Minnesota Environmental News - Now Improved, with RSS Format! (tm)

* Minnesota Public Radio is worried that a proposed light rail line running right by its Saint Paul offices would be noisy. Read more from MinnPost.

image from MinnPost

* Nationwide - Obama's "green team" not so progressive? Read more from BeyondChron.

* 3M asks to throw out a lawsuit brought by 4 residents over leached PFCs found in groundwater. Perfluorocarbons were used in products like Scotchgard and Teflon. There is precedent: DuPont in Ohio was ordered to pay $300 million in damages in 2005 on a PFC case. Questions this case will attempt to figure out: When the company dumped leftover materials into landfills (legally), did it know that PFCs are toxic and bioaccumulate? Did it know the chemicals would leach into the groundwater? Do the 4 residents have a substantial enough claim of "subcellular" harm? Are PFCs as toxic to humans as they are to mice? Read more from the Pioneer Press.

* Minneapolis adopts environmentally preferable purchasing policy. Read more from MinnPost.

Bush Administration Rushes to Entrench 8 Years of Bad Environmental Policy Long After Due Date Passes

The outgoing political appointees in the federal government are trying to pull a fast one on us.

The Bush Administration is rushing to put in place a set of 20 regulation changes - 4 of which slow environmental and worker protection and remove barriers for big companies to cut environmental corners.

image from gailjonas.blogspot.com - too bad there's not one of the entire administration.

Mind you, this is so far past due date it's not even funny - a May memo from the White House Chief of Staff wrote that proposals for regulations should be received no later than June 1. I don't know about you, but if I tried to turn in a paper 6 months late, I would be s#*% out of luck.

According to the New York Times, these proposals include rules that would:

1. Require another step in regulating workplace chemicals (longitudinal studies of exposure over an employee's working life), adding up to 2 years to a process that already takes 8.

2. Remove barriers to building power plants near national parks and wilderness areas

3. Reduce the role of federal wildlife scientists in declaring whether endangered species will be threatened by highway or dam construction

4. Allow coal companies to dump rock and dirt from mining into streams and valleys.

These proposals are to change the Code of Federal Regulations, a bundle of rules created by federal departments and agencies that have the force of law. While it would be easy for Obama to overturn any executive orders coming from Bush, it would require a public comment period and proof of a "reasoned analysis" to overturn these regulations - easy, of course, but time consuming.

Why Ethanol is a Bad Idea, Part 2

Ethanol is a bad idea. Why, you may ask?

1. ROI? Well, it turns out that you invest a lot of energy, water, and resources to grow that corn and turn it into ethanol. A gallon of ethanol requires 26 pounds of corn. 26 pounds! So a standard 15 gallon tank could be filled with the equivalent of 360 pounds of corn. Once. Do you have any idea how incredibly land-intensive that is? And what if you'd chopped down a forest to grow that corn?


2. Ethical? So people starve in the world, and you're burning edible food to make fuel? Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, called biofuels a "crime against humanity," and in October 2007 called for a 5-year moratorium on the production of biofuels from edible crops. This, he argued, would give time for technology to develop to turn waste (such as corn cobs) into biofuel instead.

3. Bad economics? For human beings lucky enough not to be starving, an Iowa State University study published in May 2007 estimates that food prices rose an average of $47/person because of the 2006-2007 ethanol boom. That's thanks to heavy government subsidies. A 2006 Businessweek article asks, "If the government hadn't mandated this product, would it survive in a free market?" Doubtful. Hey government, don't create that market!

4. Not very effective. Ethanol gets bad fuel mileage. E85, which has 85% ethanol content, has a lower energy content and drops a car's miles per gallon 20-30%. It may even interfere with the performance of some cars.

It makes me wonder why we continue to push ethanol as a green alternative.

City of Seattle Bans Bottled Water

Yaaaaaaaay.


The City of Seattle has internally banned itself from buying bottled water. This is terrific news, because governments have a huge role to play in creating markets, supporting markets, or KICKING MARKETS IN THE SEAT OF THE PANTS! And that's just what the city government has done. Good work, team. That's $58,000 a year you can spend on something better. (As a side note, I'm looking for a job...)

At roughly $1/bottle, that's 58,000 water bottles per year that the city government alone needed to recycle or throw away. That's insane.