NYC.gov Environment -- Information on water, air quality, recycling and more.
plaNYC -- Official government site for making NYC a sustainable city,
Hudson River Foundation -- Supports scientific research and the management of the Hudson ecosystem.
New York City Environmental Fund -- Fosters active community stewardship of waterways, shorelines, parklands and open spaces in and around New York City.
The Council on the Environment of NYC -- A non-profit dedicated to greening neighborhoods, creating environmental leaders of the future, promoting waste prevention and recycling, and running the largest farmers market program in the country.
[caption id="attachment_6221" align="alignright" width="271" caption="A field monitor checks a gas meter for leaks. (Photo: Department of Energy)"][/caption]
From Green Right Now Reports
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced today that the first installment of $123 million in federal Recovery funds for weatherization will begin to be released Nov. 2, part of $253 million that the state will use for this purpose.
The Governor said the funding represents an unprecedented level of investment that will help to create new, “green” jobs, save money for struggling families, and stimulate local economic activity as weatherization agencies buy required material, vehicles and equipment.
A drill site entrance near the spill site in Dimock, Pa., taken this past winter. (Photo: Abrahm Lustgarten /ProPublica)
Pennsylvania environment officials are racing to clean up as much as 8,000 gallons of dangerous drilling fluids after a series of spills at a natural gas production site near the town of Dimock last week.
The spills, which occurred at a well site run by Cabot Oil and Gas, involve a compound manufactured by Halliburton that is described as a “potential carcinogen” and is used in the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, according to state officials. The contaminants have seeped into a nearby creek, where a fish kill was reported by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP also reported fish “swimming erratically.”
Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe yesterday praised the House Game and Fisheries Committee and its chairmen, Rep. Edward G. Staback (D-Lackawanna) and Rep. Craig Dally (R-Northampton), for its near unanimous approval of House Bill 97, which would increase penalties and fines for poaching. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Staback.
“Increasing penalties for serious violations is one of the operational objectives within the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Strategic Plan, and we welcome this first-step in the process taken by the Committee today,” Roe said in a statement. “Enactment of this bill will mark the first comprehensive piece of legislation to increase Game and Wildlife Code Penalties since 1987, and we believe it will significantly enhance wildlife protection in the Commonwealth.
We chat a lot about farmer’s markets here on the website, but it’s a pet topic for some good reasons. Who can argue with buying local food, which carries a lower carbon footprint, is more nutrient-rich (according to recent studies) than less fresh options and also supports the local economy?
Here’s a new twist on the concept that we stumbled upon – a farmer’s market that comes to your workplace. They started one in Chester County, Penn., last year and are bringing it back this summer.
The impromptu, lunchtime markets provide both gastronomic and economic benefits. Farmers get a new outlet for their goods and the county employees are treated to fresh produce, allowing them to skip the daily chore of stopping at the grocery on the way home.
Odwalla is continuing its successful plant-a-tree program by donating $100,000 worth of trees to be planted in state parks in California, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Utah, Ohio, Texas, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia.
Visitors to www.parkvisitor.com/odwalla can choose their preferred state to receive a tree — no contribution or registration is required. The trees will be used to support important reforestation and planting initiatives across the country.
A softening economy and a milder-than-usual winter contributed to a decline in carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants in 2008, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project.
EIP officials noted that the decrease is a departure from the recent trends, with power plant carbon dioxide emissions having risen 0.9 percent since 2003, and 4.5 percent since 1998, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The darkness looms. Earth Hour is just a day away, so get ready to observe the biggest one yet, along with more than 2,600 cities across the globe in more than 80 countries.
Hold your own black out at 8:30 p.m. (in your time zone) on Saturday at home or in your ‘hood and you’ll be simpatico with people in Egypt where they’re turning out the lights on the Sphinx, Paris where the Eiffel Tower will go dark and NYC where Broadway marquees will blink out at the appropriate time. (Not to mention the Las Vegas strip, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the St. Louis Arch, the Golden Gate Bridge, those giant Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. You get the picture.)
Pennsylvania’s new Renewable Energy Program is making $25 million available to spur new jobs and economic growth in the renewable energy manufacturing industry, Gov. Edward G. Rendell said Monday.
The program will help businesses, non-profits and other groups take advantage of the clean, money-saving technologies it produces, and represents a major step in Pennsylvania’s drive towards energy independence and building a cleaner, greener economy, the governor said.
President Barack Obama today ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to review its previous refusal to allow California and more than a dozen other states to raise emissions standards above and beyond the national standard. The Bush administration had denied the requests.
“Instead of serving as a partner, Washington stood in their way,” President Obama said. “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over.”
And in what he called “a down payment on a broader and sustained effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” President Obama directed the Department of Transportation to establish higher fuel efficiency standards for carmakers’ 2011 model year. The standard, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), was established in 1975 in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo.
Drill, baby, drill may be what’s on the minds of gas companies, but if you’re a landowner of a potential gas site, you probably have a lot of questions.
Thanks to a new software application that’s being test marketed by MIT, landowners may now extract data to see if the gas companies’ proposals to drill are fair and safe. The software tool, called the Landman Report Card (LRC), will help landowners in any state navigate the government and corporate databases, as well as get feedback from other landowners who’ve been in similar situations. And they can do all this before agreeing to a drilling contract.
The term “land man” refers to an oil company representative who often times shows up on the doorstep of unsuspecting property owners who’ve been targeted as having prospective drill sites.
“People often will sign the day the land man shows up at the door,” says MIT professor Chris Csikszentmihalyi. “There are lots of negotiations that people can do, that they often don’t know they can.”
Csikszentmihalyi , co-director of MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media, and Sara Wylie, a grad student in the Science , Technology and Society Program, are the directors of the Landman Report Card project, which is coming to fruition just as natural gas exploration in America gains traction as a potential energy source that doesn’t rely on foreign oil — affecting land and homeowners from New York to Texas to the Rocky Mountains states.
Future energy literally rose above fossil fuel-generated power at a site in Pennsylvania where officials celebrated the opening this week of the Casselman Wind Power Project near Garrett, Pa., southeast of Pittsburgh.
Eight of the 23 turbines sit atop the site of a former coal mine.
“Pennsylvania is rapidly becoming a leader among states that are developing renewable and alternative energy sources and implementing advanced energy efficiency and conservation technologies,” said Governor Edward G. Rendell at the opening ceremony.
Rendell noted that the project will help create jobs, reduce dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment.
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Odwalla is continuing its successful plant-a-tree program by donating $100,000 worth of trees to be planted in state parks in California, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Utah, Ohio, Texas, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia.
