PSEG, residents, environmenalists, others face off over Bridgeport power plant

Even though less than 2 percent of Connecticut’s power came from coal burning sources last year, the owners of the PSEG Bridgeport Harbor Station seem determined to get their operating permit renewed.

Click on this environmental headline for more on this story from Environmental Headlines and other news sources.

WEST HAVEN — A city child care center was recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Wednesday for being named one of 20 winners in a national competition focused on promoting healthful habits and exercise for young children. The West Haven Child Development Center Inc. was lauded at the Let’s Move! Child Care Recognition Luncheon
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According to the EPA, indoor air quality (IAQ) directly impacts student academic performance and health. Better IAQ increases productivity and improves the performance of mental tasks such as concentration and recall in both adults and children. Poor IAQ can trigger health issues, such as asthma.

American Electric Power (AEP) will be much in the news this week, with an annual shareholder meeting in Tulsa Oklahoma on Tuesday and a speech by AEP’s CEO and President Nick Akins to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. You can count on AEP spending a lot of time during these events talking about
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EHHI has released a new report calling for tougher standards to regulate cellular technologies—especially for children and pregnant women.

This report is the first part of a project researching the health effects of cell phone use. John Wargo, Ph.D., professor of Environmental Risk and Policy at Yale and lead author of the report, said, “The scientific evidence is sufficiently robust showing that cellular devices pose significant health risks to children and pregnant women….” Click on this environmental headline for more of this story.

The normally placid State Bond Commission on Monday staged a 15-minute debate on Connecticut’s commitment to bioscience before Democrats, led by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, sealed the $291 million deal with a Maine-based firm. The 10-year-long bond-issuance deal, part of a memorandum of understanding signed Monday with Jackson Laboratory, sets the scene for a $1-billion-plus
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An economic analysis done for 11 northeast and mid-Atlantic states shows that a clean fuels standard (CFS) is a winning idea for the region.  It could save consumers in the region billions, bring in billions more in revenue for these states, and create up to 50,000 jobs per year – dramatically increasing the region’s self-sufficiency.
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Marine aquaculture in Connecticut is still up against sturdy obstacles. New and better types of aquaculture gear are both improving fish farming and raising concerns, according to Tessa Getchis, the extension educator for Connecticut Sea Grant, University of Connecticut. Read more here: FIS – Worldnews – Aquaculture continues to struggle in Connecticut.

New Haven County has the undesirable status as the least healthy county in Connecticut, according to a new study. Conducted by the Population Health Institute in the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the study measured the health of Connecticut’s eight counties in several categories. Read more here: New Haven is Connecticut’s
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from Credo: For more than four decades now the Bridgeport coal plant in Fairfield has been polluting the environment and damaging the health of Connecticut residents — and it is time for Governor Malloy to put an end to it. This dirty coal plant emits more than 3 million tons of carbon dioxide, 2,800 tons
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Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today announced the award of $9.8 million in stem cell research funds to twenty Connecticut–based researchers. The awards were given by the State of Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee at its Tuesday grant review meeting in Farmington. Seventy-nine stem cell funding applications were accepted for consideration in January 2011.
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The Connecticut Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Friday announced a settlement with Covanta Projects of Wallingford, L.P, over air emissions violations at Unit 2 of its trash-to-energy plant. Under terms of the settlement filed today in Hartford Superior Court, the company will be assessed $400,000 in
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A brownfield is a property that has been polluted, typically by manufacturing or industrial use decades ago, and is considered for redevelopment for a new use. Connecticut’s new law, designed to promote economic development, requires property owners to pay into the fund 5 percent of the land’s value. The recently enacted state budget also includes
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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized Clean Air Act protections that will slash hundreds of thousands of tons of smokestack emissions that travel long distances through the air and threaten the health of hundreds of millions of Americans living downwind. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will protect communities that are home to 240
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Industry regulators have known for years that Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide produced by U.S. company Monsanto, causes birth defects, according to a new report. Click on this environmental headline for a link to the report and for more of this story.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy hails final passage of his Bioscience Connecticut proposal, which will provide 3,000 jobs annually between 2012-2018, and create more than 16,000 jobs through 2037.

A new study confirms what Environment and Human Health, Inc., has been saying for two years, EHHI president Nancy Alderman writes. “Outdoor wood furnaces are dangerous to human health.” Recent scientific studies revealed that airborne particles in wood smoke can trigger gene changes and DNA damage similar to those caused by car exhaust and cigarette smoke, according to Environmental Health News.

More than 30 states regulate indoor tanning by minors, with some banning children younger than 14 or requiring parental permission.

In response to a column by Nancy Alderman appearing in the Norwich Bulletin a reader writes: A policy allowing the furnaces with restriction is needed, with smoke-stack height and smoke guidelines outlined … Read more inside

To be deemed “proficient” in science on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a fourth-grader needed to correctly decide which type of grocery bags are best to use to help protect the environment, as well as explain how forces can change motion, how temperature can change matter and how environment can affect plant and
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