Day: April 26, 2017

Business and Innovation in Food Waste

Read the full story at Triple Pundit.

Food that is thrown away winds up in landfills where it gives off methane, a greenhouse gas with a warming potential 23 times that of carbon dioxide. Food waste is a huge problem in the U.S. where 63 million tons of food are tossed every year at a cost of $218 billion. That wasted food uses 20 percent of America’s fresh water, fertilizer, cropland and landfill space.

The nonprofit organization ReFED released two new tools to help prove food waste reduction creates business opportunities and jobs, and to demonstrate the potential to simplify food date labeling.

ReFED’s Innovator Database focuses on startups founded around food waste innovation. It tracks over 400 commercial and nonprofit organizations that combat food waste while creating over 2,000 jobs, more than 200 of which have been founded in the last five years…

ReFED’s Policy Finder focuses on government and identifies opportunities to simplify state and federal food labeling regulations, which save consumers and businesses over $29 billion a year.

College Dorms May Contain High Levels of Toxins

Read the full story in R&D Magazine.

Parents have enough to worry about when sending their 18-year-old freshman off to college, but a new study shows some dormitories may contain high levels of toxic flame retardants.

The Silent Spring study, which looked at two U.S. college campuses in the northeast, showed that dust samples taken in dorms contain carcinogens, hormone disruptors and chemicals from dozens of flame retardants.

EPA’s Office of Water Seeking Feedback on Reducing Regulatory Burden

Received via e-mail. Please let the Office of Water know what you think about rolling back regulations that protect our water.

Consistent with Executive Order 13777, EPA is seeking public input on existing regulations that could be repealed, replaced or modified to make them less burdensome.

As a part of this effort, we will be accepting written public comments through May 15, 2017, at docket EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190. In addition, EPA’s Office of Water (OW) will host a public listening session to obtain additional feedback on water regulatory actions on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. Please visit: www.epa.gov/aboutepa/office-water-feedback-reducing-regulatory-burden or see below for details.

Background

On February 24, 2017, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 13777 on Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda. The EO establishes the, “policy of the United States to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people”. Among other things, it requires each agency to create a Regulatory Reform Task Force to evaluate existing regulations and to identify regulations that could be repealed, replaced or modified to make them less burdensome.
As part of implementing the EO, OW will be hosting a public listening session to solicit proposals for OW regulations that could be repealed, replaced, or modified to make them less burdensome. The focus of this listening session will be on water actions only.

Public Listening Session by Telephone and Web Conference
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT

The session will start with brief remarks from EPA and the remainder of the session will be dedicated to listening to public comments. There are several ways to join the session:

  • To join the teleconference: 150 telephone lines are set aside for people who want to speak for one to two minutes. These 150 telephone lines will be distributed randomly among those who pre-register. We expect our three hour conference will allow for about 70 to 80 persons to speak. You must pre-register in advance to be randomly selected for one of these telephone lines at: https://reducing_regulatory_burden_epa_officeofwater.eventbrite.com. Registration closes April 28, 2017 @ 12:00 pm EDT. If selected, registrants from this list will receive information about how to participate, along with a call in number. The audio of the session will be transcribed and will be submitted to the docket.
  • To join the web conference: http://epawebconferencing.acms.com/owregulatoryforums/. You may sign in 15 minutes before the web conference starts. The online meeting room can accommodate 1,000 participants. Slots will be allotted on a first come first serve basis. Participants in the web session will be able to listen to a broadcast of speakers from the teleconference line through their computers, and will be able to submit written comments. Transcripts of all written comments will be submitted to the docket. For questions about this process, please contact: owregulatoryreform@epa.gov
  • If you miss the meeting, or do not have the opportunity to speak on the call, please submit your input to the EPA-wide docket (docket number: EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190). OW will give equal consideration to input provided through any of the methods above.
  • For more information on upcoming public engagement opportunities offered by other EPA offices please visit: https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/regulatory-reform.

Submitting Comments and/or Proposals to the Docket

The docket will be open for submitting recommendations until May 15, 2017. For those wishing to submit recommendations online, visit Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190 at Regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov.
To allow us to more effectively evaluate your suggestions, the Agency is requesting comments include:

  • Supporting data or other information such as cost information;
  • Provide a Federal Register (FR) or Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) citation when referencing a specific regulation;
  • Provide specific suggestions regarding repeal, replacement, or modification.

The EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (e.g., audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all the points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission (e.g., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system).

For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit the Commenting on EPA Dockets web page for more information.

Air Force snubs Michigan law on tainted well fixes

Read the full story in the Detroit Free Press.

Oscoda area residents whose wells are affected by groundwater contamination from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base have been urged by state and local public health officials to seek an alternative water supply. And a new Michigan law that took effect in January would make the U.S. Air Force responsible for covering the cost of those alternative water supplies.

But Air Force officials will not comply with the new law, Public Act 545, said Paul Carroll, the Air Force’s environmental coordinator for Wurtsmith, at a public forum on the contamination issue in Oscoda on Tuesday.

In-flight, on-demand hydrogen production could mean ‘greener’ aircraft

Read the full story in Science Daily.

Technion researchers have developed a safe and efficient way to produce hydrogen on board a plane in flight. Using aluminum particles and water (fresh or waste), the technology could one day help meet in-flight energy needs on commercial aircraft.

Green Report on Status of Environmental Agency Budgets

Download the document.

State environmental agencies operate the majority of federally delegated and authorized programs and manage funds to implement related environmental regulations. In July 2016, ECOS sought state environmental agency budget data (EAB) for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. ECOS received 48 responses.

This ECOS Green Report provides information on state EABs for fiscal years (FY) 2013, FY2014 and FY2015, and focuses on changes and trends in these budgets, including analysis of changes to the three main funding sources: state general funds, federal funding, and fees or other sources.