Tuesday, 04 Feb 2003

Solar, Without Flair

President Bush's proposed budget for the government's 2004 fiscal year doesn't contain much good news for renewable energy advocates: Total research funding for the Energy Department's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs would increase just 0.1 percent. Last summer, though, the feds apparently had enough money to purchase a solar-energy system to heat the presidential pool and spa, among other uses. With little public notice, the government bought 167 solar panels and installed them on the roof of a maintenance building next to the White House. The administration declined to say how much power the panels are generating or how much money they are saving taxpayers. But experts agree that the total output is small: "I think the symbolic nature of this exceeds the actual kilowatts produced," said Michael Paranzino, a spokesperson for the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Quicksilver, Slow Kids

World leaders urgently need to take action to cut down on mercury emissions to protect human health, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme. Mercury is released into the atmosphere naturally from rocks, soils, and volcanic eruptions, but mercury emissions have dramatically increased from pre-industrial levels due to human activity. Seventy percent of all artificial mercury emissions stem from coal-fired power plants. According to the report, mercury causes central nervous system damage, including numbness, loss of balance, fatigue, ringing in the ears, and problems with vision, hearing, and speech; it has also been linked to cardiovascular, thyroid, and digestive troubles. Pregnant women, infants, children, and those whose diet relies heavily on fish are especially at risk. In urging governments to reduce emissions, the UNEP report noted that technologies to do so already exist.

Beam Me Up

The U.S. food industry is increasingly turning to irradiation to kill deadly bacteria such as E. coli and listeria in meat -- a move environmentalists, food-safety advocates, and others say could amount to leaping from the frying pan into the fire. Irradiation uses high-energy electrons, gamma rays, or X-rays to kill bacteria. Critics say the process depletes vitamins and nutrients and leaves chemical byproducts in food. They also deride irradiation as a band-aid solution to the larger problems of filth and disease in the meat-production industry. The American Meat Institute estimates that under 5 percent of the 9 billion pounds of beef sold in the U.S. last year were irradiated, but it also predicts "exponential growth" in use of the technique. SureBeam, the largest beef irradiator in the country, expects to treat between 300 million and 350 million pounds of beef in 2003, up from roughly 15 million pounds last year.

First Down

The parent company of a power plant in eastern Ohio has become the first of 36 energy utilities to be tried for causing smog and health problems in the Northeast. In a lawsuit that began yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department accused FirstEnergy Corporation of significantly upgrading its W.H. Sammis plant without installing new pollution controls, as required by the New Source Review rules of the federal Clean Air Act. FirstEnergy and the other utilities that stand accused by the feds say they only conducted routine maintenance on their plants, not major improvements, and therefore were not required to update pollution-control equipment.