Read this while swigging your next Evian

The July issue of Fast Company magazine contains an article called “Message in a Bottle” that was an eye-opener for me, and just might be for you, too.

Here are two paragraphs to give you an idea of what I mean:

“Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the United States. Last year, we spent more on Poland Spring, Fiji Water, Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani than we spent on iPods or movie tickets–$15 billion. It will be $16 billion this year.

Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We–a generation raised on tap water and water fountains–drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we’re raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion. We’ve come to pay good money–two or three or four times the cost of gasoline–for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes. “

Four times the cost of gasoline? The price we’re always grumbling about? For stuff we can get for pennies from our water faucets? Yes! In fact, as the article points out:

“If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.”

You can check out the entire article here.

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Raise a mug to wind power!

Finally, an alternative energy offer I can get behind.

“Sign up for clean energy and drink free beer.” That was the offer made to eco-festival-goers in Manhattan over the weekend.

The New York Times reports:

Those who signed up for electricity from Community Energy, which owns three wind farms in New York and Pennsylvania, received tickets for four pints of Brooklyn Lager at the third annual Citysol festival in Stuyvesant Cove Park, at the end of 23rd Street. (Brooklyn Brewery is powered by Community Energy windmills.)

Spread the word, folks. Maybe the PR guys and gals at River Horse will work up a similar enticement for energy-switchers in New Jersey. Yo, Yuengling! How about beer-for-wind in Pennsy?

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Supply problems rock NJ/NY biodiesel producer

Shares in Renewable Power and Light (RPL), a two-year-old, independent power producer with plants in Manassa, NY and Elmwood Park, NJ took a 70 percent hit on Friday after it announced expected losses because of a contract dispute with a supplier of palm oil–a feedstock for the company’s biofuel operations.

The stock price tumbled after RPL resumed trading on the AIM after suspending trading on July 5. RPL announced six days later that it was suing Safari Group Inc. for failing to supply palm oil at an agreed fixed price. Safari has cited a substantial increase in the price of palm oil as the reason for its inability to perform under the terms of its contract.

The Financial Times reports that:

A surge in global demand for biofuels has worked to the advantage of some suppliers such as Anglo Eastern Plantations. Shares in the oil palm plantation owner have risen more than 30 per cent in the past six months.

But that surge has hurt companies that depend on the oil, including Biofuels Corp, which runs the largest biodiesel plant in the UK. Biofuels recently announced drastic restructuring plans to stave off bankruptcy.
Although RPL says it expects a financial loss in the currrent year due to the supply disruption, it adds that its balance sheet “remains robust with almost $50 million in cash and Net Assets of approximately $84 million.”
The company said it has identified and tested alternative supplies and that “palm oil, jatropha and soy oil offer the best potential to meet RPL’s requirements.”
In addition to its two power plants, RPL plans to build a refining facility in up-state New York to convert raw palm oil into B100 Bio-diesel fuel.

For more information on RPL, click here.

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W. R. Grace seeks to duck Jersey claim

The specialty chemical manufacturer, W. R. Grace, is seeking to block a $30 million damages claim filed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on grounds that the DEP filed the claim too late.

Bankruptcy 360 (full story viewable with free trial subscription)reports that the dispute dates back to June 2005 when the DEP fileld an $800 million fraud law suit against the company, nearly four years after Grace had filed for bankruptcy protection. DEP argues that it did not discover, until after the deadline for filing bankruptcy claims had expired, that a former Grace manufacturing plant site in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, contained 40 percent asbestos. New Jersey contends that Grace lied about the extent of the contamination, an allegation that Grace denies.

Meanwhile, The Baltimore Sun reports that Grace might owe victims of its asbestos products as much as $6.2 billion, according to a legal scholar hired by attorneys suing the chemical maker. Mark A. Peterson, a research scientist at the Rand Corp., estimated that Columbia-based Grace may need to spend from $4.7 billion to $6.2 billion to resolve hundreds of thousands of asbestos cases over several decades.

Grace filed for bankruptcy in 2001 to protect itself from 135,000 asbestos claims. Early next year, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Judith K. Fitzgerald is to hold a trial to set a value on the claims, a major step in resolving the company’s six-year-old reorganization effort.

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Top environmental/political news – July 11, 2007

NJ Politics

  • Corzine questioned on use of campaign e-mail accounts The chairman of the state Republican Party demands that Gov. Jon Corzine explain why he and a top aide have been using campaign e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and whether the public record is being properly preserved Star-Ledger

NJ Environment

  • EnCap blows key deadline EnCap Golf Holdings failed Tuesday to meet a deadline to supply $16M in additional security to ensure full cleanup of Meadowlands landfills, a New Jersey Meadowlands Commission spokesman says Bergen Record
  • State OKs DuPont pollution monitoring plan The DEP approves a DuPont Co. plan for continuing an investigation into contamination from chemicals used in stick- and stain-resistant products at its sprawling Chamber Works News Journal

PA Environment

  • Successes and ‘maybes’ for Governor’s energy package Rendell and Republicans agreed on solar power, but other decisions were put off until September Inquirer
  • Energy program still source of debate Parts of the governor’s energy program are included in the budget compromise but other parts face a future fight Patriot News

PA Politics

  • Politicians explain budget impact So what did PA taxpayers gain by enduring a partial state government shutdown on Monday? Herald Standard Lancasteronline

New York/Nation/World

  • Compromise eyed on congestion pricing NY Sun
  • Golf course lands in Yorktown’s hands Journal News
  • LI gets federal funds for green spending NY Newsday
  • Compromise measure on global warming NYT Bloomberg

These are just a few of the stories that appeared in yesterday’s EnviroPolitics.
For a free, 30-day trial subscription, send a blank email to: eptrialsub@aweber.com

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Living in a McMansion, leading a McLife?

The following book review caught our attention today:

“In her groundbreaking bestseller The Not So Big House, architect Sarah Susanka showed us a new way to inhabit our houses by creating homes that were better — not bigger, Now, in The Not So Big Life, Susanka takes her revolutionary philosophy to another dimension by showing us a new way to inhabit our lives.

“Most of us have lives that are as cluttered with unwanted obligations as our attics are cluttered with things. The bigger-is-better idea that triggered the explosion of McMansions has spilled over to give us McLives. For many of us, our ability to find the time to do what we want to do has come to a grinding alt. Now we barely have time to take a breath before making the next call on our cell phone, while at the same time messaging someone else on our Blackberry. Our schedules are chaotic and overcommitted, leaving us so stressed that we are numb, yet we wonder why we cannot fall asleep at night.

“In The Not So Big Life, Susanka shows us that it is possible to take our finger off the fast-forward button, and to our surprise we find how effortless and rewarding this change can be. We do not have to lead a monastic life or give up the things we love. In fact, the real joy of leading a not so big life is discovering that the life we love has been there the entire time. Through simple exercises and inspiring stories, Susanka shows us that all we need to do is make small shifts in our day — subtle movements that open our minds as if we were finally opening the windows to let in fresh air.

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? I think I’ll order a copy, right after I publish this blog entry, finish today’s EnviroPolitics e-newsletter, update my website and attack the hundreds of emails and cellphone messages that have piled up in the last 24 hours…. Gotta get that book!

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