Archive for February 2011
Environmental Enforcement: EPA Orders Disposal of Seized E-Waste Bound for Vietnam · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader
Two recycling companies have been ordered to properly dispose of computer waste they attempted to illegally export from Minnesota to Vietnam, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.
The EPA alleges that the companies attempted to export hundreds of computer monitors to Vietnam for disposal, through the Port of Seattle. The agency is imposing a $31,600 penalty against the companies for violating federal hazardous waste laws.
According to the EPA, Toronto-based Metro Metals Corp., and Avista Recycling, Inc., a recycler based in Minnesota, arranged for the export of a shipment of 913 discarded computer monitors to Vietnam in early December.
GOP Seeks to Block GHG Regulation Funding · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader
House Republicans on Friday continued an assault on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), introducing spending legislation that would prohibit the agency from regulating carbon dioxide emissions.
The continuing resolution (CR) would also cut funding for energy and climate research, ClimateWire reports for the New York Times.
The CR would fund government operations through September 30. It seeks to slash $100 billion from the fiscal 2011 budget that President Obama proposed last year.
The latest revisions to the CR have vastly increased proposed spending cuts from the $32 billion originally proposed by House appropriations committee chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky, pictured).
What the hell is wrong with these people?
San Francisco Passes Energy Audit Mandate · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader
San Francisco’s city council has adopted regulations requiring commercial property owners to publish data on the energy performance of their buildings.
The Existing Commercial Building Energy Performance Ordinance, approved by the city’s Board of Supervisors, requires owners to measure and rate the performance of their buildings and publish the results. They will need to benchmark their energy use using a free online tool provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and will need to file annual results with the city, UPI reports.
Owners of commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet would have to conduct energy audits every five years.
Quote of the Day
“Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm.”
–Aldo Leopold
Quote of the Day
I’ve been your age before, but you’ve never been mine – so pay attention.
-Ice-T
Quote of the Day
The days where we’re just building sprawl forever – those days are over.
-President Barack Obama
BART – Now Less Service For More Money
Last year in 2010, BART management and officials surveyed customers to find out how they wanted a surplus of funds to be spent. For some reason unknown to me, a majority of customers chose not to get a rate discount in order to get more amenities. So far seats have been eliminated, carpets have been removed, and vegetation has been decimated at the San Leandro BART station and that’s about all I see for what might be considered improvements.
Unfortunately, these so-called improvements have not made life any better or easier for riders. Now there are insufficient hand-holds for riders on nearly every car on every train, yet the management cannot send out workers to install more straps. The vegetation removal did not address the trash the still collects and the landscape in the parking lot is an eyesore and unsanitary. Speaking of unsanitary, BART officials still absolutely refuse to send a worker to the parking lot in San Leandro to hose down the bird crap under the track. It is disgusting, but they don’t care.
But the biggest abomination is the imposition of the one dollar parking fee at San Leandro that now makes the cost of my round trip to San Francisco over $9.00 a day. I have now noticed that the parking lot is never full and most of the cars that used to park there are no longer parking at the station. I hope that the measly amount of revenue that BART is hoping to collect on the backs of the riders makes their bloated salaries justifiable now.
Today, a whole train load of people probably wanted to kill the train operator. Not only did the Richmond train pull some strange and unexplanable incident that caused the San Francisco train to be delayed pulling into San Leandro, but a rider caused the doors to jamb, which in turn made the train operator force everybody onto the tracks until the problem was solved. I was a half hour late for work.
And for this wonderful service I now have to pay an extra $5.00 a week.
