During the past decade, the national recycling rate (including composting) has climbed to 32%. Hundreds of communities have surpassed this level. Dozens report waste reduction levels above 50%. What features are common to these successful programs? It is usually a combination of good rules that together help to achieve a high rate of recycling and composting. … Read More
According to the Center for Municipal Solutions, there have been more than 150,000 communication tower facilities erected in the last 5 years and industry estimates are that more than 1 million more will be needed in the next few years. CMS suggests that as many as 50% of the towers erected in the last 5 years … Read More
Jim Keating, Executive Director of Rainforest Relief has been engaging communities to limit their use of tropical hardwoods in waterfront development. To that end the group has developed a model ordinance that cities can use to ensure that the use of tropical hardwoods and the associated environmental impacts are minimized. One modification to this ordinance under consideration is that there should be a provision that materials come from within 500 miles of the point of use. The New Rules Project supports this preference for a local alternative to tropical hardwoods as a modification to the model ordinance.… Read More
Some communities have banned the use of pesticides whereas others have used taxes to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. While the level of taxation is in some cases not high enough to directly discourage pesticide and fertilizer use, indirect reductions occur as a result of channeling revenues towards sustainable farming practices which tend to use less pesticides and fertilizer inputs.… Read More
The European Commission approved a framework for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) (COM(03) 644 (01)) in October 2003. Following two years of negotiation on the Commission’s original proposal and following the European Parliament’s first reading opinion, the Council reached a Common Position on June 27, 2006.
TheEuropean Commission supports achieving final agreement on REACH at Second Reading. Final adoption of the proposal is expected by the end of 2006.
In 1989 the U.S. Congress enacted a tax on eight ozone depleting chemicals (ODC’s) as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. It extended this tax to 12 additional chemicals and raised the tax on the original 8 chemicals in the National Energy Policy Act of 1992. The Clean Air Act (Title VI)established caps on most CFC’s as agreed upon under the Montreal Protocol, with a complete phase out occurring around the year 2000. Thetax on CFC’s was $1.37 a pound in 1990 and 1991, about twice the then current product price. Recycled CFC’s were exempted from the tax.… Read More
Text of Hawaii Billboard Statutes… Read More
Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) is aninter-governmental agency, representing about one-third of Utah’spopulation. UTOPIA is building a fiber-to-the-home network that willdeliver speeds of at least 100 Mbps to every home and business in eachof the 18 member cities.… Read More
Centered around Sebastopol, California, the Western Sonoma County Internet Cooperative Corporation has a membership of around 50, offering wireless Internet access main to those who do not have any other options. Over the years, they have encountered many issues relating to equipment reliability, especially during harsh weather.
They started as an offshoot of NoCat but are no longer associated with it.