Environment

I don't know if this was reported before, but if you wonder why Xunlight is getting so much investment, but that is because they have around $271 million in contracts for solar cells. I was wondering for a long time why all of this money is being given to Xunlight.
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WASHINGTON- Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) and House Republican
Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) will hold a press conference on Wednesday, August
20, at 4:15 P.M. during their tour of alternative energy facilities in
Ohio's Fifth Congressional District. The press conference will take
place at the AMP-Ohio JV-6 wind turbines located on U.S. Route 6 in

Having bought a North Toledo recycling center, Lucas County has plans to go into the recycling business.

The Lucas County Commissioners yesterday approved a $7,100 contract with Spring Valley Architects to improve the facility at 1011 Matzinger Rd. that the Lucas County Solid Waste Management district bought earlier this year.

Warning...Warning Swampbubblers! Recycle thieves on the loose in South Toledo!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LATTA PARTICIPATES IN ONGOING HOUSE FLOOR PROTEST

Columbus, OH - The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation's Agriculture for Good Government Political Action Committee (OFBF-AGGPAC) has named Barbara R. Sears a "friend of agriculture" in this November's general election. OFBF is the state's largest general farm organization representing more than 230,000 member families.

IT WAS appropriate that the plane carrying Reps. Bob Latta, Jim Jordan, and eight of their Republican congressional colleagues never got to land at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Toledo City Councilman D. Michael Collins yesterday floated the idea of doubling the city's monthly storm water assessment to drastically cut the number of years it would take to complete $44 million in improvements the city needs for storm water control.

The current $3.16 assessment is charged on Toledo water bills and generates about $8 million annually.

" ST. LOUIS - Debbie Halcomb unpacked boxes as she moved back into her flood-damaged home, but worried that her damp carpet harbors mold. She enjoys the normally tranquil setting of Winfield, a community about three miles from the Mississippi River. But she's had enough. She's hoping for a government buyout so she can move to higher ground.

Slow start for Toledo-Oregon coking factory draws ire
Drawn-out process adds to city-port rift

On paper, construction of a multimillion-dollar coking works on the Toledo-Oregon border near the Port of Toledo began months ago, to preserve regulatory permits for the project that otherwise would expire.

CBS news.com (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/07/politics/uwire/main4239631.sht...) has an editorial on its site tonight calling for a return to the national speed limit of 55-60 mph. Senator John Warner of Virginia is currently suggesting Congress re-examine a return to 1974 and reducing the national speed limit.

BOWLING GREEN - In the last 10 years, David Heinlen and his co-workers have collected more than 11 tons of mercury.

That's 11 Volkswagen Beetles, 22 standard-sized refrigerators, or 4,500 Apple MacBooks.

WINFIELD, Mo. - A heroic effort by hundreds of townspeople, volunteers and National Guardsmen to hold back the Mississippi River failed Friday — undone by a burrowing muskrat.

The furry rodent dug a hole through the earthen levee in this eastern Missouri community, allowing water to penetrate the floodwall, which failed shortly before dawn.

The fastest sailboat on the Great Lakes, the Earth Voyager, is in Toledo
this week for The Healthy Lakes Healthy Lives Tour. There will be a
festival today and Saturday and a sendoff Saturday night.

The tour is an effort to bring awareness to legislators and candidates
the need to fund the restoration of Lake Erie - it means healthier water
and a healthier economy for Toledo.

Links:

MINNEAPOLIS — Senator John McCain reiterated his opposition to drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday, a day after his statement that he would be willing to “go back and look at it again” sparked speculation among both opponents and proponents of drilling that he might change his mind.

GULFPORT, Ill. - Juli Parks didn't worry when water began creeping up the levee that shields this town of about 750 from the Mississippi River — not even when volunteers began piling on sandbags.

This is the best website I've visited in a long time. I have been reading up and discovering so much about Oil Reserves, Oil Alternatives, Hydrogen, Biofuels, Oilgae, and so forth.

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

Up and down the flood-ravaged river valleys of the upper Midwest, high water has inflicted billions of dollars of damage to homes, businesses, and crops. It has displaced tens of thousands of families and brought immeasurable suffering. It has also brought a new concern for the region’s river towns and cities: Flooding in the Midwest seems to be getting worse.

Throughout Ohio, towns with only handfuls of residents are facing orders to install multi-million dollar wastewater systems. And the bills for the costly sewer systems then run downhill to the village residents.
Such is the case with Continental, a small town southwest of Bowling Green.

Something our zoo is doing to help out the toads on the verge of extinction. Too bad it could not be more glamourous, like the white tiger or the Java rihno or something :)

Something cool:
Out of the frying pan and into the power grid
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9961038-54.html
It is about a company that is making generators for restaurants to create energy and heat water using the old cooking oil. Pretty cool. I have pondered myself converting an older diesel car or truck off of cooking oil and driving that to and from work.

I came home today, apparently the City stopped by, because we had new 96 gallon cans for the automated trash pickup pilot. While I like this, I was surprised because I did not think we were in the test area. I have attached photos and a scan of some of the brochures that were included with the cans. My initial impression was they were large, as tall as our grill.

Erie Township officials hope to replace the city's landfill with a "plasma arc gasified" power plant in the next two years.

SunCrest Energy LLC, a Michigan company, signed a host-community agreement with the township to operate the proposed 100-megawatt plant. The $500 million facility would create 140 jobs.

Pittsburgh, America's "Steel City," snagged a second designation — albeit a negative one — this week when, for the first time, the American Lung Association designated it the most air-polluted U.S. city.