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When the U.S. EPA attempted to enforce more stringent air quality standards for 22 states and Washington D.C., several states and utilities challenged their authority to do so in court. The Washington DC. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the EPA; the agency has the authority to enforce more stringent regulations regarding nitrogen oxide emissions. The pollution from these states, located mostly in the Midwest and Southeast, drifts into Northeastern states making it difficult for them to meet air quality standards.
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Before construction started on widening a highway from two to four lanes, the UK Highways Agency embarked on a complex pilot project that may be a benchmark for future road building policy. The Agency is attempting to move an ancient forest that stands in the way of road construction. In concert with local environmental specialists, 10,000 tons of soil and a grove of 100 hazel trees were moved to a nearby forest. A giant tree spade was used to move the entire grove intact. They also planted 60,000 young trees. The goal of the project is recolonize the forest in its new location.
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The Turner Foundation, known for its support of environmental non-profits, is the lead investor in Future Energy Resources Corporation, a company working to commercialize a gasification process that generates electricity from biomass products. Considered by many to be a significant technological advance, it is the first process that can use a wide range of feedstocks including grasses, agricultural waste, wood products and municipal waste. The resulting gas can be used for electricity and transportation; it provides renewable energy at an economical price with low emissions. It also provides an important revenue source for farmers. Farmers can market waste that was previously a burden, and plant grasses such as switchgrass that are valuable for crop rotation and to restore eroded land. The first-of-its-kind commercial scale gasifier mixes biomass products with sand and heats them to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, transforming carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to combustible gases. The technology holds the promise of allowing bioenergy plants to compete with fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy provided $27 million to FERCO as a demonstration project at the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station in Burlington, Vermont. The company was created in 1992 to commercialize a biomass gasification process developed by the Battelle Memorial […]
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Since 1994, Canadian industry has been required to report on its releases of 176 listed pollutants. In 1999, Environment Canada expanded the list to 246. Important as the NPRI is, it covers only stationary sources of pollutants; mobile sources are much higher. The recently released 1997 NPRI results show that stationary pollutants increased by 12.7 percent from 1996. The chemical industry still ranks number one among the major industries in on-site releases of pollutants for 1997, emitting almost twice the amount of second place paper and allied products industries. Metal industries ranked third. 67 percent of emissions were released into the air. Alberta, which cut its environmental protection budget by 32 percent and environmental regulations by 50 percent, reported the three largest increases in industrial facilities in Canada. They are: Browning Ferris waste management, Agrium Inc., and Syncrude. Agrium Inc., is one of the largest producers of nitrogen fertilizers in North America. On the positive side, companies in Ontario and Quebec reduced their overall emissions by about 15 percent, both greatly reducing water discharges (64 percent for Ontario, 50 percent in Quebec). You can download the report at the NPRI website: [sorry this link is no longer available] FROM The […]
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International Fuel Cells, Inc. has developed an technology that increases the power of automotive fuel cells by 15 percent while shrinking their size, an important step towards commercializing fuel cells for automobiles. IFC claims the system is quieter, less complex and more efficient than the pressurized systems more commonly under development. IFC, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., supplies the fuel cells used on NASA’s Space Shuttle. Plug Power Inc. – a fuel cell systems designer for residential power generation – cut the ribbon on its new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Latham, New York, doubling its production space. The facility will begin producing Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells for field testing later this year in preparation for commercial sales beginning in 2001. The company also recently announced that it passed a significant milestone in its hydrogen-powered fuel cell – it has been continuously operating for over 10,000 hours. FuelCell Energy, Inc. announced plans to construct a 250-kilowatt fuel cell pilot power plant next year at a Mercedes-Benz production facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Southern Company, Alabama Municipal Electric Authority, and Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. are contributing to the project. The company is in final negotiations with U.S. Department of Energy […]
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The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the first new environmental treaty of the 21st century, and is the culmination of five years of negotiations among senior officials from over 130 governments. Governments agreed on January 29 to a legally binding agreement regulating the import and export of genetically modified organisms. Countries will communicate to the world community via an Internet-based Biosafety Clearinghouse as to whether they will accept imports containing GMOs. All shipments must be labeled. More stringent standards will be applied to seeds, fish and other GMOs that are released into the environment. The agreement will be opened for signatures during May and June. It will enter into force when 50 countries have ratified it. You can read the Protocol Agreement at the Convention on Biodiversity website.
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Milliken, known for its Earth Square 100 percent post-consumer waste modular carpet, announced recently that 43 of its 55 U.S. locations sent zero waste to landfills in 1999. Overall, the company recycles or reuses 99 percent of its waste. The company has a host of environmental initiatives. In one of the most water-intensive industries, it has cut water usage by about half since 1991. It recycles and re-uses water and has introduced manufacturing technologies that inherently use less water. Milliken recycles 100 percent of office paper since 1992; and uses 88 percent fewer SARA chemicals since 1988. It maintains an extensive employee environmental education program and has reached zero landfill levels with numerous commodities from coal ash to wooden pallets. Milliken was the first U.S. textile company to eliminate the use of chlorinated solvents, in favor of organic alternatives derived from fruits, forest products, and other natural sources. [sorry this link is no longer available] [sorry this link is no longer available]
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By bringing industry stakeholders together, the USPS solved one of its “stickier” recycling problems, but more importantly, it modeled how the industry can cooperate to facilitate recycling. Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA), such as stamps, on paper “gum” up the works and make recycling difficult. When they are introduced into the paper-recycling stream, they break down into small particles called “stickies.” Stickies can adhere to wires and felts in the equipment, resulting in costly downtime for cleaning and repairing. Paper recyclers have been reluctant to accept waste paper that has a high PSA content. In 1994, the USPS initiated the Environmentally Benign Pressure Sensitive Adhesives Program to develop stamp adhesives that can be easily recycled. Although the focus was on stamps, the adhesives developed through this extensive joint effort will lower costs for recycling and repulping operations in general, make paper recycling much more economical. Out of an initial group of 42 adhesive samples, 10 adhesives were chosen to undergo full-scale testing and production runs at various recycling mills. Industry participants came from all segments of this diverse industry: researchers from government and industry, including members of the Forest Products Laboratory (U. S. Department of Agriculture), the adhesive industry, paper manufacturers, recyclers, […]
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ISO 14001 certification is taken much more seriously in Europe – but it is starting to take root in the U.S. The Ford and General Motors requirement that all suppliers become ISO 14001-certified could provide the missing catalyst for growth of ISO 14001 certification in the U.S. About 11,000 suppliers will be implementing environmental management systems (EMS) along with getting certified – a boon for EMS-related services as well as the environment. Other corporations will no doubt follow suit. In an article, “Automotive Industry Catalyzes ISO 14000 Growth in the U.S,” author Anthony Buonicore notes these actions reflect the increased emphasis corporations are placing on environmental stewardship and public opinion, as well as the benefits of ISO 14001 in instilling “a discipline in the manufacturing operation which can be invaluable in uncovering savings.” In the construction industry, Skanska USA recently completed ISO 14001 certification for all U.S. operations ($3 billion in annual revenues). The Swedish parent company, Skanska AB, pledged to have all its divisions certified by the end of 2000. This is a difficult industry to certify because many of the players, especially in residential home building, are subcontractors working out of pick-up trucks. Neil Deluca, CEO of Spectrum […]
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The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the worldwide forestry certification body, has been under pressure for some time to relax aspects of its standards for forest certification. It is a fine line to walk – standards must be strict enough to protect forests and yet open enough so that operations can reasonably meet them. FSC has made the difficult decision to relax two of its standards. To encourage more companies to participate in certification, chip and fiber products can carry the FSC label if only 30 percent of the wood comes from a certified forest (reduced from 70 percent). The bar will be raised back to 50 percent by 2005. Second, to address the very high handling costs involved in separating certified from non-certified products one by one, the FSC label can be applied to groups of similar products, such as fence poles. In another development, the 1,070 hectare Hayami Forest is the first forest in Japan to receive FSC certification. “As a major player in Pacific Rim trade, certification is an important step for Japan to take,” explains Debbie Hammel of Scientific Certification Systems, the certifying agent. The FSC logo will appear on Japanese products, heightening awareness of sustainable forestry […]
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