Tamara Keith - The Environment Report

Making the Bus Cool

Bus lines like Megabus are attracting new riders with cheap rates, direct routes, and perks like free wi-fi. (Photo by Tamara Keith)
Each bus can transport 81 people, most of whom would have driven instead. (Photo by Tamara Keith)

Buses are one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel. But for years, the bus has had an image problem. The Environment Report’s Tamara Keith tells us that could be changing:

Transcript

Buses are one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel. But for years, the bus has had an image problem. The Environment Report’s Tamara Keith tells us that could be changing:

I swear I’m not a snob, but up until a couple of months ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead on a bus. Come on, the thought of being trapped for hours with potentially smelly strangers on some rundown, grimy bus –well– it’s just not all that appealing.

But, there’s a new genre of motor coach travel out there and it’s making the intercity bus cool again (or maybe cool for the first time).

In a downtown Washington DC parking lot, Lauren Kessler is waiting to board a Bolt Bus to New York City. It’s a shiny black and red bus with a bold lightning bolt on the side.

“I’ve never taken Greyhound. I would take Amtrak or fly but those are both much more expensive.”

What Kessler doesn’t know is this is a Greyhound bus. The company launched the Bolt brand last spring. Giselle Carr doesn’t realize it either, until I point out the fine print on the side of the bus: “operated by Greyhound.”

“I did not know that. Yeah it says right there, operator Greyhound. Oh, so they’re changing their strategy. Interesting.”

It’s not your father’s Greyhound. Gone are bus terminals. Bolt picks up curbside in just a few major east coast cities. Delivering passengers from one happening downtown to another with no stops in between. It’s cheaper than the traditional bus lines and there are some pretty nice amenities too, says Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh.

“We have free wi-fi, extended leg room, power plug ins. It’s a very sleek brand.”

And she says it’s been an incredibly successful brand.

“We actually broke even financially in May 2008, which is just a couple months after launching which was phenomenal and exceeded all our expectations. And every month we see a larger ridership than the month before.”

Bolt isn’t the only one. MegaBus, operated by Coach USA, started in the Midwest in 2006. It now serves 14 cities with its double-decker wi-fi enabled buses. Each bus holds 81 people, and, Coach USA President Dale Moser says, most of them would have driven if not for the bus.

“And I would have told you 3 years ago that it was going to be a challenge to change a culture and get Americans out of their automobile. But we’re finding that there is a large contingency out there that is looking for something like this and it just continues to grow.”

These bus lines can thank regulars like Raphael Fuchs-Simon for their success. If there was a uniform for a hipster, it might just be what he’s wearing: red framed 80s sunglasses, a soccer jersey and one of those Peruvian Alpaca sweaters.

“Sometimes I drive but there’s no point. It’s 22 dollars dude. Get out of here. It’s like a lunchtime meal in Manhattan.”

He’s pretty stoked about the green credentials, that come with his chosen mode of travel. Joe Schwieterman has actually crunched the numbers. He’s a transportation professor at DePaul University in Chicago.

“You can get 200, 300 even more passenger miles per gallon of fuel burned and you just compare to that to a private automobile, it can be a 10-fold increase in fuel efficiency.”

And, Schwieterman says, just in the last couple of years intercity bus transportation has had a remarkable revival.

“The growth has been roughly about 8 percent a year, so the mode is growing much faster than air travel or automobile travel or even rail travel. The bus kind of stands alone for an industry that’s growing in some pretty tough economic times.”

That’s even with gas costing just half what it did last summer. For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Coal Ash Controversy

A broken dam caused this cement-like sludge to spill into the Emory River in East Tennessee. The coal ash sludge could dry out, putting toxic dust into the air. (Photo by Matt Shafer Powell)

This past December a sludge of coal ash broke out of an impoundment at a power plant in
Tennessee. It destroyed homes. It devastated a section of river. And it set off a firestorm
about the problem of coal ash disposal. Now two US Senators and a bunch of environmental
groups are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate coal ash. Tamara
Keith has the story:

Transcript

Coal ash is byproduct produced by coal burning power plants and it’s stored at more than 500
sites around the country.

Anti-coal activist Dave Cooper signed onto a letter this week with more than 100
environmental groups telling the EPA it’s time to get involved.

“What we want is for the EPA to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste.”

But Dave Goss with the American Coal Ash Association says safe storage is an issue, but a
lot of the ash is actually recycled into things like concrete and wallboard.

“If you stigmatize it by giving it some sort of a classification such as hazardous, that’s going
to have a dramatic impact on the ability to re-use the materials.”

The EPA has been studying this issue for years, and hasn’t responded to the latest calls for
regulation.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Are Green Jobs Good Jobs?

Members of the US Chamber of Commerce are debating whether green investments will create as many jobs as supporters claim. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

One of the big buzzwords surrounding the 870-billion dollar stimulus package signed by President Obama is green jobs. Tamara Keith found now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is interested in green investments — sort of:

Transcript

One of the big buzzwords surrounding the 870-billion dollar stimulus package signed by President Obama is green jobs. Tamara Keith found now the US Chamber of Commerce is interested in green investments — sort of:

In the past, the Chamber has ridiculed all things environmental. But, its members want to catch this green wave. A recent panel discussion revealed some of the business leaders are optimistic about the stimulus package’s green investments. Mark Santacrose is CEO of TectaAmerica Corp. It installs environmentally friendly roofing.

“We’ve lost over 900,000 jobs in the broader construction industry in the last year. Investment in green will have a big impact.”

The energy industry wants in on stimulus funds too. Mary Miller is a vice president at the Edison Electric Institute:

“The more efficient use of energy has invaluable benefits to consumers, the economy and our country.”

But, an economist on the panel was not as thrilled. He told Chamber of Commerce members that spending on green jobs will mean fewer jobs would be created overall.

For the Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Senate Dems Revisit Climate Bill

Democrats in the Senate are talking about climate change policy. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

Democrats in the US Senate are talking about climate change legislation again. But its fate is uncertain. Tamara Keith reports from Washington:

Transcript

Democrats in the US Senate are talking about climate change legislation again. But it’s fate is uncertain. Tamara Keith reports from Washington:

Barbara Boxer is the senator who chairs the Environment and Public Works committee. The committee will be putting together the climate change legislation. A climate bill didn’t get anywhere last year in the senate, but Boxer says things have changed since then.

“A lot of those who voted against us are no longer here.”

But what’s not changed is the argument over how sweeping controls on carbon emissions could affect the economy. Those opposed call climate legislation a job-killer. Steve Cochran with the Environmental Defense Fund argues the opposite.

“If those of us who want to see strong climate policy are effective and articulate and persuasive on the jobs argument then I think we can actually get this done. And if we’re not I don’t think we will.”

Boxer said she didn’t know when the full senate would take up the legislation.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Animal-Powered Farming

Dan Macon, owner of Flying Mule Farm, and his mule, Frisbee (Photo by Tamara Keith)

With fuel prices through the roof,
many people are changing their routines to
save money. Tamara Keith brings
us this story of a farmer who’s abandoned
his tractor for something much more fuel
efficient:

Transcript

“Step up.” (kissing noises)

Meet Dan Macon and his mule Frisbee.

“Frisbee is a 7 year old mule and she was born here at our place. And she got
her name because I promised my oldest daughter, who was then 3, that if she got
up with me when the mule was born she could pick the name.”

“Step up. Good girl.”

On this day Macon and Frisbee are plowing to prepare a patch of land to plant
for the fall. Macon’s Flying Mule Farm is in the California foothill town of
Auburn. And he says it’s 100% animal powered.

“We have a sign now in our farmer’s market stall that says mule powered
vegetables. We use no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers and no petroleum in
producing our vegetables. And we joke with them that we haven’t harmed any
tractors in producing their goodies.”

He sells his squash, kale, potatoes and other produce at two local farmer’s
markets. He also supplies restaurants in nearby resort towns.

At this point Macon is only farming a quarter of an acre, but hopes to expand
soon. He holds a pair of leather reins as he follows Frisbee in circles around
the small field. He directs her movements with vocal cues, kissing sounds and
pressure applied to the reins. And it seems to work, some of the time.

Tamara Keith: “Seems like it could be a matter of debate as to who’s in
charge.”

Dan Macon: (laughs) “Well as I tell people who have seen pictures of us
doing it, the mule’s the one with the long ears and the guy in the hat is the
jackass.”

Macon has been farming for 7 years and, until this year, he used a gas and
diesel powered tractors. He made the switch for philosophical reasons rather
than economic ones, but it’s penciling out financially too.

“And then diesel went to $5 a gallon and it seemed like a really good
decision.”

And Macon isn’t the only farmer doing this. Animal powered farming,
particularly with horses, is growing in popularity nationwide.

Lynn Miller is editor of the Small Farmer’s Journal. He says 400,000 people
are using animals to farm, and only half of them are Amish.

“I’m predicting within two to three years an additional quarter of a million
people will join the ranks of those who choose animal powered, not as a
throwback, not a return to a nostalgic past, but because it is a practical and
viable option for the future.”

Macon uses organic farming practices, but Frisbee kind of fertilizes the soil as
she goes – if you know what I mean. So, his produce can’t be certified
organic. Macon says he isn’t concerned about his lack of certification.

“I think knowing your farmer is far more important to food safety than any
regulatory program. And if you know your farmer, and your farmer stands
behind what he or she is producing for you, then you’re going to be insured of a
safe product, and that’s how our relationship works with our customers.”

There are other advantages to farming with a mule, says Macon. He’s not
much of a mechanic, so when his tractor broke down in the past he’d have to
call someone to repair it. Now if his source of traction has a problem, he can
just call his wife. She’s a large animal veterinarian.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Green Boat Technology

The new hybrid speedboat from Frauscher (Photo courtesy of California Chris Craft)

A green technology popular on highways
is now ready for the waterways – just in time for
summer. Only one catch – the world’s first hybrid
recreational boat could put a hole in your wallet.
Tamara Keith reports:

Transcript

The Frauscher hybrid speedboat comes from Austria with a price tag of more
than $100,000.

Ralph Silverman, president of California Chris-Craft, the US importer, admits
it’s the ultimate niche item. But he says he already has several buyers interested
in this green alternative to wasting fuel idling at the dock.

“At low speeds you run the motor completely on electric power so there’s no
fuel burn, no pollution and no noise. And once you get outside your
restricted speed zone, you click over to diesel and run it like a typical boat.”

(boat sounds)

Silverman believes this technology will eventually be applied to lower cost
boats too.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Formaldehyde in Your Cabinets

Composite wood products are everywhere in the American home – in
cabinets and shelves and doors. And almost all of it is made with
formaldehyde, a carcinogen also known to aggravate the lungs of people
with asthma. But as Tamara Keith reports, the widespread use of the
chemical could be changing:

Transcript

Particle board, plywood and fiberboard are all made with a glue that uses
formaldehyde to give it extra binding power. From the moment the wood
is manufactured until it comes to your home as a cabinet and well
beyond, it releases toxic fumes. Dmitri Stanich is a spokesman for the
California Air Resources Board:

“Even small amounts of formaldehyde are known to have adverse health
effects so whenever you get that smell and you go, hmmg. Most
people won’t even think twice about it, but it is a known carcinogen
and that’s what we’re trying to reduce.”

Over some industry objections, California recently adopted new
standards limiting the use of formaldehyde in manufactured wood. Come
2012, California will have the toughest formaldehyde restrictions in
the world. And it’s expected other states will follow its lead.

For the Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

San Fran First to Ban Plastic Bags

Undoubtedly you’ve been asked “Paper or plastic,” at the grocery store.
Paper bags use trees and take lots of energy to produce. Plastic bags are cheaper, and take less energy to produce, but they’re made from petroleum and create litter problems. As Tamara Keith reports, shoppers in one city soon won’t have plastic as an option:

Transcript

Undoubtedly you’ve been asked, “Paper or plastic?” at the grocery store.
Paper bags use trees and take lots of energy to produce. Plastic bags are cheaper and take less energy to produce, but they’re made from petroleum,
and create litter problems. As Tamara Keith reports, shoppers in one city
soon won’t have plastic as an option:

Instead of plastic bags, groceries in San Francisco will soon be packed
in recycled paper bags, or compostable bags made from corn starch or
potato starch. Legislation recently approved by the San Francisco
board of supervisors will make the city the first in the nation to ban
plastic shopping bags, first at grocery stores, followed 6 months later
by large drug stores.

Jared Blumenfeld is director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment:

“It’s a great alternative to plastic. It sends a great message
that we can do small things in our lives to combat climate change. And
people love it here in San Francisco. They’re like, why did it take so
long.”

Blumenfeld says it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to make 100 million
plastic bags, and San Francisco stores hand out nearly twice that many
each year. The new bags will be able to go into curbside compost bins,
and Blumenfeld says he hopes the change will keep tons of waste out of
landfills.

Grocery chains oppose the change and say it stymies their efforts to
get customers to recycle plastic bags. They say the new bags will be
more expensive and they may have to pass those costs along to their
customers.

For the Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Cashing in on Restaurant Food Scraps

These loafs of bread were left in a park for wildlife to eat (not recommended by biologists). Most table scraps end up in a landfill. But a program in some cities is using table scraps from restaurants to make rich compost. (Photo by Lester Graham)

As you sit down to a holiday dinner this season…
here’s something wild to think about…some of the produce on
your plate, or even the wine in your glass may have been
produced using food scraps from restaurants. How? The
leftovers are collected and turned into compost, a natural
fertilizer that’s increasingly popular among wine grape
growers and organic farmers. Tamara Keith
reports:

Transcript

As you sit down to a holiday dinner this season… here’s something wild to think about:
some of the produce on your plate, or even the wine in your glass may have been
produced using food scraps from restaurants. How? The leftovers are collected and
turned into compost, a natural fertilizer that’s increasingly popular among wine grape
growers and organic farmers. Tamara Keith reports:

The food goes from plates in upscale restaurants, to green waste bins picked up by a
recycling company. The leftovers are then trucked out a compost facility.

(sound of the big machines)

Here, at Jepson Prairie Organics, the waste is transformed from discernable food
items,
to dark lush humus. Greg Pryor is general manager of the facility in Northern
California.

“If you look closer it’s you’ll find fish, shellfish, there’s a leek right there,
and onion.”

Yard clippings and a little cardboard are mixed in for balance. It’s all ground up,
and
stuffed in large black bags, 200 feet long and 10 feet wide.

“Really about a week into the bag it starts to break down and it really loses its
identity.”

After 30 days, the compost is removed from the bags, and continues to break down for
another month or so. As bacteria go to work on the food scraps and clippings, they
generate heat, so even on a hot day steam rises up from the rows of compost. Pryor
started in the trash business almost 15 years ago and he says it has come a long way.

“All of this used to go into a landfill and it just wasn’t right. And to me
personally that’s
the biggest benefit is that it’s putting materials back to a beneficial re-use,
there’s just
nothing better.”

The end product is marketed as “four course compost” to vineyards and organic
vegetable farms.

(Mexican music coming from a truck)

Just a few miles away at Eatwell Farm, workers are snipping and tying off bunches of
organic arugula. That peppery green was grown in soil bolstered by four-course
compost. Farmer Nigel Walker says he applies a heavy coat of compost after every
harvest, sometimes as much as three times a year.

“And we just always do that. I don’t even have to. Roberto’s our tractor driver.
I don’t
even say ‘put compost on, Roberto.’ He just knows. We put compost on and then we
cultivate it in.”

In the past, Walker has used compost made from animal manure. It works fine, he says,
but he likes the idea this fertilizer comes from restaurants.

“It’s a great compost, we need a compost and we likes where it comes from, it’s pretty
simple.”

This time of year, the makers of four-course compost make a lot of deliveries to
California wine country, home to some of the nation’s premier wines. Linda Hale is
the
field supervisor for Madrone Vineyard Management in Sonoma County. She and her
employees look after 400 acres of wine grapes for wineries like Ravenswood, Sabastiani
and BR Cohn.

Hale says they use compost between the rows, to prepare the land for winter.

“Right after you harvest, you come in, you prep the ground, you put your compost in,
seed it and let the vines go to sleep for the winter. And that’s just your good night
medicine.”

Hale says the compost improves the vigor of the vines. Healthy soil, makes for
healthy
plants, and healthy plants she says are better able to fend off pests and disease.
And
Hale says, it prices out the same as synthetic liquid fertilizers – the current
industry
standard.

Plus, winemaker Tom Montgomery at the BR Cohn Winery says it’s kind of fun to think
about what might have gone into the compost.

“There’s probably a little filet in there, some veggie dishes, aso bucco…” (laughs)

Montgomery calls it fertilizer with pizzazz.

“I think it makes a difference to us. I’m not so sure that it makes a difference to
the
wine.”

Other cities, even other countries are starting to pick up on the food-to-field
idea. Soon a
group from Toronto will be touring the compost facilities to see if they can
replicate the
program in their city.

For the Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

New Power Plant Makes Light Out of Leftovers

With ongoing concerns about over-reliance on fossil fuels, researchers and entrepreneurs are looking for alternate ways to generate energy. One university scientist has created a power plant fueled by organic waste, including table scraps from restaurants. Tamara Keith reports:

Transcript

At Boulevard, an upscale restaurant, diners lunch on seared sea scallops, paella and grilled escolar among other options.

Back in the kitchen cooks are careful to keep all food scraps out of the trash.

(Kitchen sounds, scraping sounds)

The food scraps from this restaurant and 2,000 others in the San Francisco Bay Area are already being collected to turn into compost.

But now some of that food, about 8 tons a week, is going to a new biogas power plant at the University of California Davis. Tim Quaintance is a chef at Boulevard. He says he’s pleased that his leftovers aren’t just going to a landfill.

“It’s nice that in the past things that have basically been thrown away are now actually being used, and with this technology really contributing to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.”

(Generator runs in background)

In Davis, the table scraps are being converted into fuel at an experimental power plant known as the Biogas Energy Project. With its four large steel tanks and 22 kilowatt generator, this plant is the first real-world demonstration of a technique called anaerobic phased solids digestion.

Rayhong Jha is a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California Davis. She first developed this technology on a smaller scale in her lab.

“What you see here is 20,000 times larger than the reactor system I use for laboratory testing.”

It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, leftovers into power, but Dave Konwinski says it’s real. He’s CEO of Onsite Power Systems Incorporated which licensed the technology and operates the plant.

“Every ton of collected food waste will provide enough either electrical or thermal energy to run an average of 10 California homes.”

Konwinski sees this test plant as the first step to commercializing biogas power plants. Here’s how it works: the food waste as well as grass clippings and other would-be-trash go into a sealed tank where bacteria break the mush down into water and organic acids… kind of like what happens if you leave lettuce in the fridge too long. When that’s done, the organic acids are pumped into another tank where different bacteria convert the soup into methane gas.

“Biogas can be used to run a generator, we have a generator we’ll be running here, or we can use it in the boiler to offset natural gas heat, and we’re looking at taking the gas and converting it into vehicle fuels.”

The trash and recycling company that serves San Francisco, NorCal Waste Systems, is providing the raw materials. Robert Reed is company’s director of corporate communications.

“This research and other research like this is very important because it could be a double or a triple. What I mean by that is it could produce new energy. It could reduce the amount of material going to landfills. And it could help reduce the creation of greenhouse gasses.”

And Reed says if this technology proves to be commercially viable, the results could be huge. In just California alone, 38 million tons of garbage is sent to landfills each year. He says half of that could be converted to power, and that’s enough energy to continuously power the entire city of San Francisco.

Suddenly leaving a little broccoli on your plate doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.

For the Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

Author: Tamara Keith

Making the Bus Cool

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