About Tara Holmes

Tara lives in San Francisco (but hails from Massachusetts). She is passionate about environmental conservation and increasing public awareness of environmental issues. Tara received a BA from Connecticut College and an MPA with a concentration in environmental policy from The Maxwell School of Syracuse University. She tends to focus on politics and business, but also touches on behavior. Tara has worked at the World Resources Institute, the MA Department of Energy Resources and spent summer 2010 working on UN-REDD research and policy in Paris, France for ONF International. She is currently involved with SF Environment, Friends of the Urban Forest and sits on the Board of Directors for Randall Museum Friends in San Francisco. She enjoys being outdoors as much as possible! Twitter: @tmhol. Personal Blog: http://taraholmes.wordpress.com/ In addition to the posts listed by clicking her username above, she also contributed to the post Whitehouse goes solar!

Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2012

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Tara Holmes

The Wild and Scenic Film Festival returns to Boston on March 31st! Hosted locally by e-inc, the day long film festival, which includes food, networking and discussion, was started eight years ago in California and changes every year depending upon participant submissions. The national Festival also boasts the reputation as the largest environmental film festival in the United States.

Designed to inspire awareness and activism, the films showcase themes from across the planet on a wide array of pressing environmental issues ranging from energy resources to species and land conservation. e-inc, a Boston-area environmental education center, has hosted the Wild and Scenic Film Festival for a number of years and continues to draw crowds for this event. Get your tickets early and enjoy the show!

Keystone XL Pipeline Denied

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Tara Holmes

Last week, President Obama stood firm against Republican pressure and big oil’s demands and denied TransCanada’s push for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is very good news for clean energy and environmental communities, however, TransCanada intends to swiftly propose a re-route of the massive pipeline through less “environmentally sensitive areas”, which include attempting to avoid Nebraska’s Ogallala Aquifer, an aquifer critical to Nebraska’s natural habitat, livelihood and farming community, never mind its fresh drinking water supply. This point of entry has been the main challenge for the company. It will be interesting to see where President Obama stands on the predicted newly proposed route, which is anticipated to arrive at his desk within two weeks.

The proposed $7 Billion Keystone XL pipeline would carry crude tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, across the middle of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico for refining and will inevitably be a delivery route for oil bound for overseas markets, mainly Latin America and Europe. According to Tar Sands Action, … “Gulf Coast refiners plan to refine the cheap Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for export … Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.”

For all of the associated domestic jobs being touted by Washington, DC, it’s wise to realize this proposed pipeline will only create a few temporary jobs, at best. This is not the energy market we should be striving for in 2012. We should be instead be investing in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. The Canadian Boreal Forest, where much of the tar sands exist, is currently being leveled for expanded tar sands production. This forest is a pristine habitat for countless wildlife in addition to the rare Spirit Bear , an albino bear that lives only in this region of the world. There are also countless native tribes that call this region home. Sending millions of gallons of crude oil and oil tankers through pristine wild land is no way to secure our energy future or combat climate change. In fact, the pipeline will only accelerate climate change. The KeystoneXL protests that took place in Washington, DC this past summer reflect the urgency to cease tar sands expansion for fear of exacerbating climate change – the tar sands are said to release 10 to 45% more greenhouse gas emissions than combustion of other related fossil fuels.

While this week’s decision by the State Department and President Obama is a wise one, the political and financial might of the fossil fuel industry and TransCanada will fight back. It’s important to realize however that despite the influence of big oil, the voice of the concerned American citizen has played a significant role in this debate, and ultimately, Obama’s decision. With this in mind, it’s time to continue the push for a cleaner energy future – a future that does not include the tar sands.

Cities Lead the Way

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Tara Holmes

Last night, I attended a meeting hosted by SF Environment, a department of the city and county of San Francisco. I was in awe and inspired by how much one city can accomplish when it comes to educating the public about energy efficiency and environmental consciousness. Not only is San Francisco leading the domestic urban composting charge with a city-wide composting program, whereby the city mandates composting in addition to recycling, but the city is making the process of being an ecoconsumer easier and easier.

When I relocated here two months ago, I was astounded at how commonplace composting was – the city simply places compost bins throughout the city and provides them to each city resident. In addition, SF Environment provides free compost containers for your kitchen so you can easily discard of food scraps. The city has also instated a ban on styrofoam and plastic bags and provides easy access for toxic waste disposal and removal. Thus far, the plastic bags ban remains in effect predominantly at larger retailers, however, SF Environment expects to push this ban across a wider market.

And the data is impressive. Over 5,000 restaurants and businesses, in addition to city residents, compost over 600 tons of food scraps and other compostable materials each day. This compost is then used to produce and foster the organic food sold to these same restaurants and consumers. The cycle is continuous and is saving the city money by reducing the amount of food waste that goes to landfills. In fact, today SF recovers a remarkable 77% of the materials it discards, bringing the city closer to its goal of zero waste by 2020.

Like San Francisco, Cambridge has also focused on recycling and waste reduction for several decades, which is why waste currently contributes only 1% of greenhouse gas emissions. Residents can bring compost to the DPW recycling center and to the local Whole Foods stores. While composting and waste reduction are excellent everyday actions that residents can do to reduce waste, there are also other ways to make a big impact on the City’s greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency in one’s home or business. Heating, cooling and lighting buildings contributes to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a free home energy audit can address energy waste, helping move Cambridge toward zero-waste in both recycling and energy usage.

Cities like San Francisco and Cambridge are leading the way in the United States when it comes to progressive environmental measures and programs. It’s truly a win-win situation that other cities across the United States, and the world, should emulate for a more prosperous, sustainable and localized economy.

EPA report cracks down on hydraulic fracturing

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Tara Holmes

The clean energy revolution has never been more critical. In a report released December 8th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made a direct link between the controversial drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing and groundwater contamination. For years, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” a method to extract oil and gas from underground deposits that uses a mixture of sand, water and chemicals to fracture shale rock and release the gas, has been taking place across the country, mainly unabated and unquestioned by politicians and industry professionals.

Now however, it’s official: fracking has been correlated to tainted groundwater that is often entirely undrinkable by area residents and wildlife alike. The EPA report specifically notes high concentrations of benzene, xylene, gasoline and diesel fuel in groundwater supplies linked to wastewater pits and deeper fresh water wells. This indicates the difficulty in tracking all fracking-related chemicals as the gas industry is not required to reveal all chemical elements, a product of a loophole commonly referred to as the “Halliburton Loophole.”

While this particular EPA report focuses on the town of Pavilion, WY; Dimock, a town of 1400 people in northeastern Pennsylvania, has made recent national headlines as well over the question of drinking water quality. In fact, last week residents and nonprofit groups from neighboring areas, including New York City, drove to Dimock to supply fresh drinking water to its residents as the PA DEP had decided to ignore the issue altogether. Cabot Oil and Gas, the company responsible for fracking in Dimock, had recently ended daily deliveries of clean water asserting that “Dimock’s water is safe to drink.” The PA DEP gave Cabot permission last month to stop paying for clean water and a judge, who sits on the state’s Environmental Hearing Board, “declined to issue an emergency order compelling Cabot to continue the deliveries.”

Never has the need for clean energy alternatives been more necessary. Fracking is a national energy dilemma: on one side energy companies stand to gain considerable profit on harvesting natural gas, while on the other citizens, eager to make quick money, learn only too late the harsh environmental and health-related risks related to the industry.

The EPA report comes at a critical time. As the U.S. is steamrolling hundreds of new fracking sites each month, we are still hesitant to embrace cleaner, renewable technologies. Fracking is a dangerous practice that is clouded by many political and industry interests. The EPA report is a good place to start for stronger regulation and awareness of a very questionable method of extracting this domestic energy source.

Biomass Blues

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s stance on biomass has recently changed its tune from one of skepticism to one of acceptance as a state-wide “clean” energy policy. Why the sudden switch? State environmental groups, the same groups who helped lobby to get him into office, are wondering the same thing and are now turning against Patrick’s newfound position at large.

According to a recent article in the Boston Phoenix, the Patrick administration will release a document in the next few weeks that will contain the final regulations for the state’s biomass subsidies. According to environmental groups, the Administration is planning to reverse its original position as a nod towards a handful of developers who stand to make money off of biomass production.

These regulations will come at the expense of ordinary electricity-utility ratepayers who will be forced to pay extra to subsidize a practice that negatively impacts the environment and opens the way for clear-cutting of forests and increased carbon emission (carbon emissions from biomass are particularly concentrated).

Susan Reid, vice-president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) of Massachusetts stated that, “It is deeply troubling that the Patrick administration would jettison good policy and good science.” James McCaffrey, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club stated: “We will be very disappointed and very upset” if the Administration doesn’t reverse course. “It is going to indicate that the industry had a real hand in weakening these regulations.”

In an effort to determine whether biomass was as dirty as projected, the Administration commissioned the so-called “Manomet Report.” The study cast serious doubt on whether woody biomass is clean at all. Based on the Manomet Report (pdf), the Administration issued a letter to draw up regulations allowing woody biomass to qualify for subsidies only if it met certain efficiency standards. These regulations are the very regulations environmental groups are waiting anxiously for this fall.

In addition to state-wide policy, biomass has created tension throughout municipalities and local townships. In Greenfield, for example, many homeowners have placed anti-biomass signs on their lawns as western Mass will face the brunt of production given the vast natural resources that exist in that region of the state.

While the struggle for a clean energy economy continues to envelop both Massachusetts and national politics, the debate over biomass remains clear: do state residents wish to see increased clear cutting across the state in return for dirty energy? In a world that is faced with the daunting impacts of climate change, perhaps we should instead focus our policy efforts on coupling energy efficiency efforts with renewables such as wind, solar and geothermal. Trees act as carbon sinks absorbing excess carbon out of the atmosphere; going forward, it would be wise policy to instead preserve as many carbon sinks as possible.

Western MA Tornado Relief: ReBuild Western Massachusetts

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Image by Tara Holmes

On June 1st, three tornadoes touched down in western Massachusetts during a surprise series of storms, leaving a wake of destruction and confusion. Massachusetts, not known for tornadoes, is now beginning to rethink state policies surrounding severe weather preparation and emergency response.

ReBuild Western Massachusetts, a program developed by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and administered in partnership with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), was announced on August 4th and will distribute more than $8 million to help building owners affected by the tornadoes rebuild using energy efficiency practices and renewable energy technologies. Eligible participants include those who can document damage caused by the June 1 storms, and who own buildings in communities in Hampden and Worcester Counties, including: Agawam, Westfield, West Springfield, Springfield, Wilbraham, Monson, Brimfield, Southbridge and Sturbridge.

The program will offer incentives for solar PV and solar thermal systems, as well as for renewable heating and hot water systems. Zero-interest loans and grants for building with energy efficient windows, doors, attic and wall insulation, and heating equipment will be offered to homeowner victims. Later this year, offerings will include energy efficiency and renewable energy assistance for other building owners, including businesses and municipalities. “There is now a package of incentives for these communities to rebuild cleaner, greener and more efficiently than ever before,” said DOER Commissioner Mark Sylvia. “For homeowners and businesses these programs bring significant reductions in energy costs and deep energy efficiency savings. These measures will also cut energy consumption, cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on imported energy sources.”

It is important to note that of the approximately $22 billion Massachusetts spends annually on energy, 80% – or nearly $18 billion – goes out of the state and the country to purchase coal, oil and natural gas from Canada, the Middle East and South America. ReBuild Western Massachusetts aims to encourage building owners to rebuild using cleaner energy alternatives thereby helping to keep energy sources local while decreasing GHG emissions.

Mt. Tom Station Cleans Up?

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Mt. Tom Station in Holyoke, MA has been a thorn in the sides of local environmentalists for many years. Sitting on one of the most pristine mountain ranges in western Massachusetts, the coal burning power plant has, according to the Conservation Law Foundation, violated clean air standards thousands of times from 2005 to 2010, despite $55 million worth of pollution-control equipment that was installed from 2007 to 2009.

Now, however, the plant plans to comply with more stringent air-quality standards, install air-monitoring equipment, and hire an outside consultant to correct air pollution problems under a settlement announced by the state Attorney General’s Office. In addition, FirstLight Power Resources, the station’s owners, and GDF Suez North America have agreed to pay a $25,000 penalty to the state of Massachusetts and $70,000 for an education program targeting owners of old wood stoves and wood-fired boilers in the greater Holyoke area. It’s important to note however that while burning wood remains a common heating and power option for those living in remote areas, it’s not a clean energy source.

The arrangement between the state and Mt. Tom Station settles allegations that Mt. Tom violated clean air standards in 2009 and 2010, yet there is still much to be done and this story is far from unique. Hundreds of other coal-fired power plants across the U.S. face identical concerns, namely outdated design and poor oversight. It’s thereby critical that the EPA along with local and state environmental agencies increase monitoring and random site checks on all coal-fired power stations to ensure safety and liability until they can be brought offline.

Unfortunately however, in today’s world of increasing energy demand, fossil fuels like coal remain a standard power producer. Growing sectors such as natural gas are advertised as a “clean” domestic alternative to coal, but that too comes at a large price with hydrolic fracturing, or fracking, leading to many questionable health and environmental concerns. Until the clean energy revolution makes a cheaper, mainstream splash in the U.S., stories like Mt. Tom will remain all too common.

Google Pushes for Solar Panels

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Google, a company that continues to invest in and push for clean energy technology, has recently announced its newest, and potentially biggest, capital venture: funding a no-cost installation solar panel program for homeowners. While already investing in other mammoth clean energy projects across the US, such as a $100 million investment in the world’s biggest wind farm, the company is now creating a $280 million fund to finance SolarCity‘s residential solar projects. Google essentially aims to erase any initial economic burden thereby moving more rapidly towards installation. Given many homeowners today struggle with the up-front costs of putting up solar panels on their roofs, even with state-funded rebate programs and incentives, such a program comes at an opportune time.

Of course, Google also expects to make plenty of return on its investment. Rick Needham, Google’s Director of Green Business Operations and Strategy, believes that SolarCity is “attractive enough for us to invest given the risks of the project.” Furthermore, Google will reap a 30% federal tax investment credit for installed solar systems. In addition, SolarCity’s CEO Lyndon Rive expects Google’s funding will allow the company to install between 7,000 and 9,000 new rooftop systems. “This is one of the first corporate investments into distributed solar. Historically, most of the investments have been made by the banks. These have a limited amonts of capital that they can distribute, which is a constraint for solar adoption,” says Rive.

SolarCity hopes Google investment will encourage other corporate investment in the solar panel market. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, less than 0.1% of U.S. homes have rooftop solar panels today, however, that number is expected to increase to 2.4% by 2020. Investments like Google’s are important market drivers in the demand for clean energy and renewable technologies and it will be interesting to see how much of an impact Google continues to have in this arena. Countries like Germany, for example, have already pioneered the rapid installation of resident solar panels through widespread government subsidies and incentives and China is not far behind. The US, however, continues to shift between the push for cleaner energy and our continued reliance on fossil fuels. Corporate investments, such as Google’s, may be just the message the US needs in order to help kick-start a sluggish national clean energy economy.

The March on Blair Mountain

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Tara Holmes

On June 5th, roughly 600 activists and marchers began a five day 50 mile hike from Marmet, West Virginia to Blair Mountain in protest of mountain top removal (MTR), a destructive and highly contested form of strip mining. Blair Mountain, one of the last, originally standing mountains in that region of Appalachia to avoid MTR, is also an historical site with battle fields and artifacts dating back to the Civil War and before. It’s also, like many of the pristine mountains in that region, loaded with coal reserves. Unfortunately, for the residents of states such as West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, MTR is an all too common reality. Current data show that as of 2010, an area the size of Delaware has been mined using MTR techniques and there is, tragically, no end in sight given our insatiable demand for coal-fired power.

The March on Blair Mountain aims to draw attention not only to the environmental devastation plaguing Appalachia, but to the countless union jobs lost as a result of MTR. Before MTR became standard practice, union laborers mined for coal in these same mountains using traditional deep-mining methods. Today however, the mechanization of MTR has made the mining process more “efficient” thereby cutting half the workers that deep mining traditionally employs. In Boone County, WV the state’s most heavily mined county, 2,053 miners working in underground mines produce more than 10 million tons of coal a year, while 1,086 surface miners produce 12 million tons. One local miner was quoted as saying, “MTR is a job killer, it is not a job creator.”

While coal mining alone remains a contested topic for both energy policy and environmental policy, what’s currently taking place in Appalachia is complete annihilation of million-year old mountains and the associated streams and ecosystems that sustain life in that region. Tens of thousands of acres of land have already been demolished – if not irreparably – and water tables are now laden with coal runoff and other debris impacting the health of local residents and wildlife alike. At the same time, energy demand continues to rise, while the Earth’s precious resources remain finite. And mountain top removal is just one of the high-impact energy extraction industries; the Alberta tar sands, hydrolic fracturing (“fracking”) and deep-ocean drilling are all loosely regulated, dangerous and environmentally damaging businesses.

We need a cleaner, renewable revolution for our pressing energy woes and we need clean, green job alternatives and training options for those pushed out of archaic industries, such as coal mining. This revolution also comes in the form of energy efficiency behavior changes at home and renewably sourced energy options from utility providers. The Earth simply cannot sustain current energy demand without an alternative (and immediate) solution on a global scale. Please visit The Last Mountain to learn more about action points you can take and to see clips of the new documentary film coming out this month about Blair Mountain.

Fostering Sustainable Behavior

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Tara Holmes

This past Friday, I attended a workshop lead by Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr entitled “An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing: Fostering Sustainable Behavior.” As someone who’s personally very intrigued by the oftentimes overlooked (and dare I say critical) link between our everyday psychology and environmental sustainability, I was eager to attend. What I learned was both enlightening and somewhat anticipated.

In brief, humans, at least the populations Dr. McKenzie-Mohr has studied, tend to default to the easiest common denominator of behavior when it comes to environmentalism. Of course, this isn’t to say there aren’t outlier personalities who go above and beyond the “green” call, but overall, unless regulated to do so, or cajoled by neighbors or friends, most people will resort to the path of least resistance. Knowing this intrinsic behavior trend, Dr. McKenzie-Mohr was able to extrapolate on how to best create systems whereby these same individuals could easily do their part to create a more sustainable, healthy and balanced planet.

One interesting example is recycling. Initially in the 1980s, recycling was seen as a confusing burden to the majority of consumers. Today however, many people view recycling as commonplace and most US cities have recycling facilities in operation. Now, to what extent these materials actually are recycled is another policy issue altogether (Cambridge has historically recycled at a rate of 35% and now with added single-stream recycling, that’s expected to increase by 10-25% in recycling tons). Even so, the mere act of recycling, sorting out plastic from paper and glass from cardboard is today viewed as a commonplace action that requires little thought. So, how did this behavior change happen? Interestingly, Dr. McKenzie-Mohr cites community influence and social norms coupled with municipality engagement. If a person sees their neighbors, family members or friends recycling, they may begin to question their own behavior and adapt accordingly.

Energy efficiency and green energy demand is another example. Today, consumers have a multitude of product options from CFLs via utility rebates to energy-saving Energy Star appliances, but, as Dr. McKenzie-Mohr pointed out, there remains a disconnect between awareness of the the product’s existence, where to get the rebate for said product and product installation. These barriers may seem trivial, but they can lead to significant impacts, both environmentally and programmatically. During the workshop, Dr. McKenzie-Mohr cited an example of a user who purchased a low-flow shower head only to have it sit in a drawer due to installation confusion. It’s thereby key to not only increase awareness of energy efficiency products, but to educate the consumer on proper follow through behavior and maintenance resources to ensure the true benefit of the product is achieved.

In brief, sustainable behavior impediments can be boiled down to the following barriers: commitment, affordability, convenience, and incentives. The Cambridge Energy Alliance, like many local and national energy efficiency organizations, strives to reach consumers and the community via outreach and education and aims to address each of the mentioned barriers, which is a key first step. The critical next step is up to the consumer: application and follow through. Only then do they – and the planet – reap the true benefits of increased sustainable behavior.

Warm Home Cool Planet

Sustainability begins at home

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