This one coming in on ENN is so important and so good for us that I want it on the weblog intact for future reference. I'm going to hold publication of anything else until next week so this can stay right here at the top for a couple of days. I went to high school in Madison and I lived in Dallas, TX for awhile, and I remember the farmer's markets fondly:

Local farmers' markets are a healthy choice


Friday, September 26, 2003
By Laura Faye Taxel, E/The Environmental Magazine


Howard and Mary Hall don’t get much sleep during the summer. They start picking salad greens at sun up every Friday, harvest produce all through the day, and cut flowers late in the afternoon.

On a good day, they finish washing, sorting, and packing what they’ve grown on their 75-acre farm in Medina, Ohio, by midnight. On Saturdays, they’re out of bed at 4:30 a.m. With the help of their three teenagers, they feed the sheep, milk the goats, water the seedlings, fill the pick-up truck and trailer. They’re on the road by 6 a.m., heading for the North Union Farmers' Market at Shaker Square in Cleveland.

When they arrive an hour later, the place is already busy. Farmers, dairy owners, ranchers, and small-scale food producers from all over northeast Ohio are unloading trucks and filling their tables with a luscious array of local products: ripe, ready-to-eat fresh fruits and vegetables; herbs; homemade cheese; grass-fed, free-range, and hormone free meats and poultry; eggs; mushrooms; honey; preserves; and baked goods.

Shoppers, arrive early too, before the market officially opens at 8 a.m., in order to have the best selection. Good product sells quickly.

Mark Welton, a farmer with a four-acre spread in Norton, Ohio, specializes in mesculun greens and arugula, grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. "In season I bring up 50 pounds of hand-cut salad mix and it’s gone by 10 a.m.," he said.

Farmers' markets like North Union, committed to selling only regionally grown products, exist throughout the country. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there’s been a 63 percent increase in the number of farmers markets nationwide since 1994. There are more than 3,000 farmer’s markets currently in operation, generating more than $1 billion annually. This impacts more than what goes on the plate.

These markets are dependable sources of truly fresh, high-quality foods. New York City's Greenmarket, founded in 1976, is one of the oldest and the largest, with 31 locations throughout the metropolitan area. The produce Greenmarket sells is supplied by 170 farmers operating within 120 miles of the city.

"Our customers come from all walks of life, all income levels," said special projects market manager Gabrielle Langholtz. "You don't need to be a gourmet to recognize how much better this food tastes."

Unlike the fruits and vegetables from big commercial growers, which are bred for durability and their suitability for mechanical harvesting and handling, Greenmarket vendors choose varieties for their flavor and pick them at the peak of ripeness.

It's estimated that food processing, packaging, transportation, and marketing consume 75 to 85 percent of the energy used in the commercial food industry. Farmer's markets are the lynchpin of a nationwide, grassroots effort to create an alternative: sustainable food systems that directly connect growers and producers with their customers.

The aim is to bring good food products to consumers in a cost-effective, resource-efficient way. This helps to preserve farmland and the rural landscape; insures the continued economic viability of the small family farm; counters the growth of agribusiness with its devastating impact on people and places, while supporting clean, environmentally sensitive farming practices; conserves energy; helps maintain biodiversity in food plants; and contributes to regional prosperity.

The traditional food distribution chain uses huge amounts of fossil fuels to move products from one end of the country to the other. The so-called fresh produce in supermarkets is often weeks old and may have traveled 1,300 miles before reaching your local store, no matter where you live. To make the journey, produce is often picked green, treated with chemicals to retard ripening, dipped in wax, and packed in bags, boxes, and crates that end up in landfills.

In contrast, locally grown food travels only a short distance from farm to table. It's pulled from the ground or plucked from trees and bushes 24 hours before consumers purchase it and brought to market in re-useable containers. The result is less waste, less consumption of fuel and materials, and better food quality.

"Fruits and vegetables contain their highest levels of nutrients when harvested fully ripe and eaten soon afterwards," said Lola O'Rourke, a registered dietician in Seattle and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "The wonderful flavor of truly fresh produce tempts people to eat more of it, and that's a real health benefit for virtually everyone."

Brad Masi, founder of the Northeast Ohio Foodshed Alliance (NOFA), said, "Approximately 80 percent of every food dollar spent pays for advertising, trucking, processing, packaging, and disposal. Supporting farmers by buying locally grown food keeps that revenue in the community and connects our personal health with the health of the land and the regional economy."

Each of us can be part of building a sustainable food system in our own communities.

"Consumers have the most power to create change by creating demand," said Masi. "Pay attention to where your food comes from and where your food dollars go. Patronize farmer's markets."

The Dane County Farmer’s Market in Madison, Wis., founded in 1972, is the largest producers-only market in the nation. By giving Wisconsin growers viable marketing opportunities, it enables individual farmers to actually make a living using ecologically sound farming methods.

And by choosing their produce and shopping at a farmer's market, each buyer becomes part of the larger sustainability cycle. That cycle is defined by the focus on products and practices that improve the quality of life while protecting and preserving the environment and its capacity to provide natural resources and livable places now and in the future. It's being put into action around the nation at farmer's markets.

"Concerned consumers who were raised eating out-of-season peaches in November and corn in April are learning to think globally by eating locally," explains Greenmarket’s Langholtz. "At a time when just 10 grocery chains control the purchase of 50 percent of the fresh food in this country, knowing who grows your food and where it comes from is a joyful responsibility. Eating the bounty of local family farms is a delicious way to enact environmental, social, and political change."

Donita Anderson, North Union market manager and one of its founders, drew inspiration and know-how from the Dane County Market and New York's Greenmarket. All have common goals.

"We support family farms," said Anderson. "They bring fresh, local produce to city people and build community. Urban farm markets make cities more livable, and the simple, pleasurable act of buying something good to eat is a powerful way to use your shopping dollars to do good. Every dollar spent at a farmers' market circulates through the state economy seven times."

She continued, "Moreover, when growers reap the rewards of their efforts directly, without the expense of middleman, they have a better chance of staying in business. That translates into keeping green spaces around our cities because when small-scale farming is not economically feasible, housing developments grow instead and malls take over the countryside. To me what happens when people buy food at the market is almost magical. There’s such a huge ripple effect."

Ron Pardini, executive director of the Urban Village Farmers' Market Association, a nonprofit, mutual benefit corporation formed in 1997, with six certified producer to consumer market locations in the San Francisco area, sums it up in a single sentence. "For health, environmental, spiritual, and culinary reasons, I believe we need farmers' markets."


Related Link

State-by-state directory of farmers' markets


Source: E/The Environmental Magazine
- posted by Daniel @ 3:55 PM

 
From Alt Power Digest on Yahoo! Groups:

There are 2 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. Hydrogen Storage Remains Significant Challenge
From: AP@alternatepower.com (Alternate Power)
2. Re: Wind Power Cheaper than Coal
From: greenscitek@webtv.net


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 20:28:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: AP@alternatepower.com (Alternate Power)
Subject: Hydrogen Storage Remains Significant Challenge

From: greenb3an@yahoo.com (Green Bean) Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2003, 2:51pm All-Energy@yahoogroups.com
http://www.industryweek.com/DailyPage/newsitem.asp?id=5356
Fuel-Cell Experts Say Hydrogen Storage Remains Significant Challenge
Fuel-cell technology has advanced steadily, yet hydrogen storage remains a significant challenge still to be met if fuel-cell vehicles are to succeed commercially. That's just one of the findings published in a recent report based on interviews with 34 fuel-cell experts throughout the world.
"Three years ago, there was enormous debate about whether fuel-cell vehicles would carry hydrogen or make it on board from a liquid fuel," says Sheila Lynch, executive director of the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium (NAVC), which published the report Future Wheels II: A Survey of Expert Opinion on the Future of Transportation Fuel Cells and Fuel Cell Infrastructure. "Since then, consensus has formed around carrying the hydrogen, but now the big debate is how to store enough of it on board to satisfy customer needs."
The report also identifies other signs of progress -- or lack thereof -- related to fuel-cell technology. For example, it notes quick advances in the prospects of fuel cells in such applications as laptop computers and cell phones, while some experts are raising new concerns about fuel cells in the transit market. Also, the report notes that transportation fuel cells have moved from the laboratory to field trials over the past three years, resulting in an increased focus on manufacturing processes and consolidation among industry players.
The complete report is available as a free download at www.navc.org.
The Future Wheels II report was funded by the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Boston-based NAVC is a public-private partnership of organizations working to promote advanced vehicle technologies in the northeast United States. It was established in 1993.
========================================



________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 18:06:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: greenscitek@webtv.net
Subject: Re: Wind Power Cheaper than Coal

In case anyone missed this article. MikeF.
__________________________________
http://wvhc.drw.net/VoiceSept01/WindCheaper.VS.Sept01Voice.htm
Information submitted by Vivian Stockman:
Wind power is now cheaper than coal in the U.S., according to a study
published in the journal Science. The study's researchers, two Stanford
engineers, priced wind power at 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt hour, already
competitive with the market price for coal power. After factoring in
health and environmental costs, they put the true price for coal power
at 5.5 to 8.3 cents per kilowatt hour. For wind power to take off,
however, the researchers say that lawmakers will need to give the
industry the same investment opportunities and tax breaks historically
given to fossil fuel industries. The researchers propose this
bargain-basement deal: eliminating nearly two-thirds of coal-generated
electricity and single- handedly dropping the country's greenhouse gas
emission levels below 1990 levels by building 225,000 wind turbines --
at an initial cost of $338 billion.
Poll * 5815 responses [Since no information available to the editor
about sampling procedures, cannot say if these results are statistically
significant]
Do you support the proposal to build 225,000 wind turbines across the
country?
Yes, it's the kind of energy vision needed – 83%
No, it's a costly pie in the sky scheme – 15%
Can't decide – 3%
"There is no reason not to invest in wind at this point," said Mark
Jacobson, a Sanford University professor of environmental engineering.
"Wind is so obviously cheaper if we look at total costs."
Writing in the journal Science, Jacobson and Stanford colleague Gilbert
Masters calculated that wind-generated energy costs 3 to 4 cents per
kilowatt hour. Coal power is priced around there as well, but if you
factor in the indirect health and environmental costs the price is more
like 5.5 to 8.3 cents per kilowatt hour, the engineers calculated.
The researchers also noted that coal dust kills 2,000 U.S. mine workers
annually and has cost taxpayers about $35 billion in monetary and
medical benefits to former miners since 1973.
Karen Batra, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association,
acknowledged that coal mining has an environmental impact, but said "we
are all working toward a goal of reducing emissions and have made
tremendous strides in reducing emissions in the past 30 years since the
Clean Air Act."
Critics of wind power argue that the turbines – which look like giant
propellers – have been linked to the accidental deaths of migratory
birds that get caught inside the propeller blades, and that the turbines
take up a tremendous amount of space. But Jacobson said these problems
could be avoided by selecting sites out of migration paths and by paying
farmers to put them on their land.
"Wind has trivial health and environmental problems associated with it
in comparison with coal," Jacobson said.
Although wind power is the fastest growing source of energy in the
world, the United States has been slow to use it because coal is so
cheap and wind has received no government incentives, Jacobson said.
Wind power provides the United States with less than 1 percent of its
energy, compared to 52 percent from coal, according to the U.S.
Department of Energy.
Analysts say the U.S. market will see 1,500 megawatts of new wind power
installed by the end of the year.
For America to catch up with major wind power nations such as Germany,
Spain and Denmark, political backing by the Bush administration and
Congress is essential, Jacobson said.
In order to build more wind farms in the United States, lawmakers must
be willing to offer the same investment opportunities and tax incentives
given to the more established coal, gas and oil industries, he added.
The energy bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this
month focuses heavily on boosting domestic oil, coal and natural gas
production, doing far less to promote wind power as an energy source.
The Senate, still working on its version of the energy legislation, is
virtually certain to focus on conservation and energy efficiency.
Depending on where you live, you might be able to shop around for
cheaper, and if you're so inclined, greener power sources. Click on a
state to see if it offers green power programs. (West Virginia offers no
green options).
Global Warming Payback
The authors added that a massive campaign to build turbines, while
costly, would have an additional payback: a sharp drop in carbon dioxide
emissions, one of the gases that many scientists fear are warming Earth
by trapping heat via a greenhouse effect.
If around 225,000 turbines were built, Jacobson noted, it would cost an
initial $338 billion with a minimum of $4 billion annually for
maintenance. But doing so would eliminate almost two-thirds of
coal-generated electricity and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions
to below 1990 levels, the authors estimated.
That 1990 goal is already envisioned by the 1997 U.N. Kyoto Protocol on
climate change, which the Clinton administration signed but which the
Bush administration has spurned.
"If you really want a massive change then you need to do something big,"
Jacobson said. "It's expensive but the wind turbines, which have an
average life span of 20 years, would pay for themselves in that time."
==================================

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All-Energy News and Discussion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/All-Energy

¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø
- posted by Daniel @ 3:40 PM

 
Great Lakes Daily News: 26 September 2003
For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


Trail to connect river, lake, bay
----------------------------------------
After more than four years of negotiations, plans for the 4.7-mile
Irondequoit Lakeside Trail connecting the Genesee River, Lake Ontario and
Irondequoit Bay have come together. Source: Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle (9/26)


Minnesota DNR get wider boat searching rights
----------------------------------------
Minnesota's 1.7 million anglers are again subject to having their boats
inspected -- without probable cause and without granting permission -- for
possible fishing violations, state officials said after a state Supreme
Court ruling Thursday. Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune (9/26)


Ontario trash violates Michigan standards
----------------------------------------
Trash from Ontario dumped in Michigan contains more yard waste and beverage
containers than loads from inside the state, according to a study released
Tuesday. Source: The Detroit News (9/26)


EDITORIAL: Unrealistic to ban smoking on beaches
----------------------------------------
While smoking in the first place isn't a healthy idea, banning cigarettes
from beaches is going a bit too far. Source: Indiana Post-Tribune (9/26)


COMMENTARY: Great Lakes chinook run late, but good
----------------------------------------
They took their time about it, but chinook salmon are pouring into streams
all along the Great Lakes, and the next couple of weeks should provide the
best river fishing of the year. Source: Detroit Free Press (9/26)


EDITORIAL: Lake drilling ban needs to extend internationally
----------------------------------------
Currently, Canada has 1,000 natural gas rigs off Lake Erie's shore in
Ontario. Ohio and other Great Lakes states need to force this issue with
other states and with Canada through Great Lakes coalitions and the
International Joint Commission, which includes officials from both
countries. Source: Port Clinton News Herald (9/25)


Lake Ontario air pollutants are targeted
----------------------------------------
The effect of air pollution on Lake Ontario is being studied by researchers
from Fredonia State and Oswego State colleges and Clarkson University in
Potsdam. Source: The Buffalo News (9/25)


Ferry project should be making waves
----------------------------------------
The Canadian side is dragging its heels on the current Lake Ontario ferry
project connecting Rochester and Toronto. Source: Canadian National Post
(9/25)


COMMENTARY: Would you know Asian carp if you saw one?
----------------------------------------
The latest threat to the Great Lakes is literally inching its way through
our back yard, heading up the Des Plaines River and the Sanitary and Ship
Canal toward the locks in downtown Chicago. Source: The Illinois Star
Newspapers (9/25)


Michigan to monitor Lake Huron beaches for E. coli
----------------------------------------
Swimmers who think northern beaches don't have water quality problems like
those in metropolitan areas should think again. Source: The Bay City Times
(9/24)


For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Great Lakes Daily News is a collaborative project of the Great Lakes
Information Network (www.glin.net) and the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium (www.glrc.org), both based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
TO SUBSCRIBE and receive this Great Lakes news compendium daily, see
www.glin.net/forms/dailynews_form.html or send an e-mail message to
majordomo@great-lakes.net with the command 'subscribe dailynews' (minus
the quotes) in the body of the message.
- posted by Daniel @ 4:14 PM

 
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------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is 1 message in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. NY Small Turbine Installer Training
From: "Jim Adams" jadams@awsscientific.com


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 09:04:29 -0400
From: "Jim Adams" jadams@awsscientific.com
Subject: NY Small Turbine Installer Training

Hello all!

Attached is a document announcing the fall NYSERDA sponsored New York Small
Wind System Installation Workshop, which is being held on the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute campus in Troy, NY. This workshop will consist of the
installation of a 10 kW Bergey Excel-S on an 80 ft tilt-up tower under the
direction of Pieter Hubner from Bergey Windpower and staff members of AWS
Scientific Inc. The dates of this workshop are October 20 - 24, 2003.

Please contact me if you have any questions!

Best regards,

Jim
________________________________________
James Adams, Environmental Scientist
AWS Scientific, Inc.
255 Fuller Road, Suite 274
Albany, NY 12203
Phone: 518.437.8657
Fax: 518.437.8659
Web: www.awsscientific.com www.truewind.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
- posted by Daniel @ 3:37 PM

 
Also from ENN, interesting shennannigans in governmental energy policy by the Fed:

Wednesday, September 24, 2003
By Tom Doggett, Reuters


WASHINGTON — Republican leaders trying to finalize a broad energy bill skipped requiring a boost in federal mileage requirements for cars, vans, and gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles. Instead, the lawmakers released draft language late on Tuesday that would order the Transportation Department to consider the impact on vehicle safety and autoworker jobs when deciding whether to raise fuel economy standards.

Environmental groups argue that stronger mileage requirements are the only way to significantly reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. However, Republicans and some automakers say that a large boost in fuel economy may make vehicles less safe because they would be smaller and built from lighter-weight materials, and they could result in thousands of lost autoworker jobs.

Nonetheless, the draft bill requires the Transportation Department to study and report back within a year on the feasibility and effects of significantly reducing the amount of fuel used by automobiles by 2012.

Separately, the lawmakers proposed...(Read on in: U.S. energy bill skips raising fuel standards)
- posted by Daniel @ 3:31 PM

 
Now from ENN, dire news for Austrailia:

Wednesday, September 24, 2003
By Michael Byrnes, Reuters


SYDNEY — Australia may be facing a permanent drought because of an accelerating vortex of winds whipping around the Antarctic that threatens to disrupt rainfall, scientists said on Tuesday.

Spinning faster and tighter, the 100-mile (160 km) -an-hour jetstream is pulling climate bands south and dragging rain from Australia into the Southern Ocean, they say. They attribute the phenomenon to global warming and loss of the ozone layer over Antarctica.

"This is a very serious situation that we're probably not confronting as full-on as we should," said Dr. James Risbey of the Center for Dynamical Meteorology and Oceanography at Melbourne's Monash University. "There has been real added impetus here in Australia to try to study (the wind vortex) because we've been faced with an almost precipitous rainfall decline, particularly in the southwest of Western Australia," Risbey said.

Australia, one of the world's top agricultural supply nations, has just been through its worst drought in 100 years. Risbey and other Australians are part of an international band of scientists and meteorologists focusing on the vortex as an explanation for declining rainfall.

Rainfall has declined by nearly 20 percent in the past seven years over parts of southwestern Western Australia, through to Victoria and into southern New South Wales state, Risbey said. At the same time, temperatures have...(Read on in: Scientists see Antarctic vortex as drought maker)
- posted by Daniel @ 3:27 PM

 
From Alt Power Digest yesterday:

Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:16:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean ( greenb3an@yahoo.com)
Subject: Schwarzenegger's plan for hydrogen fuel

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2003/09/23/MN310079.DTL

Schwarzenegger's plan for hydrogen fuel called
unrealistic
Big technological hurdles before emissions could be
cut

Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to cut air pollution by
50 percent within a decade -- mostly by urging drivers
to use hydrogen-powered vehicles -- was described as
unrealistic by environmentalists and scientists, even
as they praised him for promoting the new fuel cell
technology.

At an event Sunday near Santa Barbara, the leading
Republican in the Oct. 7 recall election pledged to
reduce air pollution by half in California by 2011. He
pledged to sign an executive order requiring hydrogen
fueling stations every 20 miles on interstates and
highways to encourage consumers to buy the
pollution-free vehicles.

But even supporters of fuel cells said daunting
technological hurdles associated with hydrogen-powered
cars -- combined with consumers' preference for
gas-guzzling vehicles -- mean that his pledge of
lowering emissions is probably pie-in-the-sky.

Daniel Sperling, an engineering professor and director
of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC
Davis, said the impact of hydrogen-powered vehicles on
emissions in the next few years is zero.

"In 10 years, it maybe will start to make a
difference," Sperling said. He noted that the
Department of Energy is starting a pilot project to
produce hydrogen-fueled cars, but no automaker has
plans for widespread commercial production.

"I'm an avid enthusiast of hydrogen, but hydrogen is a
long-term strategy. And if we are really concerned
about air quality and climate change and energy
conservation in the next 20 years, hydrogen is not the
answer."

Scientists have long believed that hydrogen, the most
abundant element, could be a relatively cheap and
mobile source of electricity to power vehicles,

with water vapor and heat as the only waste products.

But to become an effective fuel source, chains of
hydrocarbons must be "cracked" -- a process that is
both expensive and requires a great deal of energy.
Environmentalists worry that a switch to hydrogen fuel
cells could actually increase reliance on traditional,
polluting sources of electricity.

"Where will the hydrogen come from?" asked Bill
Magavern, legislative representative for the Sierra
Club, which opposes the recall and has endorsed a
Schwarzenegger rival, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, in the
replacement election.

"Under the Bush administration's proposal (for
hydrogen fuel cells), the hydrogen primarily comes
from nuclear and coal-fired power plants, which would
make it really dirty energy. Now if he's proposing
solar-powered hydrogen electricity, we'd be very
supportive of that. We'd like to see him answer that
question."

Schwarzenegger's campaign hasn't specified how the
fuel cells would be produced, although a spokesman
suggested that the market, rather than the government,
should determine how to make fuel cells most cheaply.

Critics also question whether Schwarzenegger would
provide enough money to build fueling stations across
the state. There are just a handful of hydrogen
fueling stations around the state, including one at
the AC Transit bus yard in Richmond. Schwarzenegger
has proposed $60 million for the task, but also would
ask the federal government and corporations to
contribute.

Schwarzenegger appears to be taking a page out of
President Bush's environmental playbook. In his State
of the Union speech in January, Bush pledged to speed
the push to a hydrogen economy by spending as much as
$1.2 billion for a "Freedom Car" initiative to develop
zero-emissions vehicles.

Sperling said that Schwarzenegger, like Bush, had
found that hydrogen fuel cells are a more palatable
way to address air pollution than calling for stricter
fuel efficiency or tailpipe emissions standards. Gov.
Gray Davis, for example, angered automakers last year
by signing a bill making California the first state to
limit tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases.

"There are no natural political or economic enemies to
hydrogen and there are plenty of supporters and
enthusiasts," Sperling said. "The environmentalists
can't complain directly. The car industry kind of
likes fuel cells. The oil industry is ambivalent about
hydrogen. So, as a politician, what's there not to
like?"

There are other concerns with hydrogen. Scientists are
still struggling to devise a safe and efficient way to
store the hydrogen. If stored as a gas in
high-pressure tanks, it could pose a safety risk.

But supporters of the actor say Schwarzenegger should
be praised for promoting the new technology, even if
it doesn't meet the ambitious targets he has set for
emissions reductions.

"This is the sort of thing that Republican candidates
should be saying as a matter of course," said Jim
DiPeso, policy director of REP America, a grassroots
group that backs environmentally oriented Republicans.

"One of the things you often hear about hydrogen is
that it's decades away. Well, it can be decades away
if we want it to be decades away," he said. "With some
concerted effort and intelligent policies that combine
developing fuel cells and transportation and
stationary (fuel cell) sources, we can have a hydrogen
economy much sooner."

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.


=====
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All-Energy News and Discussion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/All-Energy

¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø
- posted by Daniel @ 3:24 PM

 
Also from ENN, some tactics being thought of to combat global warming in Europe that I think could be very readily adapted here in the USA. More on that after the story link.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003
By Rajiv Sekhri, Reuters


TORONTO — European countries could help meet their Kyoto emissions requirements by using forestry waste products like leftover tree stumps and foliage to produce energy, scientists said this week.

Stumps, branches, tree tops, and other foliage left in forests by logging firms release carbon dioxide over time as they decompose. Using the material as fuel to produce electricity or processing them into pulp and paper could cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, the scientists said in a report released before a World Forestry Congress meeting in Quebec City.

"The idea is economically feasible and has a lot of potential," said Pekka Kauppi, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of Helsinki. Kauppi is one of about 150 scientists worldwide who have have worked on a report on global forest issues for United Nations University, which, in collaboration with the Finnish Forest Research Institute and the European Forest Institute, started the project in 1996.

"It's already clear that a number of countries will have great difficulty meeting their Kyoto emission targets," said Professor Hans van Ginkel, U.N. undersecretary-general and rector of Tokyo-based United Nations University.

The report shows that using just one-third of the leftover wood from logging could allow the European Union, for example, to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by...(Read on in: Forestry waste could help meet Kyoto targets, says study)

Now about using such things here. Several years ago I had the idea that one could make fire logs out of tree leaves (which we all know are very plentiful in the fall) by compressing them into paper bags after harvesting and then drying them like firewood on racks outside over a couple of years. I'm sure macjhinery could be developed that was yard tractor sized to do something like this fairly automatically, sort of a cross between a yard tractor with a leaf sweep, and a cylindrical trash compactor and an industrial packaging machine. On a larger scale, leaves could be harvested, ground to a fine powder, and blown through a hot air tunnel as leaf dust into a combustion chamber and burned pretty efficiently. The heat generated could produce steam to drive turbines as in a conventional power plant and then the "waste" heat could be used to dry the leaves for grinding and the remainder captured by Stirling cycle engines, yielding a pretty high efficiency. the resulting ash could be returned to the soil as fertilizer so that the soil wasn't deprived of all the nutrients the leaves yield to it as well, and the cycle could be alternated so that an area was only harvested maybe once every three years and each year a different area was harvested. Leaves are extremely plentiful and totally untapped as a power source in most of North America as we all know. I'd encourage thoughts on this idea.
- posted by Daniel @ 5:28 PM

 
Also in from ENN, there's a new Moon Over Norway...

Tuesday, September 23, 2003
By Alister Doyle, Reuters


OSLO, Norway — Homes on the Arctic tip of Norway started getting power from the moon over the weekend via a unique subsea power station driven by the rise and fall of the tide.

A tidal current in a sea channel near the town of Hammerfest, caused by the gravitational tug of the Moon on the Earth, started turning the 10-meter (33 foot) blades of a turbine bolted to the seabed to generate electricity for the local grid. The prototype looks like an underwater windmill and is expected to generate about 700,000 kilowatt hours of nonpolluting energy a year, or enough to light and heat about 30 homes.

"This is the first time in the world that electricity from a tidal current has been fed into a power grid," said Harald Johansen, managing director of Hammerfest Stroem, which has led the project.

The plant in the Kvalsund channel, which had cost about 80 million crowns (US$11 million) by Saturday's launch, is...(Read on in: Moon brings novel green power to Arctic homes)
- posted by Daniel @ 5:13 PM

 
Interesting stuff from ENN, the ice is melting...

Tuesday, September 23, 2003
By Maggie Fox, Reuters


WASHINGTON — The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, a solid feature for 3,000 years, has broken up, scientists in the United States and Canada said Monday.

They said the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, broke into two main parts, themselves cut through with fissures. A freshwater lake drained into the sea, the researchers reported. Large ice islands also calved off from the shelf, and some are large enough to be dangerous to shipping and to drilling platforms in the Beaufort Sea.

Local warming of the climate is to blame, they said — adding that they did not have the evidence needed to link the melting ice to the steady, planet-wide climate change known as global warming.

Warwick Vincent and Derek Mueller of Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, and Martin Jeffries of the University of Alaska Fairbanks lived at the site, flew over it, and used radar satellite imaging for their study.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Vincent's team said...(Read on in: Largest Arctic ice shelf breaks up, says report)


- posted by Daniel @ 5:09 PM