Recovery Act + Greenhouse-Gas Executive Order to Solar Power Alcatraz, Other National Parks

Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay is ending its $700,000-per-year diesel habit. It will replace the fossil fuel with a clean, fifty-year supply of free solar fuel this Spring. Two belching diesel generators that have till now provided the electricity to keep the lights on will be put out to pasture.

Alcatraz, like all the National Parks, is subject to President Obama’s  Executive Order requiring that all Federal Agencies must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2020, which can be accomplished by replacing fossil energy with renewable energy. Alcatraz is managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The Recovery Act (ARRA) green stimulus funds will fund the project. Last year, the National Park Service received $754 million in stimulus funding that can help it achieve the carbon reduction mandate, nationwide. It had a spare $129 million at the end, which will fund 68 more projects, including solar power for Alcatraz Island.

The switch to fifty years of free fuel will also save taxpayers serious money over the next decades. (more…)

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