• Newly Sworn Interior Secretary Kempthorne Picks Up the Reins
  
• Federal Agencies Get Ready for 2006 Hurricane Season
  
• New Mexico Governor Petitions to Protect 1.7 Million Roadless Acres
  
• Maersk Line to Use Cleaner Marine Fuels at California Ports
  
• How to Run a Green Convention
  
• Staten Island Bluebelt Project Wins Architectural Design Award
  
• Biodiverse Plant Ecosystems Healthier, More Productive
  

Newly Sworn Interior Secretary Kempthorne Picks Up the Reins

Federal Agencies Get Ready for 2006 Hurricane Season

Kevin Kolevar, director of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), said the agency has strengthened communications, improved modeling systems and coordinated overall reports to help bring power back online as quickly as possible after a hurricane.

The DOE has set up a toll-free hotline for the 2006 hurricane season which will allow state and local leaders and representatives from the energy industry to improve communications with DOE during emergencies.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been strengthening its response capacity since the disastrous hurricane season in 2005.

FEMA has eight logistics centers in the continental United States and three off shore storage sites. These centers support first responders with all the equipment needed to manage an emergency situation. They also providing life-saving and life-sustaining resources to states that need them for disaster victims.

The centers are located near Atlanta, Georgia; Berryville, Virginia; Cumberland, Maryland; Frederick, Maryland; Ft. Worth, Texas; and San Jose, California. The three offshore storage sites are located in Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

With access to 50 additional cache storage facilities used by FEMA’s National Disaster Medical System to store medical supplies and equipment across the country and 252 Pre-Positioned Disaster Supplies containers located in logistics centers and 14 states, officials say FEMA is able to expedite the shipment of emergency commodities to any disaster in the U.S. or its territories.

Most of the centers provide resources such as blankets, meals ready-to-eat (MRE’s)/Emergency Meals, bottled water, generators, cots, blankets, tarps, and Blue Roof sheeting all of which can be distributed through state and county distribution points in time of need.

In addition, FEMA has two centers that provide specialized resources. The Berryville, Virginia center stores and maintains computer equipment and electronics for disaster field office operations and the Frederick, Maryland, center provides emergency medical supplies and equipment for emergency medical operations in affected areas.

New Mexico Governor Petitions to Protect 1.7 Million Roadless Acres

Maersk Line to Use Cleaner Marine Fuels at California Ports

The company announced Friday that the 10 vessels per week calling on the Ports of Los Angeles and Oakland will burn low-sulfur marine distillate fuel instead of dirty bunker oil in all main and auxiliary engines - exceeding new state regulations that will go into effect in January 2007.

The first ship switched over in March 2006.

"Maersk's bold action marks the dawn of a new world order for shipping, where operating on cleaner fuels becomes standard practice," said Teri Shore, clean vessels campaign director for Bluewater Network, a division of Friends of the Earth.

Bluewater Network has advocated for cleaner ship fuels for more than five years.

"Maersk is showing that shippers can clean up their smokestacks now and reduce human harm from diesel exhaust while safely delivering goods to port," said Shore. "The company deserves high praise for this commitment."

Until now, some maritime industry lobbyists have claimed that switching from bunker fuels to lighter marine fuels would cause ship engines to fail.

When Bluewater Network introduced legislation requiring ships to switch to cleaner marine fuels in California three years ago, shipping executives claimed it was unsafe and that ships would blow up if they were forced to change fuel types.

Since then, the California Air Resources Board passed a regulation that requires all ships to use marine distillate fuels in auxiliary engines within 24 nautical miles of the coast beginning in January 2007. But main engines were left out of the rule.

Shore says using the cleaner fuel will reduce emissions of cancer-causing diesel particulate matter by 73 percent. Sulfur oxides emissions that contribute to smog will be reduced 90 percent. Smog forming nitrogen oxides will be reduced 10 percent. The company is also considering additional air pollution controls to further cut smog-forming gases.

How to Run a Green Convention

BOSTON, Massachusetts, May 31, 2006 (ENS) - Renewable energy, fuel cells, carbon emissions offsets, recycling of construction materials and waste paper - all these measures and more make for environmentally friendly political conventions.

The organization that greened both Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 2004 Tuesday published the details of how it was done so other groups can do the same for their own conventions.

The Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), based in Boston, has posted the 104-page case study online at: www.cerc04.org.

The study presents the story of CERC's work in Boston and New York to make both national party conventions climate neutral and sustainable.

“The purpose of the case study is to support planners of future political conventions and other events to incorporate environmental best practices,” said CERC Executive Director Dan Ruben. “I believe this document will be a great resource for event organizers, and an important addition to the green meeting literature.”

CERC became a coalition of more than 50 organizations and 100 individuals. It carried out many projects, provided advice to city and party officials and businesses, and executed a media campaign to educate delegates and the public about environmentally friendly practices.

For its efforts, CERC was honored with two awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and with the international Environmentally Responsible Meetings Award that was presented by IMEX, the international meetings and incentive travel industry conference, and the Green Meeting Industry Council.

Among the more than two dozen projects carried out by CERC and its partners at the conventions were:

Renewable energy: CERC purchased and acquired from wind farms, a small-scale hydroelectric dam, and a landfill gas facility enough electricity to offset power usage at Boston’s Fleet Center and New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Fuel cell demonstration: A 250-kilowatt fuel cell provided much of the power for the media pavilion in Boston.

Carbon emission offsets: 122,100 greenhouse gas credits were acquired to offset carbon emissions and air pollution resulting from travel by convention-goers from their home states to and from Boston and New York.

Staten Island Bluebelt Project Wins Architectural Design Award

NEW YORK, New York, May 31, 2006 (ENS) - The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is a winner of the American Institute of Architects 2006 Staten Island architectural design award in the Landscape Architecture division for its Wolf Pond Bluebelt project.

The Staten Island Bluebelt program provides stormwater management for about one-third of Staten Island’s land area. The program preserves natural drainage corridors, called Bluebelts, including streams, ponds, and other wetland areas.

Commissioner Emily Lloyd said, “Not only has DEP’s implementation of Bluebelt projects reduced the need to construct expensive stormwater infrastructure on the Island, but it has provided environmental enhancements for Staten Islanders, many of whom have come together to assist us in maintaining the pristine landscape of the Bluebelt."

DEP constructed two extended holding basins and a weir to manage storm water and improve flood control in the 589 acre Wolfe’s Pond watershed. These enhancements included stream restoration, renewal of open spaces and protection for Staten Island’s wildlife habitats.

The Wolfe Pond Bluebelt was selected by a jury composed of architects and a member of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce and the Staten Island Museum. This project marks the completion of the third Bluebelt Watershed on Staten Island. The first two were the Blue Heron and Richmond Creek watersheds, completed in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

"We are very proud of our talented engineers and architects who have designed this unique water-management program," said Lloyd. "We are equally pleased that our Bluebelt program is serving as model for other municipal water facilities who see the positive results in using wetlands as natural corridors to improve drainage and maintain natural habitats.”

Preservation of these wetland systems allows them to perform their functions of conveying, storing, and filtering stormwater. In addition, the Bluebelts provide important community open spaces and wildlife habitats.

Lloyd says the Bluebelt program saves tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure costs when compared to providing conventional storm sewers for the same land area, demonstrating how wetland preservation can be economically prudent and environmentally responsible.

Biodiverse Plant Ecosystems Healthier, More Productive

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, May 31, 2006 (ENS) - Ecosystems containing many different plant species are more productive and better able to withstand and recover from climate extremes, pests and disease over long periods, than ecosystems with only one species, according to a newly published research study conducted over a 12 year period.

It is the first experiment to gather enough data over a sufficient time and in a controlled environment to confirm a 50 year long scientific debate about whether a greater diversity of species stabilizes ecosystems.

The findings, published in this week's issue of the journal "Nature," are the result of 12 years of experiments conducted by David Tilman, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues Peter Reich of the University of Minnesota and Johannes Knops of the University of Nebraska.

The research was conducted at the Cedar Creek Long-Term Ecological Research site, one of 26 such National Science Foundation sites.

The research was carried out in 168 plots. Each plot was randomly planted with one to 16 perennial grasses and other prairie plants.

"This study clearly demonstrates that stability of a plant community through time increases as species richness goes up," said Martyn Caldwell, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. "Only a long-term field experiment can provide this information."

"Diverse prairie grasslands are 240 percent more productive than grasslands with a single prairie species," Tilman said. "That's a huge advantage."

"Biomass from diverse prairies can, for example, be used to make biofuels without the need for annual tilling, fertilizers and pesticides, which require energy and pollute the environment," Tilmans said. "Because they are perennials, you can plant a prairie once and mow it for biomass every fall, essentially forever."

Biodiversity of global ecosystems has decreased as global population has increased, said Tilman, because diverse ecosystems such as forests and prairies have been cleared to make way for agricultural fields, buildings and roads.

A return to biodiversity may prove to be the key, Tilman and his colleagues believe, to meeting energy needs for the growing number of people on the planet and for restoring global ecosystems.