Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
[21]
Similarly, earmarks accounted for about $43 million, or 27 percent, of
appropriated funds for DOE's hydrogen and fuel cell R and D program in
fiscal year 2006.
[22]
One megawatt of wind power generates about as much electricity as 240 to
300 households use each year.
[23]
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 also established a new residential
investment tax credit for solar energy systems that provides a 2-year tax
credit through December 31, 2007
[24]
The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that some of the leading sources of
bird mortality per year are attacks by domestic and feral cats, hundreds of
millions of bird deaths; collisions with building windows, 97 million to 976
million bird deaths; poisoning from pesticides, at least 72 million bird
deaths; and collisions with communication towers, 4 million to 50 million
bird deaths.
[25]
See GAO,
Wind Power: Impacts on Wildlife and Government
Responsibilities for Regulating Development and Protecting Wildlife,
GAO-
05-906
(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 16, 2005).
[26]
The higher cost of electricity generated using IGCC technology in
comparison with conventional coal-fired technologies more fully reflects
the total cost of burning coal by including the cost of controlling the release
of harmful emissions. Alternatively, several countries have enacted a carbon
tax that puts a value on the carbon emissions that conventional coal-fired
technologies generate.
[27]
See
10 C.F.R. pt. 52.
[28]
Mining and processing of uranium and transporting of nuclear fuel result in
some greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions
result from site construction and worker transportation for both nuclear and
renewable energy facilities.
[29]
MIT.
The Future of Nuclear Power
(Cambridge, MA: July 2003);
University of Chicago,
The Economic Future of Nuclear Power
(Chicago,
IL: August 2004).
[30]
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 originally set 1998 as the date for
DOE to begin accepting spent nuclear fuel for disposal. DOE has revised its
estimate of the repository's opening first to 2010 and currently to 2017,
characterized by DOE as a “best-achievable schedule.”
[31]
NRC requires that utilities store spent nuclear fuel immersed in deep pools
of water or in dry storage casks consisting of all steel or steel and concrete.
Currently, 37 commercial dry storage facilities exist in 27 states. However,
Private Fuel Storage in Utah, a facility licensed to take waste from a
