To Find More Oil, 'Drill' in Detroit

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There’s more “oil” in Detroit than in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, aptly notes David Nemtzow, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. If fuel economy (CAFE) standards for light trucks were raised to 27.5 mpg like other passenger cars, we would save 2.1 million barrels of oil per day. This is twice Refuge peak production capability, and twice what the pipeline ships now, according to the U.S. Geological Society.A new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) puts average fuel economy for vehicles at its lowest point in 21 years. And U.S. citizens paid about $4 trillion from 1979 to 1991 for oil price shocks. This is almost as much as Americans spent on national defense during that period and more than interest payments on the national debt.The Energy Information Administration places the transportation sector as the second largest energy consumer in the U.S. It accounted for 67 percent of U.S. oil consumption and 26 percent of U.S. energy consumption in 2000. On October 10, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) asked Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to stop plans to mark-up the energy bill. He asked Sen. Bingaman to prepare […]

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A Letter to the Senate Energy Committee

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Congress should pass a "National Energy Security, Fuel Efficiency and Hydrogen Transition Act of 2001." This would rapidly reduce oil dependence and would create a worldwide business boom.

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17 Eco-Industrial Parks Take Shape

There are 17 eco-industrial projects underway in the U.S., Canada and Denmark, taking a variety of forms. For example: A Computer and Electronics Disposition Eco-Industrial Park in Austin, Texas is being positioned as a leader in the emerging field of electronics recovery and recycling. The businesses in the park will use the latest industrial ecology techniques for wide-scale energy, resource and waste efficiency. The plan calls for reuse, sale of parts and units, recycling, remanufacturing, and ultimate disposition of all computer and electronic equipment. Tenants will benefit from shared social services such as job-training, transportation, public space, child-care and technology research. The anchor business will be a computer and electronics disposition facility. There will be a Research & Development Center, a business incubator (Innovation Center), and the non-profit managing partner of the park. Future resident companies will feed off the product streams of the anchor facility. The Industrial Ecosystem Development Project, in Research Triangle, North Carolina, completed a two year, EPA-funded research project to match company wastestreams in a six-county region. The challenges of industrial waste matchmaking and the specific industry inputs and byproducts they found offer a useful guide for implementing such programs elsewhere. 182 facilities furnished information on […]

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Cutting Through the Confusion

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For sustainable energy technologies to find their rightful place in emerging energy policies and regulatory structures, advocates must be active and informed. Jane Weissman, a board member of the American Solar Energy Society summarizes the key issues.

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NIKE Adopts The Natural Step

The Nike Environmental Action Team (N.E.A.T.), formed in 1993, is in charge of Nike’s worldwide environmental efforts, and introduced the company to The Natural Step (TNS). Six months ago, senior management approved N.E.A.T.’s corporate sustainability policy, rooted in the principles of The Natural Step. Nike has committed to making the principles of The Natural Step a common language and mental model for all 22,000 employees. The company mission statement focuses on creating closed-loop systems by eliminating waste, developing “cradle to cradle” product life cycles, and recognizing the value of employee learning and capacity-building. Nike switched from petroleum to water-based adhesives in most shoe styles, and saved $4.5 million dollars and 1.3 million gallons of solvent in the process. It saves half a million trees each year simply by using two shoe box designs made from 100 percent post-consumer cardboard (reduced from 18). The “Reuse-A-Shoe” program reclaims worn and defective footwear and grinds them into granulated rubber for sports surfaces and carpet padding, keeping 7.5 million shoes out of landfills. Nike’s environmental initiatives: [sorry this link is no longer available]

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