On November 4, Californians voted in favor of a new high speed rail system that will carry passengers the 800 miles from Sacramento to San Diego. Since, according to the High Speed Rail Authority, California is the 12th largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world and transportation accounts for 41 percent of those emissions, this news is very exciting.

The High Speed Rail Authority states that the trains will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12 billion pounds a year, will create 450,000 jobs and will reduce dependence on foreign oil by 12.7 million barrels a year. The high speed trains will use 1/3 the energy of air travel and 1/5 the energy of car travel and construction is set for 2011.

Those opposed to the train are suspicious of the energy savings and fear that tax payers will pay more than has been estimated. But removing cars from the congested highways of California's cities and offering a quick and more environmentally-friendly alternative to flying can only bring positive change. Even if the results aren't as great as the estimates, California, and the planet, are ultimately going to benefit from this project. I can't wait until high speed trains come to more parts of the country.

via Inhabitat

Al Gore has issued a lot of challenges to us in the last few years. In recent months, he's made speeches calling for us to go carbon neutral in 10 years. In September, he encouraged civil disobedience and just last Friday at the Web 2.0 Summit, he asked us to use the web to organize a social movement to save the planet (we're already on it, Al!).

But in yesterday's op-ed piece in The New York Times, his challenge was to just one person: President-elect Obama. He again called for clean electricity by 2018, but this time he presented a five-part plan, the cornerstone of which is a $400 billion federal investment in a smart grid. He notes that the way out of the climate crisis also carries a solution to the the economic crisis, citing how government funding of new infrastructure projects brought us out of the Great Depression.

Here are the five steps in Gore's plan:

1. Large-scale investments in incentives for solar thermal plants in the Southwest, wind farms stretching from Texas to the Dakotas and advanced geothermal plants in known hot spots.
2. $400 billion over 10 years for a unified national smart grid that would transport renewable energy from the rural areas where it's generated to the cities where it's needed. It should include smart features that would allow consumers to conserve electricity and reduce bills.
3. Help the automobile industry (the large automakers and new start-ups) to convert to plug-in hybrids that utilize the smart grid.
4. A nationwide initiative to retrofit buildings with better insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting. He asks that the initiative be coupled with the proposal in Congress to help Americans with mortgages that are more expensive than the value of their homes.
5. Put a price on carbon and lead world efforts to come up with a more effective replacement to the Kyoto treaty.

via NY Times