The Chelsea School, located in the Seven Oaks/Evanswood neighborhood of Silver Spring, MD, is selling its land, with the historic pre-Civil War Riggs-Thompson house, to the developer EYA. The site plan includes a new street that will circumvent the traffic protections designed to prevent cut-through traffic to and from the Central Business District. These protections were implemented after overwhelming approval by neighborhood referendum. This street would allow cars to bypass the one-way section of Ellsworth Drive near the library. For instance, drivers coming from downtown could enter Ellsworth going north, go through the Chelsea development, and take Pershing Drive to get to Dale Drive and the Beltway – just the kind of cut-through traffic that our traffic plan was designed to prevent. Cut-through traffic to Dale Drive will increase traffic on that artery and throughout the neighborhood. EYA claims that signs restricting access will prevent cut-through traffic. However, enforcement will be difficult – how will police know which cars are driven by visitors or residents? – and it is unlikely that the police will make it a sustained priority. SOECA and the Chelsea Task Force ask that the County and EYA use a cul-de-sac with entry and exit onto Ellsworth, which would preserve the traffic control plan. The County confirms that this cul-de-sac would satisfy Police and Fire Department requirements for access, even with the large number of townhouses in EYA’s plan.

The Chelsea School, located in the Seven Oaks/Evanswood neighborhood of Silver Spring, is selling its land, with the historic pre-Civil War Riggs-Thompson house, to the developer EYA. Although developers such as EYA must comply with all State and County environmental laws and regulations, Montgomery County has thus far failed to hold EYA to these requirements. It is vital that the County ensure that trees are preserved, and stormwater runoff properly managed, in order to avoid polluting nearby Sligo Creek and the Anacostia Watershed. It is also vital that EYA strictly adhere to green space requirements on the property, and that the Riggs-Thompson house and it setting are properly preserved. Environmental site design is not being followed in this proposed development. EYA’s plans violate State and County laws that require managing stormwater by preserving natural features --- which at the Chelsea site include numerous mature trees and steep, erodible slopes --- and using sensible design techniques, such as clustered development. The County’s forest conservation law also obliges EYA to preserve all significant trees on the site unless EYA can demonstrate that preserving them creates an unwarranted hardship. We cannot understand why County officials have failed so far to impose these requirements. Instead, EYA plans to clear-cut the site, destroying 64 trees --- only a handful outside the historic property would be preserved --- and to re-grade nearly the entire area, disturbing highly erodible steep slopes and creating new slopes, including one that takes part of the Riggs-Thompson lot and comes within 30 feet of that historic house itself. The County is also ignoring the zoning requirement that 50% of the townhouse development be maintained as green space accessible to its occupants. Instead, the County allows EYA to count the Riggs-Thompson property towards this requirement. The Chelsea property has 89 mature trees, many more than 100 years old. The 63% tree canopy coverage in the surrounding neighborhood is an important part of the green ring around downtown Silver Spring, which has only 14% coverage. Trees combat global warming by helping to clean the air, and the areas around them, and their root systems are very effective at protecting Sligo Creek and the Anacostia Watershed by controlling stormwater runoff. It would be tragic and foolish to lose these benefits in order to allow EYA to squeeze the maximum number of townhouses onto the Chelsea site. We therefore urge the Montgomery County Planning Board, and all other State and local officials, to vigorously enforce State and County stormwater laws and green space requirements, and save as many mature trees as possible, on the site of the proposed Chelsea Court townhouse development in Silver Spring.

The current California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (AB 2020), aka Bottle Bill, provides for container deposits as follows: Distributors pay a per container fee (CRV) of 5¢ <24 oz and 10¢ >24 oz into a state fund. Consumers pay a deposit of 5¢ for each container < 24 ounces and 10¢ for each container >24 ounces. In turn, they receive a refund of 5¢ for each container of less than 24 ounces redeemed, and 10¢ for each container of 24 ounces or greater redeemed. The weakness of this system is that consumers have to return containers to separate recycling centers. These centers are often hard to find, have long lines and discourage consumers to collect their deposits. The containers end up on the streets and in our waters, creating the pollution the Bottle Bill intended to end. Those containers that end up in recycling bins encourage dumpster divers. Other states such as Michigan offer a much more practical solution. Grocery chains that sell products packaged in containers requiring deposit are required to have recycling machines onsite. They are in operation during the full hours of the store, not limited hours during the day. This solution restores fairness to recycling and removes the barriers that cause many consumers to either avoid purchasing deposit-bearing containers or just throwing them out in the trash, recycling bins or the street. Let's put the deposit value to true use. Let your legislators know that it is now time for change. Stop the cycle of bottles that end up on our streets, streams and the ocean. End the threat to marine wildlife. Ask that AB2020 be amended to require all major stores to offer recycling stations operated by their store. Remove the bar code scanning that denies returning a container that the machine does not recognize as a valid redemption. If it is marked CA Redemption Value, all recycling locations should equally accept it without the consumer having to stand in long lines. Let's create a *real* recycling system together for the health and future of California!

Nearly 20 % of California's coastal marine ecosystems are now protected under the California Marine Life Protected Act. As the largest and most important estuary on the west coast of North America, the Bay was originally intended for inclusion under the Act, but marine protection has stalled at the Golden Gate. Critical marine and estuarine habitat, endangered and economically important species all urgently need our protection.

Be it resolved, that as Iowa is one of the States of the United States of America with the fewest acres of land set aside for preservation in Natural Wildlife Reservation Parks that an I-80 rest-stop booth be created to inform a new plan and make available a way to donate to such a program increasing Wildlife Reserve acres in Iowa.

Last August Lowe's Home Improvement began running a TV commercial, “Make it Beautiful, Tear It Down”, that portrayed a couple demolishing their home with sledgehammers before remodeling it. No mention was made of the possibility of recycling or reusing the lumber, cabinets, fixtures etc rather than sending them to the landfill. We at Zero Waste Kauai, and our national allies started an e-mail campaign to get them to pull the commercial and it appeared we were successful, but now the commercial is back again. you an check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLiV3nu3y-w.

Electric vehicles are the only way for commuters to tap into the ever-changing energy landscape. Commuter cars cannot easily adopt new sources of energy as quickly, or efficiently, as utility companies can. As exemplified in the unanticipated shift in price for natural gas, the cost of converting gasoline engines for its use, and the lack of infrastructure to back it, have left consumers unable to benefit from the low costs it promises. Furthermore, green energy sources such as solar and/or wind, remain equally out of reach. Electric cars remove this barrier, allowing consumers to benefit from whatever source of energy provides the best value at any given time. This petition seeks to address three of the most pressing issues behind the adoption of electric cars by the public. Current models sport batteries of varying configurations and charge requirements. The utility of these vehicles is further hampered by both the time it takes to recharge them, and the limited numbers of recharge cycles prior to their replacement. Lastly, the initial cost of the vehicles themselves deters consumers by remaining substantially above the costs of its substitutes. With this initiative in place, a solution to these issues is pursued simultaneously, and a new market born. With the new paradigm in place, market forces can then drive this technology in the most efficient direction, and in time, foster an entirely new industry.

This zoning change, if enacted, will raise taxes, spoil the education system and turn Bethany into a city. In Bethany we enjoy the rural character, the peace, the dark nights and the quiet almost entirely because of Bethany’s strict zoning regulations. If this development is allowed to proceed, subsequent proposals, as large or larger, would be right behind. Dense development will tax the water supply and likely pollute it. NO CLUSTER HOUSING IN BETHANY!!

Oahu needs a new artificial reef. Having a new shipwreck would increase tourism, benefit the local economy, help the local environment, and be free press for Oahu.

Our Goverment has failed to ever establish a Energy Policy. Other countries want our fuel and will pay for it. This may cause our energy to be sold without a energy policy to control the transactions.

The people of Nebraska want to be able to produce their own power by tapping on Nebraska's abundant natural resources. LB557 and LB598 would create opportunities for Nebraskans to invest and own shares in medium-size renewable community energy projects. Renewable sources are solar, wind, methane, and biomass. These bills reinforce our public power structure and Governor Heineman’s vision to ensure that Nebraskans have reliable, affordable and cleaner energy in the future (as he recently said in an interview). Developing “Community Solar Garden” projects and raising the net-metering threshold from 25kw to 100kw will encourage private investment in energy projects, adoption of innovative technologies, creation of new economic development, and help our public power utilities diversify their energy portfolio. These bills are fiscal neutral and do not add a dime to the deficit. Nebraskans welcome renewable energy in the state without putting a burden on taxpayers. The bills only remove provisions and send a message that says: "Nebraska is NOW open for business."

The proposals to ban trade in used electronics between rich and poor have had a perverse effect. Poor nations have more pressing things to worry about than "e-waste". They are better off purchasing working and repairable electronics from rich people than they are being outlawed from the trade.