A new national survey released today finds Americans once again prefer aesthetic home improvements – a refinished kitchen or bathroom – over money-saving improvements, such as energy-efficient windows or a high-efficiency furnace.

The survey, the fifth annual Energy Pulse survey conducted by Shelton Group of Knoxville, Tennessee, found that consumers are reverting to their old priorities as the recession wanes – perhaps at the expense of the environment.

“Energy efficiency is back to playing second fiddle, competing with more visible and exciting home improvement projects,” said Suzanne Shelton, whose firm conducted the study. “Anyone selling energy-efficient products must either focus heavily on the aesthetic or comfort aspects of their products or play up their environmental benefits in a big way.”

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By: Jeff Bocan
As a Midwest-based venture capitalist, I focus on rapid growth sectors for the Midwest (particularly in Michigan), and one sector I have recently fallen in love with is wind energy. Okay, maybe not love, but certainly lust.

It is lust not solely for the wind industry’s rapid rate of growth (yeah, VCs have a curious list of turn-ons), but lust for the promise that wind energy brings. To me, harnessing the power of the wind to power the normal functions of our lives without harming the planet is both beautiful and romantic, and it makes a ton of logical, ecological and economic sense.

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Bright Light in a Cloudy Sky

For the vast majority of firms in the PHVAC industry 2009 has been a year to forget. Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning wholesalers are reporting sales sharp sales declines. Year to date shipments of gas furnaces are off 14%, residential tank water heaters are down 16%, and residential cooling systems have declined over 17%. Almost all manufacturers, contractors, and wholesalers have all been hard hit by the anemic new construction rates and the tight credit markets.

With the volatility in energy costs one would think a sliver lining would be firms that offer products that benefit from new Federal tax credits for investments in high efficiency heating or cooling equipment, but even venerable firms such as Lennox Industries are struggling. Last month Lennox reported third quarter sales declines of 22%.

Record Sales in 2009

Despite this dismal picture, each of the 4 manufacturers that utilize the MyPointNow network are reporting record sales and significant revenue increases. These increases range from 10% to well over 100% improvement sales over 2008 levels.

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By: Todd Woody

California’s ambitious goal of obtaining a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 has spawned a green energy boom with thousands of megawatts of solar, wind, and biomass power plants planned for … the middle of nowhere.

And therein lies the elephant in the green room: transmission. Connecting solar farms and geothermal plants in the Mojave Desert and wind farms in the Tehachapis to coastal metropolises means building a massive new transmission system. The cost for 13 major new power lines would top $15.7 billion, according to a report released in August by the state’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative.

The initiative, called RETI, is an attempt to build a statewide green grid in an environmentally sensitive way that will avoid the years-long legal battles that have short-circuited past transmission projects.

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By: George Pataki

Every day it’s becoming clear to more and more Americans that our continued over reliance on foreign oil is not just an environmental disaster but an economic disaster for this country as well. People appreciate that while we will have great sources of renewable fuel down the road, we need something now. And what is available now and has been proven to be in great abundance in the United States is natural gas.

We are fortunate by virtue of geology, science, and technology to have the ability now to access natural gas from shale deposits that in the past were economically off limits. I think it’s a tremendous opportunity. But we have to be smart enough to take advantage of that opportunity, by allowing the shale to be developed in a way that enables us to access the natural gas. Then we have to put in place policies that encourage Americans to use natural gas not just in power plants but to replace foreign oil as a transportation fuel for fleets and big trucks.

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