State News
Sewage leak in Biloxi closes section of beach
Sun Herald
BILOXI -- The state Department of Environmental Quality has closed the
beach near Rodenberg Avenue because of a sewage leak.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/07/19/4073035/around-south-mississippi.html
MDEQ closes beach; lightning could have caused contamination
by MBJ Staff
Published: July 19,2012
BILOXI — The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ),
through its Beach Monitoring Program, has issued a precautionary beach
closure for one sampling station in Harrison County.
http://msbusiness.com/2012/07/mdeq-closes-beach-lightning-could-have-caused-contamination/
Gulf Foundation seeking project proposals
WLOX
A group called the Gulf of Mexico Foundation is looking for some good ideas
to restore wetlands and waterways. That organization has already awarded
millions of dollars in grant money to fund such environmental work.
http://www.wlox.com/story/19068810/gulf-foundation-seeking-project-proposals
Houston solar car teams win, again
by Floyd Ingram
Chickasaw Journal
07.20.12 - 05:55 am
HOUSTON - The Houston solar car teams soundly defeated all comers from
schools around the country to win the Solar Car Challenge at Texas Motor
Speedway in Dallas.
http://djournal.com/view/full_story/19473074/article-Houston-solar-car-teams-win--again?instance=secondary_stories_left_column
National News
Tribes ask for action on climate change
By REBECCA COHEN
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Climate change is sweeping indigenous villages into the sea in
Alaska, flooding the taro fields of native Hawaiians and devastating the
salmon population from which Indian tribes in Washington state draw their
livelihood, tribal leaders testified Thursday at a Senate hearing.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/07/19/4072775/tribes-ask-for-action-on-climate.html
Navy pushes forward with 'Green Fleet' despite GOP resistance
The Hill
By Zack Colman - 07/19/12 02:33 PM ET
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus insisted plans for a "green fleet" that uses
biofuels will move forward despite efforts by Republicans in Congress to
stop it.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/239023-navy-pushes-forward-with-qgreen-fleetq-despite-gop-resistance
Press Releases
EPA Provides $950,000 to Improve Water Quality Using Green Infrastructure
in 17 Communities
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today
that it is providing $950,000 to help 17 communities expand green
infrastructure use to improve water quality and protect people's health and
benefit communities. Green infrastructure uses vegetation and soil to
manage rainwater where it falls, keeping polluted stormwater from entering
sewer systems and waterways in local communities. The EPA funding is
intended to increase incorporation of green infrastructure into stormwater
management programs, protect water quality, and provide community benefits
including job creation and neighborhood revitalization.
"Effective stormwater management is one of the most widespread challenges
to water quality in the nation," said Nancy Stoner, EPA's Acting Assistant
Administrator for Water. She announced the funds today at a stormwater
symposium in Baltimore held by the Water Environment Federation. "Polluted
stormwater can be harmful to the health of our nation's waterbodies. These
funds will help expand the use of green infrastructure, revitalize local
neighborhoods and help safeguard people's health and the environment."
EPA is awarding the funds to diverse communities across 16 states. Some
communities – like Beaufort, South Carolina and Neosho, Missouri – are
small towns in urban growth areas interested in preserving and protecting
their healthy waterways. Others – such as Camden, New Jersey and
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – are large cities interested in adding green
infrastructure into their redevelopment projects to restore degraded urban
waters and help revitalize their communities. The selected communities also
provide an opportunity to demonstrate the potential of green infrastructure
across a range of climate zones.
Green infrastructure captures and filters pollutants by passing stormwater
through soils and retaining it on site. Effective green infrastructure
tools and techniques include green roofs, permeable materials, alternative
designs for streets and buildings, trees, rain gardens and rain harvesting
systems. Communities are increasingly using green infrastructure to
supplement or substitute for single-purpose "gray" infrastructure
investments such as pipes, filters, and ponds.
In April 2011, EPA renewed its commitment to green infrastructure with the
release of the "Strategic Agenda to Protect Waters and Build More Livable
Communities through Green Infrastructure." The agenda identifies community
partnerships as one of five key activities that EPA will pursue to
accelerate the implementation of green infrastructure and EPA announced
partnerships with 10 "model communities."
In February 2012, EPA announced the availability of $950,000 in technical
assistance to a second set of partner communities to help overcome some of
the most common barriers to green infrastructure. EPA received letters of
interest from over 150 communities across the country.
More information:
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/gi_support.cfm
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| Obama Administration Officials Discuss Navy's Successful Demonstration of |
| Domestic Biofuel and New Energy Efficiencies in Major Maritime Exercise |
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|Demonstration is an achievement of a Navy Energy Goal and Furthers Progress |
| on Administration's Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future |
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| |
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| |
|WASHINGTON. D.C., July 19, 2012 – U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, |
|Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Deputy Assistant to the President |
|for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal held a conference call today to|
|brief media on the demonstration in local operations of a U.S. Navy Carrier |
|Strike Group operating on advanced biofuel, and to discuss the Obama |
|Administration's commitment to strengthening national energy security and |
|developing domestic fuel sources. |
| |
| |
|The Navy is pursuing alternatives because the nation's reliance on foreign |
|oil is a significant and well-recognized military vulnerability. "The |
|ability to use fuels other than petroleum is critical to our energy |
|security, because it will increase our flexibility and reduce the services' |
|vulnerability to rapid and unforeseen changes in the price of oil," stated |
|Mabus. |
| |
| |
|For two days, the U.S. Navy powered the "Great Green Fleet," a Carrier |
|Strike Group's aircraft and surface ships, on advanced biofuel to test the |
|fuel's performance in an operational setting. The demonstration took place |
|off the coast of Hawaii as part of the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC).|
|Secretary Mabus observed operations, which included fueling helicopters and |
|jets from the deck of a nuclear-powered carrier; completing arrested |
|landings of aircraft onto a carrier, the first ever using biofuels; |
|refueling a destroyer while underway; and air-to-air refueling. |
| |
| |
|"The successful demonstration was a unique opportunity to watch our highly |
|skilled sailors doing what they do best, and to witness in an operational |
|setting the seamless integration of advanced biofuel and energy efficient |
|technologies in some of the U.S. Navy's most sophisticated air and sea |
|platforms," stated Mabus. |
| |
| |
|In addition to operating on alternative fuels, including nuclear power, the |
|Great Green Fleet showcased energy efficiency technology that increase |
|combat capability by allowing Navy ships to achieve greater range and by |
|reducing dependence on a vulnerable logistics supply chain. More information|
|on the demonstration, including a list of participating ships, is available |
|HERE. |
| |
| |
|Secretary Mabus also signed a Statement of Cooperation with the Royal |
|Australian Navy (RAN) to formalize future cooperation on alternative fuel |
|deployment. |
| |
| |
|The entire demonstration will burn 450,000 gallons of biofuel made from |
|non-food waste (used cooking oil). The biofuel was purchased from |
|Louisiana-based Dynamic Fuels LLC, Dynamic Fuels, LLC, a joint-venture of |
|Tyson Foods, Inc., and Syntroleum Corporation, and algae, produced by |
|Solazyme. This fuel was blended with aviation gas or marine diesel fuel to |
|produced 900,000 gallons of 50/50 blend biofuel. |
| |
| |
|"The historic significance of the Navy's operation, in real theater-like |
|conditions, of their ships and planes on biofuels should not be |
|underestimated," stated Secretary Vilsack. "USDA's goal is to help make our |
|US military less dependent on foreign oil and on oil that has to be |
|transported long distances in supply lines that could be disrupted during |
|times of conflict. Hawaii has arable land and a willing and able |
|agricultural community that could produce readily usable fuels in the |
|future. USDA is working to help Hawaii become a local producer of biofuels |
|for the Navy. We can, as a nation, change the fuel production and |
|distribution paradigm in the world, if we are consistent in our efforts to |
|increase our production and use of domestic biofuels which are important to |
|our energy and national security as well a create jobs." |
| |
| |
|Navy Demonstration Advances Administration's Broad Energy Agenda |
| |
| |
|The demonstration is a component of a broader Administration effort to |
|reduce reliance on imported petroleum by partnering with the private sector |
|to speed the commercialization of next-generation biofuels. For example, |
|Navy, USDA and DOE recently announced $30 million in funding to support |
|commercialization of "drop-in" biofuel substitutes for diesel and jet fuel |
|through the Defense Production Act Title III (DPA), an authority that dates |
|back to 1950 and has been used to support the industrialization of |
|defense-critical domestic industries such as steel, aluminum, titanium, |
|semiconductors, beryllium, and radiation-hardened electronics. At the same |
|time, the Department of Energy announced an additional $32 million to |
|support research into advanced biofuel technologies that are in earlier |
|stages of development. |
| |
| |
|"Increasing domestic biofuels helps meet the President's goal of reducing |
|our reliance on foreign oil while increasing our nation's energy security, |
|and that is why advanced biofuels are a pillar of the President's |
|all-of-the-above energy strategy," stated Zichal. "In fact, under President |
|Obama, domestic biofuel production has climbed to an all-time high, |
|supporting jobs and rural economies. That's why this Administration has been|
|focused on deploying the biofuels technologies we have today, while also |
|accelerating the development of new fuel technologies in our nation's labs |
|and at commercial scale." |
| |
| |
|In his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future released in March 2011, |
|President Obama set a goal of reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025 and |
|laid out an all-of-the-above energy plan to achieve that goal by developing |
|domestic oil and gas energy resources, increasing energy efficiency, and |
|speeding development of biofuels and other alternatives. Domestic oil and |
|gas production has increased each year the President has been in office as |
|efforts continue to take to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil. As |
|part of that effort, the Blueprint directed the Navy, USDA and DOE to |
|collaborate to support commercialization of "drop-in" biofuel substitutes |
|for diesel and jet fuel. Competitively-priced drop-in biofuels will help |
|improve America's energy security, meeting the fuel needs of U.S. armed |
|forces, as well as the commercial aviation and shipping sectors. |
| |
| |
|# |
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