| Somerset Power gets OK to begin coal gasification
The Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday gave the green light to Somerset Power LLC's plan to begin coal gasification at its Riverside Avenue plant. Outraged environmentalists and community activists called the decision unacceptable and said it significantly undermined the state's global warming policy. Earlier this month, the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs declined to order a Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act review of the plant. The Conservation Law Foundation, which lobbies on environmental issues in New England, asked for the review. "In a final permit issued by DEP, the commonwealth said it would allow the power plant to adopt experimental coal plasma gasification technology and continue releasing carbon dioxide at current levels," said the foundation's spokesman Colin Durrant.
The Other Women to Watch
Grain prices have reached record highs and oil prices are flirting with $100 a barrel. At first blush, this could seem daunting, but Ms. Woertz sees opportunity. The high oil prices mean the world is more conscious about energy security, Ms. Woertz says. That translates into greater demand for corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel -- both key products that ADM makes. And while the higher grain prices have cut into biofuel's profitability, it has prompted farmers to plant more acreage, which means more grain to handle and ship across the Corn Belt and overseas. But with more mouths to feed as the population grows, there are growing worries about the long-term sustainability of farming for fuel instead of food. Ms. Woertz envisions expanding ADM's biofuels production beyond corn and beans.
Sounds of Summer: NT intervention
NADINE WICKER: It's good, high school. Good fun at school. You learn, get more education, you know.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Nadine Wicker was trying to regularly attend school in spite of the difficulties.
NADINE WICKER: It's really hard sometimes with families and friends, when you get friends and all that.
SARA EVERINGHAM: What do you mean it can be hard?
NADINE WICKER: Fighting, people yelling, families drinking and smoking.
SARA EVERINGHAM: And in spite of pressure from her peers.
NADINE WICKER: There's too much sniffing. I used to sniff when I was 12, I used to smoke, drink but I stopped them now.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The conference had workshops for the girls not only on drugs and alcohol but also domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Let a little hydrangea be planted in New Orleans
It's only a week and a half before Mardi Gras, and Carnival reigns in New Orleans. On Bourbon Street it's beer and booze and blaring music and Mardi Gras beads. Human statues hold their poses on almost every corner, and girls go wild on balconies. Parades appear out of nowhere; so do mounted police, their huge horses maintaining crowd control by size alone.
I'm in the French Quarter of the Paris of the New World, the town also known as the Big Easy, where a street kid named Louis Armstrong once searched garbage cans for food and now the airport is named for him. Where Fats Domino and Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis and Al Hirt marched to their own music. Where Tennessee Williams started writing a play named for a streetcar.
Actually, I'm not here to revel but to attend a board meeting of the Garden Writers Association.
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