·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:

• Video: Solar Perspectives Roundtable
• The Future of the Electric Car in China
• More State, County, City Governments Expected to Offer Residential Financing
• Nuclear Power: The Safe and Easy Way
• Distributed Generation and Utility Lineman Safety
• Clean-Energy Industry Can Power Northwest Economy, Job Creation, and Carbon Reduction
• Urban occupation

Read the press release.

The Aspen Institute has opened nominations for the second annual Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards. These awards, created by members of the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network, recognize and reward excellence for those making a real and concrete contribution to innovation, implementation, and communication of energy and environmental solutions. The deadline for nominations is October 31, 2008. Nominations can be made at www.aspeneeawards.org.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

A new range of everyday and industrial chemicals used in carpets and textiles up to aviation devices and medical equipment may soon be controlled or eliminated under an international hazardous substances treaty.

Read the full story in Plenty.

While major labels struggle with implementing eco initiatives, smaller labels pick up the slack

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) and Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are seeking input on a number of key research areas that have been identified in recent evaluations of bisphenol A (BPA). Information provided will be used to help focus future research and testing activities on BPA. This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and should not be construed as a funding opportunity or grant program. The NTP and NIEHS welcome input from the lay public, environmental health researchers, healthcare professionals, educators, policy makers, industry, and others with an interest in BPA.

Deadline: Please respond by December 1, 2008

• Federal Register Notice (21 October 2008)
• Request for Information (RFI): Ongoing Research and Research Needs for Biological Effects of Exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA)
• Submit responses

Via Docuticker.

League of Conservation Voters Releases 2008 National Environmental Scorecard
Source: League of Conservation Voters

The League of Conservation Voters, which works to turn environmental values into national priorities, today released the 2008 National Environmental Scorecard. For 30 years, the non-partisan National Environmental Scorecard from LCV has been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate Members of Congress on conservation and energy issues.
…
The 2008 Scorecard includes 11 Senate and 13 House votes dominated by energy but also encompassing other environmental issues. This year, 67 House members and 27 senators earned a perfect 100 percent score, which is significantly higher than the 33 House members and 3 senators who earned a 100 percent in 2007. This year, 70 House members and 2 senators earned an appalling score of zero percent, compared with 48 house members and 9 senators in 2007.

The average House score in 2008 was 56 percent, and the average Senate score was 57 percent, which is slightly higher than the 53 percent House and 52 percent Senate averages in 2007. California, Connecticut, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin all had perfect Senate averages of 100 percent, while Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina’s senators averaged just 9 percent. In the House, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and Maryland all averaged above 90 percent, while Montana and Wyoming were both below 10 percent.

+ National Environmental Scorecard 08

Via Docuticker.

Stagnant Waters: 2008 Clean Water Act Report
Source: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

On the eve of the 36th anniversary of the enactment of the Clean Water Act (October 18), Rep. James L. Oberstar, Chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, released the attached report on the status of the nation’s waters under the Bush Administration.

This landmark environmental statute, which established a national commitment to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters, has been undermined and weakened by the Bush administration, and many Federal clean water protections have been eliminated in the past eight years.

Via Docuticker.

Agriculture as a Source of Fuel: Prospects and Impacts, 2007 to 2017 (PDF; 61 KB)
Source: Conference on Biofuels, Food & Feed Tradeoffs; Sponsored by Farm Foundation, USDA’s Office of Energy Policy and New Uses

For most of the period since 1978 when the first federal legislation to encourage ethanol production was enacted, U.S. agriculture served in a relatively minor role as a source of renewable fuels. Starting with the federal Clean Air Act of 1990 which mandated oxygenated gasoline in certain cities to improve air quality, ethanol and its petroleum alternative, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), provided the needed additive until MTBE came into disfavor for contaminating groundwater. In the past five years, ethanol production has nearly tripled, and biodiesel production has increased ten fold although at a much lower level than ethanol. As a result, this growth has recently elevated the prices of the major feedstocks of corn and soybean oil. Federal and state policies have encouraged this acceleration, prompted by a combination of (1) sharply rising energy prices, (2) increased dependence on supplies of crude oil from nations hostile to the U.S. or with unstable political structures, (3) growing environmental concerns including global warming, (4) issues related to balance of payments, (5) depressed farm prices and high farm program costs and (6) ongoing efforts to promote rural development.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have released the report, Energy Efficiency in Data Centers: Recommendations for Government-Industry Coordination, which details the discussions and recommendations covered during a national strategy workshop on July 8, 2008. The workshop, convened by DOE and EPA, gathered representatives from industry, utilities, associations, and NGOs to identify the next steps for public and private collaboration toward advancing toward the goal of improved energy efficiency in data centers.

The report provides recommendations for key areas of collaboration between government and industry and detailed descriptions of interactive sessions in which workshop participants identified gaps and opportunities related to defining, advancing and rewarding energy efficient data centers. In addition, the report includes point papers presented by workshop presenters that highlight current trends in data center energy efficiency.

U.S. data centers consume a growing portion of the U.S. energy/electricity supply due to growing demand for the services they provide. Data centers used 61 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006, representing 1.5% of all U.S. electricity consumption—double the amount consumed in 2000. Based on current trends, energy consumed by data centers will continue to grow by 12% per year.

The workshop and report are part of a joint national data center energy efficiency information program initiated by the U.S. DOE and the U.S. EPA. The program coordinates a wide variety of activities from both agencies including Save Energy Now, ENERGY STAR® for products and buildings, and the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP).

To view the report or to learn more about the national data center energy efficiency information program, visit DOE’s Partnering with Computer Data Centers Web page and EPA’s Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives Web page.