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First Public Hydrogen Station to be Built at LA Airport

The nation's first compressed-hydrogen fueling station for public use will be built at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as the result of a lease approved today by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. The lease calls for Praxair, Inc. of Danbury, Conn., to design, engineer, equip, construct and operate a 600-square-foot facility that will be a prototype of a commercial automobile fueling station. The $1,580,048 state-of-the-art fueling station will be the first facility in the United States to showcase the generation, compression, storage and dispensing of compressed-hydrogen fuel in a limited-production capacity, retail-friendly environment. Praxair is funding construction by spending $550,000 of its own funds, and will receive grants of $351,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, of $499,048 from the U.S. Department of Energy, and $180,000 from British Petroleum. The new fueling station will support the recent introduction of hydrogen-fuel-cell demonstration vehicles by major automotive manufacturers, as well as LAWA's integration of hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles into its own fleet. Currently, more than 50 percent of LAWA's vehicle fleet is comprised of alternative-fuel vehicles and LAWA is currently in negotiations to obtain demonstration hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles for its fleet. The new facility also will serve other Los Angeles City […]

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Mendocino's GMO Vote Sparks Action

On March 2, 2004, Mendocino County, California voters banned production of genetically modified (GMO) crops and animals there. Mendocino is the first county in the U.S to implement such a ban, inspiring people across the U.S. and the world to follow suit. Indeed, halfway across the world, a major agricultural states in Australia, including Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, passed, or will soon pass, GE crop bans. Monsanto and its GMO peers, of course, don’t like the idea. The Organic Consumers Association reports the biotech lobby will soon introduce a bill in California to nullify the Mendocino ban and make it illegal for other California counties to pass similar laws. Allan Noe, Vice-President of Crop Life International, a front group for Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, told the San Francisco Chronicle on March 30, “We’re looking at a number of things to remedy the situation… a court challenge to Mendocino’s ban, an attempt to pass state legislation to prevent counties passing such bans or persuade the federal government, which regulates biotech products, to halt local bans.”Monsanto is pressuring Canada to approve its GMO wheat and had said it would not press the U.S. for approval until Canadian regulatory officials were ready […]

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ShoreBank Pacific Spawns Salmon Nation Credit Card

ShoreBank Pacific, a bank that can be truly called an environmental bank, has launched its first consumer credit card, the Salmon Nation Visa. One of only a handful of socially responsible credit cards in the country, the Visa will support the restoration of NorthWest watersheds and thus, the endangered salmon fisheries. Salmon Nation is an initiative of Ecotrust (Portland, OR), a non-profit that is raising awareness of issues and behavioral choices that contribute to the health of regional watersheds and the economies of the people that live in them. Activities already underway include campaigns to encourage people to purchase wild salmon and buy locally produced foods. ShoreBank will contribute 50 percent of the income it generates from the card to Ecotrust’s efforts. The bank offers a variety of consumer EcoDeposit products, money from which supports loans to businesses and non-profits committed to their communities and to reducing their environmental footprint. Consumer products include certificates of deposit (CDs), money market and savings accounts, and IRAs. Also available are Partnership CDs, which allow consumers to donate their interest to the participating non-profits. ShoreBank Pacific is an FDIC-insured bank leading the financial world in sustainable banking. Founded in 1997 as a joint venture […]

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