PBS viewers who understand climate science were understandably shocked by the PBS News Hour last week. Their climate segment (below) and online interview focusing on the long-debunked views of non-scientist Anthony Watts were widely criticized — see here and here.

The PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler has responded with a lengthy and thoughtful piece, “Climate Change Creates a Storm,” which opens:

It was not the PBS NewsHour’s finest 10 minutes. In my view, and that of hundreds, even thousands of others, the program stumbled badly. On the other hand, it was not the end of the world, so to speak.

A segment on climate change last Monday evening produced a storm of protest from critics who felt the program mislead viewers — by a faulty application of journalistic balance — about the very real threat of global warming and man’s contribution to it, as well as a sprinkling of support from those who think that threat is overstated and that balance was just the right touch for the NewsHour.

Just below is a video link to the segment so those that did not see it, or wish to see it again, can form their own opinions.

This may be the longest ombudsman column I’ve ever posted because the subject generates about as much thunder and heat as one of those storms many have experienced lately that at least seem to make us think more about climate change. It also is one of those lose-lose subjects for an ombudsman in which whatever one writes is certain not to satisfy a lot of people.

The post notes the segment was widely criticized and it links to my piece, “False Balance Lives: In Worst Climate Story Of The Year, PBS Channels Fox News” and to an excellent commentary by Bud Ward at the Yale Forum.

Here is some of Getler’s specific criticism:

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by Kate Gordon, via Center for the Next Generation

61.2 million greenhouse gas allowances go on sale November 14, in the first auction under California’s cap and trade program.  That means it’s about time to decide how we’re going to spend the revenues, which are projected to be somewhere between $660 million to $3 billion.  A billion of those dollars are already earmarked for General Fund relief and existing programs, but that still leaves a lot to work with. We know the funds must be spent to meet the goals of AB32—making California less carbon-intensive—but we don’t know exactly what that will mean in practice.

Which brings me to a new report about the vast potential for new rooftop solar projects in California.  According to the research, conducted by Energy and Environmental Economics for the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), the state could add 15 GW of new local solar – we’re talking about rooftops, not utility-scale installations—to the grid by 2020, making the state’s electricity system more diverse and saving utilities the cost of transmission infrastructure and maintenance to boot. You can find a great synopsis of the report here.

So how do the auction and these solar projects relate to one another?  Well, ideally, if we have all this solar potential in California, one great use for auction revenues would be to somehow use them to dramatically scale up distributed solar across the state.

There are a number of ways to do this, but one I’ve been noodling on ever since the cleantech CEO retreat I went to 2 weeks ago is to give solar project developers the upfront capital they need to overcome what’s been the most major barrier to solar development: inability to find tax equity partners.  The Federal Investment Tax Credit could be a great solar financing tool, but many of these developers are small and scrappy, and don’t have high enough taxes that a tax credit is meaningful to them. What they need is up front capital to do their projects, which they can they pay back through consumer energy savings once the solar system is up.  For them, a state revolving loan fund might be a great use of AB32 revenues – a fund that, because it would be constantly replenished, would be a smart use of government resources to boot.

These are the kinds of issues that my team at The Center for the Next Generation will be thinking about over the coming months. We’d love your thoughts, as always.

This piece was cross-posted from the AB32 Digest, the Center for the Next Generation’s weekly roundup of news on California’s landmark climate change law.  To read the AB32 Digest or subscribe, visit www.tcng.org/ab32.

by Jim Marston, via EDF’s Energy Exchange

Is your office building on LinkedIn?  Can you find user reviews of your high-rise on Yelp?  Probably not, but the chances are good that you’ll be able to do both on HonestBuildings.com.

Since launching in beta on March 20, 2012, the fast growing real estate network has already aggregated detailed information on over 700,000 buildings across the U.S. From architects to brokers, thousands of real estate, construction and service companies have joined the platform, posting their portfolio of work and connecting with building owners and managers to find new business opportunities.

Honest Building’s co-founder and CEO Riggs Kubiak says that the real estate market is primed for the convergence of data and community, which will lead to more transparency for all stakeholders and accelerate the adoption of high performance buildings.

“Greater transparency about building performance increases the demand for energy efficiency as tenants can make better, informed decisions about where they lease,” said Kubiak. “This accelerates the adoption of all sorts of best practices by building owners and managers in order to command the best leasing rates. From energy efficiency to leasing to design to management, buildings will have to get better, faster. This also gives the best building service providers and vendors the opportunity to scale faster, as the services and technologies with the best track record can leverage a network effect to capture more and more business.”

And when it comes to important energy innovations, tackling the building sector is vitally important.  Cars and trucks carry a lot of the blame for climate change.  But in the U.S., the building sector is responsible for nearly half of CO2 emissions, compared to a third for the transportation sector. Three-quarters of the electricity produced in the U.S. is used just to operate buildings, and that percentage is even higher globally.

There’s a massive amount of factual, verifiable data about how homes and buildings operate.  This data includes square footage, energy costs, walkability – all things that people care about now more than ever.  But all this information is very hard for consumers to find and for building professionals to promote.  And there is no venue for people — designers, buyers or sellers — to interact.

In San Francisco, the Honest Buildings platform is using energy benchmarking compliance data to bring together building owners, service providers and local government to create new business opportunities and more efficient buildings.  Working with the city’s department of the environment, they’ve created a custom map of all the buildings that have and have not complied with the city’s energy benchmarking ordinance, and helped building owners connect with energy efficiency companies and consultants that can help these building go above and beyond compliance.

“The introduction of real-time energy data for buildings will provide an incredible insight into how they perform,” Riggs said.  ”Our expectation is that developers and property managers will want to highlight their best performers and create an element of competition that will increase efficiency and sustainability.  And the better the technology, the faster that will happen.”

But according to Riggs, data alone isn’t enough.  ”As with all great services, there has to be a human element,” he said.  ”People need to be able to weigh in with their voice, and the social network aspect of our service will be just as important as detailed, trustworthy data.  Information may help us make better buildings, but people make the decisions.”

Jim Marston is the founding director of the Texas office of Environmental Defense Fund. This piece was originally published at EDF’s Energy Exchange and was reprinted with permission.