Echo

“Neighborhood electric vehicles” get ready for life in the fast lane

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Move over hybrids; modified golf carts are headed from the fairways to the roadways in Illinois, offering an incongruous yet eco-friendly alternative for those satisfied with more leisurely travel.Dubbed “neighborhood electric vehicles” and retrofitted with safety features, the new category of mini-cars will be street-legal beginning Jan. 1. Operating for pennies per mile, limited to 25 m.p.h. and restricted to local roads, the battery-powered buggies are quietly generating buzz. More

Echo

DNR may expand deer season

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(MI) The Daily Press – The Department of Natural Resources is looking into shifting the firearm deer season beginning in 2010. The opening date could change, and/or an extra weekend added to the season, if the DNR and the Natural Resources Commission find the shift to be a good idea. More

Echo

U.S. EPA asking for input on enforcement priorities

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(MI) The Mudpuppy – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking comments on future priorities for its national enforcement program. The feedback is being taken online through Dec. 1. The agency’s current enforcement priorities focus on pollution from stormwater runoff, air toxics, concentrated animal feeding operations and mineral processing. More

Energy

Hung out to dry: Here’s one way to save energy

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(OH) The Toledo Blade – Why don’t more people dry their clothes on a clothesline? Al drew my attention to the Lucas Soil & Water Conservation District’s 2009 newsletter. The article states that your dryer accounts for about 15 percent of your electric bill. It said the United States relies on dryers more than other countries. In Italy, fewer than 5 percent of households have a dryer. On one hand, this comes as no surprise.

Echo

VIDEO: Fighting to farm by greening the rust belt

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By Troy Hale & Geri Alumit Zeldes
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 9, 2009

Each week about 50 high school and college students feed the hens, tend the greenhouse and sift the new compost at Harvesting Earth Educational Farm located in Beecher, a community outside of Flint. To break up the tasks, farm owners Master Jacky and Dora King, black belts in karate, teach these young workers self-defense moves using rakes, hoes and shovels. For many of these young people, this is their first job. For the Kings, the farm is sowing the seeds of sustainable agriculture that may save Flint.

Echo

Urban pioneers turn vacant lots verdant

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By Andy McGlashen
amcglashen@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 8, 2009

DETROIT – The two-story brick building on Chene Street has a dirt floor and no roof, but it does have four walls — more than you can say about many of the structures still standing in this section of Detroit. They keep the weeds out and give the place a cloistered air. Passing clouds form an elegant ceiling, and this part of the city is nearly silent. It’s a perfect spot for a garden.

Echo

Group Proposes Measures to Stop Invasive Species

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(NY) Treehugger – A new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature says ports and trade hotspots in the United States need to do more to detect and respond to foreign invaders like the quagga. Quaggas have transformed the Great Lakes ecosystem, outcompeting native species, harming fish populations, clogging up drinking water intake pipes and helping fuel toxic algal blooms. More

Echo

Ash piles named on national list of dangerous sites

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(MI) Bay City Times – Consumers Energy plans to fix the second of two leaky coal ash landfills at its power plant in Bay County by the end of the year. The company’s Karn-Weadock plant in Hampton Township is named on a national list of toxic coal ash sites recently released by Earthjustice, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit. More

Echo

Cleanup of hot spot begins

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(ON) The Chronicle Journal – Exploratory work began this week on a project that may one day allow Marathon‘s polluted harbour to be taken off the list of industrial hot spots on the Great Lakes. Drill crews worked from a barge on Peninsula Harbour on Thursday, taking core samples of the harbour‘s bottom that will help engineers design a protective cap. More

Energy

The green road ahead

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(IN) The Indianapolis Star – In mid-August, President Barack Obama visited Northern Indiana to announce $2.4 billion in stimulus funds to benefit the green vehicle industry. The money will go to companies and institutions to develop advanced batteries and other components used to increase the number of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles. Our share, Obama announced, will include $416 million in grants to Hoosier companies and universities. Indiana is the second-largest recipient of funding for advanced vehicles; Michigan is the first. More