As temperatures fall this winter, families across the United States can expect to pay significantly more to heat their homes. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), homes that use natural gas for heat can expect to average an additional $306 per typical-sized household, 41 percent more this winter compared with last year.
The National Biodiesel Board (NBB), a trade group representing the burgeoning American biodiesel industry, reported last week that production and consumption of biodiesel is expected to jump threefold this year in the U.S. The industry expects to churn out 75 million gallons of the alternative fuel in 2005, as compared to the 25 million gallons produced in 2004.
As originally hinted two months ago, Chinese government officials announced last week that the world’s most populous country will double its reliance on renewable energy sources by 2020. Currently China derives about 7 percent of its energy from renewable sources like hydro-electric, solar and wind power, but plans to derive 15 percent of its energy from these so-called alternatives within a decade and a half.
ARGONNE, ILLINOIS—The spinning drum didn’t look like much, but by sorting one form of scrap from another it was pointing the way to an important new frontier for recycling. Here on the grounds of the Argonne National Laboratories near Chicago, a pilot recycling plant is trying to convince cars to go the extra mile in donating their rusting carcasses to new products. The goal? The fully recycled automobile.
While China’s economic flowering might be benefiting millions of people, it is also degrading their quality of life. The European Space Agency released satellite data last week showing that the air in the Chinese capital Beijing and its neighboring provinces contains the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in the world. Analysts estimate that such elevated pollution levels probably account for 400,000 premature deaths in the region every year.
In an effort to generate revenue to rein in the ballooning federal deficit, the House Resources Committee has approved a federal budget package calling for an end to a decade-old moratorium on the sale of public lands to mining companies. Committee Chair Dick Pombo said that the contentious provision would add $2.4 billion or more to federal coffers over five years.
E Magazine does not as a rule cover conferences–our space is too precious to offer blow-by-blow accounts of speeches. But this newsletter allows us to bend the rules, and the Internet gives us breathing space to keep you informed at rather greater length than is possible on the printed page. So here are detailed reports from two important gatherings, one in the U.S. and the other from Rome, the eternal city.
Despite environmentalists" warnings, Americans spend large amounts of time and money on products that eliminate moss from their manicured lawns. This, along with unchecked commercial harvesting and damage by pollution, has caused a serious decline in the low-profile plant, even though moss is an important component of many ecosystems, from cave walls to the forest floor.
During the last decade or so, enthusiasm for automobile racing has grown rapidly and is at present the most expensive "sport" in the world. As anyone knows who has turned on local weekend TV, National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing (NASCAR) is about to replace football as the Number One entertainment for those time slots when men are at home with nothing else to do.
The hybrid vehicle market the pundits predicted would never get off the ground instead grew 960 percent from 2000 to 2005. More than 80,000 hybrids were registered in 2004, an 80 percent jump from 2003. How big can the hybrid market get? J.D. Power and Associates sees sales of 535,000 by 2010. Toyota executives anticipate selling a million a year.The hybrid vehicle market the pundits predicted would never get off the ground instead grew 960 percent from 2000 to 2005. More than 80,000 hybrids were registered in 2004, an 80 percent jump from 2003. How big can the hybrid market get? J.D. Power and Associates sees sales of 535,000 by 2010. Toyota executives anticipate selling a million a year.
