Since 2001 environmental and fisher groups have been before the courts in the US seeking a ban on use of certain organophosphate pesticides, chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon, in areas where they might imperil endangered salmon. This week, a US Federal Court judge ruled in favour of the environmental groups and against a pesticide industry coalition led by Dow AgroSciences, LLC.

As a result, and subject to any appeal, the US Environmental Protection Agency, which has been dragging its feet on the issue, will be required to prohibit ground application of these chemicals within 500 feet and aerial application within 1,000 feet of salmon habitat in four West Coast states.

The National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a US federal government agency, filed more than 20,000 pages of evidence in the case. The judge’s decision, a 32 page summary, can be found at http://media.oregonlive.com/environment_impact/other/SalmonRuling.pdf

While this decision was based on the adequacy of the technical assessment carried out by NMFS, there is little doubt that many activists will view it as a victory for the environment in general, and endangered species in particular, over the pesticide industry. Victories often serve to embolden activist environmentalists.

A brief summary of the decision can be found at http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/10/federal_judge_backs_rules_that.html

According to a GFK Roper Consulting Green Gauge study, the American public is much better informed about the environment than Tea Party Republican politicians. The survey indicates that knowledge about the environment is rising and that 70 per cent now claim to know a lot or a fair amount about environmental issues and problems, up from about fifty per cent during the mid-1990’s.

In spite of rising economic concerns, Americans still want companies to go green. About three in four (74%) agree ―a manufacturer that reduces the environmental impact of its production process and products is making a smart business decision.

A slight majority are comfortable with a trade-off between environmental protection and economic development, with 52% agreeing that some pollution is inevitable if we are going to continue to make improvements in our standard of living.

Interestingly, Americans say that both financial incentives (49% say this is a major influence) and penalties (49%) have a greater influence on their green behavior than pressure from family, friends and government – with celebrities having the least reported impact on green behavior.

A summary of the report, somewhat incomplete in GallonDaily’s opinion, and a link to the full report, with many other interesting statistics, can be found at http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/11/prweb8926002.htm

According to a report released by Mayor Boris Johnson, the green economy in London, UK, is growing strongly despite the economic downturn. The low carbon and green economy sector has been growing by four per cent per year and currently includes 9,000 companies employing 160,000 people. The sales value of the sector is estimated to have been at least £23 billion ($36 billion CDN) in 2009-10.

The largest share of the green economy is in carbon finance, with nearly 2,000 companies employing over 23,000 people and worth nearly £6billion. Other strengths are reported to be ground source heat pumps, local heat networks and combined heat and power plants, solar/photovoltaics, and waste management.

The Mayor’s press release is at http://london.gov.uk/media/press_releases_mayoral/new-figures-show-green-economy-london-vibrant-and-bucking-downturn

A summary of the report by Innovas Solutions Ltd. can be downloaded from http://www.london.gov.uk/publication/london-low-carbon-market-snapshot-2011

A description of London’s climate change mitigation and energy strategy is available at http://www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/mayor/publication/climate-change-mitigation-energy-strategy

London’s Mayor Boris Johnson is a Conservative politician first elected to the House of Commons in 2001 and subsequently elected Mayor of London in 2008. London’s population is estimated at about 7.8 million and the economy generates more than $400 billion annually.

A poll released last week by Raw Materials Company, a leading battery recycler, states that only 37 per cent of Canadians properly dispose of their used batteries. The poll, conducted by Angus Reid, states that 87 per cent of respondents reported awareness of the detrimental effects improperly disposed batteries have on the environment, a mere 28 per cent currently utilize recycling programs, with an additional 11 per cent reporting to a hazardous waste centre.

GallonDaily’s take is that, as is often the case with polls about the environment, the rate of participation in battery recycling is significantly overstated by the Angus Reid poll. People have a very strong tendency to tell pollsters what they know they should be doing, not what they are actually doing. RMC states that Environment Canada estimates that only 5 only per cent single-use, disposable of batteries in Canada were properly disposed of in 2007. That is a more credible number.

GallonDaily’s perspective is that industry efforts to encourage household dry cell battery recycling are, to put it mildly, woefully inadequate. The result of the inadequate effort is likely to be government intervention and regulation within two or three years. With the collapse of support for ecofee based systems in Ontario, regulation may well place a significant additional burden on battery brandowners and retailers.

The RMC report, with more data and analysis,  is at http://www.rawmaterials.com/rss-news-feed/Raw-Materials-Company-Battery-Recycling-News/More-than-60-per-cent-1086/

For several years environmental groups have focused on BPA as the bad actor in plastics. Governments have responded with limited regulations and all kinds of products are now labeled as BPA-free. New research published earlier this year in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, suggests that many plastics which are BPA-free may still exhibit estrogenic (hormone disrupting) activity. The researchers report that most of the more than 500 plastic products that they tested released substances having detectable estrogenic activity when subject to somewhat aggressive testing. These somewhat more aggressive tests include exposure to UV light, microwave radiation, boiling water, or dishwashing.

These results, if confirmed, have several implications for consumer product manufacturers and brandowners. BPA-free labels on products that use plastics other than polycarbonate might become an inappropriate and possibly illegal label because they imply to the consumer that the product is free of estrogenic activity when the replacement material is also estrogenically active. Replacement materials may also come under criticism or regulation in some jurisdictions. Consumers might well be advised not to use some of the suspect materials in microwave ovens, dishwashers,  or with boiling water.

The research has been criticized by the American Chemistry Council, an industry organization, and some have noted that the lead researchers are associated with a company which produces plastics claimed to be free of estrogenic activity. Nevertheless, it seems likely that at least some of the findings will reinforced in future as more research focuses attention on the estrogenic activity of some BPA-free plastic materials.

The article, as well as the ACC criticism and the author response, is freely available at http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.1003220#f1

The Attorney General of California has filed what she calls a “greenwashing” lawsuit against one plastics company and two bottlers for misleading advertising over claims that plastic bottles are “100 percent biodegradable and recyclable.” Under California law, it is illegal to label a plastic food or beverage container as biodegradable. The AG states that “Californians are committed to recycling and protecting the environment, but these efforts are undermined by the false and misleading claims these companies make when they wrongly advertise their products as ‘biodegradable.”

The plastic resin that is subject to the charges is produced by ENSO Plastics LLC and the bottled water products are from Balance and AquaMantra. The AG states that “Consumers may buy these defendants’ bottles and either dispose of them incorrectly, on the assumption that they will biodegrade quickly, when in fact they will simply take up space in landfills, or they will try to recycle them, creating problems and costs for recyclers.” Her press release also states that a recent Gallup poll found that 76 percent of Americans buy products specifically because of their perception the product is better for the environment.

In 2008, the California Legislature banned the use of words like “biodegradable,” “degradable,” or “decomposable” in the labeling of plastic food or beverage containers. Senate Bill 567, signed into law by the Governor this year, will expand that law to all plastic products beginning in 2013.

Although California’s legislation banning use of these terms is unique in the US, similar restrictions on the use of these terms exist in other US and state legislation and regulation and in Canada’s environmental labeling requirements. Similar charges could be laid in Canada.

Somewhat similar charges were brought against Mobil Oil Corp. in 1993 challenging degradability and landfill benefit claims for Hefty Degradable plastic trash bags. These claims were settled by consent order and the product in question was withdrawn from the market.

The California Attorney General’s announcement of the charges can be found at http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2577  Examples of the claims that are the subject of the charges can be found on the ENSO website at http://www.ensobottles.com/

The State of California has adopted a cap and trade program for greenhouse gas emissions that will begin to come into force in 2013. The first phase beginning in 2013 will include all major industrial sources along with electricity utilities. The second phase, beginning in 2015, will include  distributors of transportation fuels, natural gas and other fuels. The two phases will cover 360 companies with 600 major greenhouse gas emitting facilities.

Allowances will be distributed in 2013 – 2014 to all companies covered by the program. An allowance auction will be conducted for a smaller number of allowances for companies that require more than they are granted. Emitters will have to turn in enough allowances to cover their annual emissions. Eight percent of a company’s emissions can be covered using credits from certified  offset projects. Companies with more allowances than they require will be able to sell the excess to companies that have insufficient.

The program is designed to reduce emissions by 15% by 2020 compared to the ‘business-as-usual’ level.

It is likely to set a model for cap and trade programs introduced by other jurisdictions, particularly those that have joined the Western Climate Initiative, which includes British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

More details are available at http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/newsrelease.php?id=245 . California anticipates that trading of allowances between jurisdictions with similar will be possible.

One of the items of unfinished business on the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste was the proposal to ban exports of hazwaste from developed countries to developing countries, whether for disposal or recycling. Some countries, including Canada, have previously sought to block or delay implementation of that section of the Convention.

Last week the Convention of the Parties to the Basel Convention addressed the Ban proposal, agreeing that such movement of hazardous wastes should be prohibited as soon as 17 more countries ratify that section of the Convention. The ban on movement of hazardous wastes from developed to developing country governments will be automatic unless the developing country involved explicitly agrees to accept a type of waste and the Secretariat of the Convention concurs.

It is likely that the Ban will come into force in five to ten years. Companies which produce hazardous wastes, including end of life ships, electronics, and other wastes including hazardous elements, that are currently being shipped to non-OECD countries should plan accordingly.

Details of the amendment are at http://www.basel.int/Implementation/LegalMatters/BanAmendment/tabid/1484/Default.aspxand and of the ratification requirements  in IISD Linkages at http://www.iisd.ca/basel/cop10/21oct.html

Investment in onshore and offshore wind turbines will reach approximately $145 billion between 2011 and 2017, according to a new report from respected market research firm Pike Research.

In Canada 504 MW was installed in 2008, 969 MW in 2009, and 690 MW in 2010. Corresponding figures for North America as a whole were 8.9 GW in 2008, 10.9 GW in 2009 and 5.8 GW in 2010. Pike Research projects a doubling of total installed capacity in North America from approximately 53,000 megawatts in 2011 to almost 126,000 megawatts by 2017. That equates to a record average annual installation of more than 12.1 GW continent wide.

Of particular interest to GallonDaily is a Wind Energy SWOT analysis contained in the summary (free) version of the Pike Research report. While the opportunity is clearly shown to be high, the Threats to the wind energy industry are reported to include such matters as:

• Policy shifts (primarily in the United States) that make wind less economically competitive with fossil fuels
• Double-dip recession and/or return of credit freeze prevents projects from being developed
• Offshore wind deemed too difficult or too expensive
• Natural gas prices stay at historic lows
• Public loses concern about carbon emissions, making it more difficult to maintain supportive policies and incentives

The full report can be purchased from Pike Research at http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/wind-energy-outlook-for-north-america (warning: not cheap!). An Executive Summary is available at the same location in return for a registration – free.

Chlorine, the poison gas of the First World War, was involved in 181 accidents in the United States in 2009 alone, resulting in 56 injuries, according to a special report from the environmental journalism ngo Environmental Health News. The article reports that there have been hundreds more such accidents over the last decade, resulting in dozens of injuries and at least 13 deaths.

Chlorine is a widely used industrial substance, used at water treatment plants and in all kinds of manufacturing. One of the accidents reported by EHN took place at a recycling plant when workers cut into a tank that was supposed to be empty but which contained chlorine. Another took place at a fruit cannery where tomatoes were washed with chlorine dioxide.

Similar data for Canada is not publically available. GallonDaily is planning to ask the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for data on the number of spills involving release of chlorine which took place in that province over the last decade. We will publish the data if we receive it.

The EHN report is available at http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/chlorine-accidents/