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Behind the Scenes, Greening Our U.S. Parks

When you visit U.S. national and state parks this summer, you’ll be happy to know they are managed by a company that thinks like you do. Xanterra is the largest national and state park management company in the U.S. – serving over 17 million people a year who visit U.S. parks.Its 8,000 employees operate 33 hotels and lodges with over 5,000 guest rooms, 50 retail stores, 64 restaurants and 1,800 campsites in national and state parks like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. Xanterra’s efforts cover the full range of sustainability concerns from energy and waste reduction to green procurement, from serving sustainable food to using renewable energy. In its first sustainability report, published this year, president Andrew Todd says, “Whether we provide comfortable rooms through efficient lighting and heating systems, operate a clean-burning transportation system or serve food that does not deplete ocean fisheries or harm ecosystems, I know that we can exceed guest expectations while maintaining environmental priorities.”Some of its notable activities to protect our parks are: * reduced fuel emissions at the Grand Canyon to almost zero by switching from fuel oil to propane fuel. The new boilers release literally 80 times less CO2 and run […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:July 6, 2005

News and Events Oil Companies, U.K. Utility to Fuel Power Plant with Hydrogen Hydrogen-Fueled Vehicle Achieves 12,665 MPG on Test Track Honda is First to Lease Fuel-Cell Vehicle to Private Family U.S. Automakers and EPA to Cut Energy Use in Assembly Plants Maine Governor Approves Rebates for Solar Energy Systems New University Centers Focus on Energy Challenges Site News“Our Wind Co-Op” Brings Small Wind Turbines to the Northwest Energy ConnectionsFrance to Host International Fusion Research Reactor News and EventsOil Companies, U.K. Utility to Fuel Power Plant with HydrogenBP, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and the largest utility in the United Kingdom announced last week their plan to develop an industrial-scale “carbon free” power plant fueled with hydrogen. Under the plan, up to 70 million cubic feet of natural gas will be converted into hydrogen each day to fuel a new 350-megawatt power station near Peterhead in northeast Scotland. The hydrogen production process will generate carbon dioxide, which will be captured and shipped via existing pipelines to an oil field in the North Sea, 150 miles off the coast, where it will be injected into the oil reservoir. Compared to a power plant fueled directly with natural gas, the proposed plant will reduce carbon […]

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Fuel Ethanol Cannot Alleviate US Dependence on Petroleum

A new study of the carbon dioxide emissions, cropland area requirements, and other environmental consequences of growing corn and sugarcane to produce fuel ethanol indicates that the “direct and indirect environmental impacts of growing, harvesting, and converting biomass to ethanol far exceed any value in developing this energy resource on a large scale.” The study, published in the July 2005 issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), uses the “ecological footprint” concept to assess needs for ethanol production from sugarcane, now widespread in Brazil, and from corn, which is increasing in the United States. In Brazil, ethanol from fermentation of sugarcane is used pure or blended with gasoline to yield gasohol, which contains 24 percent ethanol. In the United States, ethanol made from corn, production of which is heavily subsidized, is used in an 85 percent ethanol mixture called E85. In 2003, ethanol-blended gasoline accounted for more than 10 percent of gasoline sales in the United States. The authors of the study assessed the energy required to produce the crops and to manufacture and distribute the resulting fuels. In the United States, ethanol yielded only about 10 percent more energy than was required to […]

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Senate Names Energy Bill Conferees

Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, July 1, 2005 Majority Leader Frist and Democratic Leader Reid this afternoon named 14 conferees to the upcoming House-Senate energy bill conference. The conferees are drawn, in strict seniority, from two committees Senate Energy & Natural Resources (11) and Senate Finance Committee (3). They are: Senate Energy GOP: Pete Domenici (NM); Larry Craig (ID); Craig Thomas (WY); Lamar Alexander (TN); Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Richard Burr (NC). Senate Energy Dems: Jeff Bingaman (NM); Daniel Akaka (HI); Byron Dorgan (ND); Ron Wyden (OR), and Tim Johnson (SD). Senate Finance GOP: Charles Grassley (IA) and Orrin Hatch (UT). Senate Finance Dem: Max Baucus (MT). To our knowledge, the House has not yet appointed conferees. The date for the opening conference meeting has not been set. It is presumed that Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) will be chairing this conference. (The chair alternates between the two bodies, and the Senate chaired the last energy bill conference.) Website: [sorry this link is no longer available]     

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