Environment Memo

Reminds me of what they used to say about nuclear power plants. The Titanic slipped into the sea on May 31, 1911. I’m sure I’m not the only one to point out the ironies here. The ship was unsinkable, being as how

The US Department of Energy is going big-time into more, not fewer, vehicles on the road today launched a pilot project to incorporate electric vehicles and technologies into the Federal fleet. … Furthering the Administration’s goals to cut oil imports by one-third by 2025 and to put one million advanced vehicles on the road by [...]

EPA is proposing new air pollution rules for coal burning and is currently taking public comments on them. It’s pretty incredible that, as reported by the American Lung Association, Coal-fired power plants produce more hazardous air pollution in the United States than any other industrial pollution sources; The Clean Air Act requires the control of hazardous [...]

In NYC, there’s a new law: A new law went into effect Monday banning smoking in 43 square miles of parks, public plazas, beaches and boardwalks in the city. In the last days, free cigars were on offer.

Google clearly has too much cash around, as they are wasting it here. Why else would they fund work by Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun to develop a sort of “car-train” effect on a highway that would pack the highways with more cars Fantastic. Lot’s of sensors and technology. Look, guys, every time room is made [...]

Pollution in China is rampant, which of course is one major reason products there can be made very cheaply. Now, as the Boston Globe reports China is cracking down on emissions of lead and other heavy metals following a spate of poisoning cases and reports that much of the country’s soil is contaminated with toxic [...]

Pickens has dropped wind as part of his energy reliance plan, focusing wholly on natural gas. He’s going with what he knows. Too bad he does not know more.

The Toronto Sun reports heavy metals have been found in commonly used make-up products. It’s not clear what concentrations of the various metals, including arsenic, were, but the article makes the point that build-up of these toxic elements can be cumulative. I wonder what the make-up industry response will be. They should have a look [...]

Many college  students, and others, plain don’t understand what plagiarism is, nor that it is flat out wrong. Many academics, including professors, plain don’t understand: if your name goes on a piece of work, you bear full responsibility for it, even if you did not write the part that include the plagiarism. Now we have [...]

ClimateProgress nails one fracking bottom line: …. depressed natural gas prices have been blamed for stalling wind, solar PV and solar hot water projects that compete directly with the resource. While a cleaner-burning form of energy like natural gas is much better than burning coal, focusing too heavily on the resource may delay aggressive development [...]

This catchy video from ProPublica video illuminates many, but not all, of the issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus shale and elsewhere:

These guys must be getting money from somewhere to be pushing this: Legislation designed to facilitate development of small, scalable reactors was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. As the Nuclear Energy Institute puts it

There’s a bit of a controversy in the Hollywood sludge world. It seems that there is a need to revisit the US Department of Agriculture’s requirements for organic food, which state Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; or ionizing radiation. … USDA makes no [...]

New Orleans is basically in a bathtub, with the mighty Mississippi on one side, and Lake Pontchartrain on the other (click on the image for the blow-up): Which helps explain why things got so bad after Hurricane Katrina.

It’s an imposing name: Morganza, the spillway last opened up in 1973. Saving New Orleans: