·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in the San Diego Union-Trubune.

Since November, Bill Stephens and his fellow water cops have issued more than 450 warnings and tickets to water wasters in Riverside County. They’ve targeted commercial, industrial and institutional customers in the Eastern Municipal Water District from Moreno Valley to Temecula.

This month, Stephens started to cite residents for excessively using water. After two warnings, homeowners will be fined $100 or more.

Read the full story in the Lansing State Journal.

Saying it’s only fair, Michigan lawmakers plan to raise residential electricity bills and drop business rates so all customers are charged the true cost of their power.

But when it comes to figuring out who should pay what for new renewable energy requirements, the playing field wouldn’t be even.

Though residents account for one-third of Detroit Edison’s electric sales, they would contribute two-thirds of what Michigan’s largest utility could collect from customers for wind and other sources of alternative power under bills that have passed the House and Senate.

Residential customers of Consumers Energy account for just over one-third of sales yet would pay nearly half the maximum amount charged by the state’s second-biggest utility for renewable energy.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

An international team of scientists, headed by Prof. Daniel Rosenfeld of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has concluded that air pollution can either increase or decrease rainfall, depending on local environmental conditions. The determination of this issue is one with significant consequences in an era of climate change and specifically in areas suffering from manmade pollution and water shortages, including Israel, according to the researchers. A paper on the work appears in the 5 September issue of the journal Science.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

Arizona State University (ASU) has entered into a research and commercialization collaboration with Heliae Development, LLC and Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) to develop, produce and sell bio-kerosene-based aviation fuel derived from algae.

Read the press release from the City of Wichita.

City of Wichita officials unveiled a fleet of 12 Honda Civic hybrid vehicles during Friday morning news conference at Century II, saying the 2008 model vehicles will be placed in service in September.

Read the full press release from Washington University St. Louis.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are proposing to borrow a process used in breweries and wastewater treatment facilities to make corn ethanol more energy efficient. They are exploring the use of oxygen-less vats of microorganisms that naturally feed on organic waste produced from the ethanol fermentation process.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

Every summer, Calleva Inc.’s adventure camp near Poolsville, Md., offers teens and preteens the opportunity to spend a week exploring outdoor adventures including lessons in kayaking, sailing—and biodiesel production.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Even closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, each set uniquely adapted to the individual plant’s specific habitat. Comparing anti-fungals produced by tobacco and henbane, an international team of researchers discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture. Making fewer changes led to a mixture of henbane and tobacco-specific molecules and even so-called “chemical hybrids,” explaining how plants can tinker with their natural chemical factories and adjust their product line to a changing environment without shutting down intracellular chemical factories completely.

Read the full post at Biopact.

In the Earth’s history, periods of relatively stable climate have often been interrupted by sharp transitions to a contrasting state. For instance, glaciation periods typically ended suddenly. About 34 million years ago the Earth’s long lasting tropical state in which most recent life forms evolved, shifted abruptly and irreversibly to a cooler state with ice caps. This shift is known as the “Greenhouse-Icehouse-Transition”. Scientists long suspected that such sharp transitions – called “Abrupt Climate Change” (ACC) events – might be related to tipping points where positive feedback mechanisms lead to self-propelling change. They have now found typical warning signals that preceded the onset of such ACC events in the past. The findings are highly relevant to the current debate about how to mitigate climate change, and to the question of whether we should prepare for ACC.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in London have developed a system that eliminates the need for antibiotics and resistance genes in the engineering of industrial and medical products. The method involves safer, less costly alternatives and is well suited for industrial production of many types of biofuels and biopharmaceuticals. The research has been published as an open access article in BMC Biotechnology.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Meeting the world’s growing energy needs while responding to global warming during the 21st Century will be one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced, say scientists in a set of interesting but basic podcasts produced by the American Chemical Society for its Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions series. However, there are many renewable energy solutions and revolutionary energy concepts that are becoming ever more feasible, they say.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Scientists from Ohio State University have developed a very cheap non-precious metal catalyst that converts biofuels like ethanol into hydrogen with an efficiency of up to 90%. This development opens up a future of decentralised, on-the-spot hydrogen production for use in fuel cell cars. What is more, it makes the prospect of a carbon-negative transportation fuel more realistic.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Scientists at Michigan State University have identified a new protein necessary for chloroplast development, which might lead to a whole new class of energy crops. The discovery allows researchers to design crops that grow oil in their leaves, stems or roots, instead of only in their seeds. The first lab trials with such engineered crops are already under way: a type of cold-tolerant root-crop (rutabaga) has been modified to become ‘oily’, growing biomass with the consistency of an avocado, full of easily extractable oil.

Read the full post at Biopact.

A little known fungus tucked away in the gut of Asian longhorned beetles helps the insect munch through the hardest of woods according to a team of entomologists and biochemists. Researchers say the discovery could lead to innovative methods of controlling the invasive pest, and potentially offer more efficient ways of breaking down plant biomass for generating next-generation biofuels. The findings will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Over the past few months, stories about the dramatic die-off of bee colonies have grabbed headlines. In the U.S., the situation is critical, with the phenomenon – dubbed “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) – eliminating anywhere between 30 and 70 percent of all bee-hives. The situation is not much better in Europe. According to many scientists, the collapse of bee colonies is due to a complex cocktail of factors: the use of pesticides and insecticides, the emergence of a destructive mite which helps spread a deadly virus, a changing climate, the reliance on monocultures and a general lack of biodiversity. Tackling this crisis is crucial, because bees pollinate a whole range of crops – from oranges to soy beans – which provide 30% of all our food.

Perhaps the key to solving the problem can be found in growing energy crops. Here is how and why.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University are combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, or garbage.

Read the full post at Biopact.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), one of America’s most important national science labs, has signed an $89 million energy savings performance contract with Johnson Controls, Inc. to apply advanced energy conservation solutions and to build a biomass gasification system with a ’super boiler’ to power its campuses. Being the most competitive and reliable of all renewable energy systems, the biomass power plant will reduce the lab’s fossil fuel requirements by 80% and, in combination with conservation efforts, push down energy costs dramatically.

Read the full story in The Statesman.

Stony Brook University is starting to become a little more environmentally conscious with a new initiative to retrofit the campus buses by converting their engines to run off of vegetable oil, a cleaner burning fuel.

Read the full story in the Frederick News-Post.

While world leaders and scientists debate global warming and its potential far-reaching effects, one local student is working to fix the problems he believes his generation faces.

Monocacy Middle School seventh-grader Ben Freed, 12, recently was named one of 300 semifinalists in the Society for Science and the Public’s national middle school science competition for his project on biodiesel production.

Read the full story in the New Mexico State University Round Up.

As part of the worldwide search for alternative energy resources, a two-year-old NMSU project headed by area researchers to turn algae into biodiesel has proven to be highly successful.

Read the full story in Forbes.

A pair of Missouri universities and electric companies announced plans Friday to use the carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants to grow green pond scum that could be turned into biofuel.

Read the full story in the Dayton Business Journal.

Students at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center will gain first-hand experience with the science of biodiesel this year as they work to convert vegetable oil from the cafeteria to biodiesel fuel for the vocational school’s diesel vehicles.

Via Treehugger.

:: Travel green in one of the world’s most polluted cities: Mexico City.

:: Make a scrumptious and seasonal Green Bean Salad with Pumpkin Seed Dressing.

:: Instead of tossing your orange peels, put ‘em to good use!

Read the full post at Treehugger.

Sorry for the somewhat cryptic title, but with the recent announcement that researchers from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire have genetically engineered a bacteria that could aid in cellulosic ethanol production , and now this following announcement from the UK, it some seemed appropriate. Don’t know if there was any mental cross-pollination here, but the two discoveries share the same principle: By using thermophilic bacteria in the cellulosic ethanol production process, the whole thing can be made more energy efficient. Here are the details:

Science Daily reports that researchers from Guildford have developed a new strain of bacteria which can aid in the processing of cellulosic ethanol, making the procedure more efficient and less costly than traditional fermentation processes.

Read the full post at Treehugger.

It’s been a pretty long road to making cellulosic ethanol commercially viable. As it stands there is one demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States, and the the first commercial-scale biorefinery recently received approval back in July. Suffice it to say, cellulosic ethanol holds promise but is a work in progress.

Now comes word that researchers have engineered a bacteria which they say will make manufacturing the biofuel less expensive. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science but Reuters gives the details for those of us who aren’t subscribers.

Read the full post at Treehugger.

Silver Lake Chamber of Commerce – Green Committee (SLCC-GC) was working overtime at this year’s Sunset Junction Street Festival to help both vendors and attendees “Think Before You Toss.” As part of their Zero Waste Initiative, the SLCC-GC encouraged the over 25,000 attendees to not only sort their recycling but also to compost.

Read the full post at Treehugger.

There are a number of companies trying to produce a biofuel alternative to petroleum-based aviation fuels, and a number of airlines have made biofuel test flights using various mixtures of biofuels, but none are yet available in commercial quantities. Another milemarker has been passed on the road to greener aviation (and for the moment let’s overlook the bigger question of whether aviation could ever really be green) Algae-innovator Solazyme has announced that its bio-kerosene has passed the ASTM’s requirements for “Aviation Turbine Fuel”.

Read the full story in Treehugger.

In much the same way that more ice/snow reflects UV rays instead of absorbing the heat the way the oceans do (think: feedback loop that results from melting polar ice caps), cities are now giving white roofs a second look as a way to cool cities and fight climate change. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Climate Change Research Conference, held this week, advised that if buildings and road surfaces in 100 of the largest cities in the US were covered with lighter and heat-reflective surfaces the savings could be massive. Roofs account for 25% and pavement account for 35% of surface area in cities.

Read the full story from ABC News.

Should we be worried about pesticides in groundwater contaminating the water we drink and the food we eat?

According to many public health and environment officials nationwide, the answer is yes.

In the last year and a half, public interest law firm Earthjustice has filed four federal lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency concerning the use of pesticides.

Many of the pesticides at the center of those legal battles are the same pesticides that recently surfaced as cause for concern in the state of Oregon. Of seven pesticides highlighted as contaminating groundwater in Oregon — three of which are listed as possibly or likely to cause cancer by the EPA — only two are are not subjects of Earthjustice’s pending lawsuits.

Read the full story in ES&T.

In January 2008, the U.S. EPA launched a program that asks industries to submit available information about the nanomaterials that they manufacture or use. The voluntary program, called the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP), was intended to provide basic information to help guide regulatory decisions. In the 7 months since its launch, 22 companies have reported to EPA, but critics say that the program is creeping along and that the human-health and environmental risks of this rapidly growing technology remain uncertain.

In the meantime, markets are filling up with products made of these small but powerful nanomaterials. From toothpaste to bacteria-free socks, and even including a swimsuit and running shoes used at the recent Olympics in Beijing, there are 803 products that reportedly contain nanomaterials, according to an analysis by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), a nonpartisan group.

Despite the promise of nanotechnology improving our lives, the potential risks of the technology remain largely uncertain. While researchers try to bridge the data gap to help risk assessors, experts around the world are emphasizing the need to regulate and oversee manufacturers to minimize potential risks from exposure to nanomaterials in workers, consumers, and wildlife.

Read the full story in ES&T.

In the unfolding global biodiversity crisis, freshwater ecosystems are losing even more species than terrestrial or marine environments are. Evidence points to dam construction and biological invasions as major culprits in these losses. In the U.S. alone, more than 80,000 major dams and 2.5 million smaller impoundments (such as reservoirs) have altered natural hydrology, and nearly 1000 introduced species now disrupt native aquatic systems. A new study published in the September issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2008, 6, 357–363) concludes that dam construction and biological invasions are closely linked.

Read the full story in ES&T.

The only antibiotic approved for use in milk cows shows up in groundwater near dairy operations, entering the environment from farm waste lagoons and other possible sources. In a study published this month in a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality (2008, 37, S-78–S-85), researchers have documented for the first time just how far the drug monensin can travel in the environment. But questions remain about the veterinary pharmaceutical’s environmental impacts as well as its breakdown products.