Green hydrogen from Africa
Namibia is turning its desert country into a land of the carbon future, a story in the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend. They’re using all that sun to produce energy enough to separate hydrogen atoms from water molecules and then selling the hydrogen as energy. Hydrogen can power anything from a car to a power plant. The country is part of a worldwide effort to produce hydrogen, using green technology and a smaller price.
Everyone wants some pot
Isolate Extraction Systems Inc. is positioning itself to quadruple output at its Schenectady factory next year, the Albany Business Journal is reporting. The company builds extraction machinery that can draw the oil from cannabis to be used in consumer products from vaping pods to CBD brownies, the story says. After purchasing a firm in Colorado, and moving much of the operation to Schenectady, IES projects $12 million in revenue in 2022, the story says.
Washington County shifts farming districts
New York State’s counties, using the Consolidated Agricultural Districts, can create agricultural districts to promote and protect farming, forestry and the farmers that run them, the Post-Star is reporting this morning. Washington County Board of Supervisors approved the addition of three parcels to the county’s districts and removed four parcels that could be combined with nonfarm parcels outside the farming districts, the story says.
Mayor Kelly cleared on ethics charges
The Saratoga Springs ethics board “resolved there was no reasonable cause for believing that [Mayor Meg Kelly] violated one or more provisions of the Code of Ethics of the City of Saratoga Springs, as alleged by the inquirer,” Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton, a story in the Daily Gazette reports. Kelly has a part time role at the Charlton School in Burnt Hills, and Dalton accused the mayor of using her position at the city to solicit donations and highlight the school’s students above others.
NYS Climate Councils targets wood smoke
During the October meeting of the state's Climate Action Council, a member of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority asserted that reducing wood smoke by 40 percent upstate could reduce non-fatal heart attacks, asthma-related hospital visits and deaths significantly, a story in the Times Union says. The Climate Action Council has been planning for a year to bring the sustainability targets of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to fruition. According to a presentation, the story says, wood smoke produces far more inhalable particles that can cause cancer and other diseases, than all other forms of combustion in the state combined.