·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Answering the call of state and local governments to give them more involvement in the development of federal environmental rules, EPA has a new policy to broaden its consulting efforts with intergovernmental partners when new regulations and policies cost more than $25 million each. This is a significant lowering of the previous consultation threshold of $100 million.

“State and local officials often serve as the ‘front line’ managers of federally mandated environmental regulations,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock. “If we want good rules, early consultation with these partners is crucial.”

EPA’s new policy updates existing policy that was put in place to carry out Executive Order 13132, Federalism. The order requires the federal government to consult with elected state and local government officials before proposing regulations or actions that have substantial direct effects below the national level, either by virtue of their implementation costs or their preemption of state or local authority.

When the order was first issued in 1999, EPA and other federal agencies adopted an interpretation of “substantial direct effects” consistent with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA), a 1995 law that set the state and local consultation threshold at $100 million per rule. Based on its experience in conducting rulemakings over the last several years, EPA has determined a need for state and local input on a wider range of regulations and is lowering the consultation threshold to $25 million.

EPA’s action comes at a time when state and local officials are calling for a stronger working relationship with their federal partners in solving many of today’s major environmental challenges. The National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, the International City/County Management Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors recently issued a joint statement urging the incoming Administration to “adopt a policy of constructive engagement” and to “cooperate and consult with state and local leaders.” These seven associations, along with three others (National Association of Towns and Townships, County Executives of America, and Environmental Council of the States), constitute the group of 10 organizations with whom EPA will consult under its new Federalism policy.

More information on how EPA develops regulations: http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/index.html

To view Executive Order 13132: Federalism: http://www.epa.gov/fedreg/eo/eo13132.htm

Read the full story in Water & Wastewater News.

Pollution by phosphorous and nitrogen isn’t just bad for lakes, streams, and other bodies of freshwater. According to researchers at Kansas State University, it’s also bad for Americans’ pocketbooks.

Read the full post at EcoGeek.

There’s good news for The New York Times, at least about their building. The New York Times Building was designed to use 1.28 watts per square foot of lighting, but with the installation of a lighting management system, they’ve actually only used .38 watts per square foot, a 70 percent savings. That reduction in energy use translates into savings of $315,000 and 1,250 metric tons of CO2 a year for the building.

Popular Science has compiled it’s annual Best of What’s New list. The GreenTech winners include:

• Serious Materials EcoRock
• Electratherm Green Machine
• Envirofit Clean Cookstove
• Enphase Energy Micro-inverter System
• Mariah Power Windspire
• Agroplast All-in-One

Via Docuticker.

How Green Is the Deal? The Growing Role of Sustainability in M&A
Source: Deloitte LLP

The “greening” of products and business operations has become a central theme in virtually every industry. In today’s environment, companies that have strong corporate responsibility and sustainability (CR&S) programs in place are likely to be rewarded for their efforts. As CR&S wields growing influence on the strategy and operations of a company, so too will it become an increasingly important aspect of mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

In this paper, we provide an outline of six key areas of focus for executives, and discuss how greater consideration of sustainability related issues, when evaluating potential M&A transactions, can help to improve deal success.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 721 KB)

Free registration required.

Read the full story in Plenty Magazine.

As enviro-minded consumer choices go mainstream, even traditionally un-eco businesses like convenience marts are implementing environmental initiatives

Read the full story in Plenty Magazine.

The US military is fighting a new enemy: global warming. But is the Pentagon really going green, or just trying to save money? Judge for yourself.

Read the full story in Biopact.

Interesting developments in both solar thermal and bioenergy allow us to envision a relatively low-cost future of carbon-negative baseload power. The more energy one would use from this power plant, the more one would be solving the climate crisis. Read that again: the more you consume, the better for the planet. Best of all, ‘negative emissions energy’ can be done by taking over the enemy: coal-fired power plants into which we plug renewables and CCS.

Read the full story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

A passionate, witty young filmmaker-ecologist named Josh Tickell is hoping that his film “Fuel” catches on in the green environs of Seattle, Portland and Austin, Texas, and has a cross-country run comparable to the biodiesel powered “Veggie Van” in which he took to the road a decade ago.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

The U.S. EPA has published a compliance assistance manual for biodiesel producers.

Published by the EPA’s Region 7 Biofuels Work Group, the manual titled “Environmental Laws Applicable to Construction and Operation of Biodiesel Production Facilities” provides information about federal environmental programs and the roles that federal, state, and local agencies play in relation to companies interested in designing, building, and operating biodiesel manufacturing facilities.

Read the full post at Biopact.

A few days ago some of the world’s leading climate scientists wrote that we need to be far more active in cutting carbon emissions, urgently. Currently, atmospheric CO2 levels are at 383ppm and we need to go back to 350ppm if we want to keep the planet liveable. This implies a range of technologies that actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere, such as biochar, reforestation and carbon-negative bioenergy (i.e. biomass coupled to CCS). Now professor Tim Flannery, chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council and the Australian equivalent of Al Gore, joins in saying we must use biological means to tackle a crisis that could otherwise end in a catastrophe much earlier than expected.

Read the full story in the Coloradoan.

The city of Fort Collins and Rocky Mountain Sustainable Enterprises, or RMSE, are having its second annual Holiday recycOil event to help residents recycle waste fryer oil after Thanksgiving. This will divert hundreds of gallons of waste vegetable oil from municipal sewer systems and landfills. So take that leftover vegetable oil to our one-day collection event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 29 at the city’s Rivendell Recycling Facility, 1702 Riverside Drive. The oil will be used to manufacture biodiesel.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

Renewable Energy Group Inc. has received a $740,000 grant from the Iowa Power Fund to staff a new state-of-the-art biodiesel research and feedstock commercialization lab at its headquarters in Ames, Iowa.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Wal-Mart has signed a contract to help power hundreds of its stores using wind energy, one of the largest investments in the field by a U.S. retailer.

The four-year agreement with Duke Energy is expected to provide up to 226 million kilowatt-hours of power each year to about 360 stores and distribution centers in Texas, about 15 percent of the total electricity used. The company said the purchase will result in the reduction of about 139,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of what 25,000 cars would emit.

Read the full Associated Press story.

In future years we may look back at the Great Mexican Tortilla Crisis of 2006 as the time when ethanol lost its vroom.

Right or wrong, that was when blame firmly settled on biofuels for the surge in food prices. The diversion of American corn from flour to fuel put the flat corn bread out of reach for Mexico’s poorest.

Two years later, the search is on for ways to keep corn on the table rather than in the gas tank. Moving away from food crops, the biofuel of the future may come from the tall grass growing wild by the roadside, from grain stalks left behind by the harvest, and from garbage dumps and dinner table scraps.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Phoenix fire officials say they have seen a trend of area residents using chemicals like methanol and lye to make cheap fuel.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

The federal government has invested billions of dollars over the past 16 years, building a fleet of 112,000 alternative-fuel vehicles to serve as a model for a national movement away from fossil fuels.

But the costly effort to put more workers into vehicles powered by ethanol and other fuel alternatives has been fraught with problems, many of them caused by buying vehicles before fuel stations were in place to support them, a Washington Post analysis of federal records shows.

Read the press release.

It might be difficult to see the future of hybrid automobile efficiency underneath the grime surrounding an unpainted 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle.

“That’s the fun. By the time we’re done, it’s going to be totally different, and it’s going to be great,” says Lou McKown, a University of Kansas senior in mechanical engineering.The EcoHawks hard at work on a 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle

For his senior project, McKown is part of a team called the EcoHawks, that is taking the iconic round vehicle and transforming it from a motionless heap to a fully integrated hybrid vehicle by the end of the school year.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Landfill sites produce the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, as putrescible waste decays. Growing selected plants and trees on top of a landfill, a process known as ‘phytocapping’, could reduce the production and release of these gases, according to Australian scientists writing in a forthcoming issue of International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management. What is more, the technique allows urban communities to build new green spaces in and around their cities. When phytocapping is carried out well, the former garbage sites can even become biodiversity corridors for species that were previously chased out of the city-scape.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) are launching a project to develop a Web-based, interactive modeling tool that can be used to analyze the likely impact and potential viability of proposed technologies and policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty vehicle sector. As a test case for the development of the tool, the researchers are using President-elect Barack Obama’s proposal to put a million US-made plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) getting 150 mpg on the road by 2015.

Read the full story in the Oregonian.

When Lisa Frack, the indomitable blogger and moderator of Activistas, invited me to a green cleaning party, I was intrigued. Making your own household cleaners sounds like such a self-sufficient thing to do. Not to mention cheaper than buying spendy eco-friendly stuff I’ve switched to since becoming a mom.

Read the full story from InfoZine.

Particularly in a turbulent and tough economy filled with uncertainty on so many fronts, why pay more than necessary to power your home when you can use the money for other things? The Alliance to Save Energy offers a number of no-cost/low-cost home energy-efficiency tips that pay off in lower monthly energy bills, reduced pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and improved comfort and energy security.

Read the full story at CNBC.

According to Energy Star, a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department, the average U.S. business can save 30 percent or more on their bills through money-saving investments in energy efficiency.

Read the full story in Small Times.

Friction is the bane of any machine. When moving parts are subject to friction, it takes more energy to move them, the machine doesn’t operate as efficiently, and the parts have a tendency to wear out over time. But if you could manufacture parts that had tough, “slippery” surfaces, there’d be less friction, requiring less input energy and the parts would last longer. Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are collaborating with other research labs, universities, and industrial partners to develop just such a coating.

Read the full story in the Washington Times.

As energy costs continue to soar and the colder winter months are approaching, more homeowners are taking proactive steps to ensure their homes are energy-efficient, as the “green factor” of a home is becoming more of a priority for potential buyers in the current market. Sellers and buyers who want to ensure they have the latest tips, referrals and resources on energy usage in the home can opt to work with an EcoBroker, a Realtor who has been trained by EcoBroker International (www.ecobroker.com) to understand the complexities of green homes, sustainable design and healthier environments.

Read the full story in Enterprise Management Quarterly.

Enterprises constantly evaluate their organizations to optimize costs.  For IT managers, an economic squeeze means doing more with less as spending freezes can threaten energy efficiency goals.

However, careful planning and network design choices offer some of the smartest ways yet to maximize energy efficiency while controlling costs.

Read the full story in the Oklahoman.

Q: What really makes one home energy-efficient and another one not? We’ve done a few things over the years to save energy in our home. Just how much has to be done before a home can really be called efficient?

Read the full story in USA Today.

Low-income people who live in old or flimsy housing are becoming prime targets for cities and groups intent on slashing energy use.

Recent efforts to cut energy consumption in the home have focused on new construction, often in more affluent areas and public buildings. Now, community organizations and cities that have embraced the green effort are homing in on low-income houses and apartments to reduce emissions and help poor people lower their utility bills.

Read the full story in the Boston Globe.

The worldwide economic crisis is prompting a growing number of countries to back away from pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and invest in clean energy, just a week before the start of talks in Poland on a new worldwide climate change treaty.

In the United States, some business groups are calling on President-elect Barack Obama to move cautiously in tackling global warming, saying that a too aggressive response could prolong the economic downturn and cost jobs.

But a growing chorus of other businesses, environmentalists, and politicians are calling for a green-based economic recovery.

An enormous federal government investment in clean technology would provide low-cost capital to accelerate energy efficiency, build massive renewable energy projects, and jumpstart a sustainable low-carbon economy, these groups say. Such a Green New Deal, woven into the economic stimulus package being crafted for early next year, could create millions of government-subsidized jobs and build a new energy infrastructure.

Read the full post in the Freakonomics Blog.

I’ve never thought much about my toilet. (Though we’ve discussed toilets on this blog here, here, and here.)

It usually does its job; sometimes it needs a little help from the plunger.

Rose George’s new book The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters not only got me wildly interested in my toilet, but also in what happens after I use it.

In her book, she discusses why we should pay a lot of attention to an issue that affects everyone — several times a day — and why aversion to it (on a personal and global level) isn’t doing us any good.

George holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She has written for The Nation, Slate, Details, The New York Times, and many other publications.

She has agreed to answer our questions about her book. But first, she has a question for Freakonomics blog readers:

Do you ever wonder what happens after you flush the toilet? If you don’t, why not?

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The Air & Waste Management Association has issued a call for abstracts for “Practical Sustainability,” a conference to be held May 7-8, 2009, in St. Louis, Mo. The conference will focus on sustainability measurement in organizations. “Practical Sustainability” will provide a forum for the exchange of information on how organizations are measuring and demonstrating sustainability in ways that make business sense financially and culturally.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has released a report describing research and development activities that could decrease use of natural resources and improve indoor environments while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants from the building sector.

The report, Federal R&D Agenda for Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Green Buildings, was produced by the NSTC’s Buildings Technology Research and Development Subcommittee under the auspices of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President.

Read the full report from Deloitte Development.

While many people are making changes at home to reduce their environmental impact, they’re not carrying this behavior over to the workplace.

Bridging this behavioral gap requires businesses to understand their green performance, provide a platform with guidance for how employees can engage in greening at work, credibly communicate greening internally and externally, and reward green behaviors in a creative and authentic way. While there’s no one specific approach that works for every organization, all greening success stories contain the following elements:

• Provide transparency into sustainable performance
• Create a platform that provides support
• Communicate the message in a “green” way
• Create rewards and incentives that align program intents with actions

Status of GSA’s Implementation of Selected Green Building Provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.  GAO-09-111R, October 31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-111R

Aviation and the Environment:  Initial Voluntary Airport Low Emissions Program Projects Reduce Emissions, and FAA Plans to Assess the Program’s Overall Performance as Participation Increases.  GAO-09-37, November 7.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-37
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0937high.pdf

Energy Efficiency: Potential Fuel Savings Generated by a National Speed Limit Would Be Influenced by Many Other Factors. GAO-09-153R, November 7.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-153R

EPA is now accepting nominations for the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. These awards recognize innovative chemical technologies that incorporate green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture and use — and that have broad applications in industry.

Nominated technologies should reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances from a chemical product or process. Any individual, group or organization, both nonprofit and for-profit, including academia and industry, may nominate a green chemistry technology for these awards. Self-nominations are welcome and expected. Each nominated technology must have reached a significant milestone within the past five years in the United States. Typically, awards are given each year in five categories: Greener Synthetic Pathways; Greener Reaction Conditions; Designing Greener Chemicals; Small Business; and Academic.

Nominations must be sent no later than Dec. 31 to be eligible for the 2009 awards, which will be presented on June 22, 2009. For more information on the nomination and awards process see: http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/howto.html. You can link directly to the 2009 nomination package at: http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/docs/nomination_package_for_2009_awards.pdf. For examples of last year’s nominations and award winners, see: http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html.

If you have questions about the nomination process or awards, please write to EPA at: greenchemistry@epa.gov.

To subscribe to the Green Chemistry list serve and to receive the periodic Green Chemistry Newsletter with reminders and updates, send an email to lyris@lists.epa.gov with the subject line “subscribe green_chemistry FirstName LastName.” Substitute your first and last name into the subject line. You will receive a confirmation email.

For more information:
http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/docs/nomination_package_for_2009_awards.pdf

Via Docuticker.

Republican Energy Report Calls for Policy Addressing Realities of Global Economy, Climate Change, and National Security
Source: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on Domestic Policy (minority)

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) and Domestic Policy Subcommittee Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today released a report examining challenges and opportunities for the United States amidst changing realities in the global energy economy and debate over climate change. The report affirms that any effective energy solution must take an “all-of-the-above” approach to different methods of achieving energy independence and also warns that energy security and global environmental challenges cannot be effectively addressed separately.

+ Full Report (PDF; 468 KB)

Read the press release from the Basal Action Network.

The Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition joined today with 32 electronics recyclers in the United States and Canada to announce that the e-Stewards program, which identifies the most responsible recyclers in North America, is soon to be fully accredited and certified.

The e-Steward Certification will be the continent’s first independently audited and accredited electronic waste recycler certification program. It will forbid the dumping of toxic e-waste in developing countries, local landfills and incinerators; the use of prison labor to process e-waste; and the unauthorized release of private data contained in discarded computers.

Read the press release from the American Society for Horticultural Science.

To combat parasites like root-knot nematodes without the use of chemical pesticides, scientists are focusing more research on developing new, parasite-resistant varieties of vegetables. Dr. Judy Thies, a research plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, was part of a team of scientists who developed the Charleston Belle variety of bell pepper, the first nematode-resistant bell pepper.

In a study published in the February issue of the American Society for Horticultural Science’s journal HortScience, Dr. Thies and her colleagues tested the stability of two types of bell peppers, Charleston Belle and Carolina Wonder. Thies explained, “These two types of pepper cultivars are the only nematode-resistant varieties available to commercial growers and home gardeners. Since a large percentage of bell pepper production in the U.S. occurs in the Southeastern U.S., and in particular Florida, we tested the peppers for resistance to nematodes in sub-tropical climates to determine if the cultivars were stable when grown in Florida under high soil temperatures. It is important to know whether the peppers’ resistance to parasites breaks down when peppers are grown in hot climates.”

Read the full story in EE Times.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is co-developing a collaborative Web site aimed at establishing standard methods for minimizing the environmental, health and safety risks of nanotechnology.

Nanoscale materials have alternatively been shown to offer promising new cancer therapies while at the same time causing cancer when not properly handled. Those concerns prompted NIST and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to create a Wikipedia-style community to establish safe nanotechnology development techniques.

Read the full article in Environmental Health Perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Hypospadias is one of the commonest urogenital congenital anomaliesaffecting baby boys. Prevalence estimates in Europe range from 4 to 24 per 10,000 births, depending on definition with higher rates reported from the United States. Relatively little is known about potential risk factors, but a role for endocrine disrupting chemicals has been proposed.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate risk of hypospadias associated with occupational exposure of the mother to endocrine disruptor chemicals, use of folate supplementation during pregnancy, and vegetarianism.

DESIGN: Case-control study of 471 hypospadias cases referred to surgeons, and 490 randomly selected birth controls, born 1 January 1997 to 30 September 1998, south-east England. Telephone interview of mothers, including information on folate supplementation during pregnancy and vegetarianism, and a job exposure matrix to classify occupational exposure.

RESULTS: In multiple logistic regression analysis, there were increased risks for self-reported occupational exposure to hairspray (exposed vs non exposed OR 2.39 95% CI 1.40, 4.17), and phthalate exposure obtained by a job exposure matrix (OR 3.12 95% CI 1.04, 11.46). There was a significant protective effect of folate use during the first three months of pregnancy (OR 0.64 95% CI 0.44, 0.93). Vegetarianism was not associated with hypospadias risk.

CONCLUSIONS: Excess risks of hypospadias associated with occupational exposures to phthalates and hair spray suggest that anti-androgenic endocrine disrupting chemicals may play a role in hypospadias. Folate supplementation in early pregnancy may be
protective.

Get TURI Technical Report No. 59.

During 2007 and 2008, the Institute worked with representatives from Benchmark Electronics, Brooks Instrument, and Emerson Process Management to conduct and document a lead-free electronics implementation for a high reliability electronics product that is exempt from the European RoHS Directive. The research information provided by the New England Lead-free Consortium, as well as the information contained in this case study, is of high value to companies that need to transition to lead-free electronics for their high reliability products. The Institute’s university research program continues to fund research efforts to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in the electronics industry.

Another special report from Time Magazine, this time on the problem of climate change and what the U.S. can do to help solve it.

This special report by Time Magazine profiles people they define as “eco-pioneers fighting for a cleaner, greener future.”

Read the full story in Time Magazine.

Thanks in part to a new tax credit put into place by Congress in October, owning your own wind turbine could be the next green trend. While it’s true that wind power has taken off in the U.S.–adding more in new capacity to the electrical grid last year than any other power source–most of that increase comes from utility wind farms, vast fields of turbines more than 300 ft. (90 m) tall. For homeowners seeking renewable-energy sources, however, better-known solar power has always dominated. Home solar power currently generates 12 times as much energy as small-wind power, which is defined as turbines that have a capacity of 100 kW or less (though most household turbines will produce 10 kW at most). That’s partly due to the fact that residential wind turbines require space and sky–at least half an acre of open land–to get access to consistent winds. Still, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), some 15 million homes in the U.S. fit that definition–and small turbines, unlike large wind farms, can be productive in weaker breezes, which puts more of the country in play, though the best areas are still windy spots like the Midwest or West Texas.

Read the full story in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.

The environmental measures initiated by students at the READY Program – turning off lights when no one is in the room, laminating hall passes to save paper, recycling whatever they can – are probably saving the school some pennies.

But they’ve also brought in some real money to the school and the students.

The six-student team was chosen a winner in the Lexus Eco Challenge competition, which asks middle and high school students to design and implement environmental programs to make a difference in one of three categories: land, water, or air/climate.

The prize – $10,000, with $7,000 of that to be split among the students. The school – an alternative-education program run by the Regional Office of Education – gets $2,000, and English teacher Shannon Olison, whose class entered the challenge, gets $1,000 to spend on educational programs or school supplies.

Read the press release.

Johnson Controls, the global multi-industrial leader in energy efficiency and sustainability, has teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to launch greenprint (www.mygreenprint.org).

Greenprint is an interactive online tool that helps individuals understand and improve their ecological footprint, educates participants about the benefits of sustainable living and allows them to score their current level of personal sustainability. It also challenges individuals to commit to taking three actions that would have a significant environmental impact with modest additional effort.

EPA has finalized the Academic Laboratory rule to help improve the environmental performance of teaching and research laboratories owned by eligible academic entities.  This rule provides increased regulatory flexibility, while enhancing safe management of hazardous waste.  Eligible academic entities include colleges and universities, and teaching hospitals and nonprofit research institutes that are either owned by or formally affiliated with a college or university.

Eligible academic entities will be able to decide where (at the laboratory, at an on-site central accumulation area, or at an on-site treatment, storage or disposal facility) the hazardous waste determination is made.  They also must ensure that certain conditions are met to protect human health and the environment. This flexibility not only allows eligible academic entities to determine the most effective and environmentally protective method of compliance, but it also ensures that a RCRA-trained professional will be making the hazardous waste determination.

The rule requires the development of a laboratory management plan, which is expected to result in safer laboratory practices and increased awareness of hazardous waste management.  In addition, the rule provides incentives for eligible academic entities to dispose of old and expired chemicals that may pose unnecessary risk.

For more information on the Academic Laboratory Rule, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/generation/labwaste/

Read the press release.

At the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Boston, Mass., Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) announced it has increased the certified recycled content in its flagship PINK Fiberglas(TM) insulation to a minimum of 40 percent. At this level of recycled content, the amount of waste glass diverted from landfills could form a two-lane glass highway that extends 1.3 times around the world(1). The certification, supplied by leading, independent third-party certifier Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), demonstrates a five percent increase over its prior level and maintains the product line’s status as the fiberglass insulation with the highest level of certified recycled content in North America.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Exploiting the biological complexity of natural systems to cope with the complexity of industrial waste streams is becoming a more attractive option because engineered treatment wetlands typically are mechanically simple and have low operation and maintenance costs.

While many industrial companies spend a great deal of money treating wastewater to comply with environmental regulations, they are now also considering the additional benefits and perceived value of treating industrial wastewater using engineered wetlands. When integrated with nature centers, trail networks, and natural habitats, industrial treatment wetlands become valued as responsible solutions that are environmental showcases for a company.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy are helping states lead the way in an effort to promote low cost energy efficiency. More than 60 energy, environmental and state policy leaders from across the country have come together to produce the updated National Action Plan Vision for 2025: A Framework for Change. The action plan outlines strategies to help lower the growth in energy demand across the country by more than 50 percent, and shows ways to save more than $500 billion in net savings over the next 20 years. These actions may help to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 90 million vehicles.

“The significant action taken by states, utilities and energy customers advances low cost energy solutions,” said Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “The plan is a big step toward a more energy-efficient future, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing the American economy.”

“These leaders from state government and the private sector should be commended for their continued progress in promoting energy-efficient technologies as a key part of modernizing our electric and gas infrastructure to meet our Nation’s growing energy needs,” said U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Kevin Kolevar.

The action plan outlines critical steps for state policy makers to take toward the goal of increasing the nation’s investment in low cost energy efficiency. The plan also shows the progress states are making toward these goals. States, utilities and other organizations are spending about $2 billion per year on energy efficiency programs. Through this investment, states, utilities and other organizations have saved the energy equivalent of more than 30 power plants generating 500 megawatts of electricity saving energy customers nearly $6 billion annually. This effort helped reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those emitted from 9 million vehicles.

The updated action plan also identifies areas for additional progress. About one third of the states have established energy savings targets and addressed utility disincentives for energy efficiency. Moreover, about half of the states have established energy efficiency programs for key customer classes and reviewed and updated building codes.

Two technical assistance documents are also available to assist states in achieving the energy goals established under the action plan. The first document provides guidance on establishing cost-effectiveness tests for energy efficiency programs, while the second outlines best practices for providing business customers with energy-use and cost data.

Initiated in 2005, the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency is directed by a leadership group of 30 electric and gas utilities, 20 state agencies and 12 other organizations. This state driven initiative is designed to help electric and natural gas ratepayers increase energy efficiency while saving money. More than 120 organizations have endorsed the original recommendations of the action plan and have committed to making it a reality.

The documents and the action plan are available at: http://www.epa.gov/eeactionplan