Tagged: Environment

Environmental activists and consumer advocates are breathing a sigh of relief. Ohio lawmakers apparently are NOT going to change the state’s energy efficiency program during the last days of the current legislative session.

The program requires electric companies to lower overall power usage by giving money to people and businesses that buy energy-saving appliances and equipment. To fund the program, all electricity customers pay a surcharge on their monthly electric bills.

A two-year, $8.5 million project to stop toxic algae in Ohio's largest inland lake isn't working.
 
The 13,000-acre Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio was sprayed with aluminum sulfate in April that was supposed to keep the blue-green algae from feeding on phosphorous in the water. A similar treatment was applied last year.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that this year's treatment was spoiled by high winds that helped stir phosphorus-rich mud from the lake bottom.

The U.S. Forest Service says the shale drilling technique for natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing can take place in a national forest in southeast Ohio.

The Forest Service released its report Monday after a study of a land and resource management plan drafted in 2006 for the Wayne National Forest.

Forest Supervisor Anne Carey says that plan can adequately address any damage and risks to the forest from the gas extraction method also known as fracking.

She also says a new environmental impact study is not needed.