Echo

Naperville: Proposed fuel depot will use yard waste to fuel fleet

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Naperville fleet vehicles may soon run on residents’ yard clippings under an innovative plan to produce renewable energy. U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert has requested a $4 million earmark from the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for a “green fuels depot” in Naperville that would use biomass to make electricity, hydrogen and ethanol. “It basically wrings energy out of what otherwise would be wasted biological materials,” City Councilman Robert Fieseler said. “I think people will embrace this because it just makes sense.” More

Energy

Big Oil Warms to Ethanol

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(NY) The New York Times – For decades, the big oil companies and the farm lobby have been fighting about ethanol, with the farmers pushing to produce more of it and the refiners arguing it was a boondoggle that would do little to solve the country’s energy problems.

The erstwhile enemies, it turns out, are gradually learning to get along, as refiners increasingly see a need to get involved in ethanol production. Ethanol, made chiefly from corn, now represents about 9 percent of the country’s market for liquid fuels. And the percentage is growing year after year because of federal mandates. With the nation’s thirst for gasoline, and the ethanol that is blended into it, expected to revive when the economy does, the oil companies want to be in a position to take full advantage. More

Echo

A Times Sq. ‘Sanctuary’ on First Workday Without Cars

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(NY) The New York Times – The difference between the old, frenetic Times Square and the newly reconfigured, still frenetic Times Square became clear on Tuesday: now you can pull up a chair to watch the show. Traffic still flowed on Seventh Avenue, without any obvious bottlenecks, two days after the city shut Broadway to traffic between 47th and 42nd Streets.  More

Echo

Two More New Yorkers With Swine Flu Die

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(NY) The New York Times – Two more New Yorkers have died with confirmed cases of swine flu, the city’s health commissioner said on Tuesday, bringing the city’s total number of deaths related to the virus to four. Emergency room visits and hospitalizations also continued to rise. The  two latest casualties, a 41-year-old woman in Queens and a 34-year-old man in Brooklyn, were linked to the H1N1 virus by lab tests completed on Monday and Tuesday. Both patients had underlying health conditions that put them more at risk, he said. More

Echo

Dioxin cleanup continues at West Michigan Park in Saginaw Township

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(MI) The Saginaw News – A crew spreads clean dirt onto the grounds of West Michigan Park on W. Michigan Ave. in Saginaw Township. Crews removed a layer of dioxin-polluted soil and is replacing it with clean fill as part of The West Michigan Park Soil Removal Project. The park is located along the banks of the Tittabawassee River. More

Nearshore

Disappearing beaches: Rising lake levels boon for boaters, bust for baskers

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(MI) The Holland Sentinel – Water levels in Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan have risen 12 inches since May 2008, making life easier for local boaters yet tougher for those with lakefront property or wanting beach blanket space. Anchorage Marina Manager Cary Masters said after near-record lows just a few years ago, he’s excited to see water levels rebounding. He said the rise has saved his Park Township marina a significant amount of money.

Echo

For balance in the north

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(ON) The Toronto Star – The province has rightly committed to protecting the woodland caribou, a threatened species that lives in a remote part of northern Ontario. However, the government’s plan may fall short of its objective. Public consultation on the draft Caribou Conservation Plan wraps up today. Environmentalists and wildlife advocates have dismissed it as inadequate. They say the Ministry of Natural Resources is trying to address conservation concerns without sufficiently holding back the logging industry.

Echo

Pontiac contemplates ‘daylighting’ Clinton River

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(MI) The Detroit News – The problems facing Pontiac run as deep as the river that streams invisibly beneath its downtown streets.  So it’s with some irony that a few city officials are looking toward that little-known stretch of the Clinton River — enclosed in 1963 to alleviate flooding — as a source for the troubled city’s revival. The idea is to “daylight” the river, or turn it into an open channel with a raised pedestrian walkway to attract shops, restaurants and other development. Though they admit it’s a long shot in a city so broke that it’s being run by a state-appointed financial manager, proponents say the project is worth considering.  More

Echo

Newest pest can cut you

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(ON) The Toronto Star – An aquatic invader is camping out on the banks of the Trent-Severn Waterway, and from the sounds of it, is getting very comfortable. “We have been doing surveillance of this plant; it is the first known sighting in Canada,” said Francine MacDonald, an aquatics biologist at the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters who is an expert in invasive species. The new undesirable in her sights is called the water soldier, Stratiotes aloides. It resembles an aloe vera or spider plant, but with one significant difference: “It is very sharp — just to pull it out of the water you have to put gloves on,” said MacDonald.  More

Echo

Caterpillars are pitching lots of tents

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(MI) Traverse City Record-Eagle – The caterpillars tend to appear in waves, but it’s hard to predict when their numbers will be strongest. In years like this one, when the caterpillars are particularly abundant, it’s not surprising to see their telltale silk webs appear in other types of trees or plants. “It is very unusual for them to be as numerous as they have been for two years in a row,” said Duke Elsner, an agricultural educator for the Michigan State University Extension office in Grand Traverse County. “It’s not as widespread as last year, but where it is, I think it’s much worse.” More