Green Bailout Idea & a Potent Greenhouse Gas

This is The Environment Report. I'm Lester Graham.

Seems everybody has a plan for the government's economic stimulus package. But one group thinks President Barack Obama had the right idea when he spoke about the economy earlier this month.

"We will modernize more than 75-percent of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two-million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills."

Edward Mazria is an architect and founder of a group, Architecture 2030, that wants to see more energy efficiency in buildings. Mazria says, you want to put people to work? You want to reduce energy? You want to stop foreclosures? Here's what you do: Let's say your mortgage rate is six-percent. The government buys your mortgage you refinance at something like two-and-a-half percent but ONLY if you agree to fold into your mortgage energy efficiencies like new heating/cooling, new windows, insulation, solar panels and so on to reduce your energy use by 75-percent. Now, your mortgage will be bigger, but because of the lower interest rate, your monthly payments go down. People in the building trades are put to work. You save on energy bills and that's money that can be spent elsewhere in the economy.

Mazria says it's good for the government and the economy.

"For every dollar the government puts in, that's anywhere from 2-6 dollars of private spending on efficiency measures and lowering energy consumption."

Mazria says he'd like to see a lot more of the economic stimulus spent in private sector building but only if the government sets strict benchmarks to reduce energy consumption in those buildings.

You've probably noticed at the grocery store everything seems to be shrinking. Orange juice containers are smaller candy bars are smaller. Corporations have shrunk the packages, but charging about the same price or more. And cereal boxes! They look the same from the front but many are actually thinner.

Thanks.

This is The Environment Report.

We hear a lot about carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. But there are other chemicals that trap heat and contribute to global warming. One of them is an insecticide used to fumigate termite infested buildings. It's called Sulfuryl fluoride. That insecticide is four-thousand times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. It's been estimated that Sulfuryl flouride hangs around in the atmosphere for five years or so but new research shows that it last a lot longer than that.

Mads Sulbaek Andersen, working with other researchers at the University of California – Irvine published a study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology .

He's with us now first how is this termite insecticide used?

What did you discover about how long this insecticide stays in the atmosphere?

Is this a significant contributor to global warming?

Are there any kinds of chemicals that could replace Sulfuryl fluoride?



Mads (mass) Sulbaek Anderson is a researcher at the University of California – Irvine.

Thanks for talking with us.