The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making audio files and PowerPoint presentations available from the Food Waste Reduction & Management Webinar series at EPA Region 2’s Sustainable Communities web site at http://www.epa.gov/region02/webinars/foodwaste.html.
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Nevada Businesss Connections Breakfast meeting
The breakfast features speakers, Duane Denson of Comnet Marketing Group from Medford Oregon and Lori A. Carpenter with 7Q10. Both companies will discuss their plans to expand in northern Nevada (150 and 17 employees respectively). Doors will open at 7:30 am, program starts at 8 am, at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, 3800 S. Virginia Street, Reno. The meeting is scheduled for exactly one hour. Cost is $20 for members and $30 for future members
EPA Issues New SO2 Guidelines
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2) yesterday in a ruling that is likely to raise costs for some utility companies, according to an Associated Press report.
The new guidelines lower the level of SO2 exposure that the EPA considers safe for the first time since the agency began regulating the gas in 1971. According to the EPA, exposure to SO2 can aggravate asthma and cause other respiratory difficulties. People with asthma, children, and the elderly are especially vulnerable to the effects of SO2. The EPA estimated the new rules will prevent 2,300 to 5,900 premature deaths and 54,000 asthma attacks a year. The estimated cost in 2020 to fully implement this standard is approximately $1.5 billion. More:
Why do business owners NOT do it?
A brief commentary on factors affecting implementation of energy efficiency in businesses
We are used to buying things – things we can drive, eat, watch… or services that help us get things done, but energy, now that’s a vague word.
And “efficiency” – That’s also a vague word. What does it mean? It’s so relative and hard to pin down, an ineffective marketing term for sure, especially in America where we are trained to like the big, the bold, the conflict ridden… where we like to blow things up, be the biggest and the best and the favorite pastimes are NASCAR and gladiator sports… come on!
So, clearly, from the get go, “energy efficiency” suffers from a serious marketing problem. If anyone can come up with better terminology, I’d like to hear it.
But let’s look at those factors commonly cited as hindering implementation of energy efficiency – I read lists like: “control and regulatory instruments”; “fiscal instruments and incentives”; economic and market-based instruments… or a bit less on the bureaucratese/pedantic side – “lack of knowledge of potential benefits”; “difficulty securing financing”; “lack of experienced workforce”, and etc.
In my experience with energy efficiency, focused on retrofit of buildings for “energy efficient (and comfortable) operation, the key single control factor affecting decision-making is confidence. Yes, CONFIDENCE. Indeed, this observation is well embedded in simple Keynesian economic theory that has, for example, the Great Depression rooted in a self-reinforcing slump in demand aka confidence born of failures in the financial sector to properly regulate itself. Sound familiar?
So what I see in the field are large numbers of businesspeople who are running on fear and uninterested in complex decision-making, difficult to understand forms and procedures, or in vague concepts like “efficiency” and “conservation”. What they mostly know about “energy” is that they’d like to have more of it for themselves… I can demonstrate all day that certain “energy efficiency” measures will “pay for themselves” in just a short time, but my business clients may just as well decide that they just don’t believe the numbers, they are too academic, and they simply do not have the confidence to spend now to save later.
Energy efficiency programs clearly need better marketing, to be simply presented, clear in results, and supported in extremely simple ways.
A plethora of competing programs, obscure and ever-changing paperwork, inconsistent policies and criteria, and a host of other practical problems further challenge us beyond the simple marketing problem to do better with implementing our need to move forward with energy efficiency.
It is generally acknowledged that energy efficiency presents a social least-cost alternative as a main component of our thrust toward a better future, one where we can live in the knowledge that we are doing the right thing, living in a healthy environment, in confidence. Not fear.
Yes, that’s a bit of ribald polemic, but that’s the order for the day… your comments welcome.
Built Green Nevada meeting
Guest Speakers:
Steven Duque, Operations Manager, Castaway Trash Hauling
“Recycling Program for the Construction Site”
Jim DeVolld, President, CEO First Independent Bank of Nevada
“…why it’s so tough for homeowners to get money
for remodeling and new “green” projects”
“Hope on the Horizon”
Agenda
1. Call Meeting to Order and Introductions – Chairman, Robb Wong
2. Special Presentations (20 minutes each program, with Q&A)
3. State Program to perform energy audits on residential properties at time of sale. (NRS 113 and NRS 701.250), State Energy Office – Leon Mills
4. PACE Programs at Reno, Sparks and Washoe – Kevin Dick
5. Old Business and New Business
6. Next Meeting: Monday, July 5, 2010 at 12 noon
7. Adjournment
Please RSVP so we can provide enough lunch.
EPA Proposes New Permit Requirements for Pesticide Discharges
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a new permit requirement that would decrease the amount of pesticides discharged to our nation’s waters and protect human health and the environment. This action is in response to an April 9, 2009 court decision that found that pesticide discharges to U.S. waters were pollutants, thus requiring a permit.
The proposed permit, released for public comment and developed in collaboration with states, would require all operators to reduce pesticide discharges by using the lowest effective amount of pesticide, prevent leaks and spills, calibrate equipment and monitor for and report adverse incidents. Additional controls, such as integrated pest management practices, are built into the permit for operators who exceed an annual treatment area threshold.
“EPA believes this draft permit strikes a balance between using pesticides to control pests and protecting human health and water quality,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water.
EPA estimates that the pesticide general permit will affect approximately 35,000 pesticide applicators nationally that perform approximately half a million pesticide applications annually. The agency’s draft permit covers the following pesticide uses: (1) mosquito and other flying insect pest control; (2) aquatic weed and algae control; (3) aquatic nuisance animal control; and (4) forest canopy pest control. It does not cover terrestrial applications to control pests on agricultural crops or forest floors. EPA is soliciting public comment on whether additional use patterns should be covered by this general permit.
The agency plans to finalize the permit in December 2010. It will take effect April 9, 2011. Once finalized, the pesticide general permit will be used in states, territories, tribal lands, and federal facilities where EPA is the authorized permitting authority. In the remaining 44 states, states will issue the pesticide general permits. EPA has been working closely with these states to concurrently develop their permits.
EPA will hold three public meetings, a public hearing and a webcast on the draft general permit to present the proposed requirements of the permit, the basis for those requirements and to answer questions. EPA will accept written comments on the draft permit for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.
More information on the draft permit: http://www.epa.gov/npdes
NV ENERGY Education for Building Professionals
Quality HVAC Installation Made Easy
For anyone involved in the design, fabrication, or installation of ductwork
Hear how you can grow your business with the proposed federal rebates for quality installation of HVAC retrofits.
Highlights
• How to Seal Duct Systems
• Best techniques and time savers
• Duct Testing Requirements in the 09 IECC
• Testing ducts for leakage
• Retrofit Rebates -Job Creation for the HVAC industry
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Cost: FREE But seating is limited
Call: 1-888-818-3746
EPA Releases Draft Formaldehyde Assessment Report for Peer Review and Public Comment
On June 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will release for independent peer review and public comment a draft human health assessment for formaldehyde that focuses on evaluating the potential toxicity of inhalation exposures to this chemical. Formaldehyde is widely used and can be found in many consumer products.
This assessment will help EPA and others to determine the level of risk it poses to Americans’ health. EPA undertook this assessment because there have been a number of potentially significant new studies published since EPA’s last review of formaldehyde toxicity.
EPA’s draft formaldehyde assessment will be reviewed by an expert panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences. EPA will consider all public comments on its draft and will use the guidance from the National Academy of Sciences as it completes its IRIS Health Assessment for Formaldehyde.
EPA will accept written comments on the draft assessment for 90 days after it appears in the Federal Register on June 2.
More information: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris_drafts/recordisplay.cfm?deid=223614