June 9, 2008

Rapidly rising energy costs are leading the U.S. government to conclude that more public lands must be opened to drilling. But environmentalists are warning that such an assertion is misleading and ecologically harmful.

The U.S. Department of the Interior says that at least 40 percent of the oil and gas that lay beneath federally-controlled lands is off limits to production -- a policy that is no longer feasible, given $4 a gallon gasoline and escalating home heating prices. By extension, the solution is to provide more access to deep waters offshore and in the Western United States where ample supplies now exists.

June 2, 2008

We Energies, the Electric Power Research Institute and equipment and service provider Alstom have started a pilot project to test an ammonia-based absorption system to remove carbon dioxide from the emissions of an existing coal-fueled power plant.

The pilot uses chilled ammonia to cool flue gas. Cooling increases the volume and rate at which carbon dioxide can be isolated in a highly concentrated form. The participants in this pilot believe the technology has the potential to capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from a plant's flue gas emissions, although the ability to store such releases is not yet possible.

April 16, 2008

Clean air laws are once more mired in the courts. Now petitioners are asking a panel of judges to force the Bush administration to comply with a High Court ruling issued a year ago that said carbon dioxide emissions could be regulated.

In all likelihood, the issue won't be resolved until a new administration takes office. While the Bush administration says that it respects the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, it adds that it must consider several nuances that will have a profound affect on all aspects of the American economy. Critics of the tactic respond that the administration is dragging its feet in an effort to appeal to its industrial backers.

Detroit Gets Green is an effort to recognize that Green is exploding in Detroit -- and it's up to all of us to see the ship and hop on board. It's bigger than any one person, group or event.

To keep in touch with all the many green events happening please visit the calendar at Sustainable Detroit. From there, you'll find educational workshops, conferences, talks, and more.
 
Join us as we unearth new potential for community development: Food, Jobs, Energy. The Financial Institutions Community Development Conference Committee brings this special spring-time event under the theme Detroit Gets Green. The day will include an explosion of useful information, including case studies and a keynote by Soji Adeleja of the MSU Land Policy Institute.

March 28, 2008

Tougher smog rules are here. But the clean air debate once again illustrates the divide between a conservative, pro-industry administration and its harshest critics among the environmental and health communities. The standards aim to protect public health and set out to limit ozone pollution, or smog, by utilities and other manufacturers as well as the automotive sector.

The Environmental Protection Agency took the middle road. Ground level ozone, whose main component is smog and which contributes to heart and respiratory ailments, is triggered when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. The new rule changes the current standard of 80-84 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion. EPA's own scientific experts said that the threshold should be lowered to between 60 and 70 parts per billion, all to minimize the number of premature deaths.