Browsing environmental news sources so you don't have to. Contact Laura Barnes (lbarnes@istc.illinois.edu) with questions, comments, and suggestions.
Follow ENB on TwitterRead the full story in Environmental Protection.
Wetlands are complex reactors that facilitate numerous chemical and biological reactions, and these reactions can be exploited to remove pollutants. Today, engineers are able to design wetland systems that can clean up landfill leachate onsite.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) on June 11 testified before Congress on ways to improve sustainability and energy efficiency in housing while simultaneously supporting housing affordability.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
EcoMedia, an environmental media company, and CBS Corp. plan to work with U.S. mayors and local municipalities to “green” cities across the country. The project will use CBS’s local resources and leverage corporate advertising and sponsorship revenue to improve the quality of the environment in key markets across the nation.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
In a bid to control greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, the European Union has been operating the world’s first system to limit and to trade carbon dioxide. Despite its hasty adoption and somewhat rocky beginning three years ago, the EU “cap-and-trade” system has operated well and has had little or no negative impact on the overall EU economy, according to an MIT analysis.
The July 2008 issue of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) E-Bulletin is now available. Read this month’s issue to learn about:
EPA has developed a one-stop Web portal to help importers and exporters of goods meet requirements to protect human health and the environment. The portal provides information about:
The portal is being released in conjunction with the federal government’s update to the November 2007 Action Plan for Import Safety. The update summarizes achievements in import safety over the past several months and key steps planned to enhance the safety of imported goods.
EPA’s new Web portal is available at: epa.gov/compliance/international/importexport.html
Read the full story at News.com.
Nintendo is the least eco-friendly electronics maker, and Microsoft is barely better, according to Greenpeace. The environmental group rated the practices and designs of gadget makers lower than ever in its eighth quarterly report card (PDF).
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Recent storms and floods have highlighted the risks of an economy that has grown more dependent on corn for fuel.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
In the city of Qingdao thousands of people are mobilized to clean up an algal bloom choking the coastline and threatening to impede the competition.
Read the full story at News.com.
Revamping existing data centers can achieve energy efficiency close to those built from scratch to be greener, according to an early report Thursday from Accenture, which analyzed results of case studies backed by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
Four-time NBA All-Star LeBron James teams up with Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Help pro-social campaign this month in a brand-new online mini-game, LeBron James: Worldwide Big Green Bike-a-thon! that features James himself. Available now on http://www.biggreenhelp.com, players are asked to help a bike-riding LeBron avatar deliver green tips across the globe to rack up points and progress to the next level of play. In addition to the game, James will appear in a The Big Green Help public service announcement (PSA) airing throughout the summer. Designed to empower kids to take action on the environment, Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Help multiplatform campaign provides information and tools to help explain climate change to kids, and connect them to energy saving and earth-friendly activities in their everyday lives.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
John Deere plans to reduce its total global greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 2005 to 2014.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Starting next year, Sapporo Breweries will put a carbon label on cans of its Black Label draft beer stating how much carbon dioxide is emitted per can during the entire production and disposal process, the Daily Yomiuri reports.
Read the full story at News.com.
Someday, the electricity grid will operate with the equivalent of a giant hard drive. But in the short term, grid storage will look more like a PC’s cache or RAM, able to serve up small bursts of power to keep things from crashing.
A panel of experts, organized by the New England Clean Energy Council, earlier this week said that the utility storage field has enormous potential. But rapid deployment of storage devices is held back by concerns over technology risk and financial complexity.
Technology optimists say that wide-scale energy storage will change the face of the transmission grid and make wind and solar power more compelling economically.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
The freeze has caused widespread concern in the industry, forcing fledgling solar companies to wait just as demand for alternative energy is accelerating.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Threatened with steep fines if they dump too much trash, local governments in Britain are imposing strict regimens to force residents to produce less and recycle more.
American School & University, the Green Clean Network, and Healthy Schools Campaign are pleased to announce a summer series of free green cleaning webinars that will help your school begin a green cleaning program or take your green cleaning to the next level.
All webinars include expert insight and practical advice from a highly-regarded panel of green cleaning leaders including Steve Ashkin of the Ashkin Group LLC, Healthy Schools Campaign Deputy Director Mark Bishop, and award-winning facilities managers from schools recognized in the first annual Green Cleaning in Schools awards.
The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:
Via Docuticker.
Impacts on U.S. Energy Expenditures and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions of Increasing Renewable-Energy Use
Source: RAND CorporationThe penetration of renewable energy into the marketplace has been small, held back principally by their higher cost relative to fossil energy. RAND assessed the potential impacts on U.S. consumer energy expenditures and national CO2 emissions of producing 25 percent of U.S. electric power and motor-vehicle transportation fuels from renewable resources by the year 2025. The baseline for the comparisons was expenditures and CO2 emissions in 2025 as drawn from the reference-case tables of the Energy Information Administration’s 2006 Annual Energy Outlook. The report shows that increasing renewables use can reduce CO2 emissions and enhance energy security by lowering the cost of imported petroleum. However, a large, inexpensive, easily converted biomass supply is necessary for significantly increased renewable-energy use to have a relatively low impact on consumer energy expenditures. Rapid progress also is needed in the technologies converting biomass feedstock into transportation fuels, and producing power at marginal wind sites. Without progress in these areas, the renewable-energy requirement could substantially increase consumer energy expenditures. Technical advances in provision of economically and environmentally sound biomass energy and wind power generation at lower-quality sites should be top priorities for increasing affordable supplies of renewable energy. The report replaces an earlier version withdrawn in 2006 to correct errors in modeling discovered by RAND post-publication.
+ Summary (PDF; 157 KB)
+ Full Document (PDF; 965 KB)
+ Appendix A (PDF; 306 KB)
+ Appendix B (PDF; 168 KB)
Read the full story in the Wall Street Journal.
When it comes to alternative energy, here’s a thought: Maybe we’re looking for answers in all the wrong places. Forget scientists, forget corporate laboratories.
Instead, let’s go to the movies.
Over the years, screenwriters have come up with all sorts of creative ideas for alternative sources of energy. With gas prices where they are, it’s definitely time to take a closer look.
