Jim Merkel, a former military engineer living in Norwich, now uses his skills to help people live with less.
Back in 1989, the Long Island native was a weapons engineer who helped design a cutting-edge computer that could transmit military secrets, survive a nuclear blast and, a decade before the dawn of the BlackBerry, fit in the palm of his hand. Sitting at a hotel bar in Stockholm, Sweden, he was drinking in his accomplishment when a bulletin flashed on television.
An oil tanker had hit a reef half a world away in Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil, contaminating 1,300 miles of coastline and killing more than 250,000 seabirds, otters, seals, bald eagles and whales. Video showed the culprit to be the Exxon Valdez. But peering into a mirror behind the bar, Merkel saw only himself.
He drove. He flew. He consumed goods produced with or propelled by fossil fuels.
"SBA has worked for years with EPA to get the SPCC rule right for small business," said Shawne McGibbon, acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy.
A complete chronology of Advocacy's SPCC activities can be found here and below:
Press Release dated 11/20/08 - The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent actions reforming the Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule contains provisions that will benefit small business.
Letter dated 12/19/06 - Environmental Protection Agency [html], [text] or [PDF File] - Congratulatory letter regarding Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) program; Fact Sheet Summarizing Advocacy's Letter.
Letter dated 02/10/06 - Environmental Protection Agency [PDF File] or [text] - Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Rule; Proposed Amendments; Qualified Facility, Oil-Filled Equipment and Other Revisions; 70 Fed. Reg.75324, December 12, 2005; [PDF File] or [text] Fact Sheet Summarizing Advocacy's Letter; SPCC Technical Memorandum by E.H. Pechan & Associates, Inc.
Congressional Testimony dated 12/14/05 - Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, testified before the Committee on Environment & Public Works, U.S. Senate on “Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Regulations.” [PDF File]
Comment dated 06/10/04 - Environmental Protection Agency - Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Regulation; Recommendations for Regulatory Revisions; 67 Fed. Reg. 47041 (July 17, 2002). Fact Sheet Summarizing Advocacy's Letter; SPCC Report by Jack Faucett Associates.
But a team of UCLA economists have determined that some of FDR's policies prolonged the depression by 7 years. Proponents of the Austrian school of economics have been saying this for decades.
The smart money is calling the New New Deal dead on arrival.
For example, Bloomberg writes:
President-elect Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may throw as much as half a trillion dollars worth of stimulus at the economy -- and have little or no growth to show for it.
One of the leading authorities on monetary policy says that the Fed and Treasury are "fighting the last war", and using an approach that they think would have worked in the Great Depression, even though the cause of the 2 financial crises are entirely different.
Now, Congress and Obama are set to duplicate the fiscal stimulus approach of FDR.
Instead of being smart and taking actions which will work, all branches of the government appear to be spending sums we can never repay to take actions which will likely be ineffective.
Obama: "I will bankrupt the coal industry" 92 percent of the coal used in the United States, is for generating electricity.
The U.S. Coal Exports (Short Tons) 
More FACTS:
Carbon sequestration WILL increase overall pollutants
Insane - US Unveils Plan to Bury Carbon
Carbon capture of CO2 worse than ethanol
Will U.S. Carbon tax $0.09 or $0.40 a gallon?
Problems with CO2 trading and storage...
Carbon Trading is like, "Trading sand on a beach"
Carbon trade market just crashed
Cap-and-Trade schemes mean Billion$ in Windfall $$ for Utilities
Bloomberg calls for a carbon tax - Dahhh!
Hundreds of Billions in Carbon Credits and Subsidies to Polluters
We all lose in the "The global warming cap-and-trade bill (S. 2191)"
Please read more about "crap and trade" at: CarbCrap
Forget bailing them out... all they need to do is clean up their act.
DOE issued an Interim Final Rule last week for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which will distribute up to $25 billion in direct loans to automakers and component manufacturers. The loans will help those manufacturers establish new U.S. manufacturing facilities or reequip or expand existing ones within the United States for the production of advanced technology vehicles and the components for such vehicles. To expedite the loans, the rule will become effective as soon as it is published in the Federal Register. To qualify for the loan, the vehicles being manufactured must meet tough emissions standards while achieving a 25% greater fuel economy than similar vehicles sold in Model Year 2005. Applications for the first round of funding are due on December 31. See the DOE press release and fact sheet on the loan program, the loan program Web site, and the full text of DOE's interim final rule (PDF 1.5 MB). Download Adobe Reader.
The Pharox LED Bulb will be a little bit on an investment in the beginning, but will definitely pay for itself with its energy efficiency, and lifespan.
By introducing revolutionary LED technology to the market, Lemnis is empowering consumers, influencers and business partners world over to actively take on climate change through highly efficient lighting technology. Lighting can be attributed to 19% of total worldwide energy consumption and it is our mission to reduce this consumption through the use of our products.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a Google Earth-based interactive website that pinpoints opportunities for solar, wind or biomass siting on contaminated properties. The site combines the Google Earth platform with an EPA database that lists each property’s attributes for renewable energy development.
According to the EPA, many lands tracked by the agency, such as large Superfund sites, and mining sites offer thousands of acres of land, and may be situated in areas where the presence of wind and solar structures are less likely to be met with aesthetic, and therefore political, opposition.
Many EPA tracked lands are in areas where traditional redevelopment may not be an option because the site may be remote, or have difficult environmental conditions that are not well suited for traditional redevelopment such as residential or commercial.
These EPA tracked lands also have key infrastructure already in place. Existing electric transmission lines and capacity, as well as roads, criss-cross many of the landscapes. In addition, most of the areas are adequately zoned for such development.
There are approximately 480,000 sites and almost 15 million acres of potentially contaminated properties across the United States that are tracked by EPA.
Maps for these six types of energy, as well as non-grid connected wind and photovoltaic solar energy, for the entire nation are also available:
* EPA Tracked Sites with Utility Scale Wind Energy Generation Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Community Wind Energy Generation Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Utility Scale Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Energy Generation Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Utility Scale Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Energy Generation Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Biopower Facility Siting Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Biorefinery Facility Siting Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Non-Grid Connected Wind Energy Generation Potential
* EPA Tracked Sites with Non-Grid Connected Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Energy Generation Potential
With catalysts created by an MIT chemist, sunlight can turn water into hydrogen. If the process can scale up, it could make solar power a dominant source of energy.
Storing energy from the sun by mimicking photosynthesis is something scientists have been trying to do since the early 1970s. In particular, they have tried to replicate the way green plants break down water. Chemists, of course, can already split water. But the process has required high temperatures, harsh alkaline solutions, or rare and expensive catalysts such as platinum. What Nocera has devised is an inexpensive catalyst that produces oxygen from water at room temperature and without caustic chemicals--the same benign conditions found in plants. Several other promising catalysts, including another that Nocera developed, could be used to complete the process and produce hydrogen gas.
Including, it would seem, rock & roll. I know, the RS 500 list is not without its faults, but it does allow for some attempt at quantifying a highly subjective and controversial topic and for plotting the number of “greatest songs” over time. Notice that after the birth of rock & roll in the 1950’s, the production of “great songs” peaked in the 60’s, remained strong in the 70’s, but drastically fell in the subsequent decades. It would seem that, like oil, the supply of great musical ideas is finite. By the end of the 70’s, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Motown greats, and other genre innovators quickly extracted the best their respective genres** had to offer, leaving little supply for future musicians.
Now, if only we could drill for some new reserves of pop music innovation. Perhaps there’s a new Motown hit machine waiting somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, waiting to be unleashed. Let’s get drilling.
Read more at overthinkingit.com
The LR6 is an amazing combination of technical innovations, including breakthroughs in optical design, electronics design, mechanical design, and thermal management. The core of the innovation is a new way to generate white light with LEDs. The technology is elegantly simple, yet incredibly effective. It delivers high efficacy light with beautiful, warm color characteristics by mixing the light from yellow and red LEDs. This approach enables active color management that maintains tight color consistency over the life of the product.
U.S. Energy UseKey Energy Efficiency Conclusions
After scientifically evaluating a wide variety of energy-saving ideas and alternative energy sources, such as hybrid cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, solar power, and wind power, the report recommends many short term and long term goals. The good news is that the news is good.
Focusing on transportation and buildings, two areas that consume two-thirds of our energy, Energy Future: Think Efficiency specifically outlines priorities for the next administration’s energy policies—for the immediate future and decades ahead.
APS is the American Physical Society, a society created a century ago for the purpose of advancing and diffusing the knowledge of physics. APS offers this landmark report to identify America’s most effective energy saving strategies.
Nearly 40 percent of fish species in North American streams, rivers and lakes are now in jeopardy, according to the most detailed evaluation of the conservation status of freshwater fishes in the last 20 years.
The 700 fishes now listed represent a staggering 92 percent increase over the 364 listed as “imperiled” in the previous 1989 study published by the American Fisheries Society. Researchers classified each of the 700 fishes listed as either vulnerable (230), threatened (190), or endangered (280). In addition, 61 fishes are presumed extinct.
The new report, published in Fisheries, was conducted by a U.S. Geological Survey-led team of scientists from the United States, Canada and Mexico, who examined the status of continental freshwater and diadromous (those that migrate between rivers and oceans) fish. Read the press release
