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Clean Energy In the NewsBay City Times - 11/16/2006
Candidates with energy message win election (new window)Candidates who supported a ''New Energy Future'' for Michigan were big winners in last week's mid-term elections. Environment Michigan, an arm of the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan, asked candidates to endorse the platform, which aims to move Michigan ''beyond fossil fuels and toward a cleaner and more secure energy future.'' Thirty-two candidates who signed on won re-election, including 31st District Sen. Jim Barcia, D-Bay City. The platform includes supporting a requirement that at least 25 percent of the state's electricity come from ''homegrown, renewable clean energy sources'' by 2025. For more info, see environmentmichigan.org. On a related note, Noble Environmental Power says it plans to erect all 32 of its windmills in Bingham Township near Ubly come spring. The company postponed plans for the project earlier this year, then said it would build only seven turbines to start, but interconnection problems are expected to be ironed out to allow for the full build, company officials tell the Huron Daily Tribune. There were fewer wildfires in Michigan this year than in 2005. But the number of acres burned almost doubled, to 8,161 acres, the Michigan Interagency Wildlife Protection Association reports. The most cited cause was careless debris burning, which accounted for 34 percent of all fires, including an April blaze near Hughes Lake in Oscoda County that charred close to 6,000 acres. An Italian company has invented smog-eating cement.
Business Week reports that the technology, called TX Active, is being used with success in Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere. The active agent, a blend of titanium dioxide, can be incorporated into cement, mortar, paints and plaster. In the presence of light, the agent breaks down air pollutants into less harmful compounds through a natural chemical process called photocatalysis. A street near Milan with average traffic of 1,000 cars per hour saw a 60 percent reduction in nitric oxides after it was repaved with the compound, the company says. Developers say the technology shouldn't replace efforts to curb pollution, but it can magnify their effects. The stuff costs about a third more to use in cement, but much less to use in paint and plaster. - Jeff Kart covers the environment and politics for The Times. He can be reached at 894-9639 or by e-mail at jkart@bc-times.com. |