| A new law in New York will make alternative fuels such as biodiesel and E85 (a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline) more readily available to consumers. New York Governor George Pataki on July 31st signed a law prohibiting the "exclusivity" contracts between fuel distributors and gas stations. These contracts limit service stations from purchasing or selling fuels from sources other than the main distributor. Because most major petroleum fuel distributors do not sell E85 or other alternative fuels in New York, service stations bound by these contracts were unable to offer renewable fuels to customers. The fuels covered under the new law include E85, biodiesel, hydrogen, and compressed natural gas. The law should help remove access barriers for the owners of the roughly 200,000 flex-fuel vehicles in New York State. Flex-fuel vehicles can run on either E85 or gasoline, but only a few stations in New York currently offer E85. To further improve access, the New York State Thruway Authority will install renewable fuel pumps at its 27 Thruway travel plazas, the first of which should be operating this fall. See the press releases from Governor Pataki on the exclusivity law and the Thruway plaza pump groundbreaking.  |  This model home from LivingHomes has received the first Platinum rating for a residential building.
Credit: LivingHomes | The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System has made green building practices in the commercial and government sectors more common, and the standards have proven valuable in residential construction. The pilot U.S. LEED for Homes, which the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) started in August 2005, provides guidelines for meeting efficiency and sustainability goals and uses a point system to rate buildings as Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. In August, the first Platinum rating for a residential building was awarded to the homebuilder LivingHomes for its highly efficient model home, which the company touts as a "Zero Energy, Zero Water, Zero Waste, Zero Carbon, Zero Emissions residence." LivingHomes designs each of its houses to achieve at least a Silver LEED certification. See the press releases from LivingHomes and from the USGBC (PDF 148 KB) Download Adobe Reader. As energy costs rise, many consumers are turning to green-building practices to make their homes more energy-efficient, and builders are offering more efficient options. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported in August that its members are using more products that will improve the energy efficiency of homes and lower energy costs for consumers thinking of buying or remodeling a home. These products include renewable technologies such as solar water heaters; ENERGY STAR-rated appliances; and energy-efficient, low-emittance (Low-E) windows. The market is expanding to meet this demand, and the National Association of Home Builders predicts that prices will decrease as more products become available. See the NAHB press release. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced August 30th that $17.5 million in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program Grants have been awarded to 375 recipients in 36 states. Part of the 2002 Farm Bill, the grant program awards funding to agricultural producers, rural small business, U.S. citizens, and legal U.S. residents. Rural Development grant funds can be used to pay up to 25 percent of costs for eligible projects, which include wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydrogen energy projects. Energique Inc., an herbal supplier in Woodbine, Iowa, will use its $31,444 grant for a geothermal heating and cooling system that will provide energy savings of up to 60 percent. Brubaker Farms in Pennsylvania will receive a $223,249 grant to install an anaerobic complete mix digester to produce energy from farm waste. States receiving funding are Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming. See the USDA press release. Panda Ethanol announced on August 29th that it plans to build a fuel-efficient ethanol plant in Sherman County, Texas, that will be capable of producing 100 million gallons of ethanol each year. This new plant will use 1 billion pounds of cattle manure to generate the steam used in ethanol production. Construction of the plant will take approximately 18 months, but the completion date will depend on financing. The plant will be equal in size to Panda's Hereford plant, which will be the largest biomass-fueled ethanol plant in the United States when it goes online in the second half of 2007. See the story about Panda's Hereford plant in the May 25, 2005 issue of EERE Network News and the press release from Panda Energy (PDF 126 KB). Download Adobe Reader. Panda uses manure to produce its ethanol, but SeQuential Biofuels is taking advantage of other renewable energies and energy-efficient technologies to distribute its alternative fuels. SeQuential Biofuels has opened a new fueling station in Eugene, Oregon, that offers biofuel blends approved for use in all gasoline and diesel vehicles. Among the station's design innovations are 244 solar panels that will provide 30 percent to 50 percent of its annual electricity and 4,800 plants installed in a "living roof" to control rainwater runoff and help cool the building. See the press release from SeQuential Biofuels. Pennsylvania has increased its purchase of electricity from renewable sources from 10 percent to 20 percent of the state's usage. The state has modified its agreement with Community Energy Inc. to purchase 200,000 MW of power per year—-of which 60 percent will come from hydroelectric sources, and 40 percent will come from wind power. This new agreement will make Pennsylvania the largest state purchaser of energy from renewable sources. The state is ranked 12th on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Top 25 Green Power Partners List. See the press release from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the EPA's list of Green Power Partners. Four ski resorts are joining Pennsylvania in making commitments to renewable energy. The owners of Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado, Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, and Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire have entered into an agreement with Gunnison County Electric Association to purchase 27 million kilowatt-hours in renewable energy certificates from Sterling Planet. Crystal Mountain in Michigan has also committed to wind energy and will power its chairlifts with wind power purchased from Cherryland Electric, with the goal of eventually powering the entire resort with renewable energy. These resorts follow on the heels of Vail Mountain Resorts, which recently announced that it would buy enough renewable energy certificates to provide 100 percent of its power. See the press releases from Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Crystal Mountain, as well as the Vail Mountain Resorts story from the August 9th issue of EERE Network News. DOE announced on August 29th that it is conducting three-day Industrial Energy Saving Assessments at the Lone Star Steel facility in Lone Star, Texas, and at U.S. Steel's Gary Works facility in Gary, Indiana. Lone Star Steel produces steel tubes and pipes for energy, industrial, and automotive applications. The Gary Works facility operates facilities for steelmaking and finishing and has an annual raw steelmaking capacity of 7.5 million tons. DOE's free, three-day energy assessments are helping major manufacturing facilities identify energy-saving opportunities, primarily by focusing on steam and process heating systems used at the plants. See the DOE press releases on the assessments in Texas and Indiana, as well as the Web sites for Lone Star Steel and U.S. Steel's Gary Works facility. DOE's Energy Saving Teams have completed visits to 33 large federal facilities and are in the process of visiting 200 energy-intensive manufacturing facilities as part of the national "Easy Ways to Save Energy" campaign launched in October 2005. The first 113 industrial Energy Saving Assessments have identified $282 million per year in potential energy cost savings. If implemented, these energy-saving measures could reduce natural gas consumption by more than 31 trillion Btu per year, which is more than the amount used by 430,000 U.S. homes. See the "Easy Ways to Save Energy" Web site. |
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