Beijing discards recyclers
| VW Golf Twin Drive Plug-In Hybrid Diesel Volkswagen announced the Golf Twin Drive Concept, a step toward a diesel plug-in hybrid. Jalopnik.com reports that the concept car runs in electric-only mode up to 30 miles, using an electric motor that makes 82 hp. In addition, there’s a 2.0 liter 122 hp turbodiesel. The two engines combine for 174 hp. Regenerative braking [.] |
| Coal Industry Hands Out Pink Slips While Green Collar Jobs Take Off A transition to renewable energy sources promises significant global job gains at a time when the coal industry has been hemorrhaging jobs for years. |
| Press Release: Governor Urged to Veto Flawed Plastic Bag Recycling Bill by Leading Environmental Group
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Andy Darrell, (917) 912-3605-c, adarrell@edf.org
Sean Crowley, (202) 572-3331-w, (202) 550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org
(Washington, DC – June 25, 2008) Governor Paterson should veto well-intended, but flawed state legislation that would preempt and weaken the New York City Council’s plastic bag recycling law, a leading environmental group said today.
“While we applaud the State Legislature’s efforts to pass legislation to require the recycling of plastic bags, we are greatly concerned that this legislation is weaker that the City law which is scheduled to take effect in a matter of weeks,” said Andy Darrell, New York Regional Director for the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Sustainability Advisory Board. “We urge Governor Patterson to veto this bill because it sets a dangerous precedent of handcuffing the state’s largest city to meet its huge environmental challenges.”
Specifically, the state bill weakens the City law as follows:
- Preempting the City from taking stronger action on bag recycling
- The Council’s law applies to stores of 5,000 square feet or more and to chains under a common name; the State bill only applies to stores 10,000 square feet or more. The 5,000 square feet is better suited to New York City as stores tend to be smaller than in other parts of the State.
- The States bill only applies to plastic carryout bags. The Council’s law also requires the recycling of film plastic, such as package wrap, dry cleaning bags and newspaper bags
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| Turning Airborne Carbon Into Fuel We are already experiencing the ill effects of greenhouse gases in the form of global warming, glaciers and polar ice melting, rise in the sea level and sudden, unpredictable variation in weather, turning catastrophic sometimes. The eventual effect of global warming is sending a chill down the spines of environmentalists. Several teams of researchers [.] |
| Beijing discards recyclers Tens of thousands of migrant workers won’t be recycling any trash this August as they are being pushed out of town as Beijing gears up to present a sanitized modern city to millions of Olympic visitors. |
| Motorists brave Mexico border violence for fuel U.S. motorists are risking rampant drug violence in Mexico to drive over the border and fill their tanks with cheap Mexican fuel, some even coming to blows over gas shortages and long queues. The gap between Mexico’s subsidized gasoline and record U.S. prices has made it well worth making the trip. |
| The green inquisition. When it comes to global warming, extreme scare stories abound. Al Gore, for example, famously claimed that a whopping six metres of sea-level rise would flood major cities around the world. |
| A green crossroads for the Supreme Court. While the presumptive nominees for each party have similar environmental ideas, their nominees for the Supreme Court could decide environmental politics long after they are gone. |