Green Options

According to an article in the latest bulletin from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, Prairie Mines & Royalty, Ltd. (PMRL) and Norit Canada are building Canada’s first activated carbon plant. This plant will manufacture activated carbon for a mainly Canadian audience of coal-fired power utilities.

PMRL is a subsidiary company of Sherrit International, the largest producer of thermal coal in Canada (about 90% of total Canadian coal production volume). Additionally, 90% of Sherrit’s coal is sold to nearby power plants located at what are called the “mine-mouth”. Norit on the other hand, is the world’s largest manufacturer of activated carbon and has been in the industry for over 80 years.

It’s fairly obvious why it makes sense for a joint venture building an activated carbon production plant between these two companies, but why build an this type of plant now?

This is a guest post by Claire Fawcett, a former resident of Philadelphia who now works for a non-profit in Oakland, California.

Some envision environmentalists as wealthy, Burkenstock-clad radicals who have no awareness of the “real” issues affecting the average American.  Though this stereotype is inaccurate, it is promoted by environmentally unfriendly politicians to ostracize the green movement. Thus, the majority of the population is left feeling that it doesn’t possess the passion, the time, or the money to participate in preservation.

Luckily for those of us who proclaim ourselves environmentalists, more and more non-profits in Philadelphia are pitching conservation from a different angle to people who may not immediately consider themselves green. The Energy Coordinating Agency, the Partnership CDC, the Enterprise Center, and other community based organizations promote environmental initiatives through proving that conservation isn’t only friendly to the environment but also helps to fight poverty.

Is there really a downside to water conservation? Apparently, yes, if you’re a municipality whose water revenues are plummeting because citizens are taking care to use less water.

Image courtesy of Dschwen at Wikimedia Commons

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released its annual ranking of the top 10 green power utility programs.

Categories include: Total number of participants, participation rate, total green power sales to program participants and the lowest price premium charged for using renewable resources.

These green power options for utility customers may be stimulating growth in the renewable energy sector. In 2005, utilities’ green power sales increased 30 percent from the previous [...]