Last week, Jon told you that Mayor Bloomberg wants to charge a tax on plastic bags in New York City to get people to bring their own bags to the store.  Jon made the very good point that five, six cents…that’s nothing.  It may very well do nothing to stop people from just getting a new bag or five every time they go to the store.

Susan Dominus, writing for The New York Times, says that stores in rural France, where she used to live, charged for bags, but had a better form of behavior modification: shame.

You’d start loading your groceries onto the conveyor belt, and then would have to explain to the clerk that you’d forgotten your bags. She would grimace. For some reason, the bags had to be paid for in a separate transaction. This was slightly more laborious for her, and checkout time at [the store] was a precise, even tense, exercise in speed.

Yes, in France (and some other European countries) it’s as simple as making the idiot who forgot his or her bags feel like the world is ending for all the other shoppers, because of that one person.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many months ago, I told you that New York City was working on greening its taxi fleet, which is part of the PlaNYC initiative to get the city more environmentally friendly (I notice, too, that I mentioned Mayor Bloomberg’s term limitation in that post…haha, he changed the law so he could keep being mayor).  Part of the overall plan with the taxis was to make it mandatory that all cabs are hybrids by 2012.  And last week, a federal judge said no dice to that.

The judge, Paul A. Crotty, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an injunction to stop the city from enforcing the rule because, he said in a written order, the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in a key legal argument —that only the federal government has the right, under existing laws, to set fuel efficiency standards. [nytimes.com]

Mayor Bloomberg says he is “disappointed” that “archaic” Washington laws are preventing these measure from going into effect (and, no, those are no sarcastic quotes…I’m quoting a statement).

Read the rest of this entry »

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a sweeping energy plan last night with a huge focus on renewable energy. The initiative depends heavily on wind power and calls for wind turbines on New York City bridges as well as on many city skyscrapers. Bloomberg also called for wind turbines off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Hizzona also stressed the need for greater energy efficiency.

In a speech presented to the National Clean Energy Summit last night Bloomberg said:

We don’t generate a lot of electricity in New York City, but we can work on using less. And in New York, we’re determined to do what no other city has ever attempted, and that is to keep our energy usage at or near its current level even as our population grows.

The financial information technology billionaire turned Mayor also noted the financial gains waiting to be capitalized on with alternative energy:

Read the rest of this entry »

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Sudan Leader Charged with Genocide: What Are the Reactions? by Wendy Cohen

Inconvenient Truth of the Day: Al Gore Speaks on Climate Change by Joshua Tremblay

* * *

Nicole Hughes:

“Farms in the Sky” a Solution to Global Food Crisis?

Wal-Mart Launches Eco-Bling Project

* * *

Andy Kondrat:

NYC To Bring in 300 Hybrid Taxis Per Month

Coolio To Educate Students On Climate Change

* * *

Jon Popham:

Pickens’ Plan for Energy Independence

On “Rent” Closing, the East Village, and Gentrification

* * *

Gina Telaroli:

Batman Morals: Top 5 Lessons from the Capped Crusader’s Films

Emmy Nominations Kick “The Wire” to the Curb

Our very own Nicole Hughes told you a few months back that New York City has been working on greening its taxi fleet, and yesterday Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that greening will happen at an even faster clip.   In fact, the cabs that clog New York’s roadways will be replaced by hybrids at a rate of 300 a month.   Mayor Bloomberg has been working with automakers to increase the supply of hybrids to cabbies, and

Nissan Motor Co has promised the city to supply up to 200 of its Altima hybrids per month, while General Motors will provide 50 Chevrolet Malibu hybrids and Ford Motor Co promised 50 of its Escape hybrids, the mayor said.   That adds up to 90 more cars per month than the Taxi and Limousine Commission had said were needed to meet its goals, which aim to ensure that by 2012, the entire taxi fleet will be all-hybrid or a mix that includes other cars with similar high mile-per-gallon ratings.

This is all part of Bloomberg’s plan to accomplish 127 green initiatives before he becomes term-limited in 2010, as well as part of PlaNYC, which includes not only those 127 initiatives (93% of which have been at least launched), but a plan to make New York City a greener, better city by 2030.

Read the rest of this entry »

New York City will spend $2.3 Billion over the next 30 years to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. The spending will go toward reducing harmful emissions and reducing energy consumption in Municipal buildings and projects throughout the Big Apple. New York plans to cut 1.68 million metric tons per year from 2006 levels by 2017 using a myriad of methods and energy saving strategies. The goal is to cut 30 percent of emissions from the public sector, which uses 6.5 percent of the total energy consumption for the city and 10 percent of its peak electrical demand, within 30 years.

“The city is doing its part, I hope the private sector follows our example and finds conservation savings of their own.” Bloomberg said in a statement. The Mayor said that NYC should break even on its investments as early as the year 2013, with a huge portion of the savings coming on reduced energy bills. “By 2015, we project we will have saved more on our energy bills than we will have spent on all our planned investments to that point.”, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have been reading the blog regularly as of late, you may have noticed that I keep bringing up HBO’s The Wire. One reason for this, beyond the fact that it is utterly amazing, is that the underlying theme of the show for the 4th season is Education - and as the resident “Learn” correspondent for Takepart, I keep making connections from the show to education news.Twice in this season, issues of advancement in the school system have come up, both times with students being pushed ahead into grades that they aren’t ready for academically, but are ready for socially. Both incidents of social promotion have been somewhat heartbreaking, as it is clear that the students best interests are not at heart.Today, the New York Times reported that Michael Bloomberg has some different ideas on the subject:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Thursday unveiled strict new criteria for promotion to high school that could, if current testing patterns hold, put nearly a quarter of New York City’s eighth graders in danger of spending an extra year in middle school.

Read the rest of this entry »