Sieben Energy Associates (SEA) has joined the Smart Energy Analytics Campaign, a program led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Better Buildings Alliance and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This campaign "encourages the use of a wide variety of commercially available Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS) technologies and ongoing monitoring practices to help uncover energy-saving opportunities and improve building performance for the long run."
EMIS technologies are underutilized and, frankly, undervalued in today's marketplace. Through the Smart Energy Analytics Campaign, the key organizers hope to spur the adoption of EMIS in the commercial building sector for energy management processes such as monitoring-based commissioning.
President Trump's decision to exit the Paris Agreement (aka, Paris climate accord) is disappointing to many, but not unexpected. Companies, individuals, and organizations of all kinds have decried the decision as a major step backwards in the face of the very real threat of climate change. And rightly so.
But how much material effect will the president's decision have on a country that has built significant momentum towards curbing greenhouse gas emissions? I don't think the country's retreat from common sense policy will cause anywhere near the amount of harm to our carbon footprint that some people fear. The Paris Agreement demonstrates the cooperation of over 200 countries to safeguard the planet for future generations, but a piece of paper alone does not dictate all activity on the matter.
In a March 22nd article in The New York Times, three science writers—Mike McPhate, Derek Watkins, and Jim Wilson—described how this winter's accumulated snowpack in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range may prove to be an antidote to the state's drought crisis.
High-tech airborne mapping and other specialized instruments, they wrote, have provided scientists with an unprecedented understanding of the amount of water present in the snow, and the rate at which the snow is expected to melt.
