Renewable energies ‘Merton rule’ may be dropped
Housing minister Yvette Cooper is to publish a draft planning policy statement which proposes the abolition of the so-called ‘Merton rule’ which requires any new building to reduce its carbon emissions by 10% through renewables, it was reported in The Guardian. Housebuilders do not want to bear the cost of adding the green options to newbuilds and have been lobbying against the rule. This appears to be a huge U-turn for the government who last year wanted all local authorities to adopt a version of the rule.
The leader of the House Builders Federation claims that different local initiatives are confusing and a national strategy would be more effective, but renewable industries representatives report that the ‘Merton rule’ has been of far more use to them than any previous national government initiatives which are often confusing and run out of money. Projects such as the solar thermal project being installed on the old Arsenal ground, which is the biggest of its kind in the world, would not have been done without the ‘Merton rule’. It remains to be seen what will happen if it is abolished.
digg this
Stumble It!
There are many people, myself included that believe wind and solar power is a good solution to our energy needs. So far, the majority of wind farms have been planned and located in the countryside, far away from population centres. This does blight the countryside and affect the local wildlife and population, but for the majority of people there is no consequence apart from greener electricity. Local councils, environmental groups and local residents have in the past, and continue now, to campaign against wind farms in their local area. All that is about to change. Ecotricity have started a new policy of seeking planning permission to install wind turbines in urban areas. This makes it far easier for them to get planning permission approval.
New Yorkers aren't generally known for their 'greenness', but like everywhere else on the planet there are people who live in the city but who don't necessarily subscribe to it's wasteful ways. Colin Beavan is one such citizen. He is a writer who has begun an experiment where he and his family will attempt to live in the centre of NYC without making any net impact on the environment. He believes that if we rely on 'country bumpkins' to save the world we will all be doomed, as most of the world's populations live in cities. The experiment started at the end of November 2006 and will last for one year. The whole thing is being documented in the highly amusing and inspiring 
In yesterday's Guardian a reader asked "Watching those pictures of water being pumped out of flood-stricken areas got me thinking: how much energy does it take to produce all our mains water?" It's a good question, and one that Leo Hickman answered after some serious calculations. Everyday in the UK we use 19 billion litres of tap water, and in one year the figure is seven cubic kilometres! Between 2% and 3% of the UK's electricity is used to process and 'deliver' this water to us in our homes, and this creates 0.5% of our carbon emissions. Hickman's conclusion was that a litre of water has a footprint of 0.298 grammes, and said "even if you had one very full bath - about 150 litres - every day for a year, overall it would represent just 15kg of greenhouse gas emissions. That's about what the average car produces over 80 kilometres."
The sun made a very welcome appearance across the UK this weekend, which was especially good news for Ben & Jerry's. The environmentally-concerned ice-cream experts staged their 
