• 713-524-4CEC (4232)
  • info@cechouston.org
September 7, 2013

ECONOTES 2013-09-10: Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region

Featured

  1. Zero Emissions Renaissance Comes To Houston, Of All Places (Nino Marchetti – Earth Techling, 9/3/2013)
    Smith Electric Vehicles is now involved in a pilot project in the Houston-Galveston, Texas area in collaboration with the Center for Transportation and the Environment replacing diesel delivery vehicles with all-electric medium- and heavy-duty models. Funded in part by a $2.43 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) that’s being matched by millions from the private sector, the H-GAC Zero Emission Truck project aims to deploy 30 zero emission trucks that combined are expected “to reduce petroleum consumption by over 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel over the 2-year demonstration period.
    http://www.earthtechling.com/
  2. NASA Planes Will Fly Houston Skies On Pollution-Data Mission (Carrie Feibel – KUHF News, 9/3/2013)
    Typically, pollution is measured at ground level — with instruments placed on top of buildings, or sometimes in vehicles that drive along the Ship Channel. NASA also can track air quality from space, with orbiting satellites. But that leaves a big gap in between — the atmosphere, a place where wind and weather move pollution around, and where chemicals mix together and disperse. NASA is launching two research airplanes tomorrow from Ellington Field. The planes will spend a month flying over the Houston region and measuring air pollution to fill in critical data gaps.
    http://app1.kuhf.org/
  3. Austin nonprofit expands bee rescue to Houston (Mary Dahdouh – Houston Chronicle, 9/4/2013)
    About one mouthful in three in a healthy diet comes either directly or indirectly from honeybee pollination. Yet, the bee population is growing smaller, averaging a 33 percent drop each year in the U.S. since 2006 – a decline that could threaten the economic viability of bee pollination – and Texas is not immune. Central Texas Bee Rescue, a nonprofit Austin-based Texas Central rescue group, expanded last month to Houston to save feral honeybees. The honey produced in the new Houston base will help stock numerous Whole Food shelves to fund the nonprofit rescue operation.
    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/

EcoNotes