Green Options

Last week, we took a look at San Diego’s revolutionary solar plan, which will allow residents to pay for solar panels through property tax bills over a 20 year period. But don’t pack your bags for Southern California just yet. Annapolis, MD has a similar plan , dubbed the Annapolis (EZ) Energy Zone Program.

A team of US and Korean scientists have announced a major breakthrough in energy storage that could pave the way to a new generation of ultra-efficient electric cars, mobile phones and laptops.

The prototype capacitor, much more powerful than exisiting batteries, is capable of storing power at the same massive density as a supercapacitor (an incredible 10 billion tiny capacitors in every square centimetre), but releasing it as quickly as the fastest electrostatic capacitors.

Speaking about the invention, Gary Rubloff of the University of Maryland said, “Our primary target [for this technology] is as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars, but there are many [potential] small scale applications, [including] better electrical storage systems for cellphones or laptops.”

The Maryland Department of the Environment is reporting a coal ash spill, this time on the Potomac River.

[Creative Commons photo by Mikko Itälahti]

How many spills does this make in the past few months alone? There was the devastating TVA spill in Tennessee, the January spill in Alabama, and now this. Three spills in three months is a pretty terrible track record that underscores our need to move beyond coal as a primary fuel source.

The Maryland Department of the Environment press release said:

While national policies have left a lot to be desired regarding food safety, states have taken a lot of steps forward to combat food issues. Consider the state and city bans on transfats, New York’s mandate for calorie labeling on fast food menus. Even as the FDA and USDA fail, for many reasons, to step up to protect consumers, individual states are taking action and leading the charge.

Maryland is the next notable state taking action. Two bills have currently been proposed to ban the use of controversial food dyes in the wake of two British studies (PDF) that show some of the dyes may be linked to hyperactivity and behavior problems in children. One of the bills would mandate labeling on the food packages that contain the dyes, and give industry until 2012 to stop using them. The other bill specifically prohibits schools from purchasing, providing and serving any food item that contains the dyes by 2010.

Learn where you can lookup common foods to see which have these dyes after the jump.

Rob Gilchrist, a former activist, had spied on 9 different peaceful environment and animal welfare groups over the past 10 years before his girlfriend discovered suspicious emails, New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times reported in a 3,200-word expose today.

“Protests are part of a healthy democracy,” said Rochelle Rees, Gilchrist’s girlfriend. “The police are supposed to be protecting that but instead they are inhibiting it. It’s foolish of them since stomping on peaceful protest is the best way to make people more extreme and push them underground.”

The harvest of soft shell and peeler blue crabs in Chesapeake Bay has been declared a commercial fishery failure by U.S. Government. The federal declaration is an important step in providing economic assistance to the communities reliant upon crab production.

Westport, Connecticut, recently joined a small but growing number of communities to ban the use of free plastic shopping bags within its borders. The new ordinance, which goes into effect early next year, would impose a $150 fine on any store that offers such bags.

WestportNow.com reports that citizens attending the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) vote on the ban overwhelmingly supported the measure. The RTM eventually voted 26 to 5 (with one abstention) in favor of the ordinance, and also rejected a proposal that would have made the ban effective only through Sept. 19 of next year.

It’s refreshing that just a few hours of online browsing can open your eyes to so many creative, innovative and hard-working green groups across the country. The only downside is that there are so many good individuals and organizations out there, it’s hard to write an in-depth profile of each of them. So I’m introducing a new feature today called “Picks of the Week,” a roundup of some of the most outstanding green initiatives I’ve discovered over the past seven days.

So here we go:

Representative Wayne T. Gilchrest, ousted last February by State Senator Andy Harris, confirmed he is jumping party lines in support of Democratic nominee Frank Kratovil. Considered to be somewhat of a liberal Republican, Gilchrest held the deep-red Maryland seat for an amazing nine terms. His district supported Bush’s relection by 60-percent.

In 2007, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) awarded Gilchrest with a meek environmental score of 60-percent. Low as it may be, consider that most of the [...]

While the greening efforts of U.S. colleges and universities seem to capture the most media attention, elementary schools across the country are no slouches when it comes to eco-action.

Look at what’s happening at some of these schools:

Editor’s note: Eco-Libris‘ partnerships with independent bookstores gives us some great insights into how local shops are going green around the US. Today, they take a look at Clarksburg, Maryland’s Novel Places. This post was originally published on Sunday, June 1, 2008.

Another bookseller has joined the growing list of bookstores that participate in Eco-Libris bookstores program. This time we’re happy to present you with Novel Places of Clarksburg, MD.

Novel Places started 2 years ago by Patrick Darby, who has almost 30 years experience in book retail. The store started as an antiquarian online store, but recently, new titles and accessories were added. The rekindled Literary Society restarted by Patrick last year is a book group by today’s standards, which help promote the store. Patrick tries to emulate the history of the Society (which dates back to 1833!) by inviting authors to read and talk about their books. The plan is to include unpublished authors to get feedback on their creations.

The books offered by Novel Places can also be found at Mayorga Coffee (23207 Stringtown Road Clarksburg, MD). The online store offers a community forum to discuss issues and books. Patrick says he designed it the way he would want his brick and mortar store to be like - a place where people can come and relax by a fire or in a comfy chair for conversation, reading, and purchasing a good book. And now there’s also going to be there the opportunity to plant a tree with every book you purchased with Eco-Libris. Customers will be receiving our sticker (made of recycled paper) saying “one tree planted for this book” with every new book purchased at Novel Places.