Microsoft Corp unveiled its Hohm website designed to help residential power consumers save money and reduce their environmental impact by conserving energy.
Microsoft has been selling technology to the energy industry for years and is now targeting the home power market as the weak economy forces consumers to find ways to save money and the government prepares to mandate the use of renewables and energy efficiency to curb carbon emissions.
“Conservation is the cheapest source of energy,” Troy Batterberry, product manager for Hohm, told Reuters. If consumers use less power, he said, utilities will not need to build as many new polluting power plants. Everyone saves money.
Source
By a one-vote margin, a U.S. House committee decided not to intervene in federal regulations that could hold U.S. ethanol makers responsible for greenhouse gases from crops overseas.
The Appropriations Committee defeated, 29-30, an amendment to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from using so-called indirect land-use change when measuring greenhouse gases from biofuels. It voted later to ask the Agriculture Department to study the question.
“There is a huge negative effect here,” said Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri Republican, who said an unfair EPA rule “could stop U.S. ethanol production in its tracks.”
Norm Dicks, Washington state Democrat, said it was logical that food production must expand elsewhere if larger amounts of U.S. crops are used in biofuels, so it is appropriate for EPA to take the changes into account.
Source
Toyota and the Philippine government have reached a basic memorandum of understanding in regards to creating a bio-diesel production facility. This is only the first step in a very long process, but it represents an interesting investment on behalf of Toyota. Considering that Toyota is cutting costseverywhere, investing in a bio-diesel plant in this economic climate could only be justified if it was a strategic move.
Toyota invests in bio-diesel made from jatropha curcas.
Source
The nation’s largest biodiesel refinery went on the block this week for an undisclosed price after the owner shut down the $70 millionfacility in the face of low demand.
In a sign of the recession trumping policy talk in Washington and elsewhere, GreenHunter Energy Inc. (GRH) said it plans to sell the 105 million gallon-a- year plant by Nov. 15 as it moves to meet roughly $50 million in financing obligations with a key lender.
All this comes less than a year after the June 2008 plant opening on the Houston ship channel that was attended by Texas GovernorRick Perry, who heralded the project as a path toward the future
Source
A new plant that produces gas from wood was opened in Austria on Wednesday, paving the way towards new possibilities in renewable energy.
According to its backers, the gas produced at the plant can be used in urban heating systems, for gas-powered cars or by power stations that work on gas.
“We still need fossil fuel of course, but this plant shows what is technically possible,” Austria’s Environment Minister Nikolas Berlakovich said at the plant’s inauguration.
The facility, located in Guessing southeastern Austria, a town renowned for being entirely energy self-reliant, can produce some 100 cubic metres of bio-gas per hour — enough to heat 150 homes on a cold winter’s day.
A new plant that produces gas from wood was opened in Austria, paving the way towards new possibilities in renewable energy.
According to its backers, the gas produced at the plant can be used in urban heating systems, for gas-powered cars or by power stations that work on gas.
“We still need fossil fuel of course, but this plant shows what is technically possible,” Austria’s Environment Minister Nikolas Berlakovich said at the plant’s inauguration.
The facility, located in Guessing southeastern Austria, a town renowned for being entirely energy self-reliant, can produce some 100 cubic metres of bio-gas per hour — enough to heat 150 homes on a cold winter’s day.
Source
PANASONIC CORP. (TSE:6752) announced plans to reduce the environmental impact of its operations and promote environmental awareness in the Asia-Pacific region. The Eco Ideas Declaration for Asia Pacific calls for group factories in the region to lower their carbon dioxide emissions in the year ending March 2010 by 30 per cent from fiscal 2006 levels, as well as to raise the proportion of energy-efficient eco-friendly products to 80 per cent of all products it sells in the region by fiscal 2012, compared with the current 24 per cent.
Source
Single-use plastic bags, a staple of American life, have got to go, the United Nations’ top environmental official said.
Although recycling bags is on the rise in the United States, an estimated 90 billion thin bags a year, most used to handle produce and groceries, go unrecycled. They were the second most common form of litter after cigarette butts at the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup Day sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, a marine environmental group.
“Single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme. His office advises U.N. member states on environmental policies.
Source
To recycle, or not to recycle? That may no longer be a matter of debate in San Francisco, where a new mandatory recycling and composting law is poised for approval.
The ordinance, which will be considered by the city’s Board of Supervisors, would require residential and commercial building owners to sign up for recycling and composting services. Fines of up to $500 would await those who refuse. There would also be penalties for those who put recyclable or compostable material in landfill-bound bins.
By its own estimation, San Francisco already has the highest recycling rate in the nation at 72 percent. But to reach its goals of 75 percent landfill diversion by 2010, and zero waste by 2020, officials believe more drastic measures are needed.
Source
The world’s airlines have committed themselves to a global cap on emissions in 2020, even allowing for a return to growth after the worldwide economic slump, the industry body said.
The fuel-hungry air travel industry, which has been under attack from environmentalists for its contribution to global warming, faces estimated losses of 20 billion dollars in 2008 and 2009.
But despite the global financial crisis, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said at its annual meeting here that carriers had set an ambitious environmental goal that other major industries had yet to strive for.
Source
Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released by the United Nations.
Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn (£85bn) compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe.
The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.
“There have been many milestones reached in recent years, but this report suggests renewable energy has now reached a tipping point where it is as important – if not more important – in the global energy mix than fossil fuels,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN’s Environment Programme.
Source
