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and over half of the island’s 3.4 million citizens still do not have power. This is the most severe power outage in U.S. history and is causing significant, widespread suffering in Puerto Rico. The lack of power is limiting residents’ access to clean drinking water, refrigeration, telephones and necessary medicines — causing many to flee the island.
Restoring power has been slow, in part, because Puerto Rico’s entire grid was knocked offline by Maria — 80 percent of major transmission lines, 55 percent of transmission towers, tens of…
This summer, I went to watch a YouTube video and, instead of clicking the “Skip ad” button, wound up watching the entire commercial before it. And I liked it. Take a look:
This ReVision Energy ad, clearly targeted at people from my home state of Maine, isn’t just entertaining, but it also does a great job of laying out the benefits that solar energy can provide — even in a place like Maine that is cold and dark much of the year. Rooftop solar panels can save homeowners money on electric bills and — when paired with electric heat…
