EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards intends to award one to three cooperative agreements ranging in value from $100,000 to $300,000 to states, tribes, and other parties that submit innovative plans to develop and support woodstove changeout programs. The funding is available under EPA’s voluntary, incentive-based cash rebate effort to encourage owners of old, inefficient woodstoves to replace or “changeout” their stove with a cleaner-burning hearth appliance, such as a stove that burns gas or wood pellets, or an EPA-certified wood stove.

Each eligible application will be evaluated according to criteria such as the plan’s environmental performance on lowering fine particulate matter and toxic air pollution, programmatic capability, and collaboration/partnerships and leveraged resources.

The deadline to submit a proposal is August 21, 2006, 4:00 p.m. EDT.

For questions about the application forms contact Gary Blais at blais.gary@epa.gov.

The full announcement on how to submit forms can be found at http://www.epa.gov/air/grants_funding.html#0609.

For questions about woodstove changeouts and EPA’s wood smoke reduction
initiative contact Larry Brockman at brockman.larry@epa.gov.

In the July issue of EP, Jeffrey Hanneman, Esq., discusses how insurance companies are helping turn contaminated sites turn into solar energy producers.

Read the full article in Environmental Protection magazine.

With concerns that energy use will rapidly increase over the next several years while fossil fuels diminish, Sandia National Laboratories is looking at a new way to meet growing energy challenges — energy surety.

“We have taken our surety know-how and applied it to energy,” said Rush Robinett, senior manager of Sandia’s Energy and Infrastructure Futures Group. “By doing this we are looking at what energy practices can best answer our current needs while not making compromises for future generations.”

Robinett, together with Margie Tatro, director of Energy, Infrastructure & Knowledge Systems Center, and others in the center designed the new model and detailed it in a recently-released internal report, “Toward an Energy Surety Future.”

The full report is available on the web at http://www.prod.sandia.gov/cgi-bin/techlib/access-control.pl/2005/056281.pdf.

Read the full article in Environmental Protection magazine.

A uniform national system of electronics recycling is preferred by stakeholders to a patchwork of differing state systems, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration stated.

In a report released on July 18, the Technology Administration noted that stakeholders face a patchwork of international and state laws that can affect the manufacture, marketing and business models of the U.S. electronics sector, as well as the transaction costs and business models of our retail sector. More than 10 countries have laws on recycling discarded electronics and more are developing legislation. In the United States, five states have banned the disposal of cathode ray tubes from television and computer monitors in landfills. Four states have passed statewide electronics recycling laws, yet each has very different requirements for manufacturers, retailers, local governments and consumers.

The report can be accessed at http://www.technology.gov. Note that it is nearly 300 pages long.

Read the full article in Rachel’s Democracy & Health News.

Many people have given up trying to influence Congress because they feel powerless against Big Money. Instead, they are working to pass state laws. Can this bring lasting success?

Application deadline: Dec 22, 2007

Summary: The Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award is intended to identify outstanding scientists who are in the early, formative stages of their careers and who intend to make a long term career commitment to research in the mission areas of the NIEHS and assist them in launching an innovative research program focusing on problems of environmental exposures and human biology, human pathophysiology and human disease. NIEHS intends to commit $3.6 million in total costs in FY2007 to fund approximately 6 new awards. Applicants may request up to five years and up to $400,000 in direct costs in the first two years and up to $275,000 in years 3-5.

For more information: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-06-007.html

Closing date for applications: Sep 18, 2006   Proposals must be received by the OAR no later than 5 p.m., E.T., September 18, 2006. Proposals submitted after that date will not be considered.

Summary: The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) invites applications for the establishment of a Great Lakes (GL) Cooperative Institute (CI). The Great Lakes are one of the Nation’s most important aquatic resources from an economic, geographic, international, ecological, and societal perspective. U.S. support for Great Lakes activities is described in Executive Order 13340. Activities associated with the proposed Cooperative Institute will provide the necessary capabilities to complement NOAA’s current and planned activities in the region in support of the 5-year Research Plan and the 20-year Research Vision. The CI will be regional in scope and will consist of a group of research institutions with expertise and capabilities in the NOAA priority areas. This institute will facilitate a long-term collaborative environment between NOAA and the recipients within which broad-based research, prototype development, and education and outreach capabilities that focus on the priorities in the Great Lakes region can be developed and sustained.

Download the full announcement.

Read the full story at RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

Due to a $193,000 grant awarded to Southwest Windpower from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority (PEDA), Governor Edward G. Rendell announced that 15 Pennsylvania counties can now install small, advanced- technology wind turbines in highly visible locations at schools, local government buildings and other public facilities.

Read the full story at RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

At the third annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing Conference, held last week in Toronto, DuPont biofuels research manager William D. Provine presented the company’s biofuels strategy and John Pierce, DuPont Bio-Based Technologies vice president, reviewed current global biofuels issues and the future of cellulosic ethanol as a replacement for gasoline transportation fuel.

Read the full story at RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

A schism has recently emerged between the European Parliament and the European Commission regarding funding of renewable energy. In a press briefing this week, European renewable energy industry associations called for the European Commission to acknowledge the European Parliament’s decision to prioritize research in renewable energy.