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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:November 3, 2004

News and EventsFederal Employees Receive DOE Awards for Saving Energy Fuel Cells Help the U.S. Military Meet its Power Needs WestStart Launches Utility Deployment of 20 Hybrid Trucks U.S. Wind Industry Predicts Record Growth in 2005 California Continues to Pursue Solar Power in a Big Way Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Promote Growth of Green Power Site NewsNowHouse Project Now Open in San Francisco and on the Web Energy ConnectionsDOE, EPA, and Non-Profits Emphasize Ways to Cut Heating Bills News and EventsFederal Employees Receive DOE Awards for Saving EnergyThe efforts of 27 individuals, teams, and organizations throughout the federal government yielded almost $39 million in energy savings in the past year. In honor of those achievements, DOE presented the 2004 Federal Energy and Water Management Awards last week to employees of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy; DOE and the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Interior; the Environmental Protection Agency; the General Services Administration; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the Social Security Administration. One naval facility also received an Energy Star Building Award for superior building performance. Presented each year since 1981, the awards are sponsored by DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP).The 2004 winners purchased […]

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UNESCO Protects 19 New Biosphere Reserves

PARIS, France, November 2, 2004 (ENS) – India's Valley of the Flowers National Park, and the headwaters of Canada's St. Lawrence River – the Himalayan region that holds the world's tallest mountain, and a string of Vietnamese islands where the threatened golden-headed langurs live – all are newly protected as additions to UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Nineteen new sites in 13 countries were added to the network last week by the International Co-ordinating Council of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme meeting at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves now covers 459 sites in 97 countries. Biosphere reserves are places recognized by the Man and the Biosphere Programme where local communities are actively involved in governance and management, research, education, training and monitoring in the interests of both sustainable use and biodiversity conservation. They are internationally recognized, nominated by national governments and remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfil three basic functions, which are complementary and mutually reinforcing – to contribute to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation; to foster economic and human development which is socio-culturally and ecologically […]

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Sustainable Forestry Gets a Boost: WWF & IFC Form Partnership

WASHINGTON, DC, November 2, 2004 (ENS) – Sustainable forestry in the Western Hemisphere just received a boost with a newly announced partnership between WWF and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group headquartered in Washington, DC. The IFC and WWF will launch pilot projects linking manufacturers, traders, and forest managers committed to the business of sustainable forestry to develop environmentally responsible wood trade in Latin America, with a special focus on Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru. The pilots have been designed in accordance with the World Bank's Revised Forestry Strategy, which emphasizes integrating forests into sustainable economic development, harnessing the potential of forests to reduce poverty, and protecting vital environmental services and values. The pilot projects are intended to strengthen indigenous communities and private landowners' abilities to engage in sustainable forest management as an alternative to illegal logging. Other goals are to improve business management and production of project participants, and to promote financing and investment opportunities within supply chains. The supply of responsibly produced wood and wood products will be increased, and demand for such wood products is expected to rise as a result of the partnership. Atul Mehta, director of Latin America and […]

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Trust for Public Land Tracks Conservation Ballot Results

WASHINGTON, DC, November 2, 2004 (ENS) – At the polls today, voters in over 140 communities in 24 states will decide ballot measures to create nearly $25 billion in new public funding, including $4.3 billion specifically to protect land for parks and open space, according to the Trust for Public Land (TPL). It can be difficult to keep track of all the ballot measures across the country that will be decided today, but with its new database, Trust of Public Land will monitor and release results as soon as they are available on Wednesday, November 3. Among the presidential battleground states lands measures are Michigan where 16 local measures worth over $100 million are at stake including $35 million in Washtenaw County. In Florida, 12 local measures worth over $2 billion are at stake, including three Miami-Dade County questions totaling over $1.4 billion. In New Jersey, 44 local measures totaling $355 million will be decided tomorrow, including $105 million for Hunterdon County. Since 1998, 824 conservation ballot measures have passed in 44 states, raising $22 billion in funding for land conservation – a rate of passage of approximately 77 percent. In 2000, the last presidential election year, 174 ballot measures […]

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