Teru Talk
Newsletter
Volume I, Issue
23
-
August 1,
2011
Teru Talk
by Michael Theroux
(pronounced
"Terú")
California
has always prided itself on
being the gold standard for
environmental quality
control, many would say to
our own economic detriment.
The California
Environmental Quality Act ,
CEQA, has been a gauntlet
that all "projects" have
had to clear in order to
reach Permitted Ground
since its passage in the
early '70s, essentially all
the working lives for most
of my colleagues. I've
always been proud to live
and work in California;
that doesn't mean getting
things done here has been
easy, or that the
conditions and controls
placed upon that work have
always made sense. All
these years, I've also
prided myself that in some
way, the work I've done has
been to the betterment of
the California environment.
For goodness sake, I always
figured that I was a
life-long member of that
esteemed "environmental
community"… now, here I am,
espousing "industrial
advocacy".
Curious
thing about
finger-pointing: you
usually end up pointing
back at yourself. With a
tip o' th' hat to Walt
Kelly, I'd offer Poco's
observation that "We have
met the Enemy, and He is
Us…"
OK, we've
all chewed that bone
long enough. The real
question is, what are we
gonna do about the
corner we've painted
ourselves into? So little
that is really new
gets through that gauntlet
now that we find we must
continue to rely on the Old
Ways, despite knowing that
there's gotta be a better
way to do so many of the
things we do, literally
every day.
Me? I'm
all about reversing the
process and accomplishing
Waste-to-Resource, but you
probably hadn't noticed.
I'm after the Tools we need
to use now, to extract our
environment and our economy
out of the mess we have
created. I like the EPA's
buzz-words "Incremental
Mitigation": take out an
old dirty one, and replace
it with a new clean
one.
We've
managed to at least slow
down the rampant excesses
marking us a Throw-Away
Society; nothing like a
good old recession to make
us think twice about buying
so much one-time-use stuff.
We've learned, pretty much,
to separate the bottles,
cans, newspaper, and yard
trimmings. But when we've
picked the conveyor belt
clean, we're still not
done.
We
still need to
replace Disposal
with Recovery.
That's what Teru
Talk is
about.
Hey
Rube!
Do you know
who your state and federal
legislative representatives
are, even for the area where
you personally live and work?
Have you ever contacted any one
of them? Assuming you at
least vote, are you happy
with the way our Elected
Officials have behaved? Unless
you let them know it when you
are happy, they have to
feel like they are winkin' in
the
dark.
And more
importantly, unless you let
them know when you
aren't so very happy,
now, whose fault is it, when
they misbehave?
"Mr.
President, my
constituents
say…"
The Week's
News
Grundon
Proposes Plasma for Scottish
Waste Conversion to Energy
Facility
Grundon Waste Management has
revised their previously
proposed incineration system
for Advanced Plasma Power (APP)
technology in a facility under
planning and permitting
consideration for Shore Road,
Perth, Scotland.
07/30/2011
BMW
Manufacturing Will Study
Landfill Gas to Hydrogen for
Fuel
Cells
South Carolina Research
Authority (SCRA) will fund a
study by BMW Manufacturing to
determine the feasibility of
converting landfill gas to
hydrogen (H2) for fuel cells of
around 100 vehicles at its 1.2
million
square feet BMW X3 assembly
facility in South Carolina.
07/30/2011
Codexis and
Chemtex Partner for
Bio-Sourced Detergent
Alcohols
Codexis and Chemtex, a
subsidiary of Italy's Gruppo
Mossi & Ghisolfi ("M&G
Group"), will collaborate on
development and production of
sustainable, bio-sourced
detergent alcohols for
household products, including
second generation development
from cellulosic biomass.
07/30/2011
EC
Recognition Results in Jump
in Registration for ISCC
Certification
Earlier this month, the
European Commission (EC)
formally recognized seven
schemes for proving biofuels
sustainability and greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions control
compliance, including
the International
Sustainability & Carbon
Certification organization
(ISCC).
07/29/2011
UK Woodland
Carbon Code Launched for
Sustainable Forestry
Projects
The non-ministerial Forestry
Commission of the United
Kingdom (UK) has launched the
Woodland Carbon Code to
register independently
certified, sustainably managed
forestry projects..
07/29/2011
South Dakota
Colleges Win NASA Biofuels
Grant
The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) has
awarded a grant of $750,000 to
advance use of the blue-green
algae cyanobacteria for
production of energy-dense
biofuels from waste-water,
carbon dioxide, and sunlight to
a collaboration of South Dakota
State University (SDSU), South
Dakota School of Mines and
Technology, and Oglala Lakota
College.
07/29/2011
InEnTec
Incorporates and Discloses
Substantial Funding
Round
Oregon based InEnTec released
news that they have converted
their company structure from a
limited liability corporation
(LLC) to a full corporation
registered in Delaware. InEnTec
has also just filed with the
Securities and Exchange
Commission providing notice of
substantial fund raising
through offers of securities.
07/29/2011
Gevo to
Build Texas Demo Plant for
Isobutanol to Renewable
Hydrocarbons
Colorado
based Gevo has announced
that they will work with
South Hampton Resources
Inc., a subsidiary of
Arabian American Development
Co., to build a 10,000
gallon-per-month
demonstration plant outside
of the Houston area in
Silsbe, Texas.
07/28/2011
08/11/2011
(Date Extended: Quals to LA
County for Waste Conversion
Projects
Los Angeles County has extended
the due date from July 28, 2011
to August 11, 2011 for
submissions toward two related
Request for Expression of
Interest, a Technical RFEI and
a Financial RFEI released last
month. 07/28/2011
USDA
Announces New BCAP Project
Areas for Biomass Conversion
to Biofuels
Agricultural Secretary Tom
Vilsack announced new project
areas in six states to expand
the availability of non-food
crops to be used in the
manufacturing of liquid
biofuels. The four project
areas set aside acres in
California, Kansas, Montana,
Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington
for the production of renewable
energy crops.
07/28/2011
Joule
Receives New Patents for
Production of Ethanol
through
Photosynthesis
Massachusetts
based Joule Unlimited, Inc
announced that they have
been issued two new
patents,
U.S. Patent
#7,981,647 and U.S. Patent
#7,968,321
for in-cell
engineered enzymatic methods
of increasing ethanol
production capability of
photosynthetic
micro-organisms.
07/28/2011
Süd-Chemie
Breaks Ground on Largest
Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in
Germany
Clariant Group member company
Süd-Chemie has celebrated the
start of construction of
Germany's largest cellulosic
ethanol facility next to the
Bavarian BioCampus in
Strauberg, lower Bavaria.
07/28/2011
IDB Approves
Third Sustainable Energy
Loan to Peru for $25
Million
The Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) has approved a third
Programmatic Policy Based Loan
(PBL) to Peru to strengthen the
country's sustainable energy
matrix.
07/27/2011
SDSU
Receives USDA Grant for
Biomass to Bio-Oil
Production
System
The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) has awarded
a five-year bio-oil development
grant to South Dakota State
University (SDSU) researchers
to design a biomass-to-bio-oil
production system.
07/27/2011
GreenShift
Awarded Patent for Corn Oil
Extraction Method for
Ethanol
After pulling their original
patent application and
requesting additional US Patent
and Trademark Office (USPTO)
assessment due to numerous
challenges, GreenShift has now
received notice of allowance
for their patent application
number 11/241,231: “Method of
Processing Ethanol Byproducts
and Related Subsystems” (the
'231 patent application).
07/27/2011
Synthos and
Global Bioenergies Partner
for Bio-Butadiene
Development
Polish rubber manufacturer
Synthos S.A. and French
industrial biology firm Global
Bioenergies have signed an
agreement for research,
development and
commercialization of renewable
sourced butadiene, which is
currently produced only from
petroleum and is a building
block for synthetic rubber
production and many types of
plastics.
07/26/2011
University
of Illinois Study Says
Regulation Must Keep Pace
with
Technology
A recent paper entitled,
"Making Regulatory Innovation
Keep Pace with Technologic
Innovation" has been published
by researchers from the
University of Illinois (U of I)
Energy Biosciences Institute
and the U of I College of Law.
07/26/2011
Philippine
MSW Gasification Plant
Breaks
Ground
In Orion, Bataan, the
Philippines, the investment and
development firm Concord
Pacific Investment Holdings
Limited, Inc. (CPIHLI) has
broken ground on its $500
million waste gasification
power plant.
07/26/2011
The Week's
Action
Items
Due
08/24/2011: Nominations to
Texas MSW/Resource Recovery
Advisory
Council
The Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is
requesting nominations to six
available seats on the
Municipal Solid Waste and
Resource Recovery Advisory
Council; members are appointed
for six-year staggered terms by
the TCEQ Commissioners.
07/25/2011
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