EPA Looking to Replace Bush-era Pollution Rules

 

Soot, smog and mercury emissions could all be redone

 

U.S. EPA is working to issue replacement rules for Bush-era regulations aimed at slashing power plant emissions of soot, smog and mercury as quickly as possible, the agency’s top air official told a Senate panel today.

Gina McCarthy, EPA’s assistant administrator for air and radiation, said the agency plans to propose a replacement for the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) in early 2010 and to issue a final rule by early 2011. Read more

What Is The Best Way to Turn Plants into Energy?

The environmental case for ethanol from corn continues to weaken. Turning the food crop into ethanol would not be the best use of the energy embedded in the kernels’ carbohydrates, according to a new study in Science. That’s because fermenting corn into ethanol delivers less liquid fuel energy for internal combustion engines than does burning the kernels to generate power for electric motors. Read more

R.I.P. Hydrogen Economy?

In the newly released budget, the U.S. Department of Energy cuts $100 million from the hydrogen fuel cell program in fiscal year 2010 and transforms its name to “fuel cell technologies.” Hydrogen, of course, is just the fuel of a fuel cell—a device that recombines hydrogen and oxygen to produce water and electrical current. Still, the name change distances the Obama administration from the “hydrogen economy” goals of their predecessors. Read more

NASA running out of gas, calls for more plutonium to continue its star trek

NASA’s deep space exploration programs could run out of gas in about a decade, and without any Star Trek–inspired dilithium crystals in sight, the U.S. Department of Energy Thursday announced it will start making plutonium 238 (238pu) again for NASA’s missions, the Associated Press reports. Read more

Eat Sustainably on a Food Stamp Budget

Recently, TIME magazine put together a cover story on how the economic crisis is affecting the average American, profiling a number of people ranging from a sports CEO to a laid-off GM employee. Reading through the stories, I saw an odd trend – people are cutting back and spending a lot less – yet organic foods are flying off the shelves – with an organic farmer saying his sales are up 500%! Read more

Top 10 reasons to shop at a farmer’s market

 

It’s already mid-March and that means the snows will melt and if the ground’s not too saturated farmers will soon be planting seeds for the food that will feed us this year.

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Top 10 Myths about Sustainability

Even advocates for more responsible, environmentally benign ways of life harbor misunderstandings of what “sustainability” is all about

 

When a word becomes so popular you begin hearing it everywhere, in all sorts of marginally related or even unrelated contexts, it means one of two things. Either the word has devolved into a meaningless cliché, or it has real conceptual heft. “Green” (or, even worse, “going green”) falls squarely into the first category. But “sustainable,” which at first conjures up a similarly vague sense of environmental virtue, actually belongs in the second. True, you hear it applied to everything from cars to agriculture to economics. But that’s because the concept of sustainability is at its heart so simple that it legitimately applies to all these areas and more. Read more

Message to Obama: Please Fix the USDA’s Organic Mess

Appointment of Kathleen Merrigan as Deputy Secretary: First Sign of “Change”

CORNUCOPIA, Wi. – February 24 – President Obama and new USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack are being urged to take immediate action to repair the USDA’s increasingly dysfunctional National Organic Program (NOP). Suspect imports of grains, nuts, and vegetables from China and other countries, questionable organic milk, beef, and eggs from giant factory farms, and the erosion of opportunity for family farmers are plaguing the organic sector. Read more

How to Green Your Home and Cash in on Stimulus Money

 

Energy-saving systems for the attic, basement, and in between have effectively gone on sale, courtesy of the United States Congress. But whether shoppers will take advantage — or even notice available discounts — remains an open question.

Tax incentives to encourage investments in energy efficiency took effect last week when President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. That means homeowners with drafty windows, old heating systems, or other root causes of high energy bills can be rewarded in tax season if they make improvements in 2009 or 2010. Read more

Eco-Friendly Hotels Gaining Popularity

More and more hotels are billing themselves as “eco- friendly,” in response to a growing consumer desire to make more ethical purchasing decisions.

Eleven hotels in the United States have already been certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Building Council. The Gaia Napa Valley Hotel in American Canyon, Calif., for example, uses special tubes to magnify sunlight into its hallways and conference room, creating life so bright that one customer complained about the excessive energy consumption before being informed that no electricity was being used at all. Read more

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