What makes smart growth so ‘smart’

So, what is smart growth? “The central tenet of smart growth,” Greg Dierkers, Erin Silsbe, Shayna Stott, Steve Winkelman and Mac Wubben of the Center for Clean Air Policy in its “CCAP Transportation Emissions Guidebook – Part One: Land Use, Transit & Travel Demand Management” stress, “is the return to more compact built forms that … Read more

U.S. could see cleaner fuels powering cleaner cars by 2017

I cannot imagine there being a single vehicle owner who wouldn’t support a rule stipulating cars run cleaner. If not that, then how about much improved motor vehicle fuel economies – who would not want this? Maybe I’m just a dreamer. Washington Post correspondent Juliet Eilperin on Mar. 29, 2013, wrote: “The Environmental Protection Agency … Read more

An Earth Day 2013 prelude

Next Monday, Earth Day turns 44. All about Earth awareness or planet conservation, the topic I’ve chosen to write on will, of course, have an air quality connection. But being today is not Earth Day that will have to wait. For the time being, though, what I thought I would write on right now, very … Read more

Lay of the land: Developed former California farmland not ‘priceless’

In a recent “gristmill” article at Grist.com, writer Susie Cagle discusses agriculture. Cagle, in citing the American Farmland Trust (AFT), not only reports there are 25-million-plus California farmland acres (as of 2007) but also that such acreage is shrinking at a rate of better than 1 percent per year. The Golden State is losing ground – … Read more

Ports news: Air quality improvement efforts in South Carolina, Seattle

There is more good news regarding emissions reductions work – this time at the two U.S. ports at Charleston, South Carolina and Seattle, Washington. In Charleston, Air Emissions Inventory report data show that: “Total port-related levels of nitrogen oxide (Nox), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) were reduced by 29 percent, 51 percent and 26 percent respectively from 2005 levels. “Emissions … Read more

CATS: Controlling NOx emissions levels with diesel aftermarket technology

Number 17 in the Clean Air Technologies Series. Using technology to knock out NOx (nitrogen oxide) levels in diesel exhaust with the aid of what’s called Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF), isn’t something new. In fact, DEF has been available from one supplier since 2003. Available in liquid form, the DEF additive effectively is composed of two parts deionized … Read more