Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri signed “An Act Relating to Public Utilities and Carriers—Renewable Energy Standard” on June 30, 2004, requiring each of the state’s

electric utilities to provide 3% green power in 2007. The renewable energy requirement, which can come from solar, wind, ocean, geothermal, and certain hydropower and biomass sources, will gradually increase to 16% in 2019.

On July 15, 2004 the California Department of Health Services (DHS) released its “

Standard Practice for the Testing of Volatile Organic Emissions from Various Sources Using Small-Scale Environmental Chambers.” This practice document supersedes the small-scale environmental chamber testing portion of California Specification 01350 and fills in many of the gaps in that specification, such as the procedures for collecting and handling product samples. The new practice document can provide a basis for testing and screening of products according to their indoor emissions, without reference to any specific building. It is, to

EBN’s knowledge, the only product emissions protocol that is fully transparent and therefore usable by any lab or certification program. It is also being considered by the D22.05 Indoor Air Quality Subcommittee of ASTM International as an ASTM Practice Standard. The Practice was developed by the Indoor Air Quality Section of the Environmental Health Laboratory Branch of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control of DHS on behalf of the California Sustainable Building Task Force. It is available as document #CA/DHS/EHLB/R-174 from http://www.cal-iaq.org/VOC/

On June 14, 2004, shortly before his June 21 resignation, Connecticut Governor John Rowland signed “An Act Concerning Climate Change,” PA 04-252, into law. The act, which takes effect October 1, establishes a goal of

reducing Connecticut’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the beginning of 2010 and to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020. It also sets a procedure for setting reduction goals beyond 2020. The Act is online at www.cga.state.ct.us/2004/act/Pa/2004PA-00252-R00SB-00595-PA.htm.

As part of its recently adopted

Green Building Strategy, the Vancouver, British Columbia city council approved a requirement that every new civic building larger than 500 m2 (5,000 ft2) achieve a Gold rating in the recently released LEED for British Columbia (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 5).

(PWGSC) has announced a series of initiatives to green its operations. The department has pledged, among other strategies, to cut its energy use by 60% over 1990 levels by March 2008, to achieve a LEED^® Gold or BREEAM Four Leaves green building standard with all new construction, and to purchase low-emission vehicles when replacing government vehicles. Details are online at www.pwgsc.gc.ca/sd-env/text/home-e.html.

, a mechanical and electrical engineering firm with offices in Seattle, Washington; Portland and Salem, Oregon; and Sacramento, California, is in the process of

converting its entire vehicle fleet to hybrid cars. Interface is passing its fuel savings, estimated at 20 extra miles per gallon of gasoline (8.5 km/l), on to its customers by reducing the standard mileage rate by $.10/mile ($.06/km). “It’s a matter of walking our talk and helping our clients do so as well,” according to Interface president Omid Nabipoor. The company is online at www.interfaceengineering.com.

Four workers were killed and several others injured on April 23, 2004 in an

explosion at a Formosa Plastics polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facility in Illiopolis, Illinois. A fifth worker died of his injuries on May 13. The series of explosions, which destroyed most of the plant, “apparently followed a release of highly flammable vinyl chloride, which ignited,” according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. The accident also caused the evacuation of about 1,000 nearby residents, the closing of Interstate 72 between Illiopolis and Niantic for several hours, and the temporary loss of power in both towns.

European and North American scientists and medical specialists issued a forceful warning on the threats of chemical pollution during a conference hosted in May 2004 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The

International Declaration on Diseases Due to Chemical Pollution, also called the Paris Appeal, was signed by 80 experts, including two winners of the Nobel Prize for medicine. The appeal recalls a series of relevant international declarations and charters before declaring that: 1) The development of numerous current diseases is a result of the deterioration of the environment; 2) Chemical pollution represents a serious threat to children and to humanity’s survival; and 3) As our own health, that of our children and future generations, is under threat, the human race itself is in serious danger. The appeal calls for banning all known or suspected carcinogens, mutagens, and endocrine disruptors. It also calls for applying the precautionary principle to all persistent, bioaccumulative toxins, and to all chemicals that are very persistent and very bioaccumulative, without waiting for proof of an epidemiological link. To read the entire Paris Appeal (in English) and view a list of its signatories, visit appel.artac.info/anglais.htm.

A coalition of corporate and nonprofit organizations launched the

Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition in April with the goal of “accelerating the economic development and environmental benefits of available onsite green energy technologies and energy efficiency applications and devices designed for Canada’s residential building sector.” The coalition is seeking a commitment from the federal government to reduce the general sales tax on the purchase of new homes and a commitment from provinces to exempt sales tax on materials used in the construction of new homes. These abatements, according to the coalition’s plan, would then be used toward upgrading the energy efficiency of the homes and funding onsite renewable energy systems. Members of the coalition are Thomasfield Homes, DuPont Canada, Inc., the Earth Energy Society of Canada, Xantrex Technology, Inc., the Canadian Solar Industries Association, Milton Hydro Distribution, Inc., Spheral Solar Power, Inc., the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance, and the EnerQuality Corporation. For more information, contact Gordon Shields at 613-823-8079.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized

landmark regulations on off-road diesel fuel and the engines that burn it. Sulfur concentrations, which are currently unregulated in off-road diesel fuel, will be capped at 500 parts per million (ppm) in 2007 and 15 ppm in 2015; meanwhile, soot and smog limits will be capped at levels 95% and 90% lower than today’s, respectively. EPA anticipates that once it is fully implemented, the new regulation will prevent 15,000 heart attacks and 12,000 premature deaths each year. The rule affects construction, farm, and industrial equipment, but trains, boats, and ships are exempted from the rule until 2012.