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Noah Long, Energy Program Attorney, San Francisco
I became an environmentalist growing up in Santa Fe, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. I sooth my norteño needs for chile verde at the excellent taco and burrito shops in San Francisco’s Mission District. I have also mostly transferred my love for skiing and snowboarding into learning how to surf the frigid and sharky waters of northern California. I started my NRDC career while in law school as a MAP sustainabe energy fellow in the Climate Center and International Program in Washington, D.C. That summer I worked on the start of the NRDC biogem campaign in Chile. I consulted on that project for two years while finishing up law school. After law school I got two more MAP fellowships in the Air and Energy Program working on electricity policy and implementing California’s landmark global warming law, AB 32. After my fellowships, NRDC brought me on full time to keep up the fight for clean energy. Working for NRDC is a dream job for a publicly minded attorney -- everyday we are charged with making the world a better place.
Recent Posts
Posted December 15, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- chile, coal, energy, energyefficiency, hydroaysen, latinamerica, renewableenergy
This year, President Piñera partially followed the advice from the OECD, NRDC and Chilean environmental groups to review Chile’s national energy policies and laws and develop a new energy strategy. When President Piñera was elected such a review was one...continued→
Posted December 15, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, cleanenergy, coal, globalwarming, powerplants
This week, the California Energy Commission unanimously approved a petition by NRDC and the Sierra Club to commence a rulemaking to strengthen and clarify CEC regulations on SB 1368, California’s Emissions Performance Standard (EPS). The EPS, passed in 2006, precludes...continued→
Posted November 14, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, energy, land, renewableenergy, solar, wildlife
On Thursday November 10, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced its approval of PG&E’s contract with Abengoa’s Mojave Solar Project in the California Desert. The Project will provide significant environmental benefits by contributing 250 MW to the state’s ambitious...continued→
Posted October 10, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, cleanenergy, climatechange, energy, energyefficiency, environmentandeconomy
Last week I took a few days away from the office to participate in Climate Ride California, along with several colleagues from NRDC’s San Francisco and LA offices (see Amanda and Adriano’s blogs). It was a beautiful, often rainy, and...continued→
Posted August 10, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, climatechange, energy, energyefficiency, environmentandeconomy, globalwarming, ladwp, powerplants
In a recent report issued by NRDC, we found that no matter which way you look at it, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is falling short on delivering energy efficiency. Energy efficiency, by law, is the...continued→
Posted July 20, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, energy, ladwp, losangeles, ocean, oceanprotection, oncethroughcooling
Last week, I wrote that July 19th would be the next test of the California State Water Board’s resolve in finally enforcing the Clean Water Act to protect California Coastal Waters from a damaging practice called once through cooling (OTC)....continued→
Posted July 15, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, cleanenergy, energy, fish, ocean, oceanprotection, oncethroughcooling
The story is getting all too familiar: Once again, the California State Water Board is considering amendments to its sensible policy to phase out once-through cooling – an outdated and destructive technology that sucks billions of gallons of sea water...continued→
Posted July 11, 2011 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- bulb, energy, energyefficiency, light, lightbulbs, lighting, mercury
Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) use about a quarter of the electricity of traditional incandescent light bulbs, reducing energy costs for consumers. By conserving electricity, CFLs also avoid some of the mercury emissions from power plants that burn coal. Burning coal...continued→
Posted March 11, 2011 by Noah Long in Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- chile, coal, energyefficiency, environmentandeconomy, global, hydroaysen, latinamerica, renewableenergy, warming
President Obama has a scheduled trip to Chile later this month. And in the agenda, clean energy should be a top priority. Chile is a small country, another world away, but it is on the precipice of an energy policy disaster...continued→
Posted January 21, 2011 by Noah Long in Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, CFL, CFLs, energyefficiency, globalwarming, lighting
This week The Wall Street Journal published an unfortunate piece on the successful energy efficiency programs in California. The piece, The New Light Bulbs Lose a Little Shine (Jan. 19), focused on the ongoing controversy over exactly how much energy the California...continued→
Posted December 15, 2010 by Noah Long in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, ocean, oceanprotection, oncethroughcooling, powerplants, water
As my colleague Leila Monroe and I recently wrote, the CA state Water Board has been under intense political pressure to gut its Policy on once-through cooling, only months after its adoption. The Water Board’s Policy sets a timeline for phasing out...continued→
Posted December 9, 2010 by Noah Long in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, cleanenergy, energy, ocean, oceanprotection, oncethroughcooling, water
The California State Water Board is considering a major and poorly analyzed Amendment that will dramatically weaken the Board’s recently adopted Policy to phase-out the harmful and antiquated technology of once-through cooling in coastal power plants in California. As my...continued→
Posted November 22, 2010 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- climatechange, copenhagenaccord, energy, energyefficiency, globalwarming, mexico
As Mexico prepares to host the next round of climate negotiations, attention has turned to national and local commitments to reduce climate-disrupting pollution. Mexico set a bright example this fall by proposing new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs. These...continued→
Posted October 18, 2010 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- airpollution, cleanenergy, coal, cpuc, dirtyenergy, fourcorners, globalwarming, newmexico
Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission signaled it is ready to close the door on dirty coal investments. The only remaining coal plant owned by an investor owned utility in California is Four Corners, located in northwestern New Mexico...continued→
Posted May 26, 2010 by Noah Long in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- california, californiaenergy, cpuc, energyefficiency, utilities
On April 15th, the California Public Utilities Commission’s Energy Division staff released a draft report estimating the energy savings of the California investor-owned utilities 2006-2008 energy efficiency programs. When the programs were approved, they were by far the largest utility...continued→
