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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
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The scene was like so many others in New York during Fashion Week last month. Models sauntered down a catwalk to a pulsating soundtrack, showing off the latest work of designers including Oscar de la Renta and Proenza Shouler.
Except for this: Every garment was made with fibers spun from bamboo, corn, organic cotton and other materials that promoters said were more eco-friendly than traditional materials.
The show, called FutureFashion and sponsored by Earth Pledge, a New York-based nonprofit group that promotes environmental programs, challenged designers to create fashion using only fabrics that were renewable, reusable or generated less pollution than conventional material. The message was clear: Eco-style need not be an oxymoron. [Source: New York Times -- need a login/pw?]
11:34:31 AM Google It! 
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Electrical resistance heating elements recessed in the terminal plates, or the cell end plates, of a fuel cell stack at the interfaces therebetween are energized by electricity generated by the stack to heat the end cells during start-up of a frozen stack. The flow of current in the heating elements is ended when the temperature of the end cell(s) reach(es) a prescribed above-freezing temperature. [FreshPatents.com: Notable Patent Applications - 03/17/2005]
11:28:25 AM Google It!
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Several automakers are financing an advertising campaign aimed at politicians that asserts that automobiles are "virtually emission-free." By By DANNY HAKIM. [NYT > Business]
11:26:19 AM Google It!
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Automobile Travel--Fuel Costs
Source: AAA
"Calculate the estimated fuel cost of your trip" based on current gasoline prices. Choose your starting point, destination, make/model/year of vehicle from dropdown menus and click "Calculate." Map on page shows current day's average fuel costs in different regions of the country. - gary [ ResourceShelf]
11:24:33 AM Google It!
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The American Chemistry Council (ACC) posted a news release last week on their website that announced a new joint initative between the ACC, The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA) to extend the industry's work on high production volume (HPV) chemicals. The original HPV Challenge Program was launched in 1998 and involves the voluntary effort of more than 400 manufacturing companies and consortia to collect and submit safety information on approximately 2,200 HPV chemicals, those chemicals that are produced or imported in quantities over 1 million pounds annually. The Extended HPV Program will publish health and environmental information on several hundred addition chemicals and increase the breath of safety information made publicly available for all HPV substances. As part of the EHPV Program, health and environmental information will be collected for an additional 500 "new" chemicals. In addition, the EHPV Program also increases the scope of information collected on all HPV chemicals to include use and exposure information.
For more information:
http://www.accnewsmedia.com/docs/2200/2107.pdf
[ChemAlliance Environmental News]
11:20:30 AM Google It!
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Industrial Technologies Program is calling for proposals for Plant-Wide Assessments (PWAs) that can be used by industries to identify energy efficiency opportunities in industrial plants and a comprehensive list of energy efficiency actions that industrial plants can consider to improve energy performance.
To qualify for this program, applicants must demonstrate a minimum estimated energy savings (potentially resulting from the plant wide energy assessment) of 10% of the plant’s total purchased energy usage as supported by Criterion 1 estimates. Assumptions and calculations used to arrive at the energy savings estimate shall be provided in physical units (kwh/yr for electricity and btu/yr for fuels) and financial units ($/yr).
DOE is specifically soliciting certain categories of industrial plants, one category being chemical plants that manufacture olefins either from natural gas or from petroleum, ammonia, sulfuric acid, methanol, and phosphate. There are also specific categories excluded from eligibility, including pulp and paper plants and petroleum refineries, among others. DOE is imposing this restriction because DOE has already supported PWAs at these types of industrial plants. Case studies were prepared for all completed PWAs that DOE has supported and DOE encourages similar plants to review these case studies at: http://www.oit.doe.gov/bestpractices/case_studies_pwa.shtml and conduct their own assessments to achieve energy efficiency. For more specific eligibility conditions, see the DOE website listed below.
A PWA is a comprehensive, systematic examination of plant energy efficiency leading to the identification of opportunities for energy use reductions in industrial facilities. The PWA is comprehensive in that it examines all major aspects of energy consumption in an industrial facility. This includes both process operations and plant utility systems. Assessment of which plant operations represent significant energy consumption can be the first step of the PWA or can be completed prior to the PWA being undertaken with the results being used to define the scope of the PWA in a more focused fashion. An assessment of only one (or a relative few) aspect(s) of the industrial facility operation (building HVAC, for example) is too narrowly focused to be a PWA.
PWAs typically consist of at least two steps: 1) Assess which plant systems offer the greatest energy saving potential by compiling a profile of energy consumption; 2) Identify specific projects and opportunities in energy consuming systems evaluated to reduce energy consumption. Engineering studies to determine equipment specifications and designs that would capture the energy savings are beyond the scope of a PWA.
Winning projects will be awarded from $20,000 to $100,000. Interested parties should access the DOE Golden Field Office Home Page at, http://www.eere.energy.gov/golden/funding.html, and access the announcement in the Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS) web site by clicking on the “Access” link.
Applications/proposals are due by 6:00 PM, EST, May 3, 2005. [ChemAlliance Environmental News]
11:18:18 AM Google It!
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The Higher Pie has news of the UN's World Environment Day conference in June in San Francisco. This is a first in several regards: first time an event like will be held in a US city, and the first time this kind of gathering will focus on the urban environment. So far, it looks like an international "who's who" of mayors, national and international political figures, and environmentally-conscious celebrities will be there. If the conference needs an official blogger, I humbly volunteer my services... And it's great to see the Pie kicking -- I've really missed you guys! Technorati tags: World Environment Day, San Francisco
11:16:21 AM Google It!
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AP - The Environmental Protection Agency's decision to ignore researchers' analysis of possible health benefits from reducing mercury pollution from power plants was criticized Tuesday by Democrats in Congress. [Yahoo! News: Science]
11:11:39 AM Google It!
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The Ideas: (1) Instead of thinking about technological innovation that applies top-down (improving our cities, our institutions, our communities) what if we thought about such innovation at the personal level, bottom-up, the way nature does? (2) Why are we so inept at moving from brilliant ideas to ubiquitous delivery of solutions. Read the whole post at http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/03/22.html#a1087.[How to Save the World]
11:11:02 AM Google It!
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The Green Guide (www.thegreenguide.com) has launched a campaign calling on Apple to make the iPod environmentally friendly. [ENN Press News]
11:07:31 AM Google It!
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As both gasoline and diesel fuel prices in the United States have reached record highs, a new report from an affiliate of J.D. Powers and Associates finds that consumer interest in full-size sport utility vehicles (SUVs) has dropped significantly. [EERE Network News]
11:07:00 AM Google It!
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DOE's new Hydrogen Program Web site, launched in mid- March, links the four DOE offices that participate in the President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative. Meanwhile, a hydrogen task force in the President's National Science and Technology Council has developed the overarching Hydrogen.gov site. [EERE Network News]
11:06:34 AM Google It!
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When the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) starts accepting sign-ups for its Conservation Security Program on March 28th, eligible farmers and ranchers will have an opportunity to receive compensation for energy audits, cutting energy use, and using renewable energy and fuels. [EERE Network News]
11:06:03 AM Google It!
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While a new report predicts a boom in the markets for solar photovoltaic devices, wind power technologies, and fuel cells and distributed hydrogen over the next decade, the expanding clean energy market is also demonstrated by a surge in interest in clean energy conferences. [EERE Network News]
11:05:34 AM Google It!
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North Dakota will soon host the first ethanol plant to draw some of its energy from a nearby coal-fired power plant. Construction is also underway on an ethanol plant that will use lignite as its energy source. Developers of both plants expect to use less energy to produce their ethanol. [EERE Network News]
11:05:01 AM Google It!
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© Copyright
2005
Laura L. Barnes.
Last update:
10/25/2005; 12:09:43 PM.
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