By Jean Tepperman (East Bay Express)

Contra Costa County has over 40,000 acres of industrial brownfields and superfund sites which could be turned into solar and winds farms, a type of creative re-use supported by EPA’s program “Repowering America’s Lands.”

A renewable energy project of this size be would be a job creator and provide an economic stimulus to our area. Even better: installation of 40,000 acres of solar panels could power 1.27 million homes…and our county just has a little 400,000 households.

This could be a real money maker.

Read full story here.

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”)

Back in the day, teens counted the hours until they turned 15.5 years old.  That was the magic age one had to reach to get a drivers permit …and to take one step closer to freedom. Not so today.  Many millennials are pushing back that right of passage and are waiting until they are in their 20s for the big step.

They make 15 percent fewer trips by car, they take 16 percent more bike trips than their same-age predecessors did in 2001, and their public–transit passenger miles have increased by a whopping 40 percent. That’s 117 more miles annually biking, walking, or taking public transit than their same-age predecessors used in 2001.

Click the story below and find out why.

Read full story here.

By Congresswoman Lois Capps   (The Tribune)

In the Tribune, District 24 Congresswoman Lois Capps cites the need to “pivot away from our reliance on dirty fossil fuels and toward a more sustainable energy future.”

The Congresswoman puts her money where her mouth, to boot. This Friday, Capps is convening a panel of industry leaders and academic experts for a public forum at Cal Poly’s to discuss ways to expand the clean-energy economy on the Central Coast and across the country.