Friday, December 09, 2005

[Biodiesel] Biodiesel Manufacturing Gets The Green Light Wolf Lake Terminals Inc. has received a permit needed to move forward with biodiesel manufacturing in Hammond. 4:17:29 PM Google It!    [Schools] IN: High School Chemistry Classes Receive Biodiesel Science Kit Source: The Soy Daily, 12/9/05. White County high school chemistry students will get a first-hand look at real-world chemistry applications and the growing importance of alternative fuels with the biodiesel science kit presented this month to the schools by the Indiana Soybean Board (ISB). Tri-County, North White, Twin Lakes and Frontier high schools received the kit. ISB executive director Chris Novak and Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) Director Andy Miller presented the kits to the chemistry teachers at a ceremony in Reynolds, now known as BioTown USA. BioTown, USA, an ISDA project, plans to turn the town into a community where all energy needs are met through use of bio-renewable resources. [Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) News] 4:14:26 PM Google It!    [Energy efficiency] DOE Sends Energy Saving Team to Pennsylvania Prison Complex DOE has sent one of its Energy Saving Teams to a prison, not as punishment but in a bid to save energy. The team is working with officials at the Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex in the northern Alleghenies to identify low-cost and no-cost measures to save energy and money. [EERE Network News] 4:11:26 PM Google It!    [Energy efficiency] EPA Offers Free Online Energy-Efficiency Training to U.S. Businesses WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2005 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program is offering a suite of free online training sessions that show how to incorporate energy efficiency into an organization's planning. [GreenBiz.com] 4:06:04 PM Google It!    [Corporate environmental responsibility] Microsoft, Other Major Companies Complete Phase-Out of PVC Plastic WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2005 - Microsoft, along with Kaiser Permanente, Crabtree and Evelyn, and others, have joined the fast-growing ranks of major corporations demonstrating concern about the environmental health impacts of their products or packaging by phasing out PVC plastic (polyvinyl chloride or vinyl). [GreenBiz.com] 4:04:19 PM Google It!    [Energy efficiency] Flex Your Power Incredibly informative, content-rich Web site on energy efficiency for any building type. [GreenBiz.com] 4:02:51 PM Google It!    [Environmental literacy] Environmental Literacy in America: What Ten Years of NEETF/Roper Research and Related Studies Say About Environmental Literacy in the U.S. The 2005 installment of the NEETF/Roper Report Card is a must-read for anyone interested in helping Americans gain the knowledge that will lead to environmentally responsible actions. [GreenBiz.com] 4:01:43 PM Google It!    [Renewable energy] N.Y. Radio Station Is Hydro-Powered The station manager for WJFF radio in New York discusses how a tumbling trout stream generates enough energy to power its broadcasts. [NPR Topics: Technology] 3:30:18 PM Google It!    [Google] The Greening of Google Via the Greenthinkers.org blog: Google is using their incredible Google Maps interface to create a new way to plan public transit trips with Google Transit. It's still in beta right now (and only works for Portland, Oregon now) but will soon allow users to plan the best route, usoing public transportation, from point A to B. The great thing is that if anyone can make public transit easier to use, it should be Google. No plans have been announced to have Google Space locations at transit terminals, but seems like a good idea to me! More info, including if you work for a public system and want yours included, can be found in the FAQ section. 3:25:59 PM Google It!    [Agriculture] Ag's Global Footprint Urbanization has decimated farmland in developed countries like the United States, but that's not the case everywhere. As populations in some developing countries swell, farmers are cultivating more and more land in a desperate bid to keep pace with the ever-intensifying needs of humans. To better understand ag's global footprint, researchers are tracking the changing patterns of agricultural land use around the world, including a look at related factors such as global crop yields and fertilizer use. [Joel Makower: Two Steps Forward] 3:11:24 PM Google It!    [Environmental health] The Effect of Inhaled Chromium on Different Exhaled Breath Condensate Biomarkers among Chrome-plating Workers New preprint from Environmental Health Perspectives: The Effect of Inhaled Chromium on Different Exhaled Breath Condensate Biomarkers among Chrome-plating Workers.  Caglieri A, Goldoni M, Acampa O, Andreoli R, Vettori MV, Corradi M, Apostoli P, and Mutti A. 2005. Environ Health Perspect: doi:10.1289/ehp.8506. [Online 8 December 2005] [EHP-in-Press] 3:09:40 PM Google It!    [Biodiesel] With magic bus, former punk plies fuel frontier Imagine sunlight turned into music. Imagine motion powered by plants. Imagine all the people, living in harmony. O.K., scratch that last line, and instead of a poetic future vision you’ll have the realistic portrait of a modern machine. Since 2003 a 35-foot school bus that runs on vegetable oil and solar power has been cruising the country in a nationwide environmental campaign to raise public awareness of alternative forms of energy. [Source: The Villager]   3:05:53 PM Google It!    [Biofuels] "Second-Generation" Biofuels: Heavy Focus on Biomass-to-Liquids The newly-released EU biomass fuel action plan highlights the emergence of a commercial and policy-making focus on second-generation biofuelsbiofuels created by thermochemical conversion such as gasification and Fischer-Tropsch processing, for example. [Green Car Congress] 2:56:01 PM Google It!    [Biofuels] NY State Awards $750K for Cellulosic Biofuel and Related Research The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) has awarded a Cornell University professor a $750,000 grant to explore the use of plant and microbial resources to produce biofuels, industrial chemicals, natural products and other consumer goods. [Green Car Congress] 2:53:34 PM Google It!    [Nanotechnology] Calls Rise for More Research on Toxicology of Nanomaterials. Environmentalists and industry insiders alike urge major investments to maintain the emerging technology's spotless safety record. (Read more.) Author: Robert F. Service [Science: This Week's News] 1:17:31 PM Google It!    [Great Lakes] Can the Great Lakes be saved? Scientists anticipating a massive Great Lakes restoration effort warned Thursday that if drastic measures don't start soon, the lakes could suffer irreversible damage affecting human health, fishing and beaches. [Environmental Health News] 1:16:06 PM Google It!    [Environmental health] New turf for science: suburbia Suburbia may be familiar turf, but it's one of the last frontiers for scientists trying to understand how ecosystems work and how people are changing the natural world. [Environmental Health News] 1:15:00 PM Google It!    [Energy policy] New York Surcharge Would Support Renewable Energy Assemblyman Ryan Scott Karben (D/I-Rockland), Chairman of the Assembly's recently created Subcommittee on Renewable Energy, launched the panel's work with an Albany hearing this week investigating a new 2 percent utility bill surcharge created by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to fund the use of renewable energy in New York. The surcharge is being imposed as New Yorkers face an estimated $10 billion increase in their energy bills this winter. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 1:01:55 PM Google It!    [Biofuels] ACORE Forms Biomass-specific Council In keeping with its mission to provide a common platform for the renewable energy community, the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) initiated the Biomass Coordinating Council (BCC) specifically to address the rapidly growing renewable biofuels, biopower and bio-based industries. Further, ACORE will expand the trade show, and rename it Power-Gen Renewable Energy & Fuels (PGRE) to acknowledge the new track and pavilion on biofuels. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 12:59:48 PM Google It!    [Hydrogen fuel] Research Advances Hydrogen Fuel Production Oxygen may be necessary for life, but it sure gets in the way of making hydrogen fuel cheaply and abundantly from a family of enzymes present in many microorganisms. Blocking oxygen's path to an enzyme's production machinery could lead to a renewable energy source that would generate only water as its waste product. Highlights research from UIUC's Beckman Institute. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 12:58:17 PM Google It!    [Schools] The Strange Case of the Plow and the Thermometer Land use: When it changes, so does the climate! [Source: The Why Files] 12:53:58 PM Google It!    [Nanotechnology] EPA Nanotechnology Draft White Paper EPA has issued the Draft Nanotechnology White Paper, a road map that identifies critical questions that must be addressed in order for the United States to reap the potential environmental and economic benefits of nanotechnology.  Along with presenting the anticipated benefits of nanotechnology, the paper also deals with risk management of possible negative impacts of the new technologies.  EPA will accept public comments on the draft white paper until Jan. 9, 2006, and then provide those comments to external reviewers for their consideration.   Nanotechnology is the science of creating or modifying materials at the atomic and molecular level to develop new or enhanced materials and products.  In December 2004, EPA's Science Policy Council created a cross-agency work group to identify and describe the issues EPA must consider to ensure protection of human health and the environment as this new technology is developed.  The draft white paper on nanotechnology is the product of the work group. The white paper identifies data gaps that need to be filled and the research that EPA will conduct to fully grasp the applications and the implications of nanotech.  Those research results will inform the appropriate regulatory safeguards for nanotechnology.  The latest nanotechnology and potential environmental benefits of nanotechnology are detailed.  Risk management issues and the agency's statutory mandates are outlined, following an extensive discussion of risk assessment issues.  The white paper concludes with recommendations on next steps for addressing science policy issues and research needs.    Following the expert review, EPA will issue a final white paper on nanotechnology in early 2006.  To obtain additional information, visit:  http://www.epa.gov/osa/nanotech.htm 12:49:12 PM Google It!

© Copyright 2006 Laura L. Barnes. Last update: 1/11/2006; 3:14:21 PM.