Officials in Cleveland are moving forward with projects designed to reduce harmful emissions and help the city reach its goal of having 100% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2050. Jason Wood, the city's chief of sustainability, says the latest efforts focus on reducing energy consumption.
About 173 million gallons of wastewater were released from the Piney Point wastewater pond into Florida's Tampa Bay after a recent leak, but the effects on the bay and waterways won't be seen for weeks or even months, according to Maya Burke, assistant director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. "This is double the amount of nitrogen that this basin should see over the entire year, being delivered in two weeks," Burke said.
Many rural communities in the US lack access to public water treatment facilities and are forced to rely on costly on-site options, such as septic systems, according to Catherine Coleman Flowers, founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice. She discusses why rural communities are often overlooked and how their struggle with wastewater treatment intersects with socioeconomic and health challenges.
Water used by Greeley, Colo., passes through the Bellvue Treatment Plant year-round and also through the secondary Boyd Lake Treatment Plant during high-demand periods. This article describes the water treatment process, including how the Bellvue facility uses a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system to keep a close eye on operations at all times.
The Tax Day flood in Houston in 2016 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017 delivered human waste and other pollutants over 100 miles off the coast of Texas and onto coral reefs in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, according to a Rice University study. "It's a jolt to realize that in these extreme events, it's not just the salt marsh or the seagrass that we need to worry about," study co-author Adrienne Correa said.
Dotting the US landscape with wind turbines and solar panels is a key component of President Joe Biden energy transition plan, but the White House plan may fall short of its goals if major investments aren't made in the transmission lines needed to get all that renewable energy from where it is generated to where it needs to go. But the build out of those transmission lines will require the Biden team to solve the three Ps that have long plagued transmission system upgrade ambitions: planning, permitting, and paying for it.
The Biden administration's 2035 target of decarbonizing the power sector won't be reached on the current trajectory, even if the US wind and solar fleet triples in 10 years, according to a report from BNEF. "More renewables will likely be needed to come close to the government's target of zero emissions by 2035," BNEF said.
Green mortgage products that help single-family homeowners pay for energy efficiency upgrades exist, but a revamp of how government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac market those products could drive increased adoption. A new report from RMI outlines key steps the GSEs can take, including rolling bonds that include the retrofitting existing homes into the established green bond market.
RESB Murmurs: The "last mile" is already a common phrase when it comes to delivering energy, so what should we call efforts like the ones outlined in this RMI report? How 'bout getting energy efficiency "across the threshold"? - Sean
Falling battery prices -- with costs plummeting 89% in the past 11 years -- are leading to rising energy storage for increasing uses, with five times more capacity expected to be installed in 2025 than in 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie and US Energy Storage Association. US policymakers are working on investment tax credits and already have created a manufacturing roadmap to speed development and production.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration inked an agreement with developer Ørsted to share data on offshore wind farms. "Having more data sharing and more sampling from the wind developers is going to help us, wherever there are wind development projects, to understand that bigger picture," said Carl Gouldman, director of the integrated ocean observing system program office for NOAA.