In 1980, Clarkson College in New York state became the first U.S. educational institution to heat its buildings with chips, sawdust, and other waste wood from area sawmills.
PHOTO: FOTOLIA/KITCH B
In 1980, Clarkson College in New York state became the first U.S. educational institution to heat its buildings with chips, sawdust, and other waste wood from area sawmills.
PHOTO: FOTOLIA/KITCH BAIN
KUDOS FOR KUDZU!
NASA biochemist Dr. B.C. Wolverton has shown that one cubic foot of dried kudzu can produce as much as four to five cubic feet of methane gas. Furthermore, he estimates that a home energy system using kudzu (grown under careful control) — and the waste bacteria from the family sewage — could produce a year's supply of energy for the household... including enough methane to run a car for 12,000 miles."I'LL GO ON AHEAD AND SCOUT OUT THE TRAIL":
When, during last year's crisis, a member of the board of supervisors of Newbury Township - which is located a scant two miles from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant - called the township's civil defense director for help in mapping out an evacuation plan for area residents, he found that the CD coordinator was already long gone!
THE NATIONAL SOLAR ENERGY EDUCATION DIRECTORY
(Second Edition), which lists 1,760 solar-related courses and 840 programs and curricula offered at over 760 post-secondary educational institutions in the U.S., is now available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.A BIT MUCH!
A billion tons of rock and residue — as much as was excavated in the construction of the Panama Canal — would have to be moved, each year, in order to produce a million barrels a day of oil shale. (We currently import over eight million barrels of oil a day.)
PHANTOM UTILITY TAX:
The Environmental Action Foundation points out that customers of the nation's 100 largest private power firms were "legally" charged for over $3.5 billion in federal income taxes in 1978, yet the utilities actually paid less than $800 million in income taxes to the government. In fact, 29 power companies charged their customers as if the utilities had paid a $698 million tax bill, but actually paid no federal income tax at all!UP IN SMOKE!
Ten to 15 billion pounds of excess ethylene products, which could serve as feedstock for alcohol fuels, are presently emitted from the nation's petroleum refinery stacks each year. These materials could produce an annual yield of as much as six billion gallons of ethanol.THE NEW RIVER CONTROVERSY
, a book by Thomas J. Schoenbaum, chronicles the dramatic 11-year battle to save the New River (which is