Those swirly compact fluorescent light bulbs are supposed to be the greenest lighting around for general household use, using 75 percent less energy than their incandescent counterparts.

But they also contain the toxin mercury, and if you break one, special precautions are needed to clean it up.

Now, we learn that all CFL bulbs aren’t equal, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit public health watchdog. Perhaps not surprisingly, some have lower mercury content than others, and some last much longer.

But unfortunately, the EWG researchers found, “you can't tell the best of the best by their labels - or the U.S. government Energy Star logo. Some Energy Star labeled bulbs could not be legally sold in Europe due to excessive mercury content.”

The group has come up with its own green lighting guide, listing CFLs that contain a fraction of the toxic mercury allowed by Energy Star. All last 8-15,000 hours — compared to the Energy Star standard of 6,000 hours, and also offer high efficiency.

“Energy Star's 2008 standards, unveiled last March as a replacement for 2003 specifications, proposed to ratchet up energy efficiency requirements, tighten other performance measures and, for the first time, set a cap on bulb mercury content,” according to the EWG.

“The 2008 specs were scheduled to take effect December  2nd. But in mid-October, DOE officials made a concession to industry officials because of the souring economy: they postponed the 2008 standards for a 6-month ‘grace period’ to July 1, 2009, so that the U.S. inventory of about 100 million bulbs fabricated under 2003 specs could be sold off. EWG research shows that 1 in 3 can’t meet 2008 standards for efficiency and life span.”

See the EWG report and guide here.

The website for the Energy Star program is here.

Meanwhile, there’s more trouble in Energy Star land.

According to a new audit of the EPA by the Inspector General, many of the alleged benefits of the Energy Star labeling program cannot be verified. “We found the Energy Star program’s reported savings claims were inaccurate and the reported annual savings unreliable….Deficiencies included the lack of a quality review of the data collected; reliance on estimates, forecasting, and unverified third party reporting; and the potential inclusion of exported items,” the report stated.

The Energy Star program has been praised because of its voluntary, market-based approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. But according to Jeff Ruch, executive director of the watchdog group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the report underlines “how hard it is to re-orient a massive economy away from dependence on carbon fuels. The danger for the Obama administration is that it, too, will embrace ineffectual market-based approaches as the least politically painful path.”

The full report is here.

Planning on installing a programmable thermostat to save on heating and cooling costs?

Good idea. Factoring in local energy rates, the federal government’s Energy Star program estimates savings of more than $2,000 over the lifetime of a programmable thermostat, including its original cost.

Sure, you could just raise and lower the setting on your thermostat yourself, morning and night, but it’s difficult to remember.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials just held an event at the Hardware Center in Paoli, touting a new state law requiring that any thermostat sold in the state after Dec. 8, 2009,  be  mercury-free.

Tom Fidler, the DEP’s deputy secretary for waste, air and radiation management, also unveiled a statewide recycling program that will allow citizens to safely dispose of out-of-service thermostats containing mercury.

They’re tiny instruments, to be sure, but according to  the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about six to eight tons of mercury from discarded thermostats ends  up in landfills — or, worse, incinerators — each year. In an incinerator, the mercury becomes airborne, then settles into a lake or stream and enters the food chain. Many waterways throughout Pennsylvania have been placed under fish consumption advisories because of mercury contamination.

Thermostat retailers are not required to meet recycling requirements for another year, but some wholesalers are providing collections to contractors and the public through a program created by the nonprofit Thermostat Recycling Corp. To find a participating wholesaler in your community, call the Thermostat Recycling Corp. at 800-238-8192.

The new thermostat law is the latest of Pennsylvania’s  efforts to reduce mercury releases into the environment. The Clean Air Mercury Rule will result in an 80 percent cut in mercury emissions from all Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants by 2010, and a 90 percent reduction by 2015.

Middletown Township in Delaware County is on a renewable energy roll.

SmartPower, a national, nonprofit marketing organization that promotes renewable energy, is giving the township a $10,000 solar panel capable of generating one kilowatt of electricity.

To earn the panel — which ten other Pennsylvania communities have already done — municipal officials had to commit to purchasing 20 percent of the township government’s energy from clean energy sources by 2010. And seven percent of the households and businesses had to do likewise.

Middletown went for it in a big way, signing up more more households for wind energy than any other community in southeast Philadelphia, with the exception of Philadelphia.

It’s part of a “clean energy communities campaign,” a collaboration between SmartPower and the Pennsylvania Sustainable Development Fund. According to a statement, the goal is to build voluntary consumer demand for regionally-produced, commercial clean energy.

Tonight’s basketball game between Villanova and St. Joe’s is being powered, in effect, with green energy.

Hess Corporation’s Energy Marketing division is providing the Wildcats’ Pavilion  with 113,000 kilowatt hours worth of renewable energy certificates. 

They tallied the amount by calculating the energy used by the lighting, scoreboards, audio and visual systems, heating and air conditioning units, scrolling advertisements, on-site computers and concession stands.

Hess said the environmental benefit of the green purchase equates to not driving a typical car 170,000 miles.

The Wildcats meet the Hawks at 8 p.m.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released its annual status report on plants and animals that are candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

In it, the service upgraded the “priority” of the red knot, a bird that has attracted major interest in this region, but it is still refusing to list the bird.

The red knot is a small shorebird with one of the longest migrations on the planet — from its feeding grounds at the tip of South American to its summer nesting grounds in the Arctic. It stops partway through this epic flight on the beaches of the Delaware Bay to refuel on lipid-rich horseshoe crab eggs.

But the birds’ numbers have declined precipitously in recent years. Biologists blame a shortage of crab eggs, due to previous overharvesting.

Crabs are used as bait for conch and eel, edible delicacies in Asia. Limits on the harvest are now in effect, but a restricted number of males is still being taken from the bay.

Groups have filed four petitions to have the agency list the red knot on an emergency basis. All have been declined.
The agency has listed the red knot as a “candidate” species — one that is eligible for listing. And in its current review the agency acknowledges that the threats to the bird, which is a subspecies, are “severe enough that it puts the viability of the knot at substantial risk and is therefore of a high magnitude.”

FWS spokeswoman Diana Weaver said the current priority upgrade — from a 6 to a 3 — was based on a continued decline in the population (15 percent since last year).  She said a priority number of 3 is the highest a subspecies can have.

However, all the species with a priority of a 1 or a 2 would have to be listed before a 3 would be considered, she said. Currently, the list has no species with a priority of 1.  It has 99 species with a priority of 2, but 34 of those are being proposed for listing in the current filing.

“Basically, the service is admitting that the red knot desperately needs help, yet is once again refusing to actually offer any help,” said Caroline Kennedy, of the national nonprofit, Defenders of Wildlife. “The failure to list the red knot makes the management actions regarding horseshoe crab harvest levels of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, even more critical.”

Margaret O’Gorman, of the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, said, “Needless to say, we are pleased that the priority has been upgraded. However, the only way that the species is going to recover is when it receives the full protection of the law.”

Darin Schroeder, of the American Bird Conservancy, noted that the agency has "once again confirmed that the red knot is increasingly threatened with extinction and deserving of heightened conservation measures, particularly immediate reductions in the commercial harvest of their primary food source – horseshoe crabs.”  

The bird’s population on Delaware Bay numbered as many as 100,000 two decades ago. Last spring, they numbered about 15,000. Computer models say the bird could go extinct as early as 2010.

The bay stopover is important not just for red knots. Every spring, it becomes a magnet for birdwatchers who want to witness what some call the “Serengeti” of the east coast, one of the most important bird congregations in the world. Yet shorebird numbers on the bay have dropped from 1.5 million in 1988 to between 300,000 and 400,000 last year.

The FWS complete notice and list of proposed and candidate species appears in today's Federal Register and can be found here. 

Planning to drive for the holidays or a winter vacation? A new transportation study by the Union of Concerned Scientists contains a wealth of data about the greenest ways to go. Not surprisingly, a bus is often the winner. But in some cases -- such as when a person is driving a long distance solo -- flying is actually better.

One interesting element: A family of four choosing a Chevrolet Suburban, which the UCS says is one of the most inefficient SUVs on the road, over a Toyota Prius will more than triple their carbon pollution for the same trip. The report, titled “Getting There Greener,” has lots of other data about travel on planes, trains and buses. See it here:

But what if the SUV is the only car you own? The UCS analyzed the data, and found that factoring in the cost of gas and other expenses, it’s actually cheaper to rent a hybrid car. (Although they only define the rental rates as “competitive,” and they factor in gas at $3.50 a gallon.) The emissions for a 500-mile vacation drop from 1,061 pounds of carbon to 281.

Meanwhile, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has announced it is designating five Philadelphia area rental locations – including Philadelphia International Airport – as “hybrid branches.”  The other four locations are:

36 S. 19th Street in Philadelphia
123 S. 12th Street in Philadelphia
725 E. Market Street in West Chester
3201 U.S. RT 1-Brunswick Park in Lawrenceville, NJ

Nationwide, Enterprise is designating 80 branches and and adding nearly 5,000 hybrids to their fleets. They include the Prius, Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry and Ford Escape. Local rental rates start at $59.99 per day but will vary according to market conditions, according to a company statement.

“Customers who want an environmentally friendly or fuel-efficient vehicle often ask about hybrids,” said Bobby Keyes, vice president and general manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Philadelphia. “More than doubling the number of hybrids in our fleet means they have more choices than ever.”

Customers can reserve a hybrid at any of the five designated Philadelphia “hybrid branch” rental locations online at www.enterprise.com or by calling 1-800-RENT-A-CAR.

Captive bluefin tuna inside a transport cage. The cage is being towed by a tug from fishing grounds in Libya to Tuna farms in Sicily. Greenpeace is calling on the countries of the Mediterranean to protect bluefin tuna with marine reserves in their breeding and feeding areas.

Like seafood but worry about the impact on the world’s fisheries? Greenpeace has just released an update of its sustainable seafood analysis for supermarket chains.

Whole Foods came in at the top, and Trader Joe’s remains near the bottom.

In June, when the first analysis was done, all 20 of the leading U.S. chains failed, according to the national advocacy group. They’re still not doing the right thing for the oceans, according to Greenpeace. All 20 supermarkets continue to sell destructively fished and overfished species. But several companies have begun developing and implementing sustainable seafood policies and practices, the group said today.

Eight companies “have demonstrated their commitment to improving their seafood sustainability by removing from sale some imperiled species such as orange roughy and sharks.”

 These are: Whole Foods, Ahold USA (brand names include Stop & Shop and Giant), Target, Wegmans, Safeway (Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Randall’s and Von’s), Wal-Mart, A&P (The Food Emporium, Pathmark, Super Fresh, Waldbaums), and Price Chopper.

"While many supermarkets seek to green their image, the bottom line is that they are contributing to the crisis facing our oceans," Greenpeace’s Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar, a marine biologist, said in a prepared statement. "The initial steps being taken to implement sustainability policies and practices are the right ones, but bigger strides are needed to prevent the collapse of our marine ecosystems."

The full report, “Carting Away the Oceans: How Grocery Stores are Emptying the Seas,” is available at http://www.greenpeace.org/seafood It includes a state-by-state search engine of seafood markets.

Meanwhile, here are  Greenpeace’s rankings of the stores:
1. Whole Foods Market
2. Ahold USA (Stop & Shop, Giant)
3. Target
4. Harris Teeter
5. WalMart
6. Safeway (Dominicks, Genuardi's, Randall's, Von's)
7. Wegmans
8. Kroger (Baker's, City Market, Dillon's, Own's, PayLess, Ralph's, Scott's, Smith's, Quality Food Center - QFC)
9. Aldi
10. Costco
11. A & P (Food Emporium, Pathmark, Super Fresh, Waldbaum's)
12. Giant Eagle
13. Publix
14. Winn-Dixie
15. Delhaize (Bloom, Food Lion, Hannaford Bros., Sweetbay)
16. Supervalu (Acme, Albertson's, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's)
17. Trader Joe's
18. Meijer
19. H.E. Butt (H.E.B., Central Market)
20. Price Chopper

A Supervalu spokeswoman responded to that store’s ranking with the following e-mailed statement: “Supervalu’s goal is to provide our customers with the widest variety and freshest selection of quality products possible. Because seafood sustainability is an important issue for Supervalu, we will continue to monitor and ensure compliance of the vendor community with government regulations, will support programs that are adopted as industry standards, and will stay attuned to new technologies that support the seafood industry.”

In the June report, Greenpeace concluded all 20 chains  were “ignoring scientific warnings about the crisis facing global fisheries and the marine environment when they stock their shelves with seafood.”

Also, none of the companies had policies and practices that guaranteed they wouldn’t sell seafood from fisheries that are harming sea turtles, dolphins, seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals.

Keith Russell

Every night, Philly lights up.

Pretty, right? Except that to birds, it can be disorienting. Following the office lights shining through windows — or being confused by them — they slam into the glass and are killed.

When I wrote about the issue in 2000, the Academy of Natural Sciences’ Nate said it was common for him to come across dead birds during migration season on his walk from the train station to work.

Ornithologists at Chicago's Field Museum have studied the issue, too. Over about two decades, the museum’s David Willard picked 25,000 dead specimens of 140 species from the sidewalk around one particular building — at least one a day during migration.

Now, Philadelphia ornithologist Keith Russell has received a $10,000 grant to do a comprehensive study of how many birds are affected in Philadelphia.

Russell, an outreach coordinator for Audubon Pennsylvania, is one of 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for a “TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program,” part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota.

Partnering with the Philadelphia Zoo at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Russell plans to organize a volunteer monitoring effort to collect data during the 2008 and 2009 migrations. Armed with statistics, he and others can pursue remedies, such as working to get lights turned off at night during migration seasons in Philadelphia’s taller, most collision prone, buildings.

The TogetherGreen site notes: “Through the annual Philadelphia Mid-Winter Bird Census that Keith started in 1987, hundreds of volunteers have revealed many excellent birding locations in the city – including a reservoir in Fairmount Park that acts as a haven for waterfowl. That reservoir was slated for demolition in 1997, but thanks to the hard work of Keith and other nature-lovers, not only does it still exist today, but it will soon be the site of a new Audubon Center – a place where more Philadelphians can learn about, enjoy and work to protect the nature around them.

“Thousands of Philadelphians have had the privilege of learning from Keith, benefiting from his tremendous knowledge, gentle manner, passionate love of nature – and uncannily accurate birdsong imitations!”