OSHA - we don't want them to die saving a piece of property...

OSHA - Quote of the day:

"We pay firefighters to be brave and to protect us, but we don't want them to be reckless. And we don't want them to die saving a piece of property."

Editorial, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, on Fed-OSHA's report on the deadly 2006 Esperanza fire

Go to the full article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Wisconsin DNR DNR News

Forestry operations improve protection of water quality
MADISON - Practices to protect water quality while harvesting timber were correctly applied over 94 percent of the time on federal and industrial timber sales in 2006, based on the results of a ... Read Full Article

Great Lakes beaches water quality information available online
MADISON - People looking to cool off from the summer heat by taking a dip at a Great Lakes beach can find daily online updates on water quality at 120 public beaches along Wisconsin's shores of ... Read Full Article

EPA Economics - "nothing is free," but called the impact "manageable and affordable."

US EPA Sees Little Economic Impact from CO2 Cuts
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43285/story.htm

Lieberman also said the EPA analysis found that his plan would hold US carbon dioxide levels below 500 parts per million by the end of the century, a key level that international scientists say will allay the worst global warming impacts.

The EPA analysis also found that US gasoline prices would rise by 26 cents a gallon in 2030 and 68 cents a gallon by 2050, and electricity and natural gas prices would rise slightly.

Cap-and-trade regimes envisioned in many legislative proposals in Congress would create a multi billion-dollar market for trading emissions credits.

If the McCain-Lieberman bill is enacted, the EPA found the market for credits and offsets would be US$25 billion in 2030 and US$57 billion in 2050.

---

Haase Comments: I am not sure where this "analysis" is getting numbers.... a simple inflation model will put the price of gas nearly double that with just cost of living increases???

I can also prove with very solid data, electricity and natural gas prices will also double in the same time frames (2030).

Hey maybe the "analyst" should try a inflation calculator. www.westegg.com/inflation

Simple math: In 23 years (2030) $3 dollar a gallon gas will be $6 (Double) and by 2050 a gallon of gas should be $19.

I am not sure why they are minimizing the cost of environmental protection or the MASSIVE impact of what our energy demands will cost the U.S. in just ten years.

My guess is that a lot of people are planning to line pockets on the $25-50 BILLION dollar Cap-and-trading racket.

After this report, I hardly think I would let the this EPA analyst run my 401k.

While there is currently enough federal funding is in place to resolve that vast majority of Environmental problems in the U.S. .... I have know idea how bad the energy wars will get, but it will be much worse that the 70's and at a minimum quadruple our current energy costs by 2020.

I would bet my 401k on that ;-)

China taking all U.S. resources, not even turtles are safe

China needs our coal, metal, cotton, corn, wood... now turtles?
..one section of the Rio Grande river that had been a trap site, an adult turtle has not been seen in 10 years.

'They are taking them so fast the scientists can't study them,' Jones said.

Now some varieties including the Texas river cooter could have some protection because the TPWD commissioners on May 24 approved a measure to prohibit the collection of wild turtles on public land."

Turtles need protection from overharvesting because they are slow to mature and their young have a high mortality rate, said Lee Fitzgerald, an associate professor of herpetology at Texas A&M University who has published research on the Texas turtle trade.

"Their population can't take the removal of adults," said Fitzgerald. "If it continues, the population will collapse."

For example he said it takes a female box turtle 15 years to reach sexual maturity. Once at that stage she lays four or five eggs, and most of the hatchlings will not survive.

Read more from Planet Ark : Texas Turtles Ending Up in China Soup Pots

Planet Ark : US Fines Du Pont US$4.125 Mln Over Plant Emissions

"NEW YORK - Chemical company E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co has settled with the government and agreed to pay a US$4.125 million civil penalty for harmful emissions at four of its plants, the Department of Justice said Friday.


Du Pont will also spend at least US$66 million on air pollution controls at the sulfuric acid production plants in Louisiana, Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, the DoJ said.

It said the settlement, which also involved the US Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to reduce more than 13,000 tons of harmful emissions annually from the plants.

The states of Louisiana, Virginia and Ohio joined the federal government in the agreement and will receive shares of the civil penalty.


FROM - REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

EHS Blogger blackout or just busy?

I have not posted a whole lot the last few months here or on the hugg.com.

While most of us could excuse ourselves out of existence. I have no excuses just a lot of work.

I am pushing as hard as nails on national environmental and energy initiatives that are bringing safer and greener options to world.

The same goes for ESS, where we were nominated again for this years presidential green chemistry award (but eluded us again).

People are always amazed when they meet us and see were only a "handful of guys changing the world".... However, it takes a lot of hours to pull it all off.

In the next few months I will be posting details on the revolutionary projects ESS and I have been hard at work on.

So stay posted and thanks for reading.

gostats.com update were back and better

I already liked gostats.com... but after yesterday, I am formally impressed. Minutes after posting issues regarding my site stats disappearing, I received a nice email mentioning that the site was upgrading and that "no data was lost". Woohooo!

Thanks gostats.com!

Gostats.com - thanks for the counter & visit

I use www.gostats.com counters on several of my sites and love it.

While my various servers have great logs.... all the traffic it is nearly impossible to view day to day activity.

www.gostats.com makes is easy. Did I mention "gostats.com" is free?

As I was reviewing my "gostats.com" site counters for malicious leeching of information when "poof" all my site stats were reset.

Odd, but what was very odd was the last visitor was from "gostats.com"...

The odds that my site stats disappear while my stat company is visiting the same site appeared suspicious and at best a 1 in a billion chance.

Summary: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:33:44 I.P. # 66.98.152.48 gostats.com

But whose "oppps" deleted all my stats or was someone hiding their tracks?

I think they were just tracking why this linked image gets SOOOO much traffic.

I must have a 1000 people a month click through this image.

What does all this mean? We'll find out ;-)

Radical environmentalists on decline

First, Stanislas Meyerhoff: "I was ignorant of history and economy and acted from a faulty and narrow vision as an ordinary bigot," Meyerhoff said, in May.

"A million times over I apologize ... to all of you hardworking business owners, employees, researchers, firemen, investigators, attorneys and all citizens whose property was destroyed, whose holidays were ruined, whose welfare was thwarted, and whose sleep was troubled."  Quiet, shy, his hair turning gray at 30, the slightly built Meyerhoff was dwarfed by the angular expanse of the courtroom.

And so a violent chapter in the environmental movement ended - with a whimper. Once feared by some and admired by others for their willingness to use any means necessary, these militants are in decline.

"Radical environmentalism failed," said James Johnston of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Whether radical environmentalists admit it or not, they failed."

http://www.komotv.com/news/local/8650211.html

Taiwan's 1.68 trillion kilowatt, Ocean Power System

The government is now discussing the possibility of large-scale ocean current power generation, using the strong Kuroshio current off the east coast of Taiwan to generate up to 1.68 trillion kilowatt-hours per year, officials at cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said Monday.

 

According to the estimates of the project task force, a given site of 25 square kilometers located in the "shallow, high-speed zone" could support the deployment of 1,000 one-megawatt marine turbines, which would have a peak capacity of 1,000 megawatts: equal to the output of Taiwan's second nuclear power plant.

 

Read more: http://cryptogon.com/?p=1051

And so it has come to pass... China tops U.S. in CO2 emissions

As autobloggreen.com noted back in April, China was due to pass the United States in amount of CO2 emitted earlier than the previously-expected 2010 date. As our sister site travel blog Gadling noted the other day, that unfortunate mark has come to pass. What an unwinnable race.

The main culprit, of course, is China's economy and the masses of factories that produce tons of consumer goods for the rest of the world. Remember, each product on the store shelf - made in China or not - has a carbon footprint. One way to lighten that load is to buy less. Or drive less, as the increasing number of cars on the road in China might make one want to do.

That said, this is a complex issue. With China manufacturing prowess, it's clear there is a lot of green car potential in China. Here's a short list of recent posts we've had:

• Chinese academy develops big electric motors - 50,000 electric cars might come soon
• AFVI Show: Miles Automotive on the $30,000 Javlon XS500 all-electric sedan
• It's Official Chrysler and Chery deal signed in Beijing
• GM working on new small global four cylinders in Korea and China
• ZAP! vehicles on display at International Environmental Conference in China

[Source: Gadling] By Sebastian Blanco on JavlonXs500

So much for green consumerism

New market research finds: The majority of consumers really don't care all that much about the environment. Green simply doesn't has not captured the public imagination. ... The fact is, the amount of media interest given to the environment far exceeds the amount of consumer interest.

Joel Makower has more.

Solar... not any time soon.

"Solar Power Wins Enthusiasts but Not Money" "The trade association for the nuclear power industry recently asked 1,000 Americans what energy source they thought would be used most for generating electricity in 15 years. The top choice? Not nuclear plants, or coal or natural gas. The winner was the sun, cited by 27 percent of those polled. ... But for all the enthusiasm about harvesting sunlight, some of the most ardent experts and investors say that moving this energy source from niche to mainstream -- last year it provided less than 0.01 percent of the countryAEs electricity supply -- is unlikely without significant technological breakthroughs. And given the current scale of research in private and government laboratories, that is not expected to happen anytime soon." One reason is that the government, while spending big bucks to subsidize research on ways to use fossil fuels and nuclear energy, is spending comparatively little on solar research. Andrew C. Revkin and Matthew L. Wald report in the New York Times 7/16/07.

 

Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/business/16solar.html

U.S. government web sites you didn't know you could use

VIA - lifehacker.com

Overlooked and difficult to find, there are hundreds of thousands of U.S. government web sites that can help you accomplish a variety of tasks. At the right federal .gov destination you can locate historical documents, keep tabs on Congressional happenings, view presidential paperwork, and a whole lot more. Keep reading for the most useful U.S. government web sites out there.

For sheer accessibility, USA.gov wins hands-down as the U.S. government's official portal on the Web. You can find all sorts of goodies here: grant information, hundreds of online services (drivers' license renewal, shop government auctions, contact elected officials, etc.), the latest government news, and a ton more.

Related: For more government Web portals, check out FedWorld, Students.gov, Health.gov, or one of the coolest sites I've ever seen - the New York City Maps Portal.

 

GPO Access

GPO Access, part of the U.S. government printing office, offers you official information from all three branches of the federal government. A few links to note: core documents of U.S. democracy, a huge catalog of government publications, and an A-Z list of federal databases.

Related: You also don't want to miss the GPO's cache of congressional records, public presidential papers, or Ben's Guide.

 

Library of Congress

I could (and frequently do) get lost in the stellar Library of Congress. For instance, you can access state and local government information, browse the gigantic American Memory collection, or view current and historical legislative info courtesy of THOMAS.

Related: The National Archives is a good place to start your historical/genealogical research - you can also view actual scanned-in archival documents, such as the Document for Today.

 

CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook provides detailed information for (most) every known country, territory, and province in the world. You can also download a printable version.

Related: Find stats at the U.S. Census Bureau, federal data from FedStats, or view the National Atlas.

 

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Forget wasting time sluffing through pages of spammy job search information - the Occupational Outlook Handbook is the real deal. You can find state by state job market information, employment projections, even an A-Z occupations index that will give you an idea of what you should be making in your chosen field.

Related: Don't forget the Social Security Administration or the IRS.

 

Science

Since I have a budding geology buff in my house, science sites rank high on my list of most useful, and the United States Geological Survey is at the top. You can find all sorts of interesting information here, such as worldwide earthquake updates or the largest earth science library in the world.

Right next to the USGS is NASA, the home of the U.S. space program. This site is so gigantic that it's a bit difficult to summarize; however, my favorite spots have to be the image gallery, the archive of past missions, and the index of NASA World Book encyclopedia articles.

There's also the National Weather Service, the GrayLit Network, the Life Sciences Data Archives, and Science.gov, a portal for all kinds of scientific information.

 

And that's not all

As previously mentioned, there are literally hundreds of thousands of government web sites that are extremely useful, yet manage to fly somewhat under the radar....these picks are just the tip of the iceberg. What are your favorite government sites? Please share in the comments.

Wendy Boswell, Lifehacker's Weekend Editor, enjoys getting lost in the maze of government web sites. Subscribe to her feature series Technophilia using the Technophilia feed.

Unpleasant Surprises for Natural Gas

By Chris Nelder  (w w w . g r e e n c h i p s t o c k s . c o m )

Last week was just full of unpleasant surprises for natural gas supply.

Chris Nelder was researching the issues and it looks like we have some serious supply issues on our hands, starting now and growing worse over the next 20 years or more.

He also have prepared a detailed free report on it, which you can find here But here's the short version.

First, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a warning that it's very concerned about an impending supply gap for natural gas.

This is important because about one quarter of our electricity in the U.S. is generated from natural gas, a share that is expected to increase along with demand.

But he does believe that share can be increased. And that spells "higher grid electricity" prices for this country, and an even better outlook for solar and wind generation.

Apparently, receding horizons, massive cost increases, and lack of construction materials and skilled labor have all contributed to delays and cancellations in new power plant construction. It's just not a friendly environment for investing in new plants.

Sweetener used in everything, may be making us sicker

STOP POISONING YOURSELF WITH THE HEALTHY SWEETENER...

• Did you know the FDA refused to approve this best-selling sweetener for 16 years...?
  
• Until one powerful politician called in a favor which finally got it legalized...?
  
• And now it's been linked to brain cancer, memory loss, impaired vision, hearing loss, joint pain, asthma, coma, seizures...?

Aspartame, the sweetener being used in everything from sodas to salad dressing, may be making us sicker and fatter than good old sugar ever could!

Now, discover how this "healthy option" could actually kill you... plus learn more real medical truths that could save your life!

New guide offers information on managing unused pharmaceuticals

MADISON - People, businesses and institutions have new online resources to help them manage or dispose of pharmaceuticals and other personal care products in ways that are safe for them and the ... Read Full Article

Corn Ethanol Expansion - Kills viable biodiesel market...

 This story could easily be filed under Conspiracy Theory, Oil Company-Based. But is it deserved? "The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday that farmers nationwide planted 92.9 million acres of corn this year - 19 percent more than last year and 3 percent more than the government had projected in March. The demand for ethanol led U.S. farmers to plant the most corn since 1944. But that extra corn acreage means that farmers planted 15 percent less land to soybeans. The price of soybean oil is "almost to the point where it's not economically feasible to make biodiesel," said Dan Holesinger, manager of Clinton...

Best liveaid Quote

They rocked the world, but as the clean-up at nine climate change gigs
around the globe begins, many wonder if the galaxy of pop stars did much to
change it.

"I pray that this event ends global warming the same way that Live Aid ended
world hunger," he said in London.
- comedian Chris Rock

USGBC makes $1 Million Commitment to Support Green Building Research

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced that it will commit $1 million to green building research. These funds will be targeted at increasing research in areas such as energy and water security; global climate change prevention; indoor environmental quality; and passive survivability in the face of natural and man-made disasters.

 

Source: Building Design+Construction, 6/25/07. VIA- www.glrppr.org/news/

New studies find changing levels of mercury in fish and PCBs in people

MADISON – Wisconsin's updated fish consumption advisory booklet, "Choose Wisely, A Health Guide for Eating Fish in Wisconsin," arrives as studies show mixed trends in contaminant levels in sport-caught fish and the people who eat them.

• A Department of Natural Resources study analyzing statewide data from 1982 to 2005 found that mercury levels in walleye decreased 0.5 percent per year in northern lakes but increased 0.8 percent in southern lakes, and remained constant in middle latitudes of the state, according to Candy Schrank, a DNR toxicologist. The study found mercury generally increased with fish length but that relationship varies among lakes and other variables such as season, gender, lake area, and alkalinity are also important. The study will be published in the journal Ecotoxicology. A similar study by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission also found that walleye mercury decreased in northern lakes . This study was recently published in Environmental Science and Technology.
• A Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services survey found that PCB levels in the blood of Great Lakes charter boat captains and anglers decreased by 30 percent between 1994 and 2003. This decline reflects a gradual decline of PCB levels in the environment and in local sportfish. PCB production ended in the United States in 1977. However, these chemicals are still found in older appliances and electrical equipment.

"While these results show that exposure to some contaminants may be less in some parts of the state compared to the 1980s, further reductions will likely depend on mercury emission controls and PCB remediation efforts," Schrank says.

SOURCE - Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources