After speaking with a few EPA employees, I have some follow-up information related to the

Canary in a Coal Mine article from October 6th.

The EPA intends to propose a rule on the status of fly ash by the end of 2009. There are three broad options for what this rule might be:

1. All residue of coal combustion may be treated as a hazardous waste.
2. All residue of coal combustion may be regarded as non-hazardous.
3. A hybrid approach to regulation. For example, disposal may be considered hazardous while some beneficial uses are considered non-hazardous.

Further information about fly ash is available from the Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C²P²).

Click here to learn more about Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and Global Warming.

Click here to learn more about the Cap and Trade system.

It’s not a secret that a big draw-back of renewable energy is cost. The direct financial costs borne by the producers, and therefore consumers, of electricity created from fossil fuels is lower than that of renewable sources like wind and solar. However, the argument in favor of renewable energy is that there are indirect costs of electricity generated from fossil fuels that are not borne directly by the producers or consumers, but by society at large.

These are environmental and health costs that do have a direct and meaningful impact on our quality of life, but are not directly paid by producers and consumers of electricity generated from coal and other fossil fuels.

These indirect costs are not as tangible as the direct costs: you feel the impact of your electricity bill on your budget immediately, while the health and environmental impacts of coal usage are hard to quantify. …read more of Canary in a Coal Mine here

It is Earth Day, 2009 folks. If my math is correct, this is the 39th year that we have been observing this day.

The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. “The Partridge Family” was asking the world if they were happy. “Jesus Christ Superstar” was trying to figure out “what’s the buzz”. “Love Story” was driving tissue sales through the roof (this is not necessarily a fact but I am thinking it must have been true). And less than one year earlier in Cleveland, Ohio the Cuyahoga River had spontaneously combusted.

Lake Erie was on the verge of being sterilized by the impossibly large amount of pollution floating in its waters. The bald eagle was on the edge of extinction, not necessarily because of excessive hunting or even habitat destruction but largely because of a pesticide, DDT. Sickness and deaths in major cities like New York and Los Angeles were linked directly to air pollution. The planet was in bad shape. So how far have we come since that first Earth Day? I found myself wanting to know if we are making a difference so I did some looking. …read more of An Earth Day Celebration here

Prepare for Earth Day:
1.Eat local food.
2.Get your sneakers ready.
3.Pump up your bicycle tires.

Renewable energy is once again (since the 70s) part of the national energy agenda in a substantive way. There are a multitude of homeowner options from simple conservation to selling your excess renewable power back to the grid. Businesses can purchase from renewable sources, or even save money and “go green” like Google or Sierra Nevada Brewing.

While the ethanol biofuels you purchase today at the pump likely use more carbon that straight diesel or gas, and steal acres from food production …read more of Eat Local and Walk/Ride for 1 day here

Causes More Rain to Fall
Rainwater is absorbed by the roots of trees and transpired by leaves so that it can cycle back for use again as rainwater. Rain waters crops and refills drinking water supplies in reservoirs.

Just to see the way things are so highly connected and interlaced with each other, lets follow the wind. The sun’s heat drives the winds, then, the winds and the sun’s heat causes water to evaporate. When this water vapor turns into rain or snow and flows downhill into rivers or streams.

Trees Improve the Soil
The roots of plants hold soil in place. Fertile soil that is needed to grow crops would otherwise be washed away in rainstorms, decreasing the amount of soil available for agriculture. Rich soil transfers nutrients to food, which contributes to human health.

Fallen leaves and branches, by decaying, replace minerals in the soil and enrich it to support later plant growth. Roots also aerate the ground by helping air get beneath the soil surface. …read more of Trees Give Many Gifts here