Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Week of March 30,2009

News From Across the USM Campuses

April 3, 2009- Cheryl Dieter- US Geological Survey, MD-DE-DC Water Science Center "Hydrogeology and Groundwater Quality of the Anacostia River Watershed, Washington, DC" . University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education, Spring 2009 Seminar Series. Seminars are held on Fridays at 2 PM in the Technology Research Center, Room 206, on the UMBC campus, and are free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Visitor parking passes for the TRC lot may be purchased for $4.00 in the CUERE office in TRC 102/105 shortly before seminar.

School wide competition for Energy-saving ideas for architecture building. Sponsored by the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; University of Maryland, College Park.  Submission deadline is April 1, 2009.

Patuxent River in 'dire straits,' gets D- grade (By Pamela Wood, The Capital, 3/26/09) [Article quotes Michael Williams of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science]

Maryland Researchers Work on Energy Storage (By NAW Staff, University of Maryland, College Park, 3/23/09)

State of Maryland News

Statement from Governor O'Malley on Passage of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act (Office of the Governor, Press Release, 3/27/09)

Patuxent River rates a poor report card (The Baltimore Sun, 3/26/09)

Maryland Senate committee OKs energy regulation bill (The Associated Press as reported in The Daily Record, 3/25/09)  

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

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• Climate Change Definitions
• Facilities Master Planning
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• ACUPCC National Benchmarking
• Useful Links and References

National and International News

Winds of Change Evident in U.S. Environmental Policy (By Juiet Eilperin, The Washington Post, 3/30/09)

U.S. Climate Envoy Vows Support: Commitment to Global Talks Affirmed Even as Caveat Is Issued (By Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post, 3/30/09)  

Loggers Try to Adapt to Greener Economy (By William Yardley, The New York Times, 3/28/09)

Cost Works Against Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources in Time of Recession (By Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, 3/28/09)

White House Announces International Meetings to Address Energy and Climate Issues (By Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times, 3/28/09)

Among Climate Scientists, a Dispute Over ‘Tipping Points' (By Andrew Revkin, The New York Times, 3/28/09)

Do New Bulbs Save Energy if They Don't Work? (By Leora Broydo Vestel, The New York Times, 3/27/09)

Leaving computers on overnight = $2.8 billion a year (Yahoo News, 3/26/09)

Reinventing America's Cities: The Time Is Now (By Nicolai Ouroussoff, The New York Times, 3/25/09)

EPA to Scrutinize Permits for Mountaintop-Removal Mining (By Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, 3/25/09)

Slow, Easy, Cheap and Green  (By Steven Kurutz, The New York Times, 3/25/09)

EPA Presses Obama To Regulate Warming Under Clean Air Act
(By Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, 3/24/09)

EPA puts mountaintop mining projects on hold: Move comes after appeals court ruling that went against mine critics (By MSNBC Staff and News Service Reports, MSNBC.com, 3/24/09)

Oil plagues sound 20 years after Exxon Valdez: Future risk assessments must look at longer impacts, recovery council says (MSNBC.com, 3/24/09)

Democrats to shelve fast-track process on climate bill, for now (By Darren Samuelson, from ClimateWire as reported in The New York Times, 3/23/09)

Solving the Mystery of the Vanishing Bees: The mysterious ailment called colony collapse disorder has wiped out large numbers of the bees that pollinate a third of our crops. The causes turn out to be surprisingly complex, but solutions are emerging (By Diana Cox-Foster and Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Scientific American, March 2009)