·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the press release.

Founded in 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a young federal agency, compared to other agencies that date back to the 1800’s. Part of an agency’s growing process is finding the best ways to measure and report on its progress. Therefore, EPA today released its 2008 Report on the Environment (EPA 2008 ROE), an important resource that citizens can use to better understand trends in the condition of the air, water, and land and related changes in human health and the environment in the United States. The EPA 2008 ROE will also be a valuable resource that can inform and focus EPA activities to improve and protect America’s environment.

The EPA 2008 ROE uses scientifically sound indicators to measure and report on overall progress toward protecting the environment and human health. An environmental indicator must be quantifiable and provide valuable information on the condition of air, land, water, human health, or ecological condition. For example, one water ROE environmental indicator is the percentage each year of public or community water systems that have reported no violations of EPA health-based standards.

Read the press release.

Sundance Channel has added two British eco-reality series to the summer line up of the network’s weekly environmental block THE GREEN. Beginning July 1 at 9pm et/pt, the network will debut “Outrageous Wasters,” a four-part series that follows a single family through an ultra-crash course in eco-aware living, designed to transform them from energy-guzzling “meanies” to tree-loving “greenies” in two weeks. Kicking off on July 29 at 9pm et/pt is season 2 of “Its Not Easy Being Green.” In eight thirty-minute episodes three “green experts” travel around the British countryside advising and assisting a range of citizens in realizing their eco goals. These shows will be followed each week in the THE GREEN by a documentary film on one of a broad range of eco-related topics, from climate change and energy to design, fashion and architecture.

Read the full story at News.com.

The lowly soybean has found a calling higher than tofu and tamari sauce. It’s being used to insulate equipment bringing electricity to millions of homes.

More than 100 utilities are using soy-based oil as a safer, eco-friendly alternative to petroleum coolants in electrical transformers, which convert high-voltage power from a plant to a lower voltage for consumers.

Read the full story at News.com.

Depending on who you talk to, electric cars pack the disruptive force of either Dell PCs or the Apple iPhone.

Regardless of your choice of analogy, the auto industry is facing the kind of technology-based competition it hasn’t seen in years.

And in this game, start-ups claim to have the upper hand on the incumbents.

Via Docuticker

Biofuels Incentives: A Summary of Federal Programs
Source: Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS)

With recent high energy prices and the passage of major energy legislation in 2005 (P.L. 109-58) and 2007 (P.L. 110-140), there is ongoing congressional interest in promoting alternatives to petroleum fuels. Biofuels — transportation fuels produced from plants and other organic materials — are of particular interest. Ethanol and biodiesel, the two most widely used biofuels, receive significant government support under this law in the form of mandated fuel use, tax incentives, loan and grant programs, and certain regulatory requirements. The 18 programs and provisions listed in this report have been established over the past 27 years, and are administered by five separate agencies and departments: Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Internal Revenue Service, and Customs and Border Protection. These programs target a variety of beneficiaries, including farmers and rural small businesses, biofuel producers, petroleum suppliers, and fuel marketers. Arguably, the most significant federal programs for biofuels have been tax credits for the production or sale of ethanol and biodiesel. However, with the establishment of the renewable fuels standard (RFS) under P.L. 109-58, Congress has mandated biofuels use; P.L. 110-140 significantly expanded that mandate. In the long term, the mandate may prove even more significant than tax incentives in promoting the use of these fuels. This report outlines federal programs that provide direct or indirect incentives for biofuels. For each program described, the report provides details including administering agency, authorizing statute(s), annual funding, and expiration date. The Appendix provides summary information in a table format.

+ Full Report (PDF; 104 KB)

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to http://www.greenbiz.com/enewsletters/2008/greenbiz/index.html.

TerraCycle: Worm Poop and So Much More
By Matthew Wheeland
Tom Szaky, CEO of a company that made its name selling fertilizer made from worm castings, talks to GreenBiz Radio about making the greenest possible products from other people’s trash, turning the production cycle on its ear, and other ways that companies can design products that turn waste into gold.

Energy Efficiency: Overlooked and Misunderstood
A new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy finds that energy efficiency during the last 30-plus years has been paid little homage and future gains are threatened by inaction. U.S. energy consumption at the end of 2008 is expected to total half of the energy consumed in 1970, the report
found.

REI, Google Expand Solar Investments
REI has announced its next steps in making solar-powered stores, and Google’s philanthropic arm has funneled funding to another solar company.

Mars Snack Foods Taps Landfill Gas for Energy
A month after Frito-Lay announced plans to use solar energy to make SunChips, the Mars snack food plant flipped the switch on a project that will use energy generated from landfill gas to power its operations.

Starbucks Sets New Goals for Renewables, Green Building
Starbucks wants to slash energy consumption in its stores by 25 percent and buy enough renewable energy certificates to satisfy half of its stores’ energy needs, all by 2010, the company said Wednesday. All new construction will incorporate green building principles.

Toyota Prius Sales Top 1 Million While Company Bets on Green Building
Toyota is celebrating two green milestones this month with sales of its Prius surpassing the 1 million mark, while at the same time, the carmaker has earned the country’s first LEED-Gold certification of a dealership.

Cisco Launches TelePresence for Mid-Sized Businesses
The TelePresence 500 is billed as a lower-cost entry for medium-sized businesses at a time when companies are looking at ways to trim corporate travel. The company also debuted a teleconferencing system for large parties of up to 18 participants.

SMART Papers Breaks Ground on $30M Biomass Plant
The co-generation facility put the papermaker on the path of using 100 percent renewable energy to power the operations of its Southern Ohio location. The company also will sell excess power to the state’s grid, as well as generate carbon credits.

UPS to Boost Alt-Fuel Fleet by 30 Percent with New Trucks
With the purchase of 500 new vehicles, the company will continue to grow its alt-fuel fleet, already the largest private fleet in the industry.

eBay Bids on Solar
eBay’s North Campus is now the home of 3,248 solar panels in a 650-kilowatt system that will supply 18 percent of the campus’ power, saving the company about $100,000 in electricity costs in its first year of operation. The company used the solar energy system’s unveiling to tout its first LEED-Gold building, which also is the city’s first.

Wal-Mart Canada to Eliminate PVC from Light Bulb Packages
As part of the retailer’s plan to improve packaging, it will switch from PVC plastic to cardboard for energy efficient light bulb packaging.

Raymour & Flanigan Goes for the Green
The Northeast furniture retailer’s recycling program has diverted roughly 16 millions pounds of waste from landfills, while its storeroom upgrades have helped the company offset energy costs, which have risen abou  30 percent.

The Aspen Institute’s Closer Look at Supply Chain Management
This report in the Aspen Institute’s series “A Closer Look at Business Education”  offers expert insight into the importance of proper oversight of your supply chains  as well as resources to further your knowledge of the topic.

Balancing the Environment with the Scales of Justice
By Tilde Herrera
In a move playing out largely behind the scenes but gaining quick momentum, law firms are using simple and inexpensive tools to evolve from notorious resource hogs (think a half-ton of paper per lawyer, per year) to models of eco-stewardship.

Green and Mean: Responsible Property Investing in a Tough Economy
By Jeff Feinstein and Michael Butler
Our national building infrastructure poses some major challenges to the climate fight, especially when the economy makes investors hesitant to take on new projects; but here we explain why green buildings are among the best investments now — and any time.

Beyond Recycling: Responsible Paper Purchasing
By Tensie Whelan, Rainforest Alliance
Companies can make an enormous difference in the global environment and forest communities by adopting strict purchasing policies.

Via Docuticker.

Public Health Impacts of Climate Change in California (PDF; 4.3 MB)
Source: Public Health Institute

Funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this publication addresses community vulnerabilities as well as strategies for preventing and adapting to the effects of climate change in California.

This docket includes the list of Regulatory Agenda level actions recently approved for development by the U.S. EPA’s Regulatory Policy Officer. The list provides the title, abstract, contact person, projected publication timeframe, and Regulatory Identifier Number (RIN). EPA updates this list every month. It includes a feature that sends an e-mail notification when a new document is added to the docket. To activate the notifications:

• Click the “Notification” icon found in the upper, right portion of your screen. Fill out the registration form.
• Select the types of documents you are interested in. If you want to receive a notification every time a document is deposited in the docket, place a check mark in the boxes next to every document type (Rules, Proposed Rules, Notices, Public Submissions, Supporting & Related Materials, and Other). Otherwise, pick those that are most relevant to you.
• Click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the form.
• You will receive an email with instructions for how to complete the registration process. Make sure you follow these instructions. You will not begin receiving notifications until you do.

This National Library of Medicine guide provides links to information about the health effects of Mercury. Includes information in Spanish.

Read the full solicitation.

The Budweiser Renewable Energy and Wildlife Conservation Research Prize is being established by Anheuser-Busch and the Foundation to advance new technologies or practices that contribute to making renewable energy a more practical energy alternative. The $100,000 prize will be competitive and awarded in consideration of a project’s ability to develop or evaluate new cost-effective renewable energy technologies or practices for industrial applications and demonstrate the measurable benefits such practices may have in advancing wildlife conservation. Eligibility for the research prize is open to accredited post-secondary academic institutions, public agencies and nonprofit organizations working collaboratively on advancing renewable energy and wildlife conservation research.

Read the full post at News.com.

Algae may someday become a part of the jet set.

The pond plant is getting a boost from a joint biofuel effort announced Thursday that involves some marquee names in the aviation industry–Airbus and JetBlue Airways–along with International Aero Engines, Honeywell Aerospace, and a second Honeywell company called UOP. The group plans to study ways to make commercial aviation fuels out of so-called second-generation feedstocks such as algae.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Persistent drought and the threat of tighter water supplies prompted Los Angeles’s plans to begin using heavily cleansed sewage to increase drinking water supplies.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

IBM, GlaxoSmithKline and Herman Miller have found a positive return-on-investment for environmentally friendly purchasing, purchasing.com reports.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

Earth Day posts on blogs like The Consumerist and Gizmodo (the photo is from Gizmodo) prompted Dell to dispatch a packaging analysis team to meet with the vendor that shipped a flash drive to a customer in a box “that could probably hold 1,000 flash drives,” according to one blog post.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

Seventy-one percent of North Americans want to know about the socially responsible behavior of brands they buy - but the majority of people cannot identify a list of major brands as socially responsible or socially irresponsible, according to An April 2008 online poll of 5,000 North Americans for Conscientious Innovation’s latest Shift Report.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

Kohl’s Department Stores plans to convert more than 50 of its existing stores in New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland to solar power. That represents nearly 80 percent of its locations in these three states. The work began in January. When it’s complete, Kohl’s says it will be the largest retail host of solar power.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

Consumers are calling on brands to take responsibility for reducing the impact of climate change as governments fail to make progress, according to research by Havas Media.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

By employing a trick normally used to cool high-performance computer chips, IBM researchers have found a way to make concentrated photovoltaic cells that are more efficient in converting the sun’s energy into electricity.

Read the press release.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has released a study of three green building rating systems (Green Globes, SBTool 07, and LEED NC 2.2) and assess their effectiveness in supporting the goals of the AIA sustainability position statement. In late 2007, the initial results were shared with the three groups whose systems were reviewed. After receiving feedback, the study was modified and further refined into the final report.

The purpose of this exercise is to offer analysis to both industry and the public as an opportunity to learn how three unique, creative and evolving green building rating systems resonate in various dimensions with the goals of the AIA position statement on sustainability and our goal to achieve carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030.

Read the full story at Green Building Elements.

In San Francisco, some well financed and publicized condo projects like the Arterra spend big marketing dollars to push its LEED – NC status (wonder why they didn’t shoot for LEED on its other project the Hayes?) while the EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park LEED certified facility opened in relative obscurity.

This landmark youth education facility and environmental center sits smack in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood right next to the former PG & E power plant. Of all the areas in SF this area truly needs the Green building support. We’re psyched to report that the EcoCenter marks the first 100% off-grid green building in San Francisco, and boasts features that set the bar high for green building.

The EPA will kick off its 7th annual EPA Science Forum on Tuesday, May 20. Learn about new technologies that are expanding environmental protection and making going green economically profitable. For example, EPA will discuss the most promising green building technologies to lower costs and make eco-friendly housing affordable for most people. Technology is also expanding our horizons – literally! Advances in satellite data are allowing EPA and other agencies to assemble a global picture of air quality, a big improvement over relying on ground-based monitors.

The forum will feature plenary speakers, breakout sessions and a technology expo focused on three themes:

• Technology advances and future directions
• Energy, climate and the environment
• Water systems infrastructure and security

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.climatebiz.com/enewsletters/2008/climatebiz/index.html.

Voluntary Carbon Market Tripled in Value in 2007, Mandatory Market Doubled
Two reports look at the global voluntary and mandatory carbon markets, seeing where growth happened, why and what is in store in the future.

UPS to Boost Alt-Fuel Fleet by 30 Percent with New Trucks
With the purchase of 500 new vehicles, the company will continue to grow its alt-fuel fleet, already the largest private fleet in the industry.

Nike Leads Pack of Companies Improving Climate Performance
Companies such as Nike, Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss have taken strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and communicating those efforts in ways that are transparent to consumers, according to the second Climate Counts Company Scorecard released today.

European Union to Promote Energy Efficiency Through ICT
The European Commission has identified three areas of the economy that can be improved through the use of efficient Information and Communications Technologies.

SMART Papers Breaks Ground on $30M Biomass Plant
The co-generation facility puts the papermaker on the path of using 100 percent renewable energy to power the operations of its Southern Ohio location. The company also will sell excess power to the state?s grid, as well as generate carbon credits.

Millipore Aims to Cut Carbon Footprint by 20 Percent
Millipore Corp. plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent during the next five years. The initiative will take aim at the its consumption of non-renewable resources and production of waste, as well as introduce programs that will foster behavioral changes conducive to environmental sustainability.

Ford Becomes First Car Company to Join The Climate Registry
By joining the voluntary North American CO2 reporting group, the company has committed to measuring, reporting and independently verifying its greenhouse gas emissions for its facilities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Gore-Headed VC Firms Rake in Millions for New Climate Funds
By Sarah Griffiths, BusinessGreen
An investment company headed by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore has reportedly closed a new $683m fund for investing in green start up businesses, and VC giant KPCB launches a $500m Green Fund.

Exelon Joins Supply Chain Study Group to Analyze and Reduce Emissions
The utility company will ask its suppliers to provide hard data on their greenhouse gas emissions as part of its membership in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration; it is the first U.S. utility company to join the group.

Suppliers See Climate Change Regulation as Business Risk: Survey
The Carbon Disclosure Project queried suppliers about what emissions they report and if they feel greenhouse gas regulations and climate change will impact their operations.

Tesco Adds Carbon Footprint to Product Labels
Shoppers at Tesco supermarkets can now see the carbon footprint of certain items just by checking the label.

Exxon, the Rockefellers, and the Future of Big Oil
By Joel Makower
The Rockefeller family has made an historic challenge to Exxon Mobil Corp., the company founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870 (as Standard Oil), and in which dozens of family members still hold stock. The challenge came in the form of a shareholder resolution to require an independent chairman of Exxon’s board of directors, so that the company can better maximize long-term shareholder value in a rapidly changing energy environment.

Adapting to Climate Change: A New Frontier for Business
By Andre de Fontaine
Despite a steady transformation of business attitudes on climate change, businesses have been relatively slow to address one global warming challenge: adaptation to the physical impacts of climate change. A new report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change offers a screening process companies can use to assess climate-related physical risks.

Two Reports Study the Growing Carbon Market

In the past week, two groups have released detailed reports on how carbon markets are growing and evolving. The Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2008 report tracks voluntary markets, while the World Bank’s State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2008 explores how the Kyoto Protocol and European Union carbon markets are changing.

Included in the details of how much the markets have grown by is insight into why they are growing at different rates and what that means for countries and businesses taking part in or thinking about joining them.

Find more information on ClimateBiz.com:

• Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2008
• The World Bank’s State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2008

Via Docuticker.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

New research shows that formic acid could be used as a safe, easy-to-transport source of hydrogen for fuel cells. Matthias Beller and his colleagues at the Leibniz Institute of Catalysis, in Rostock, Germany, have found a way to convert formic acid, a common preservative and antibacterial agent, into hydrogen gas at low temperatures.

Read the full story in Nature.

Air travel shows no sign of losing its allure but its environmental impact is not going to go away. Katharine Sanderson looks at some of the ways that scientists and engineers hope to reduce the carbon wing-print of aircraft.

EPA’s Clean Energy-Environment Municipal Network is offering the third in a series of free webcast trainings targeted to local governments. This webcast will include an overview of EPA’s Green Power Partnership and Green Power Communities Program. Speakers from two local governments will also provide their experiences with purchasing green power for their buildings and promoting green power in their communities. Registrants can access a draft section of EPA’s Clean Energy Strategies for Local Governments guide that discusses energy-efficient product procurement as background for the call.

The webcast will be held on May 28, 2008, 2:00 ­ 3:30 PM (Eastern Time). To register for the webcast, send an e-mail to CleanEnergyWebcast@icfi.com. You will receive a confirmation email with registration information within 24 hours.

Priority for registration will be given to local and regional government staff and officials. If multiple staff from your agency wish to participate, we ask that you share a computer and phone line, as space is limited. EPA plans to record and post these webcasts on its Clean Energy website. For More information, to access the background paper, or to view past webcasts, click here.

Additional Training Opportunities

ENERGY STAR and ICLEI Cities for Climate Protection
Thursday, May 29, 2:00 - 3:30 PM EDT

Learn about ENERGY STAR tools and resources that can help you improve the energy performance of your buildings and help you promote energy efficiency to the broader community, within the framework of ICLEI’s Five-Step/Milestone Approach for Climate Protection.

Attendees will receive introductory training to EPA’s online benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager, and learn how benchmarking can be included in efforts to create a greenhouse gas emission inventory with ICLEI’s Clean Air and Climate Protection software. Portfolio Manager allows users to establish baseline energy performance in buildings, measure and track energy use and associated carbon emissions over time, and prioritize building upgrade investments. In addition to tracking energy use, Portfolio Manager includes features to allow users to track and manage water consumption.

To register, visit https://energystar.webex.com and click on the link for the May 29, 2008 training.

NACo Green Government Webinars

The National Association of Counties (through the support of the Green Government Initiative sponsors) will host a series of FREE green government webinars. The intended audience is any elected county official or county staff; however anyone interested in learning more about the county role in green government practices is encouraged to register. Participants will learn valuable background information on each subject, discover new resources, and hear case studies from various counties. See the list of topics and register.

Read the full story at News.com.

The trash-powered car may someday see the light of day.

CleanTech Biofuels is developing a multistep process designed to take municipal solid waste from a transfer station and turn out ethanol on the other side.

The company recently purchased the equipment and found a site in Golden, Colo., to test it using trash, as well other agricultural and forest wastes, to make ethanol. On Tuesday, it said that it trying to identify a site near landfills and garbage haulers to construct a commercial plant.

Read the full story at News.com.

Bragging rights in the PC industry have shifted from being cheap on price to efficient with energy.

Dell on Wednesday announced energy efficiency targets for its laptops and desktop PCs: a 25 percent reduction by 2010 based on the efficiency rating of today’s models.

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.greenercomputing.com/enewsletter.

The Promise and Pitfalls of E-Waste Takeback
By Mary Catherine O’Connor
Extended producer responsibility could end up being a burden for consumer electronics companies that fail to take proactive steps to develop a take-back program — but there’s no single blueprint to follow. This article takes an in-depth look and offers advice.

European Union to Promote Energy Efficiency Through ICT
The European Commission has identified three areas of the economy that can be improved through the use of efficient Information and Communications Technologies.

Fujitsu Unveils Green Initiative for Retailers
The company’s “Pervasive Green” initiative includes retail-oriented hardware that is RoHS and WEEE compliant, as well as new operational goals to reduce its own environmental footprint.

The Four Ms for Improving Energy Efficiency in Datacenters
As part of a new white paper, “Deciphering the EPA Report on Datacenter Energy Efficiency,” AFCO created four tenets to give data center managers a starting point for tackling power efficiency challenges.

3Com Provides Most Energy Efficient Networking: Study
Research firm In-Stat looks at the energy efficiency of Local Area Network switches and the ways networking vendors are going green in a new study.

Miercom Launches Green Certification Program for Networking Gear
Miercom’s Certified Green program rates networking equipment based on several criteria, such as power efficiency, heat dissipation, cooling requirements, energy efficiency and overall product efficiency.  Cisco Catalyst switches received the company’s first certification.

Berkeley Lab, Tensilica Collaborate on Energy-Efficient Climate-Modeling Supercomputer
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and processor maker Tensilica are working on making a cost-effective supercomputer for creating highly detailed climate models.

Craft a Green IT Action Plan
This report, made available specially to GreenerComputing readers by InfoTech, explains how to create an overall green IT plan and set up different types of projects.

The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:

• Innovalight’s Silicon Ink
• How Committed Is Canada?
• Inside Renewable Energy podcast: Utility Profit Decoupling; Building Integrated PV
• Cafe Musings (or How Clean Tech is Becoming Ubiquitous)

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The San Diego Airport is taking “a key leadership role” in the fight against global warming by agreeing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its major airport expansion, according to California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) and a coalition of consumer, health, and environmental groups on May 1 filed a legal petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, demanding the agency use its pesticide regulation authority to stop the sale of numerous consumer products using nano-sized versions of silver.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The U.S. Department of Energy has completed the 500th Energy Saving Assessment at the nation’s largest industrial facilities.

These assessments have helped companies identify opportunities to save over an estimated 80 trillion British Thermal Units of natural gas – roughly equivalent to the natural gas used in more than 1 million American homes – more than $800 million in potential energy savings. If all of the recommendations from the assessments conducted are fully implemented by the industrial facilities, the department estimates that 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be saved annually.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Terrabon, L.L.C. announced May 7 that it has broken ground on a biofuels conversion facility in Bryan, Texas, that will test the scaled-up, commercial feasibility of its MixAlco™ technology, which converts readily-available, low-cost, non-food biomass into chemicals that can be processed into ethanol and renewable gasoline fuels.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

There was a time when custodians at Lockport Township High School pushed cleaning cars packed with an array of spray bottles, spritzers and aerosol cans.

Today, they use just four spray bottles, filled with cleaners low on irritating chemicals and safer for students, staff and the environment.

“We took 10 chemicals off the shelves,” said Lockport custodial manager Ken Kirkland, whose school went green in 2003. “The whole point is we discovered that you don’t need a high industrial-strength cleaner to get a smudge mark off a desk.”

Now, all Illinois public elementary and secondary schools must follow Lockport’s lead.

The Green Cleaning Schools Act, which took effect on May 9, requires that schools use only cleaners that are certified as green and meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Small and mid-sized businesses can now “green” their operations with the “Greening Advisor”, a Web-based tool developed by Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation’s largest and most influential environmental organizations.

Read the press release.

UPS (NYSE: UPS) today announced it has ordered 200 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) - the largest commercial order of such trucks by any company - in addition to another 300 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles for its U.S. delivery fleet.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

The Energy Department said yesterday that the United States has the ability to meet 20 percent of its electricity-generation needs with wind by 2030, enough to displace 50 percent of natural gas consumption and 18 percent of coal consumption.

Read the full story in Occupational Health & Safety.

EPA Region 7 has developed fact sheets to inform plumbing, heating and cooling contractors who repair or replace mercury-containing gas regulators, pressure gauges, heat generators and thermostats about the health risks and liability issues associated with a mercury release.

The fact sheets (http://www.epa.gov/region07/mercury/#contractors) were created to help prevent mercury releases, which present a serious environmental and health problem. The information describes to contractors how to properly dismantle, contain and dispose of mercury-containing units. The fact sheets also provide information on how to clean up mercury releases, health effects of a mercury release, who to contact if there are questions, and how to report a release.

Read the full editorial in the New York Times.

Congress should realign its tax and subsidy programs to encourage the biofuels that will not compete for the world’s food supply.

Read the full commentary in the New York Times.

Farming has the potential to go through the greatest upheaval since the Green Revolution, bringing harvests that are more healthful, sustainable and flavorful.

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to http://www.greenbiz.com/enewsletter.

Co-Op America: Greening Businesses Large and Small
By Matthew Wheeland
The second annual Green Business Conference takes place in Chicago this month; in advance of the gathering GreenBiz Radio sat down with Denise Hamler, director of Co-Op America’s green business programs, to learn how the world of green business has grown.

Nike Leads Pack of Companies Improving Climate Performance
Companies such as Nike, Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss have taken strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and communicating those efforts in ways that are transparent to consumers, according to the second Climate Counts Company Scorecard.