Echo

Iron Range copper mine project inches ahead

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Minnesota’s first copper mine took a step forward Wednesday as state officials released a 1,500-page environmental impact study for the Iron Range proposal. The $600 million project, to be built by PolyMet Mining Inc., would include an open-pit mine near Babbitt and a processing plant near Hoyt Lakes, connected by an existing 6-mile railroad spur. Company officials said the mine would create 400 permanent jobs for more than 20 years, and would produce nickel, cobalt, platinum and other valuable metals. More

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Cleveland-area residents oppose drilling bill

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(OH) Cleveland Plain Dealer – New proposed regulations for oil and gas drilling don’t do enough to shield the health and property rights of people in residential neighborhoods, a group of Northeast Ohio residents told lawmakers Wednesday. About three dozen members of the Northeast Ohio Gas Accountability Project (NEOGAP) descended on the Senate’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee to opposea measure that rewrites Ohio’s oil and gas drilling laws. More

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Wis. farmer gets star treatment, shout-out from Bill Clinton

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – After years of tilling away in obscurity, Will Allen has found sudden fame as the face of the urban farming movement. In the year since he won a so-called genius grant from a Chicago foundation, Allen has mingled with former President Bill Clinton, appeared in Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine and spoken to scores of groups across the nation and overseas. More

Energy

A Watershed Decision

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(NY) The New York Times – The decision by the Chesapeake Energy Corporation not to drill for natural gas in New York City’s watershed is a smart and welcome move on the company’s part, and very good news for the 8.2 million New York City residents who depend on this environmentally sensitive region for their drinking water. The threat has not, however, disappeared. Chesapeake is believed to be the only leaseholder in the watershed, but its decision is voluntary and not binding on other oil and gas companies. New York State needs to adopt regulations that place the watershed permanently off limits, while imposing the strictest possible safeguards on drilling anywhere else where drinking water supplies might be affected. More

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Plan for wind turbines at water plant faces federal, local scrutiny

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press – Will the wind someday carry water from Lake Michigan to Grand Rapids water customers? It will if Grand Rapids officials put together a $15 million proposal to build two wind turbines on land the city owns next door to its Lake Michigan Water Filtration Plant. The turbines could generate enough electricity to help power the 15 giant pumps that deliver an average of 40 million gallons of Lake Michigan water to 300,000 customers in Grand Rapids and its suburbs each day. More

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Oakland should opt in to SMART resolution

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(MI)  Detroit Free Press – Transportation is an inherently regional issue. Everyone enjoys the economic, social and environmental benefits of a good mass transit system, whether they ride it themselves or not. (Skeptical? Ask employees at local grocery stores, hospitals and coffee shops how they got to work.) The best way to ensure that benefit is to put every community in a service area on board. But that’s not how it works in southeast Michigan, where communities in Wayne and Oakland counties are allowed to opt out of SMART, the suburban bus system.

Waste

Daley aide, aldermen clash over delay of blue-cart recycling program

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Mayor Richard Daley’s top budget aide tried Wednesday to convince the City Council that the wheels aren’t falling off the city’s blue-cart recycling program, even as he acknowledged there would be no major expansion of the program to most of the city for at least another year. There’s no new funding for blue carts in Daley’s proposed 2010 spending plan that freezes the Streets and Sanitation budget. As a result, some households will likely see their recycling picked up less frequently, city Budget Director Eugene Munin said on the first day of budget hearings. More

Echo

Conferees Vote to Increase Agency Funding by 36%

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(NY) The New York Times – House and Senate conferees yesterday approved a $10.3 billion spending plan to fund U.S. EPA for fiscal 2010, a 36 percent boost over last year’s levels. Included in the conference report are significant boosts over fiscal 2009 for EPA programs to address climate change, drinking water and Great Lakes restoration. More

Echo

Gas Company Won’t Drill in New York Watershed

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(NY) The New York Times – Bowing to intense public pressure, the Chesapeake Energy Corporation says it will not drill for natural gas within the upstate New York watershed, an environmentally sensitive region that supplies unfiltered water to nine million people. The reversal seems to signal a more conciliatory tone from the gas industry, which is facing mounting opposition in New York to its drilling practices. The decision also increases the pressure on state regulators to reverse their decision to allow drilling within the watershed. More

Echo

Deal struck to exempt some ships from pollution regulations

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(MI) The Detroit News – Congressional negotiators reached a deal Tuesday that would effectively exempt 13 shipping companies that haul iron ore, coal and other freight on the Great Lakes from a proposed federal rule meant to reduce air pollution. The Lake Carriers’ Association, which represents the 55 U.S.-flagged vessels that operate on the lakes, had asked for at least a partial exemption from rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that would require large vessels operating within 200 miles of a U.S. coast to use cleaner — and costlier — fuel and improve engine technology. More