West Virginia University selected for EPA brownfields grant

PHILADELPHIA - (September 10, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected West Virginia University to receive an estimated $550,000 grant to help identify mine-scarred lands that are suitable for redevelopment into biofuels and other alternative energy production sites.

Read Press Release -- cut and paste this link into your browser:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/OPA/ADMPRESS.NSF/dc57b08b5acd42bc852573c90044a9c4/ea8d131c528a13da852574c000485ccc!OpenDocument

Coal v. Green Power

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -
Solar power plants and other renewable energy sources are real, competitive threats that neither the coal industry nor the state's political and academic leaders should dismiss, a consultant warned Wednesday at the second West Virginia Coal Forum.

Read entire article http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/10/16/ap5563097.html

West Virginia Wind Power

Wind Powering America: West Virginia Wind Resource Map

The Department of Energy's Wind Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a new wind resource map for the state of West Virginia . This resource map shows wind speed estimates at 50 meters above the ground and depicts the resource that could be used for utility-scale wind development. Future plans are to provide wind speed estimates at 30 meters, which are useful for identifying small wind turbine opportunities.

Green Building Seminar

Thanks to all who attended today. Joe Massaro and Mike Tarle gave a great presentation. I hope it's the start of a great relationship between Massaro and JK.

You can download the Power Point presentation by RIGHT clicking on the link below and saving the zip file on your hard drive. It's a big file (8mb) so be forewarned.

Massaro Power Point Zip file

Brokers must be up to speed on green trends

With the amount of publicity on “going green,” most corporations are now including a statement addressing sustainability in their corporate responsibility policies, and based on the marketing and cost savings that have come to light, you can bet that Fortune 1000 firms will continue to put these policies in place within the next few years.

The value of green depends upon the angle from which you view it — green costs versus benefits is different for landlords and tenants, so should be approached differently by landlord representatives and tenant representatives. The body of knowledge related to the LEED green building rating system is something all brokers will need to become familiar with as it becomes a part of increasing numbers of real estate transactions.

To continue reading, go to: http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/10/06/focus4.html?b=1223265600^1710857&surround=etf