Get your pipe fittings ready, next week is Fix a Leak week, starting March 15.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sponsors the annual five-day blitz to promote repair of leaks and replacing appliances with those that have WaterSense labels, the EPA’s designation for low water use products. Did you even know that some faucets are engineering to use less water without a reduction in flow. That’s how they get the WaterSense label, and you can find products and models at the WaterSense website.
Who sells more Energy Star appliances than anyone?
Well, we don’t know. Stores typically won’t reveal their sales figures, which they consider to be proprietary.
But if Jeopardy asks, you might answer: Lowe’s. The retail home improvement chain is being honored later this month for its longtime commitment to energy efficiency, particularly for its emphasis on selling ENERGY STAR appliances.
Not so long ago, Mr. Clean and company were considered the good guys, the go-to-gang for a deep house cleaning. But in the past several years, alarms have been sounding about chemicals used in conventional household products.
Be they phosphates, sulfates, bleach, ammonia or phenols, certain ingredients are causing strong concerns among consumer-protection groups, federal and state governments, and even a few manufacturers. Conventional wisdom now asserts that many household cleaners contain compounds that pose environmental risks and can lead to health conditions such as asthma and nerve damage, even cancer. (See our GRN guide below)
Just after Texas Governor Rick Perry filed a lawsuit against the EPA on Tuesday, questioning the federal agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, Texas environmental groups parried back.
Texas’ Public Citizen and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club announced they were issuing Perry a citizen citation to “cease and desist endangering the health of breathers, the economy and the climate in Texas by continuing to permit coal plants and other large sources of CO2.”
The groups explained in a joint news release from Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office, and Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star Sierra Chapter:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and the state’s Attorney General and Agriculture commissioner, announced Tuesday that the state will challenge the EPA’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are endangering human health.
Texas has filed a Petition for Review of the EPA’s finding with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit , questioning the science behind the EPA’s finding and whether the agency should be allowed to regulate industries’ greenhouse gas emissions.
The move follows a similar one by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week, when the Chamber filed a petition against the EPA to stop the agency from regulating greenhouse gases. The Chamber says it favors greenhouse gas reductions, but that giving the EPA the authority to assess fines against polluters is the “wrong way” to do it.
PFOA, aka Perfluorooctanoic acid, is everywhere. It’s in the wrappers of frozen pizza and microwave popcorn; it’s in Teflon pots and pans; it’s in the stain resistant coating that protects new carpets.
PFOA is a stable man-made chemical used in industrial and consumer goods because it is good at repelling heat, water, grease and stains.
However, it is also a known pollutant that gets absorbed into the food product it is wrapped around or absorbed by humans who come into contact with it.
PFOA is found in the blood of 98 percent of Americans and in 100 percent of all newborns, according to Bill Walker, vice president of the Environmental Working Group.
In what might seem a no-brainer, the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pronounced greenhouse gases to be a verifiable public health threat to all Americans.
The announcement came on the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and after what the EPA describes as a “thorough examination of the scientific evidence” required by government rules as the agency prepares to set standards for “light-duty vehicles.”
Two prominent environmental groups have proposed a direct approach to controlling carbon emissions that doesn’t require a new climate law, or even a cap-and-trade agreement.
The strategy is simple: Use the U.S. Clean Air Act.
On Wednesday, the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to set national limits for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act.
The petition asks that greenhouse gases that are classified as “criteria” air pollutants, as well as atmospheric CO2, be capped at 350 parts per million (ppm) which is the level that many scientists now believe is required to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
The Cobb County Water System in Marietta, Ga., and Kohler, maker of water faucets and other plumbing supplies, have won government recognition for their water-conserving ways.
The EPA named them among its “WaterSense” Partners of the Year. The program highlights the many ways in which organizations can advocate for saving water:
Cobb County water officials teamed up with Kohler, Lowe’s Home Improvement stores and others, to promote Georgia’s tax holiday for WaterSense products. WaterSense products include such things as water sensors for sprinkler systems to stop needless watering; low-flow shower heads and faucets, and toilets that use less water.
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Lead in toys is scary enough, but that’s only the start. Now, you might need to take a second look at your handbag, your car, your pet’s bed and even your clothes. The non-profit group Healthy Stuff reports that their recent tests of 900 everyday consumer products turned up some toxic [...]
Four major corporations were named “Green Power Partners of the Year” this past week by the US EPA:
Deutsche Bank AG — In 2009, the company made an annual purchase of 160 million kilowatt-hours of wind-derived renewable energy certificates (RECs), which represents 100 percent of the electricity needs for its U.S. operations. Worldwide, Deutsche Bank bought 515 million-kilowatt hours of green power.
