Idaho Public Television Welcomes Aaron Kunz

My friend and colleague Bruce Reichert posted this on the Idaho Public Television website last week.  I just wanted to make sure you all got a chance to see what I am doing and learn more about this collaborative effort called the Northwest Nature Desk.

Wind Energy Compromise Bill Passes House

(By Aaron Kunz)

Boise — The Idaho House today passed a tax credit bill that’s generating friction between the wind energy developers who want it and utilities that complain they’re being forced to buy more power than they need.

Nuclear Reactors

By Dan Rather (HD Net)

For many Americans, the words “nuclear power” still conjure up images of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, fears of meltdowns or radioactive leaks. Those reactor failures helped drive the U.S. nuclear industry into dormancy in the late 1970s.

EPA Streamlines Regulations for Car and Truck Fuel Conversion Systems

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated rules making it easier for manufacturers to sell fuel conversion systems. The conversion systems allow vehicles to run on alternative fuels, which may appeal to consumers concerned about energy security, fuel costs, or emissions.

Protect Yourself From Sun Rays

Even if we perceive sun rays as being homogeneous and of a unique type, they are actually divided in three categories that have different effects upon our body: UVA, UVB and UVC rays.
Therefore, the ultraviolet (UV) radiation is of A, B and C type.

Idaho publishes radiation monitoring data online

BOISE — The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) began publishing radiation data online from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) RadNet system of radiation detectors on Tuesday. Although no harmful levels of radiation are expected to reach the United States from the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors, DEQ is reviewing radiation levels on a daily basis.

DEQ extends deadline to apply for grants to protect sources of drinking water in Idaho

BOISE — Applicants for 2011 Source Water Protection Grants to protect drinking water sources now have until Monday, April 4, 2011, to apply.

Gem State Manufacturing applies to DEQ for air quality permit to construct for Caldwell facility

CALDWELL — The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has received a request for an air quality permit to construct from Gem State Manufacturing, Caldwell.

Erin Brockovich pushes for disease cluster law

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) – Erin Brockovich, a U.S. consumer health advocate whose life story was the basis for an Academy Award-winning film, urged senators on Tuesday to pass a law to document disease clusters in the United States.

Japan Faces Radioactive Water Crisis

The battle to stabilize Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex just got tougher, due to the radioactive water that is apparently leaking from the reactors. The leak doesn’t change the battle strategy — to get water into the reactor buildings to stabilize “hot” fuel rods — but it does raise more uncertainties about how to get that done.