theCLog

Say Griffin Brothers and I think oil changes and tires, not recycling and alternative energy.

Say the words reclamation center or landfill, and you might think of recycling. But alternative energy?

Yet, that’s just how Mike Griffin looks at his family’s North Mecklenburg C&D Recycling Center on Holbrooks Road. Griffin Brothers already produces one form of alternative energy – wood – and in just a few years, it could tap the sun with a solar energy farm.

Griffin Brothers is recycling half of the construction debris – measured by weight – trucked to the center. The two largest sources of recycled material are wallboard that is reused from construction projects and “clean wood” leftover at building sites.

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By grinding up the leftover wallboard, Griffin Brothers gets gypsum dust, which it can sell to fertilizer makers, and bits of gypsum-encrusted paper, which provides a great floor covering in large chicken houses.

The company also recycles pieces of concrete block, bricks or stone, grinding them into large and small pieces that construction companies can use for riprap, to stop erosion, or in building roads.

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And if the town [of Huntersville] allows Griffin Bros. to also fill 2 to 3 acres of land between its two existing fill sites, the company has plans to use all that land – once finished – for a solar farm. Mike Griffin said the company’s research shows such a field could produce a “significant” amount of electricity.

Read the entire Carolina Weekly Newspapers article here.

RocketBoom covers construction debris recycling:

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If you’ve been screwed by Vonage, you have until March 16 to file a claim by calling 1-877-5-no-scam.

Telephone company Vonage will refund customers and pay $3 million to North Carolina and 31 other states under a settlement involving the company’s cancellation policies.

The N.C. Department of Justice will use the settlement to enforce consumer-protection laws.

The settlement requires Vonage to make refunds to eligible consumers who filed complaints regarding unauthorized charges after January 2004. According to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office, 65 North Carolinians have complained to the consumer-protection division about Vonage’s customer service and cancellation policies since 2007.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.

Former Vonage customer goes all “Office Space” (the movie) on their Vonage modem:

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Charlotte’s new CATS CEO is from Los Angeles. Here’s hoping she brings some good ideas to keep our public transportation facing forward and marching into the future.

Carolyn Flowers, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has been tapped as the new director and CEO of CATS.

Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton announced her appointment today.

Flowers, who will have a base salary of $197,500 a year, will start her new job in January.

In her current role, Flowers oversees bus operations, the Freeway Service Patrol and call box programs for MTA, where she manages an annual budget of $900 million and more than 6,000 employees.

Flowers will replace CATS director Keith Parker, who left this summer to run the San Antonio transit agency. She was picked from the 70 candidates who applied for the job. Seven were interviewed as finalists.

Read more at Qcitymetro.com.

In related news: It’s the Lynx system’s 2nd birthday and streetcar meetings begin tonight.

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About a dozen protesters hung out in front of the Mecklenburg County Courthouse this afternoon, some in costume. There were the usual picket signs, then there was the depiction of a coal industry executive forcing a blindfolded Justice to her knees. (Photos below.)

Originally, the group — which includes members of several environmental organizations — planned to protest during the trial of Ken Davies. He’s a local attorney who was arrested during the April protest at Duke Energy headquarters in Uptown, along with roughly 40 of his fellow protesters. (See photos from that protest here.)

The crime? They became trespassers when they voluntarily crossed a pink line spray-painted on the sidewalk. Of the 40 arrested in April, 30 have already paid their debt to society — either through community service or by paying court costs. The final 10? Their charges were dropped last week.

Davies attempted to subpoena Jim Rogers, the company’s CEO, to testify at his trial. He hoped Rogers would show and defend the company’s Cliffside Steam Station (a coal plant), located about 50 miles from Uptown Charlotte.

Bruce Lillie, a supervisor in the D.A.’s office, says — despite appearances — the court’s decision to drop their charges against Davies, and nine others, was coincidental and doesn’t have anything to do with Davies’ attempt to subpoena Rogers. More, Lillie says, he wasn’t aware Rogers was being honored tonight by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

“Our feeling was we had convicted a lot of people already involved with this case,” said Lillie. Plus, he added, he heard that the protesters who didn’t plead guilty planned to use their court time to draw attention to their cause — and, he said, that isn’t a good use of the court’s time.

“From a practical standpoint,” he said, “the court doesn’t have the resources to turn a trespassing case into a 2-3 day trial.”

When Davies’ trespassing charge was dropped, plans for the protest got confused said Brian Seaton, one of the protests organizers. He expects a bigger crowd of protesters to show up tonight, at the Convention Center. The protest will begin at 5:30 and the group plans to hold their own award ceremony at 6:30.

Tonight, while Rogers is inside accepting the 2009 Citizen of the Carolinas Award, the protesters plan to honor him as Hypocrite of the Year.

They say he’s a “greenwasher” because he says he’s in favor of promoting alternative energy production while constructing a new coal fired plant.

“Among the things that are harmful to our planet,” said Donna Lisenby, of Appalachian Voices and the Upper Watauga Riverkeeper, “coal-fired plants are among the worst things.”

Duke Energy representative, Tom Williams, isn’t bothered by the protests. Instead, he says, “We admire the people who are protesting. We admire their passion and enthusiasm.”

He says his boss, Jim Rogers, has already testified under oath about Cliffside — to the North Carolina Utilities Commission and didn’t have anything to do with the protesters’ trespassing cases.

So far, all efforts by environmentalists to halt construction at Cliffside have failed.

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Did you know Charlotte-metro’s air is on the nasty-air list? It is.

The Q.C. is ranked No. 8 on the American Lung Association’s list of worst air, in terms of ozone. That’s right. We’re up there with Los Angeles and Houston, and, according to their report, our air quality is getting worse — not better.

Plans to clean up the Charlotte region’s air have stalled even as federal regulators are pushing state and local officials to deal with pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has started the clock on penalties that could cripple the region’s road funding and block industrial development unless clean-air plans are submitted and approved by 2011.

State environmental regulators in both Carolinas and a regional transportation group are expected to detail those plans.

But the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been held up in negotiations with the EPA over terms for an extension — one year or two — dictating when the region has to meet current ozone standards. Those talks have tied up the release of a major section of North Carolina’s state implementation plan, says Laura Boothe, the state’s division of air quality attainment planning branch supervisor.

The EPA must approve both states’ plans, known in government circles as an SIP, by May 8, 2011, or transportation dollars could be cut off for the region — an area that includes Mecklenburg, Union, Gaston, Lincoln, Cabarrus, Rowan and York counties, as well as southern Iredell County.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.

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Who knew a fly could bug big business?

Mayflies may seal the fate of mountaintop mining in the Appalachian hills of the eastern U.S.

Companies such as Massey Energy Co. that mine coal there by stripping mountain peaks and dumping debris in streams are being asked by the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time to safeguard the mayfly, one of the oldest winged insects and a bait favored by fly-fisherman.

Applicants for new mines will have to show they wouldn’t cause pollution deadly to the aquatic bug. That puts at risk about $3 billion a year in coal that operators led by Massey and International Coal Group Inc. extract in Appalachia, said Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners LLC. Without fresh permits to dump debris, mines may shut by 2012 in states such as West Virginia, he said.

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Mountaintop mining produces millions of tons of crushed shale and sandstone dumped in valleys and streams. Rainwater flowing though the debris carries dissolved metals into waters below, a lethal stew for mayflies, the EPA says.

In mountaintop mining, peaks are blown away by dynamite to expose coal. Companies may be forced to make greater use of tunnels and shafts, which require more labor and can add $3 to $10 to the cost of extracting a ton of coal, Book said.

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More than 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) of creeks and streams have been buried by mining debris in Appalachia from surface-mining techniques, including mountaintop removal, the EPA said in 2005.

Mining’s threat to mayflies, which hatch in streams and grow to a quarter-inch to more than an inch (2.5 centimeters) long, has been documented since the late 1990s. This year, the EPA under President Barack Obama for the first time held up new permits on the grounds of inadequate safeguards for the insect.

Read the entire article at Bloomberg.com.

Further reading: Salt-loving algae wipe out fish in Appalachian stream

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From Terri Bennett, at Do Your Part:

One easy way to Do Your Part is to make sure clothing you no longer need is getting reused. But, what if you have items that are torn or you think really aren’t usable again? Goodwill wants them both. If your clothes have no tears, stains or buttons missing, they’ll go to the Goodwill sales floor.

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But what about old clothing or other things like rags, bedding or towels that are too worn out to be re-used? Well, Goodwill wants these, too. But, the textiles cannot be wet or contaminated with chemicals. These items are sorted and sold for recycling or many other uses such as sofa stuffing.

Donating these textiles means they are kept out of our growing landfills.

Read the rest of Terri’s post here, and check out a video on the topic.

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This morning, the staff of Creative Loafing Charlotte received the following news release from officials in our corporate office:

TAMPA, FL — A prominent Florida newspaper executive has been named chief executive officer of Creative Loafing, the alternative newsweekly group, its owner announced today.

Marty Petty, 56, is the former publisher of the St. Petersburg Times and the Hartford (CT) Courant. She will succeed Richard W. Gilbert who has been interim CEO since the reorganized company emerged from bankruptcy this fall under the new ownership of Atalaya Capital Management LP, a New York investment firm.

The news was shared with the Creative Loafing staff today through a memo. Creative Loafing (www.creativeloafing.com) publishes six alternative weekly newspapers and other Web sites, such as (www.straightdope.com), in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Tampa, Sarasota, Fla. and here in Charlotte.

The announcement of Petty, who began her newspaper career in 1983 at the Kansas City Stay and Times, marks the second significant appointment of a notable news veteran this month; having named James Warren, former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, to the publisher and president post at the Chicago Reader.

“I’m invigorated by the possibilities to deepen relationships with our readers and advertisers and expand our influence in our communities,” Petty said. “The coverage areas which have differentiated and distinguished the alternative press historically may be more important than ever.”

“This is an opportunity to lead a truly unique company in one of the most economically challenging times we have known. But these remain vibrant markets and it’s a wide open field as all media are challenged to redefine themselves to meet consumers changing lifestyles and information needs,” Petty said.

Gilbert described Petty’s expertise as “an unique mix seldom found in one publishing executive. She has solid journalistic values honed from her early career in the newsroom and her long-standing commitment to hard-hitting journalism. All three of her last papers earned Pulitzer Prizes during her leadership. As publisher of two of the nation’s most highly respected newspapers, she has also earned a reputation as a skilled and creative marketing and sales executive who knows how to build strategic alliances to ensure success. “

In addition to her CEO role, Petty joins the company’s board of directors. Gilbert, who has been at the helm of the business since Atalaya took ownership on August 25, will continue as a member of the board as well.

Creative Loafing is headquartered in Tampa, FL. It publishes six alternative newsweeklies: the Chicago Reader (www.chicagoreader.com) the City Paper in Washington DC www.washingtoncitypaper.com, Creative Loafing/Atlanta, Creative Loafing /Tampa, Creative Loafing/Sarasota and Creative Loafing/Charlotte (www.creativeloafing.com). Its national Web site presence also includes www.StraightDope.com. It has combined weekly print circulation of more than 400,000 copies and monthly online unique visitors in excess of 1.5 million.

Look for more on this appointment later on The CLog.

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Further reading:

• The Associated Press: EPA: Toxic chemicals in freshwater fish widespread
• The Charlotte Business Journal: EPA: Mercury in local fish
• The Sun Journal: Contamination in N.C. waters ‘a crisis,’ lawyer and water advocate says

Some say the benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks, or at least that’s what they were saying in 2007 when this was filmed:

Real-life stories about how mercury affects humans:

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The president is getting mixed messages about how many troops he should send to Afghanistan from his top advisers.

The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday.

The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, puts him in stark opposition to the current American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops.

General Eikenberry sent his reservations to Washington in a cable last week, the officials said. In that same period, President Obama and his national security advisers have begun examining an option that would send relatively few troops to Afghanistan, about 10,000 to 15,000, with most designated as trainers for the Afghan security forces.

Read more from The New York Times.

Further reading: Obama rejects all Afghan war options

Meanwhile, the media is getting mixed messages from the White House leak-squad.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will discuss the four scenarios with his national security team on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Fort Hood, Texas, Gibbs would not offer details about those options. He insisted that Obama has not made a decision about troop deployments.

Gibbs said that anybody who says Obama has made a decision “doesn’t have in all honesty the slightest idea what they’re talking about. The president’s yet to make a decision” about troop levels or other aspects of the revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

Read more from Yahoo! News and the Associated Press.

There are plenty of people who would prefer for President Obama to end the war and bring our troops home:

Further reading: The Small Business Association expands veterans’ programs

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