In what can be seen as a prime example of classic “quirky” Pacific Northwest innovation, city planners broke ground earlier this month on a project to develop the nation’s largest public “food forest” right here in Knowledge Mosaic’s home city of Seattle (seems only fitting, as Seattle lost its “Fun Forest” in 2009). The inspiration [...]
Archive for February, 2012
25 Feb
Last Week in Environmental Impact Statements: Resilience to Fire, Insects and Disease
While Federal agencies are required to prepare Environmental Impact Statements in accordance with 40 CFR Part 1502, and to file the EISs with the EPA as specified in 40 CFR 1506.9, the EPA doesn’t yet provide a central repository for filing and viewing EISs electronically. Instead, each week they prepare a digest of the preceding week’s [...]
24 Feb
A Trade War at 30,000 Feet
The U.S. joined twenty-three other nations on Wednesday in signing the so-called Moscow Joint Declaration to protest the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which in 2008 was extended to include aviation. It is the latest show of American opposition to the scheme, following a joint letter from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to the International [...]
22 Feb
Opinions on Rising Oil Prices and the GOP Effort to Use Them as a Campaign Weapon
New York Times political correspondent Michael Shear took an in-depth look yesterday at the GOP’s effort to spin rising gas prices against the Obama administration in anticipation of attacking the administration’s economic policies at large in the looming general election. Current oil prices are hovering somewhere around $105 a barrel and #3.58 per gallon at [...]
21 Feb
The Wind May Keep Blowing, Just Not From Congress
The American wind energy industry has long relied on a production tax credit (PTC) that returns 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour produced as a tax credit to investors. Following the PTC’s expirations in 1999, 2001, and 2003, the industry’s installed capacity fell each time by three-quarters or more. In the past few months as the industry [...]
18 Feb
Last Week in Environmental Impact Statements: Identifying Lands Suitable for Renewable Energy Development
While Federal agencies are required to prepare Environmental Impact Statements in accordance with 40 CFR Part 1502, and to file the EISs with the EPA as specified in 40 CFR 1506.9, the EPA doesn’t yet provide a central repository for filing and viewing EISs electronically. Instead, each week they prepare a digest of the preceding week’s [...]
17 Feb
The Agencies Align for Nuclear
Last Thursday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Southern Co.’s construction of a nuclear reactor near Waynesboro, Georgia, the first new reactor to be approved since the 1978 construction of the Shearon Harris plant in North Carolina. (The Hill covers the approval in more detail here). The story of the next year’s accident at Three Mile [...]
16 Feb
Monsanto’s Shiny New Corn, or, Losing Faith in the Democratic Process
Facebook, my email inbox, and the internet generally are awash today with pleas to “Tell Walmart to Reject Monsanto’s GE Sweet Corn!” The questionable healthfulness of genetically engineered foods aside, this tactic made me a little sad. Despite 250 comments submitted directly to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (part of the USDA), 229 of [...]
15 Feb
Selenium, the Snake River, and the Two-Headed Trout
A federally prompted US Fish and Wildlife Service study released earlier this month took a close look at selenium contamination in Idaho’s Snake River as a result of the nearby Smoky Canyon phosphate mine. Selenium is a chemical that can be toxic in large amounts, often created as a bi-product in the synthesis of other [...]
14 Feb
Responding to Emergencies at Marcellus Shale Sites
The Pennsylvania legislature recently passed a short but sweet bill (SB 995) requiring emergency response information to be posted at the entrance to each “unconventional” well site in the area. In this case, “unconventional” is a roundabout way of saying “fracking”. Or, more technically, as explained by Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in a related alert [...]
