Echo

McNamara supports energy plan

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(OH) The Toledo Blade – City Councilman Joe McNamara said Wednesday he will introduce a resolution seeking to advance mayoral candidate Keith Wilkowski’s effort to get $50,000 of a federal energy-efficiency block grant for Toledo. It would be earmarked to plan for a citywide home energy upgrade.  

Mr. McNamara, who supports Mr. Wilkowski’s candidacy, said the resolution will direct Mayor Carty Finkbeiner to include the $50,000 in the administration’s application for a $3.1 million block grant, due June 25. He criticized the mayor for not allowing council to review the grant application in the first place. More

Echo

Greening the Herds: A New Diet to Cap Gas

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(NY) The New York Times – Libby, age 6, and the 74 other dairy cows on Guy Choiniere’s farm are at the heart of an experiment to determine whether a change in diet will help them belch less methane, a potent heat-trapping gas that has been linked to climate change. Since January, cows at 15 farms across Vermont have had their grain feed adjusted to include more plants like alfalfa and flaxseed – substances that, unlike corn or soy, mimic the spring grasses that the animals evolved long ago to eat.  More

Echo

Climate change law will boost state economy

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Climate change legislation working its way through Congress provides real opportunities for Michigan’s economy. Opponents are quick to overstate the costs, using scare tactics and bogus science, while refusing to discuss the cost of doing nothing. Yet strong climate legislation is needed to help Michigan make the transition to a new economy for the 21st Century, and to protect our state against the threats posed by climate change. Michigan’s largest industrial employers — including Dow Chemical, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, along with the UAW — support strong climate legislation.* They want the regulatory certainty that will allow them to invest confidently in new, cleaner technologies. More

Recreation

Dredged silt from Lake Macatawa will be used as soil to help build parks in Ottawa County

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press – Reclaimed soil from the bottom of Lake Macatawa will be heaped on dry land this summer to help build parks in four area townships. As much as 200,000 cubic yards of dried lake silt will be distributed by the Holland Board of Public Works and the Army Corps of Engineers to build or improve parks in Fillmore, Laketown, Park and Zeeland townships. Since 1997, the Corps deposited the dredgings in a 48-acre containment facility at Waverly Avenue and Lakewood Boulevard. The facility now is full of nutrient-rich black dirt that will be hauled to the four townships and three other sites. More

Energy

Best spots in Michigan for wind turbines: Along Lake Michigan, atop Thumb

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – If you live at the tip of the Thumb or along three stretches of Lake Michigan shoreline, hang on to your hat.  Michigan has determined that the winds in those areas are the breeziest in the state. The Wind Energy Resource Zone Board, created by the Legislature in an energy package passed last year, has identified the four that would be best for wind farm development. More
 
 
 

 

Echo

Michigan has first swine flu fatality

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(MI) The Detroit News – A Warren woman died Monday after a two-week sickness, making her the first Michigan fatality of the swine flu or H1N1 virus, state officials said. The 53-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld, had underlying health issues but the primary cause of death was the H1N1 virus that is believed to have come from Mexico this spring, said James McCurtis, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health. Health officials aren’t sure how she contracted the virus, but say she died in a Macomb County hospital. More

Echo

Car Balk

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(NY) The New York Times – The idea was to nudge innovative retailers into putting enough clean-fuel pit stops in place to create the nation’s longest alternative energy road. On this highway, you could drive from British Columbia to Baja — the entire length — in a car powered by woodchips or algae, ethanol or electricity. West Coast governors, backed by federal officials, imagined a series of stations that would allow drivers to swap out a fresh battery in minutes for electric vehicles, which can go about 100 miles on a charge. And every 60 miles or so would be a station with biofuel of some sort. Much of this, they said over the last two years, could be in place now.

Echo

PETA proposes to take control of Grand Haven lighthouses, to create its “fish empathy” headquarters

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press –  If PETA can’t protect horses in Holland, the animal rights organization is going to try to hook the public on safeguarding fish in Grand Haven. The national group on Wednesday asked the National Park Service if it could take control of the iconic Grand Haven lighthouses, where it would serve faux fish sticks in a cafe there and inform people about the alleged torment fish endure when hooked or netted. Earlier this year, the park service declared the Grand Haven lights were available under the National Lighthouse Preservation Act, which allows the transfer of ownership to groups to preserve the beacons. More

Energy

Toyota: hybrids best ‘green’ car for some time

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(MI) Booth Newspapers – A Toyota executive overseeing research said Thursday a battery breakthrough is needed for electric vehicles to become mainstream, and hybrids will remain the best “green” car choice for some time. His comments came just hours after the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Toyota’s Prius hybrid was the No. 1 selling vehicle in Japan for May, clinching the top spot for the first time-even though the latest model had been on sale for only half the month. More

Echo

Recession bursts green guilt bubble

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(MI) The Detroit News – There once was an Indianapolis concert featuring 50 pianos. Splendid instruments, pianos. Still, 50 might have been excessive. As is today’s chorus summoning us to save the planet. The incessant hectoring by the media-political complex’s “consciousness-raising” campaign has provoked a comic riposte in the form of “The Goode Family,” an animated ABC entertainment program on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.Cartoons seem, alas, to be the most effective means of seizing a mass audience’s attention.