And speaking of UCA
It will be the setting Wednesday for a news conference to announce a new book outlining "greener" environmental strategies for the South.
News release on the jump.
CENTER FOR A BETTER SOUTH NEWS RELEASE
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Center for a Better South (www.bettersouth.org) on Wednesday will unveil a new book of environmental ideas for Southern policymakers during a week-long barnstorming tour from South Carolina and Virginia to Arkansas and Florida.
The Arkansas event will take place at 10 a.m. on Wednesday at the University of Central Arkansas. Participants will include Glen Hooks, Associate Regional Representative for the Sierra Club; Rob Fisher, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Ecological Conservation Organization (www.ecoconservation.org); April Ambrose, Representative of the Arkansas Climate Awareness Project (www.arclimate.org), the Arkansas Environmental Education Association, and Executive Director and Board Chair of Arkansas Earth Day Foundation; and Cliff Beacham, representing Faulkner County Supporters of Sustainable Communities.
Written by Arkansan Eddy Moore, the new book, "Getting Greener: Progressive Environmental Ideas for the American South," makes 15 substantive policy recommendations for state and local leaders to consider. It also suggests a dozen practical ideas that consumers can implement to make their lives greener without government action.
"The purpose of this book is to take ideas that have worked or are working in other areas of the country and help Southern leaders better understand how they can work in our region," said Better South President Andy Brack. "Implementing many of these ideas will reduce energy costs, save money for consumers and protect the environment by being smarter with how we deal with the environment."
Brack said the Center also next week would unveil a new Web site that makes the ideas accessible to anyone for free.
"Because the South is one of America’s leading areas for growth, it ought to be a leading area for dealing with policy issues in the environmental arena," said book author Eddy Moore, an Arkansas law student with years of policy experience in Washington and California. "But Southerners haven’t traditionally seen these challenges as opportunities to make life better. This new book helps explain some leading green ideas in ways that will allow us to grow responsibly and protect our heritage with the environment."
Comments
Speaking of environmental issues in the South: The DemGaz had a story today about how the attempt to expand the BFI landfill will likely fail due to Mayor Stodola's opposition to the project. Big news! Thanks Mayor! Since it has been much debated on here, I feel compelled to point out that this is an example of the Mayor protecting the interests of a less well-off neighborhood.
Excerpts from the article are below:
"LITTLE ROCK - A potential landfill expansion in southwest Little Rock faces rejection from a newly empowered mayor and some of his city board colleagues if the issue reaches City Hall.
The publicly stated opposition by Mayor Mark Stodola and other members of the Little Rock Board of Directors signals a likely defeat of BFI Waste Services' plans to boost its Mabelvale Pike operation.
Neighbors opposed to the expansion have long awaited the closure of the facility, which began collecting trash about 30 years ago.
"If foresight was available when this first started, you never put a landfill there," Stodola said Friday. "And I don't see any point in perpetuating it."
Any city board action on the issue would come only if the Pulaski County Regional Solid Waste Management District approves the BFI expansion. That panel, which also includes Stodola and county leaders, is debating whether county residences and businesses need the extra landfill space. It is set to consider the issue Aug. 30.
BFI argues that the expansion would ensure competition among garbage collectors in the county. It also has offered to build a 123-acre park on the former Coleman Dairy property adjacent to the landfill as a tradeoff.
Some residents strongly support the park plan and have campaigned for the landfill's expansion. The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce argues that more landfill space would help keep garbage rates low for area businesses.
But Stodola said the need isn't great enough to justify the landfill's expansion, particularly as the city and other agencies are working to spruce up nearby Fourche Creek as an inner-citycanoe trail.
He said the county's two other landfills, including Little Rock's dump just south of the city limits, could take on enough trash to meet demand for several years. Waste Management has a private landfill in Jacksonville.
Stodola also said he's considering how to use the municipal dump to increase city revenue, which is lagging behind projections. The eventual closure of the BFI site could help, he said, possibly by several million dollars a year. Though he wasn't specific, he said BFI could partner somehow with the city to keep operating in Pulaski County."
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August 20, 2007 02:57 PM