Two months after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its final conflict minerals rule, the initial shock may be wearing off, as companies increasingly recognize that the rule’s lack of a de minimis exemption and its January 1, 2013 start date for tracking reportable events mean that they need to take action now (more…)
Despite or, perhaps, because of the austerity budget in Italy, Turin-based Fiat (Fiat, Ferrari, Maserati and Chrysler) has seen big growth in natural gas and propane powered cars. Sales of these passenger vehicles grew 90 percent (more…)
In results reported by the American Wind Energy Association on October 17, the U.S. wind industry saw installations rise 40% (more…)
Filed under: Green Building | Tags: Affordable Housing, Energy Star, Green Building, LEED®, Pennsylvania
Can you build a 58 unit residential building in western Pennsylvania and not use conventional HVAC systems? The answer is “yes.” The newly opened Retirement Residence at Plum is such a building. The building is (more…)
The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)
Scottish national poet (1759 – 1796)
Renewable energy was to be the future for man’s thirst for power. Alas, at least for that derived from the sun, it has become bogged down in a squabble that continues to play out in the international trade arena. The U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) on October 10, 2012 released its final affirmative determinations in the antidumping duty and countervailing duty investigations of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People’s Republic of China. Commerce determined that Chinese producers/exporters have sold solar cells in the United States at dumping margins ranging from 18.32 to 249.96 percent ad valorem, and received countervailable subsidies of 14.78 to 15.97 percent ad valorem.
The petitioner for these investigations is SolarWorld Industries America Inc. The U.S. solar industry is seriously split (more…)
