Environment Memo

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 basically exempts hydraulic fracturing activities from the Underground Injection Control Program established under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  (The Wikipedia entry on the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is here, and a pdf version of it is here.) The relevant entry from the Energy Policy Act of 2005 [...]

I want to follow-up on the latest environmental issue on our radar screen, the Marcellus shale gas extraction project(s). It is important to start a web compendium where all applicable state and federal rules, regulations, and laws; all reports, papers, etc. … in other words links to or scanned in versions of everything possible out [...]

In Honolulu, they are looking to ban smelly people from riding the bus, as reported here. The person who proposed the ban believes some people don’t bathe often enough. Some people do take baths often enough, but don’t wash their clothes often, so they stink. And there are old shoes also. Perfume was invented for [...]

Delving a bit more into the Marcellus shale gas reserves issue, previously discussed, it seems there is some controversy as to how much gas is there, and how expensive it will be to get it out. A website called Energy and Capital had a post about a year ago here, saying

Shaleshock.org has a post on an upcoming (September 9) “public meeting” addressing gas production in Tompkins County, New York.  In the post it is implied that the project will go “through the SEQR process” (the State Environmental Quality Review Act) and that “it is possible the project could be approved without an environmental impact statement.” [...]

There are current moves by energy producers to increase natural gas production in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Ohio, and West Virginia in a formation called the Marcellus shale.  The extent of this formation is shown here: (The image is from a publication by the National Park Service, Potential Development of the Natural Gas Resources in [...]

Some nice pictures of “the very best” of the Hubble Telescope, from www.lifeinthefastlane.ca.

This is a relatively new one on me:  feebates.  As described here, feebates involve charging a fee on one end, and using the proceeds on another, the idea being to promote a market shift. Here are a few examples of proposed feebates from feebates.net: -a fee of 10% on sales of new gasoline cars, with [...]

One reason newspapers are failing is that they just don’t have their act together with respect to classified advertisements. Nowadays, with cell phones and VOIP phones, it is impossible to look at a phone number in an ad and have any idea  where, and, more importantly, how far away, the advertiser might be.  It matters, [...]