This blog was written by SACE intern Rachel Mountain and Natalie Mims. Beginning January 1, 2012, the federal government is implementing a lighting standard that requires incandescent bulbs to be at least 30% more efficient, resulting in a $7 billion reduction in consumer energy bills by 2020. Further, the lighting efficiency standard will reduce energy [...]
Not everybody gets the opportunity to watch a crane lift people 100 feet in the air and call it work. I recently had such an opportunity on a trip to Sewanee, Tennessee when two Duck River Electric Membership Corporation employees were hoisted 100 feet in the air to install wind measurement equipment on a communications [...]
A settlement announced today between TVA, the EPA and several states and public interest organizations is a historic step towards ending our reliance on dirty coal and moving the Valley towards a cleaner, brighter energy future. The settlement, announced at this morning’s meeting of TVA’s Board of Directors, settles lawsuits brought more than a decade [...]
After over a month downplaying the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, officials finally upgraded the disaster to a level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Previously, the ranking was 5, meaning “accident with wider consequences.” Before now, Chernobyl was the only accident rated 7, which is the highest on the [...]
Place your Bets If you were going to spend (bet) $8 billion on two nuclear reactors, would you invest in a nuclear reactor design with the following history? They were designed in the late 1960s. Their design has never received a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) operating license. Only four reactors of this design were [...]
Communities where coal plants are proposed, like Sandersville, GA often feel divided between protecting their environmental health and creating jobs. Now, with the release of a new report by the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies, they are armed with a new tool to assess job claims that may be too good to be true. The [...]
“Diesel exhaust is among the substances that may pose the greatest risk to the U.S. population.” That’s the latest statement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who recently released their updated National Toxics Assessment (NATA). The quote also encompasses the message that we and other members of the Diesel Clean-Up Campaign from around the country [...]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still working to develop a program for safely handling coal ash, the industrial waste that is left behind after coal is burned for energy production. Coal ash is the second largest industrial waste stream in the United States, it contains numerous toxins such as arsenic, chromium, mercury, selenium and [...]
Tomorrow marks four weeks since the the deadly earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. Over 12,000 people are reported dead, nearly 15,000 are still missing, and more than 160,000 are still displaced from their homes. In breaking news, a new tsunami warning was issued for north-east Japan after a 7.1 earthquake hit off the east coast [...]
Post-Vote Update: On Wednesday, April 6, the Senate rejected all 4 amendments to a Small Business Bill (S. 493) that would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to control carbon pollution through the Clean Air Act. On Thursday, April 7, the House voted on the “Dirty Air Act,” H.R. 910, which would have done [...]
