·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the Associated Press story in Forbes.

HONEA PATH, S.C. – Standing in an open-sided shed, 71-year-old Earl Meyers watched intently as gallons of used cooking oil flowed into a vat to be filtered and blended into a homemade fuel.

A self-described tinkerer and mayor of this rural town of 3,800 people, Meyers had waited months for this moment: the inaugural batch of fuel marked a critical step in his money-saving plan to run his municipal trucks on used grease from restaurants, school cafeterias and homes.

Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

The mayor’s proposal aims to have solar power meet one-tenth of L.A.’s energy needs by 2020. But skeptics wonder if the plan will be cost-efficient and friendly to private enterprise.

Read the full story at King5.com.

You know what to do with all that leftover turkey, dressing and pie, but you may not know what to do with that leftover grease.

Don’t throw it away. A Seattle company wants to put it to good use.

Read the full story in the Suncoast News.

Straight from the kitchens of area homes, recycled cooking oil is powering a few Pasco County vehicles.

Read the full story in the Houston Chronicle.

Federal subsidies to the U.S. biodiesel industry were supposed to help wean the nation from foreign oil, and a new law in 2009 will bolster the effort, but the money has fueled a controversial side business.

Domestic producers of the renewable fuel have been selling huge quantities of biodiesel in Europe and in other foreign markets, where prices are often better, and then receiving a $1-per-gallon tax credit from Uncle Sam.

Read the full post at Biopact.

The conservation of tropical rainforests and other biodiverse ecosystems in the (sub)tropics faces tremendous challenges. Simply declaring that a region becomes a conservation area without taking away the pressures that threaten the integrity of the area, doesn’t work. The social and economic needs of local populations have to be taken into account. And this is where many conservation projects often fail. Biochar, a technique to boost the fertility of poor tropical soils, could help in solving this particular problem.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

VTT Technical Research Center of Finland has launched Enerfish, a three-year project focused on producing biodiesel from waste generated at a fish processing plant.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

BP and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) agreed to establish the Clean Energy Commercialization Center (CECC) joint venture in Shanghai, jointly investing some RMB500 million (US$73 million) to commercialize Chinese clean energy technologies.

Read the full post in Biopact.

Bioplastics made from cellulosic biomass, such as forestry or crop waste, offer a smarter way to use biomass than turning it into liquid biofuels. Per hectare of crops grown or per quantity of biomass, cellulosic bioplastics offset more petroleum and GHG emissions than liquid cellulosic biofuels (previous post). Most of these next-generation bioplastics, which no longer rely on easily extractible starch or sugar like that found in corn or sugarcane, are made from a limited range of feedstocks and research is still in an early stage. However, German engineers from the Fraunhofer Institute have already added a new feedstock for bioplastics and show the final product is ready for market. The plastics are made from what’s called ‘liquid wood’, a lignin-rich product.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Converting farm fields to energy crops can increase or decrease greenhouse gas emissions, depending on where – and which – biofuel crops are used, University of Illinois researchers report this month. The researchers analyzed data from dozens of studies to determine how planting new biomass crops can influence the carbon content of the soil. Their findings will appear next month in the first issue of the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy – a new scientific journal in the Global Change Biology series, published by Blackwell.

Read the full post at Biopact.

As the United States continues to develop alternative energy methods and push towards energy independence, cellulosic-based ethanol has emerged as one of the most commercially viable technologies. Corn stover remains the most popular source available, but the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with the removal of corn fodder as a cellulosic ethanol feedstock is of agricultural and environmental concern. In a recently published article, researchers found that it may be wiser to replace corn with energy crops like miscanthus and switchgrass, because they not only yield more biomass, they also build carbon in soils, instead of removing it (previous post).

Today, EPA joined students and teachers from Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Charter School to see how the school’s biodiesel processor turns waste vegetable oil from a local restaurant into fuel to power Outward Bound’s van that is used for student field trips.

SmartFuel a project of the William James Foundation of Washington, D.C., has been designed to provide practical experience and build confidence among middle school students that they can make a difference on the local and global level.

Under the guidance of SmartFuel staff and Wissahickon’s science teacher, students designed a 15-gallon biodiesel processor and collection system that produces biodiesel fuel comprised primarily of vegetable oil, with 20 percent methanol and a very small portion of potassium hydroxide. Students contacted local restaurants and arranged with McMenamin’s Tavern on Germantown Avenue to acquire its waste vegetable oil for use in the project, one five-gallon bucket at a time.

EPA helped to fund this project with an environmental education grant to the foundation for $15,440 in October 2006.

“By using recycled bio-fuels, the drivers of tomorrow are becoming the environmental leaders of today. We are excited to see the outcome of this environmental education project. To ensure a clean, secure energy future, EPA is proud to help the next generation understand the lasting environmental and health benefits of renewable fuels,” said Donald S. Welsh, mid-Atlantic regional administrator.

It is estimated that the country uses more than 37 trillion gallons of diesel fuel annually for highway vehicles. Diesel fuel combustion produces pollution in the form of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and fine particles. As an alternative to fossil fuel, biodiesel not only reduces pollution but also recycles used vegetable oil.

Read the full story in PC World.

Reaffirming their commitment to green computing, technology giants Intel and HP recently announced their respective planet-saving initiatives at the “Greenergy” forum, a slight twist from the traditional Synergy event that the two firms have been jointly organizing in the Philippines since 1997.

Read the full story in the Oak Ridger.

Three houses under construction in East Tennessee carry the story of “The Three Little Pigs” to an entirely new level and will become a model for the nation when it comes to determining energy efficiency.

While the first house isn’t made of straw, it is a typical Energy Star “builder house” with an energy efficiency score of 85 Home Energy Rating System, or HERS. The second unit, called a retrofit house, includes energy-efficient upgrades to the building envelope and mechanical equipment. This house has a HERS rating of 64 (the lower, the better).

Read the full story in Newsweek.

For environmental thinkers, there’s at lot at stake for several of Obama’s top cabinet posts. But the most recent one gathered a surprising amount of attention and support from several prominent green leaders in Washington. It wasn’t one of the obvious posts with environmental implications, like EPA administrator of Interior secretary. Neither of those jobs have been filled. Nope, it was Bill Richardson as captain of Commerce.

Via Docuticker.

Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal: Women’s Experience of Household Chemical Exposure (PDF: 2.8 MB)
Source: Journal of Health and Social Behavior
From press release (American Sociological Association):

Although Americans are becoming increasingly aware of toxic chemical exposure from everyday household products like bisphenol A in some baby bottles and lead in some toys, women do not readily connect typical household products with personal chemical exposure and related adverse health effects, according to research from the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

“People more readily equate pollution with large-scale contamination and environmental disasters, yet the products and activities that form the backdrop to our everyday lives—electronics, cleaners, beauty products, food packaging—are a significant source of daily personal chemical exposure that accumulates over time,” said sociologist Rebecca Gasior Altman, the lead author of the study, “Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal: Women’s Experience of Household Chemical Exposure.”

Altman and her team examined how women interpreted and reacted to information about chemical contamination in their homes and bodies. After reviewing their personal chemical exposure data, most women were surprised and puzzled at the number of contaminants detected. They initially had difficulty relating the chemical results for their homes, located in rural and suburban communities, with their images of environmental problems, which they associated with toxic contamination originating outside the home from military or industrial activities, accidents or dumping.

“This research illustrates how science is beginning to play a paramount role in discovering and redefining environmental problems that are not immediately perceptible through direct experience,” Altman said. “Pollution at home has been a blind spot for society. The study documents that an important shift occurs in how people understand environmental pollution, its sources and possible solutions as they learn about chemicals from everyday products that are detectable in urine samples and the household dust collecting under the sofa.”