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Valley air regulators are drafting a new rule that will require companies with more than 100 employees to reduce employee driving to and from work. Starting next year, businesses will have to come up with ways to cut down on the number of people driving alone to work each day — and may face penalties if they don't accomplish the goal.

Employers will likely tackle this through incentive programs — anything from offering cash to those who carpool to allowing employees to work from home one or several days a week. Companies will also be encouraged to provide more on-site services, such as mail drop-off, ATMs and the dry cleaning services, to reduce driving done during lunch breaks. (The Californian already offers dry cleaning. Bring your dirty clothes to work, they'll send it off to be cleaned and return it to you a few days later.)

What do you think of this rule? Is it a good idea or unfair? What kind of incentives would it take for you to bike, carpool or take the bus to work?

This is an off-topic post as it doesn't relate to the environment but I'm hoping our faithful blog readers can help me out.

I've lived in Bakersfield for almost three years now and my parents are making their first trip here to visit me in March. (They live in upstate New York.) We have a couple weekend trips planned to the Central Coast and Yosemite but there will be about 4 to 5 days during their stay when I'll be working and they'll be on their own. I'm looking for some ideas for day trips and things they could see and do in the area (say within a 2 hours drive) during that time.

I'm sure you've all had guests come to town at one time or another. What did you take them to see? I have some ideas, such as a trip to Sequoia National Forest, maybe a visit to CALM. But I'm sure there's some hidden treasures around the area I don't know about. So please bombard me with your suggestions!

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The New York Times reports that a recent Pew Research Center poll shows concern for global warming and the environment has dropped as more people worry about jobs, the economy and the nation's energy problems.

The story says concern about global warming ranked last in a list of 20 issues voters were polled on. About 30 percent of people ranked global warming as the most pressing national issue this year, compared with 35 percent last year. Protecting the environment in general has slipped from 56 percent of people rating it a top priority last year to 41 percent this year.

That doesn't seem to be affecting the new president, who today signed an order asking regulators to act quickly on reconsidering applications by states, including California, to set their own standards for greenhouse emissions from vehicles. The request was rejected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush Administration.

The graphic to the left shows the full breakdown of where issues ranked in the poll.

Where does the environment rank on your list of most pressing issues?

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Planning to plant trees near your home in the near future? If so, make sure they go on the west or south side of your house, according to this new study by the Pacific Northwest Research Station of USDA Forest Service.

Doing so could bring down your summertime electrical costs by an average of $25 a  year.

Here's the full press release:

PORTLAND, Ore. January 5,  2009.  A recent study shows that shade trees on the west and south sides of a house in California can reduce a homeowner’s summertime electric bill by about $25.00 a year. The study, conducted last year on 460 single-family homes in Sacramento, is the first large-scale study to use utility billing data to show that trees can reduce energy consumption.
        “Everyone knows that shade trees cool a house. No one is going to get a Nobel Prize for that conclusion,” says the study co-author, Geoffrey Donovan. “But this study gets at the details: Where should a tree be placed to get the most benefits? And how exactly do shade trees impact our carbon footprint?”
         Donovan, a research forester with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station, is a co-author of the report with economist David Butry of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. The report, “The Value of Shade: Estimating the Effect of Urban Trees on Summertime Electricity Use,” has been submitted for publication to the journal Energy and Buildings.
        The researchers chose to do their study on homes in Sacramento because of the city’s hot summers and the fact that most people use air conditioners. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District operates an active tree planting program and residents are eligible for up to 10 free trees annually through a program delivered in partnership with the Sacramento Tree Foundation.

Some of the study’s key findings are:

Placement of a tree is the key to energy savings. Shade trees do affect summertime electricity use, but the amount of the savings depends on the location of the tree.

Trees planted within 40 feet of the south side or within 60 feet of the west side of the house will generate about the same amount of energy savings. This is because of the way shadows fall at different times of the day.

Tree cover on the east side of a house has no effect on electricity use.

A tree planted on the west side of a house can reduce net carbon emissions from summertime electricity use by 30 percent over a 100-year period.

In 2007, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District gave its customers about 16,000 free trees (at a cost of $85.00 a tree). The district will recoup this investment in 26 years provided trees are planted on the west side of a house.

“Because homeowners experience virtually none of the carbon benefits of tree planting,” says Donovan, “a subsidy to encourage tree planting seems warranted. Indeed, many of the benefits of urban trees have been shown to spill over to others in the community.”