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Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

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Balancing Airport Stormwater and Bird Hazard Management

Friday, February 6th, 2015
Likelihood of striking birds

Airports have historically incorporated BMPs to comply with these requirements, such as stormwater detention ponds and vegetated swales, many of which have exposed open water, vegetation, and other design characteristics that attract wildlife. Research shows that 10 of the 15 bird species most hazardous to aircraft are highly attracted to these types of water features (DeVault et al. 2011)…To address this hazardous wildlife concern, the FAA has established guidelines for airport stormwater management to provide for aircraft safety.

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EPA: Technology Promotes Environmental Protection

Friday, January 30th, 2015

EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center is an environmental forensic center. NEIC scientists work with a variety of technologies to monitor, collect data and analyze pollutants in the environment to better understand the threat to human health and ecosystems. Advanced technologies provide tools for scientists to measure, sometimes in near real-time, pollutants emitted from both large and small sources that can adversely affect entire communities.

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Posted in Environment, Green, Hazardous Waste, Pollution, Show Us Your Infra, Sustainability

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Boston: Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Infrastructure

Thursday, January 29th, 2015
methane fig1

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (PNAS)
Most recent analyses of the environmental impact of natural gas have focused on production, with very sparse information on emissions from distribution and end use. This study quantifies the full seasonal cycle of methane emissions and the fractional contribution of natural gas for the urbanized region centered on Boston. Emissions from natural gas are found to be two to three times larger than predicted by existing inventory methodologies and industry reports. Our findings suggest that natural-gas–consuming regions may be larger sources of methane to the atmosphere than is currently estimated and represent areas of significant resource loss.

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Going Solar in America: Ranking Solar Value to Consumers

Monday, January 26th, 2015
Overall City Rankings

Most Americans are unaware of the true financial value of solar today. Seen by many as a technological luxury, solar energy is not seriously considered as an option by most homeowners in the U.S. However, our analysis shows that, in 46 of America’s 50 largest cities, a fully-financed, typically-sized solar PV system is a better investment than the stock market, and in 42 of these cities, the same system already costs less than energy from a residential customer’s local utility…So why aren’t more Americans investing in solar? There is a clear information gap, and with this report, we intend to open the eyes of average homeowners by showing that solar can generate both significant monthly savings and long-term investment value, and not infrequently, cost less than energy from some of America’s largest electric utilities.

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Infra Views, Private Investment, Sustainability, Technology

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Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters

Thursday, January 15th, 2015
epa1

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) General Information The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) has finalized the science report, Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence. The purpose of this report is to summarize the current scientific understanding about the connectivity […]

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Posted in Environment, Green, Infra Views, Inland Waterways, National, Sustainability

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Wind Energy Saves Consumers Money

Monday, January 12th, 2015
Wind Energy Chart

AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION
Wind energy’s consumer benefits stem from wind energy’s fuel price stability. Wind is one of the few energy sources that offers perfect fuel price stability that can be locked in up front, as wind’s fuel cost will always be zero. For all other major conventional sources of electricity, fuel prices cannot be locked in for the long term and are often set by the spot market. The costs of these fuel price increases and risk are passed directly on to consumers through their electric bills. In contrast, wind energy is more like a fixed-rate mortgage, locking in the fuel price for the life of the power plant.

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Our Energy Tomorrow: The State of American Energy

Friday, January 9th, 2015
hydropower

America now occupies a position of energy leadership that was unthinkable a short time ago. Gone are the days of uncertainty and concern over having the supply of energy we need, when we need it. Today, the United States is the world’s top producer of natural gas, the world’s leading refiner of petroleum products, and very soon could be the leading producer of oil…But this is only part of America’s larger energy story. The United States is in the midst of a new era in domestic energy abundance characterized by rising use of renewable energy and increased oil and natural gas production that is strengthening our economic outlook and enabling America to emerge as a global energy superpower.

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Posted in Carbon Tax, Clean Air, Energy, Environment, Infra Views, Pollution

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Video: How to Build Climate Resilience & Create Jobs

Wednesday, December 31st, 2014

infoDev’s Climate Technology Program (CTP) aims to transform climate change challenges into market opportunities by offering a suite of local and global programs and financing that build in-country and international innovation capacity in cleantech. As a result, the CTP enables developing country entrepreneurs to be more proactively and profitably involved in one of the most promising sectors of the 21st century.

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Posted in Employment, Energy, Environment, Green, Jobs, Show Us Your Infra

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Department of Energy: Top 5 Maps and Interactive Graphics of 2014

Friday, December 26th, 2014
Space-Based Solar Power

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Written by Daniel Wood, Data Integration Specialist Hi all, it’s your friendly neighborhood cartography and interactive graphics engineer here at Energy.gov. It’s been a fun year for us building maps and graphics that we hope have helped you explore new ideas (and age-old ones). Here are the top five maps and interactive […]

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Sustainability, The Infra Blog

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Interactive Map: Where Do Trains Carry Crude Oil?

Thursday, December 18th, 2014
Crude Connections: Where Do Trains Carry Crude Oil?

Rail fans can still spot coal-laden boxcars from coast to coast, but today’s locomotives are increasingly likely to pull tankers full of crude oil. Largely stemming from the fracking boom in North Dakota, crude oil transportation by rail has reached unprecedented heights in past years. In response to a growing number of accidents–some on an apocalyptic scale, as in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec–ProPublica assembled an interactive map to let you know whose tankers carry crude oil, where they’re coming from, and where they’re going.

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