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Peter Hanlon
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Peter Hanlon is a Senior Research and Policy Analyst for the GRACE Communications Foundation, which builds partnerships and develops innovative media strategies that increase public awareness of the relationships among food, water and energy systems. Peter has worked for numerous nonprofit and government organizations as a policy, research and outreach specialist on issues ranging from estuarine health to watershed management, land use planning and renewable energy. Peter earned his BA in Geography from the University of New Hampshire and an MA in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island.

Entries by Peter Hanlon

Resizing Electricity's Water Footprint

(6) Comments | Posted June 5, 2013 | 4:16 PM

Among all the resources that go into producing electricity, water often gets lost in the shuffle. Here's what we know: It can take a lot of water to generate electricity. How much? Well, that's a complicated question.

Researchers have estimated the often massive volumes of cooling water...

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Power and Water Utilities: An Unlikely Alliance

(0) Comments | Posted March 20, 2013 | 4:48 PM

This year's World Water Day (March 22) also serves as a kick-off to the UN's Year of Water Cooperation. While water cooperation might conjure thoughts of governments working together to protect freshwater resources amid myriad disputes and slights, I'd like to take the opportunity to highlight the limited...

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What Brings Americans Together? The Energy-Water Nexus (Really!)

(10) Comments | Posted August 24, 2012 | 3:53 PM

With so many contentious issues debated this election year, few would have seen the water-energy nexus as a bridge across the cavernous partisan divide. But there it is in a poll recently conducted by the Civil Society Institute (CSI): At a time of drought persisting across nearly

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Earth Day 2012: Harder to See, Harder to Catch

(2) Comments | Posted April 20, 2012 | 4:42 PM

Co-authored with Robin Madel.

Given the recent billion-dollar sale of Instagram, it's clear that the look of those faded, yellowed photos from the 1970s are all the rage. EPA, not usually known for having its finger on the pulse of pop culture, recently posted hundreds of its "

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So Will That Be the Wild or Patented Salmon?

(13) Comments | Posted March 6, 2012 | 11:14 AM

It looks like 2012 will be the year of two salmons: one a genetically altered "Frankenfish" currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration, and the other an inhabitant of one of the world's last great wild salmon runs, which is unfortunately situated atop a whole lot...

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Hydrokinetic Power: The Next Wave in Renewable Energy?

(3) Comments | Posted February 9, 2012 | 9:53 AM

What could be more dependable than the tides? They sweep in and out once or twice a day, depending on the location, and you can find their precise timing and height in any newspaper in America. Or tide app, for the tech-savvy mariner.

For decades, cutting-edge renewable energy companies have...

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Drought or Deluge: Different Threats, Same Problems

(2) Comments | Posted October 4, 2011 | 5:30 PM

This truly has been a summer of extremes. Texas had its hottest and driest summer ever recorded, while Northeastern states including New Jersey, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire had their wettest August ever.

Tropical Storm Lee kept the meteorological insults rolling in early September. While large swaths...

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Could NYC Ban Disposable Bags?

(0) Comments | Posted October 4, 2011 | 1:46 PM

One of the advantages of living in New York City is that you can get nearly anything you need at almost any hour. Greasing the gears of that spur-of-the-moment consumption is the plastic bag. No need to think ahead about how to get groceries, the latest iPhone or a 22-ounce...

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Little Fish, Big Help

(0) Comments | Posted September 7, 2011 | 1:13 PM

A lot of little fish just had a big week.

During the first week of August, fish that don't typically get the lavish attention enjoyed by more charismatic megafauna finally got some recognition that might keep them from disappearing.

The NRDC is spearheading an effort to get river...

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Jellyfish to Power Plants: You Suck

(0) Comments | Posted July 26, 2011 | 3:55 PM

They can ruin a perfectly nice beach day and are the very definition of spineless, and now jellyfish are drawing international attention with their power plant hijinks.

It's been a strange few weeks in which five power plants around the world have had to scale back or shut down due...

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Power and Water Collide

(5) Comments | Posted June 22, 2011 | 4:34 PM

The power industry has a water addiction, and worse yet, it's in denial. The fact is that power plants are responsible for 49 percent of all water withdrawals in the United States, more than the combined amount withdrawn for drinking water and agriculture.

Why so thirsty?...

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Solar Throwdown: New York to Challenge New Jersey?

(3) Comments | Posted June 2, 2011 | 5:23 PM

As a New York transplant, I have to admit that I don't totally understand the New York-New Jersey rivalry. It seems the animosity is focused more on cutthroat tax rate competition and a couple of hockey teams than anything truly juicy.

But a national ranking of state solar...

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No, the Other Power Plant Rule (The One About Killing Fish)

(1) Comments | Posted April 20, 2011 | 6:56 PM

I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of eating and breathing and of wildlife with fully-functioning reproductive organs. So last month, when the EPA ignored questionable doomsday energy predictions from the power industry and its allies and instead told the industry...

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Fine Art Surfboards. Made From Trash.

(4) Comments | Posted April 6, 2011 | 10:17 AM

I've been surfing for about twenty years now, but it would be a big mistake to confuse longevity with ability. No, instead of developing the skills to cross-step stylishly or even execute a proper cutback, what I've gained most while surfing has been an awareness of change in the ocean....

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Dead Zones, Now in More Frightening Detail!

(41) Comments | Posted March 10, 2011 | 1:33 PM

Last July NASA released a world map that identifies hundreds of areas in the world's oceans with dangerously low oxygen levels. These hypoxic areas - virtually uninhabitable for most marine life - are a result of eutrophication, or too many nutrients from fertilizer runoff and sewage discharges finding...

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Oyster Reefs Are Disappearing: Foodies Fine, Ocean Sad

(2) Comments | Posted February 17, 2011 | 10:42 AM

Oysters are disappearing!

Wait, no. Make that wild oysters are disappearing!

A recent technical paper produced a mouthful of a talking point: 85 percent of oyster reefs have been lost globally, and in many bays once-plentiful oyster reefs are now functionally extinct.

Functionally extinct.

As you might expect,...

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Red Tape: A Solar Play in One Long, Expensive Act

(1) Comments | Posted February 9, 2011 | 5:24 PM

There's a lot of talk about getting those darn EPA regulators off of the power industry's back, but what about the tangled mess of red tape facing the renewable energy industry? Customers who want to install small-scale, distributed generation like solar panels and wind turbines are confronted with...

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Tidal Power Rolls Into New York

(11) Comments | Posted January 10, 2011 | 1:25 PM

Originally published at Ecocentric.

When it comes to ocean power, wind turbines get all of the attention. But below the surface of the infamous East River, tidal turbines are getting ready to make a big statement in the Big Apple.

Back in 2006, Verdant Power started...

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Local New York City Seafood? Yes! Kinda. Maybe.

(0) Comments | Posted December 17, 2010 | 3:01 PM

If there is such thing as the Fish Book A-Team, then I've seen it in action; that is to say, action that's light on explosions but heavy on fish jokes. A number of seafood-centric writers and scientists including Paul Greenberg, Mark Kurlansky,

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Freeing the Grid: Which States Made the Clean Energy Grade?

(0) Comments | Posted December 8, 2010 | 2:52 PM

Co-authored with Rosalind Jackson (Vote Solar) and James Rose (Network for New Energy Choices).

Ever since we hinted at it back in September, we imagine that you, dear reader, have been anxiously awaiting our latest update to the Freeing the Grid report. Well, wait...

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