From Green Right Now Reports

Star Market at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass., recently became the first grocery store in the nation to receive US Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award. The advanced refrigeration technology in the new store, which is part of the Shaw’s line of supermarkets, significantly reduces its impact on climate change and the stratospheric ozone layer by cutting the use of refrigerants by 85 percent compared with the typical supermarket.

Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, called the store’s efforts “wicked cool.”

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From Green Right Now Reports

The US Environmental Protection Agency said today it is hitting the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency with a $250,000 civil penalty for federal violations of the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The Department of Justice, working on behalf of the EPA, lodged a proposed consent decree with the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the city and county of San Francisco for releasing at least 940 barrels of diesel fuel — some of which entered into Islais Creek, a tributary of the San Francisco Bay.

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From Green Right Now Reports

In an effort to protect public health, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will open the Winter Spare the Air season on Sunday, Nov. 1, and begin enforcing a regulation that restricts wood burning in the Bay Area through Feb. 28, 2010.

Wood smoke is the largest source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area. Certain weather conditions in the wintertime cause the air to remain still. When these conditions occur, the Bay Area Air District calls a Winter Spare the Air Alert.

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The Nissan LEAF (Photo: Nissan)

From Green Right Now Reports

Nissan North America said it will debut the LEAF zero-emission, all-electric car in Los Angeles on Nov. 13. After Los Angeles, the five-passenger, five-door, gasoline-free car will go on a nationwide tour in the coming months.

The Nissan LEAF Zero Emission Tour will stop in 22 cities, in 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Vancouver, Canada, offering the opportunity for interested drivers, media, civic partners, businesses and university students to learn more about the Nissan LEAF and the benefits of zero-emission driving.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in California said it has received a strong response to the new Conservation Stewardship Program. Applications were received from 412 California landowners, representing 534,101 acres of farm and ranchland and 85,527 acres of forestland for the program that compensates producers for high levels of stewardship and encourages them to undertake additional conservation practices and management.

The 2008 Farm Bill program was made available for the first time beginning in September, 2009.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit Soldier On, which will break ground this month on a limited-equity housing project for formerly homeless veterans, said the project will use photovoltaic technology supplied by Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar to supply electricity to its 39 apartments.

Berkshire Veterans Village will house formerly homeless veterans. (Image: Soldier On)

Berkshire Veterans Village in Pittsfield is intended to serve as a new national model for transitioning veterans from homelessness to home ownership. The Soldier On, which has been helping get veterans off the street since 1994, said a second limited-equity housing project is planned for Leeds. The organization said it eventually hopes to take the model to a national level.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.

The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Plastic Package Inc., which manufactures 100-percent post consumer recycled plastic containers, said it will installing the largest cylindrical thin film solar system west of New Jersey to power its operations.

The project will use solar technology from Solyndra.

The Sacramento, Calif., company said it will use solar technology from Solyndra for the project. That Bay Area company recently was funded by a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. Plastic Package officials said the installation will be done by Premier Power Renewable Energy of El Dorado Hills.

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Green Right Now Reports

West Coast Green, a gathering that‘s part expo, part trade show and part thought conference, will be showcasing leading edge green projects when it opens at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this coming weekend.

One of the largest conferences devoted to the “built environment,” the event attracts speakers with architectural, design and construction expertise from around the nation.

Visitors to the 2009 conference, Oct. 1-3, will be able to see demos of hundreds of products, as well as examples of green design, such as a large hanging garden constructed on a bamboo framework that will be suspended over the bay. The installation aims to show how green can be beautiful and useful, using vegetation to mitigate heat, sequester carbon and improve water and air quality.

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Bay City News
SAUSALITO — Three weeks after their return from exploring a vortex of floating plastic garbage 1,000 miles off the Pacific coast, scientists working on Project Kaisei are focused on how to clean up the giant garbage patch. >> Read the full story

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From Green Right Now Reports

Fisker Automotive announced Tuesday that US Department of Energy will loan the company more than half a billion dollars to create affordable, fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid electric cars. Fisker said it expects to create or save at least 5,000 US jobs among auto suppliers and thousands more to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the US.

The funds are coming from the US Department of Energy’s $25-billion Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program, created by Congress in November 2008 to help promote the development of energy-efficient, advanced-technology vehicles.

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By Wayne Freedman
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Concern over global warming has a lot of people concerned with how they deal the very real possibility of rising sea levels. Who better to give advice than those living right now below sea level? The Dutch have discovered that their experience with bad geography might create healthy profits. >> Read the full story

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