Eco-Friendly Home Projects Can Be Cheap, and Also Stylish
ENN
LOS ANGELES -- Colette Brooks spent
two years and $500,000 greening her Malibu home with solar panels, a
recycled metal roof, organic linens and a waterless urinal.
As a New Year's resolution, she
pledged to do a similar transformation of her parents' Sherman Oaks
home. This time, however, the budget was just $1,500, but there was
still plenty to do.
As Brooks and her family demonstrate,
going green is going mainstream these days in environmentally
conscious California. Record numbers of people here are moving
toward an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Scots Inventor Cracks Centuries-old
Puzzle
by Pat Hurst, Scotsman News
IT IS a mechanical problem that has
troubled scientists since Archimedes and the ancient Greeks, but now
a Scottish electrician has come up with the answer - and it could
help consumers save thousands of pounds in energy bills.
Ian Gilmartin, 60, has invented a mini
water wheel capable of supplying enough electricity to power a house
- for free.
The contraption is designed to be used
in small rivers or streams - ideal for potentially thousands of
homes across Britain...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Green
Buildings Need More Incentives in U.S.
ENN
CHICAGO/NEW YORK -- When it opens next
year, the 54-story Bank of America Tower in New York will be the
most environmentally friendly office building in the United States.
It will produce most of its energy at
an on-site cogeneration plant. It will capture and reuse waste water
and rainwater. And it uses recycled materials in its construction.
The building is the latest in a trend
toward office buildings that use less energy and cause less global
warming. But developers say that trend is being held back by
insufficient government support...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Corn Alone Can't Meet
Bush Green Fuel Goal
by Sam Nelson, Reuters
CHICAGO
(Reuters) - It won't be possible to produce enough corn in the
United States to meet President George W. Bush's goal of a 35
billion gallon output of renewable fuels in ten years, analysts said
on Wednesday.
"It's a very
optimistic scenario and encouraging longer term, but it's too big to
make any sense for ethanol from corn only," said Jerry Gidel,
analyst for North America Risk Management Inc.
Additionally,
U.S. grain markets will be extremely volatile, led by explosive
price bursts in corn, which already is at a 10-year high, as the
corn-based ethanol engine forages through the U.S. heartland...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Australia to Ban
Old-style Light Bulbs, Go Fluorescent
by Rohan Sullivan, Seattle Times
SYDNEY, Australia -- The Australian government today announced plans
to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more
energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country.
Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs
could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons
by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said
Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Australia produced almost 565 million tons of greenhouse gases in
2004, official figures show...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Legislation Aims at Brighter Future for Solar Power
ENN
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Heather Iager, a
dairy farmer in Libertytown, wants to go green, but even in a county
that's home to one of the nation's largest solar manufacturing
plants, she's finding it difficult.
Earlier this year, in an attempt to
better manage her energy costs, Iager approached BP Solar, which
bases its North America operations in Frederick, about the
possibility of bringing solar panels to her 200-acre farm.
"There's something curious about it to
me and it seems so ... rational," Iager said.
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
|
