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by Sam Hananel, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration announced long-awaited regulations Tuesday to improve labels on hazardous chemicals and make them conform with international guidelines developed by the United Nations.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimated that such labels could prevent more than 40 deaths and about 500 workplace injuries and illnesses from exposure to hazardous chemicals each year.

Assistant Labor Secretary David Michaels said labels will be easier to understand and less confusing, especially for low-literacy workers. About 43 million U.S. workers come in contact with hazardous materials on the job.

The process of developing the rules began during the Bush administration, and the rules were initially proposed more than two years ago. The Obama administration is holding them out as a product of a presidential directive last year to streamline burdensome agency regulations and eliminate red tape.

OSHA officials said the latest rules would actually save companies more than $475 million annually in training costs and paperwork. Chemical manufacturers currently have to produce two sets of labels and records: one to satisfy U.S. standards and another to meet the U.N. guidelines.

“Not only will it save lives and limbs, but it will lead to increased efficiency on part of employers who produce and purchase chemicals,” Michaels said. “And it will level the playing field for employers to compete abroad.”

The rules will be phased in over a transition period and companies will not have to comply with them fully until June 2016.

Read the complete article at Manufacturing Net

Zero-energy commercial buildings are both feasible and affordable, and they are appearing across the U.S., a report from the New Buildings Institute (NBI) and the Zero Energy Commercial Building Consortium (CBC) finds.

The report, Getting to Zero 2012 Status Update: A First Look at the Cost and Features of Zero Energy Commercial Buildings, defines zero-energy buildings as highly efficient structures that produce as much energy as they use through on-site renewable resource.

Altogether, the report identifies 99 existing and under-construction buildings that are either zero energy or zero energy-capable. These are spread through most U.S. climate zones. And while ZEBs were once considered the province of educational institutions and non-profits, the report found that recent zero-energy buildings include office buildings and a credit union.

The report identifies 21 occupied buildings with either measured net zero energy results (15 cases) or credible modeled expectations for such results (six cases). These are listed in the table above.

With the exception of two facilities completed in 2010 – Richardsville Elementary at 77,000 square feet and the NREL facility at 222,000 square feet – all ZEBs are less than 15,000 square feet, and half are less than 5,000 square feet, NBI said.

Read the complete article at Environmental Leader

Plan passed county supervisor’s muster Tuesday; final reading March 13.

By Angela Woodall
Oakland Tribune

Alameda County moved a step closer Tuesday to becoming the first county in the nation to make drug manufacturers responsible for disposing of unused and expired pharmaceuticals that are contaminating drinking water and putting youths and seniors at risk.

The county already operates drop-off boxes in several cities. But manufacturers and producers of drugs would be required to finance and operate the collection of unused prescription and over-the-counter medications under a proposal that made it past the first major hurdle during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

“We realize that this is an important step to protect residents and our environment” said District 4 Supervisor Nate Miley, who sponsored the plan. “We want pharmaceutical companies to take responsibility for the entire life span of their products.”

The measure, in the works for months, has attracted wide support from a variety of cities and agencies trying to cope with an ever-increasing demand for a permanent pharmaceutical take-back program.

Bay Area residents disposed of more than 60,000 pounds of unwanted pharmaceuticals at 128 sites across the nine counties, according to Miley’s figures.

Alameda County citizens alone returned roughly 4,000 pounds of pharmaceuticals. Santa Clara County residents disposed of 19,000 pounds and San Mateo County residents close to 18,000.

The cost is being passed on to local governments and taxpayers, advocates from agencies such as the Union Sanitary District, Save the Bay and the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District said.

Fueling the growing demand for a permanent disposal solution are environmental concerns and the alarming access to prescription drugs and over-the-counter medication by youths.

Excess and expired drugs sitting in cabinets are “wrought with temptation for kids,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley told supervisors during Tuesday’s meeting. Children aren’t getting drugs from a dealer in a dark alley, she said. They are getting them from medicine cabinets, which she called the “drug dealers of today.” As a result, hospital visits for teenage prescription drug abuse between 1993 and 2003 have skyrocketed by 207 percent, Miley reported. Meanwhile, Alameda County saw the rate of hospitalizations from unintentional poisonings among adults 60 and older jump by 43 percent between 1998 and 2006.

Making drug disposal easier would encourage senior citizens to get rid of expired medications and unneeded drugs, helping to eliminate medication mix-ups, Cait McWhir, of the county’s Adult Day Services Network wrote in a letter of support.

Another pressing concern behind the measure came from the environmental effect of pharmaceuticals, the use of which is expanding. Prescriptions for controlled substances increased by 154 percent between 1993 and 2003 nationally, Miley reported.

Municipal wastewater treatment plants, however, can’t keep up. They were designed to treat biological agents in drinking water — not antibiotics, steroids, anti-depressants and pain medications that people throw away or flush down toilets. Either way, the chemicals get into the water that comes through our taps.

Other countries, including Canada, France, Spain and Portugal, already require manufacturers to dispose of their leftover products. But so far, similar attempts have been unsuccessful in the United States, although federal legislation and numerous state bills have been introduced.

California fought for six years to pass legislation, but lobbyists blocked it, District 3 Supervisor Wilma Chan said during the Tuesday meeting. She is a former member of the state Assembly.

Tuesday’s vote was 4-0. District 1 Supervisor Nadia Lockyer was absent.

The measure in Alameda County will come back to the supervisors for a final vote March 13. Then drug companies would then have until Jan. 1, 2013, to come up with a take-back disposal blueprint that covers generic and brand name drugs. The county will hold a public hearing within 90 days after receiving the plan. The Alameda County Department of Environmental Health would oversee the program, which would be implemented using fees paid by the manufacturers. Pharmaceutical companies can’t pass on the extra cost to customers, under the measure. The Environmental Health Department can fine companies that don’t comply up to $1,000 per day. The worst offenders would face misdemeanor charges.

RIVERSIDE, Calif., March 2, 2012 /PR Newswire/ — carbonLITE, a leading producer of bottle-grade raw material used to make new bottles, was joined by California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today to announce the official grand opening of the world’s largest bottle-to-bottle plastic recycling plant.  Located in Riverside, Ca., the 220,000 sq-ft plant has already created over100 green jobs and will recover more than two billion plastic PET bottles annually from California’s Curbside and Redemption Value programs.

Governor Brown kicked off a Grand Opening Celebration and Ribbon-Cutting ceremony held today, bringing together notable guests from the State of California, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, County of Riverside, City of Riverside and Riverside Chamber of Commerce, along with executives from PepsiCo and Nestle Waters.

‘Companies like carbonLITE are revolutionizing the recycling industry and dramatically reducing the huge amount of plastic dumped in California landfills every year,’ said Governor Brown.

‘carbonLITE is using high-tech innovations to bring used plastic back to food grade quality,’ said Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest.  ‘By recycling two billion PET bottles (12 fl oz) every year, this cutting-edge facility is helping America save 48 million gallons of gas.  This is a model of resource recovery and economic development.’

Previously, most plastic bottles collected in California were exported to China and downcycled into polyester fiber.  carbonLITE is changing that, and bringing both this valuable resource and jobs back to the State.  carbonLITE is able to do this with the support of their customers like PepsiCo and Nestle Waters while helping both companies achieve their sustainability goals.

‘We’re committed to being the leading bottle-to-bottle recycler, preserving resources and reducing the carbon footprint from PET bottle production,’ said Leon Farahnik, Chairman,carbonLITE.  ‘We’re honored to have the support of Governor Brown, U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld, and the many others who came out to our grand opening and experienced our state-of-the-art recycling facility.  Our customers are allowing us to truly make a large impact by creating a sustainable infrastructure for beverage companies.’

carbonLITE specializes in processing used plastic bottles into bottle-grade PET pellets that can then be used to manufacture new plastic beverage bottles.  This conserves virgin resources, reduces landfills, and capitalizes on the energy already invested in making existing plastic products.

Products made using PET resin are recyclable and highly sustainable.  PET can be recycled numerous times, turning bottles back into bottles.  The PET resin offered by carbonLITE will have been processed using a method that has received an LNO (letter of non-objection) from the FDA, allowing it to be used at levels up to 100 percent recycled content in the manufacture of PET bottles and containers for direct contact with all food types under cold fill and hot fill conditions.

About carbonLITE:
carbonLITE, founded by plastics stalwarts Leon Farahnik and Neville Browne, owns and operates the world’s largest post-consumer plastic bottle recycling facility devoted to producing bottle-grade raw material used to make new bottles.  Their new 220,000 sq-ft, bottle-to-bottle, PET recycling plant opened in Riverside, CA, creating over 100 green jobs and processing more than two billion plastic bottles annually.  The second phase ofcarbonLITE’s development will double capacity to more than four billion PET bottles per year in mid-2013. Through new state-of-the-art facilities, technologies, and equipment, carbonLITEis fully invested and committed to making an impact in preserving resources and reducing the carbon footprint from PET bottle production.

SOURCE carbonLITE

By the end of the decade, manufacturers in the United States could make solar panels that are less than half as expensive as the ones they make now. That would be cheap enough for solar power to compete with electricity from fossil fuels, according to a new study in Energy & Environmental Science. The cost reductions will come via technology that’s already being demonstrated in research labs at startups, universities, and major solar manufacturers, and could involve silicon, the material most solar panels are made from today.

The report, from researchers at MIT led by Tonio Buonassisi, a professor of mechanical engineering and manufacturing, identifies early-stage technologies that, if employed together, could reduce the cost of making solar panels to 52 cents per watt. Currently, the cost is over a dollar per watt. At 52 cents per watt, assuming similar cost reductions for installation and equipment such as inverters, solar power would cost six cents per kilowatt-hour in sunny areas of the U.S.—less than the average cost of electricity in the U.S. today. Solar power in sunny areas now costs roughly 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, although the cost can be sharply higher in small installations or in cloudy areas where solar installations generate less electricity.

The best way to reduce the cost per watt is to make solar cells more efficient—as a result, more power can be produced with a given amount of material and factory equipment. Increasing efficiency also decreases installation costs, since fewer solar panels are needed. But efficiency improvements aren’t enough to reach 52 cents a watt. Manufacturers will also need to make solar cells from thinner silicon wafers, make wafers in a way that wastes less silicon, and speed up manufacturing. If a high-efficiency solar cell design slows down manufacturing or requires thick wafers, it likely won’t lead to the necessary cost reductions.

Read the complete article at Technology Review by MIT

Did you know that the US spends between $30 and $50 billion every month on foreign oil?  I find that number to be huge and think that we need to reduce that amount if we want to remain competitive, independent, and environmentally friendly. It doesn’t make long-term economic sense to spend so many of our resources on an environmentally toxic substance that also needs to be transported halfway around the world. If the goals are energy independence, sustainability and local jobs, some say the US should drill for domestic oil and other fossil fuel resources that are within US borders.

In a recent interview I had with T.Boone Pickens, he mentioned that if we switched large trucks to natural gas instead of diesel we could reduce foreign oil dependency by 50 percent. I agree with him, but also think we should focus more on geothermal energy and call for a “drill, baby, drill” campaign that all political parties can endorse as it will save money and help our environment, while creating domestic jobs that would be difficult to outsource to other countries. To accomplish this requires a slight change in policy to remove some unfair barriers, but let me first explain the benefits of geothermal.

Geothermal Quick Facts

Geothermal energy is the only commercially available renewable energy that offers 100 percent uptime reliability. It uses extremely simple technology, has low operating maintenance costs and results in far fewer emissions by using the earth’s thermal energy instead of fossil fuels. Geothermal energy represents a broad spectrum of applications, including utility scale power as well as solutions for buildings and homes.

For example, utilities use hot spots in the earth’s crust to make steam and then drive a turbine to make electricity. In addition to using our US-based resources to make kWhs, utility-scale geothermal steam generation plants are also eligible for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), just like solar and wind energy projects.

Read the complete article at Environmental Leader