·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Nearly 100 largely unregulated “wet dumps” across the United States that are comparable to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s breached site in Harriman, Tenn., for the storage of toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants have a place on one or more of the “worst site” lists for six toxic metals, including arsenic and lead, according to a new data analysis from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

In a Jan. 7 statement, the U.S. Department of Transportation said that the Bush Administration will not finalize its rulemaking on Corporate Fuel Economy Standards.

The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:

• New Uses for Old Staples: Butter and Coffee As Biodiesel Feedstocks
• Researcher Focuses on Reducing Turbulance in Large Wind Farms
• Wafer-based Solar Cells Aren’t Done Yet
• Inside Renewable Energy podcast: The Long, Hard Road for Clean Energy Finance
• Charting a Bold Course
• 2009 Cleantech Predictions
• British Offshore Wind Power – Icebergs Ahead!
• SEPA Study to Improve Acquisition of Solar Power by Electric Utilities
• Biomass Gasification in Skive: Opening Doors in Denmark

Read the press release.

BCLC, in partnership with the Siemens Corporation, will honor three U.S. communities with the 2009 Siemens Sustainable Community Awards. One small, medium, and large community each will receive an award.

The nomination deadline for the awards is fast-approaching — all submissions must be received by 5:00 Eastern Time on Friday, January 30, 2009.

EPA’s Clean Energy-Environment Municipal Network is kicking off the 2009 series of webcast trainings targeted to local governments with a webcast on how local governments can use landfill methane to generate energy. EPA and local government experts will provide an overview of the benefits of using landfill gas, tools and resources for local governments, financing information, and examples of local governments that have successfully implemented landfill gas to energy projects.

The webcast will be held on February 5, 2009, from 2:00 – 3:30 PM (Eastern). To register for the webcast, send an e-mail with your name and affiliation to: CleanEnergyWebcast@icfi.com.

You will receive a confirmation email with registration information within 24 hours.

Registrants can access a draft section of EPA’s Clean Energy Strategies for Local Governments guide that discusses landfill methane utilization as background for the call at http://epa.gov/cleanenergy/documents/7.4_landfill_methane_utilization.pdf.

Additional information is available from EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program at http://www.epa.gov/lmop/.

Future webcast topics may include energy efficiency in affordable housing, combined heat and power, transportation control measures, smart growth, and urban heat islands. Priority for registration will be given to local and regional government staff and officials. EPA will record and post all webcasts on its Clean Energy website. For additional information, or to view past webcasts, visit http://epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-programs/state-and-local/webcast.html.

Read the full interview in E The Environmental Magazine.

“Something wicked this way comes,” quips the tagline for Jennifer Forman Orth’s blog, invasivespecies.blogspot.com. Orth serves as the state plant pest survey coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and also runs the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Project.

Read the full story at News.com.

Sue Butler decided it was time to cut the cord on fossil fuels. So when her aging gas furnace needed replacing, she turned to the Earth for a solution.

She installed a geothermal system–also called a ground-source heat pump, a water-source heat pump, or geo-exchange system–which recently started heating and cooling her Cambridge, Mass. home. Butler said she was motivated by environmental reasons and concerns over carbon monoxide from burning natural gas.

“It’s not that much more expensive and I could manage it. And it means no more combustion and it gets the building off of carbon, which is urgent,” she said.

Ground-source heat pumps have been around for decades but every year seem to attract more homeowners and organizations who are looking for alternatives to traditional space heating and cooling. They can hook into existing forced hot air and hot water systems but not steam heat.

Read the full story at News.com.

Nevermind the Hollywood glitterati. Many of the films debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival feature a more understated star known as Mother Earth, and she plays roles ranging from dramatic to mysterious to horrific.

With one film all about dirt, another about global overfishing, and another still about a family’s attempt to live with no net impact on the earth, the environment is getting top billing this year at Robert Redford’s indie film festival, which kicks off Thursday night in Park City, Utah, and runs through January 25.

Energy Efficiency: The New SLA
By Bruce Naegel
http://www.greenercomputing.com/feature/2009/01/13/energy-efficiency-the-new-sla
For years, IT organizations have been charged with ensuring the performance,
availability, and security of their environments. Now, as more and more data
centers are nearing their power and cooling capacities, a new SLA (service level
agreement) has emerged. Today’s IT managers must now also manage energy
efficiency — not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing business imperative.

Advanced Data Centers Saves Big with New Facility
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2009/01/13/adc-saves-big-new-data-center
In addition to saving an estimate $2 million per year in energy costs, the
company has also earned rebates on their electric bill for designing its
LEED-rated data center with energy efficiency in mind

Apple Puts Green Makeover at Risk with CSR Snub
By Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen
http://greenercomputing.com/news/2009/01/14/apple-puts-green-makeover-risk-with-csr-snub
As the company unveils its latest “green” laptop at MacWorld Expo, Apple’s board
recommends shareholders vote down a resolution calling for greater CSR
reporting.

Consumer Electronics Forecast the State of the Green Art
http://greenercomputing.com/news/2009/01/12/consumer-electronics-show-green-tech
At the CES expo in Las Vegas last week, tech companies of all stripes showcased
the ways that green is expanding into our lives and our gadgets.

Firms Partnering with EPA Recycle More Than 66.5M Pounds of Electronics in 2008
http://greenercomputing.com/news/2009/01/09/firms-recycle-electronics
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported the tally yesterday and said
it represents a 30 percent year-over-year increase in the amount of consumer
electronics recycled by manufacturers and retailers participating in the
agency’s Plug-In To eCycling program.

HP Ups E-Waste Efforts, Offers Easy Cash for Reusable Electronics
http://greenercomputing.com/news/2009/01/07/hp-offers-cash-reusable-electronics
After more than a billion pounds of electronics recycled or reused, Hewlett
Packard is stepping up the program, announcing a buyback and recycling program
for computers, accessories and other electronics.

Universities Feeling the Pinch on Computing Energy Costs
http://greenercomputing.com/news/2009/01/06/universities-computing-energy-costs
In response to exponential growth in computing needs — and the resulting growth
in energy bills — the world of higher education is taking a serious look at
energy management and green IT strategies.

Ooops! Harvard Scientist Says Google Carbon Footprint Figures Are Wrong
By Preston Gralla
http://www.greenercomputing.com/blog/2009/01/13/ooops-harvard-scientist-says-google-carbon-footprint-figures-are-wrong
Yesterday, I quoted a report that said a Harvard physicist found that a single
Google search generates 7g of CO2, about half the amount of carbon dioxide
generated when you boil a kettle of water for tea. It turns out that the report
is wrong — he never said anything of the sort.

Sentilla Raises $7.5 Million for IT Energy Management Services
By Ariel Schwartz
http://www.greenercomputing.com/blog/2009/01/08/sentilla-raises-seven-million
As if we needed any more proof that the IT energy management sector is growing,
California-based Sentilla Corp. announced this week that it has raised $7.5
million in Series B funding to bring wireless energy sensors to data centers.

HP Study: Green Data Center Is Key Concern of IT Pros
By Preston Gralla
http://www.greenercomputing.com/blog/2009/01/08/hp-study-green-data-center-is-key-concern-it-pros
A recently released study shows that Green IT is near the top of the list of
technology decision-makers, ahead of perennially important concerns such as
business continuity. This is one more indication that 2009 may be the Year of
Green IT.

Build a Green Data Center
http://www.greenercomputing.com/resources/resource/build-a-green-datacenter
This article from Dave Ohara at Microsoft’s TechNet offers advice for IT pros on
how to build and monitor a green data center.

If You Measure It, They Will Green: Energy Efficency Metrics plus Server Benchmarks
http://www.greenercomputing.com/resources/resource/energy-efficency-metrics-plus-server-benchmarks
This report from Info-Tech explores the ways that a shift in data center
economics is occurring, and explains how data centers can expect new green
responsibilities to measure and optimize power consumption.

Read the full story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Conservationists waging a decade-long legal battle to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ship ballast water just like any other pollutant are headed back to court.

Environmentalists last summer won a drawn-out lawsuit forcing the EPA to regulate ballast water under the Clean Water Act, and the EPA has responded to that court order by requiring ships to flush their ballast tanks in mid-ocean to expel any unwanted organisms.

That does not go far enough, according to the conservation groups that filed suit Monday. They note that ballast tank flushing is already required for ships entering the Great Lakes, but it isn’t effective enough to protect the lakes or the nation’s coastal waters.