Development of brownfield sites can help significantly in controlling greenhouse gases and the impact that they have on global warming. Reducing the impacts of greenhouse gases can be accomplished through reducing the amount of gases created or by sequestering the gases once they have been released into the environment. The process of sequestering greenhouse gases may result in carbon offsets. Greenhouse gas technology is anything but "light as air." In fact it can be quite heavy; as a result it's instructive to provide a primer on greenhouse gases before delving into carbon offsets. …

In the Dickensian sense, 2009 was the worst of times, and the best of times for South Carolina. Hit hard by the global recession, the state's unemployment soared to an alarming 12 percent. Nationally, South Carolina became the butt of jokes on late night television comedy shows as Governor Mark Sanford admitted to having an extra-marital relationship with an Argentine reporter. …

LOCATION: Charleston, S.C. SIZE : 141 acres BACKGROUND: Cherokee Investment Partners' project in North Charleston, S.C., known as Macalloy, is an EPA Superfund Site. The former steel plant fronts Shipyard Creek and is situated in an industrial and commercial section of the Charleston Peninsula. The site of the former Macalloy Corp. ferrochromium plant was one of the nation's most polluted industrial areas. Ferrochromium alloy, a hard stainless steel, was manufactured at the site from 1941 to 1998. During operations, the plant produced chromium, arsenic, lead, mercury and zinc contaminates and accumulated more than 6,000 violations of the Clean Water Act over the years. …

Brownfield sites, including closed landfills, sometimes also referred to as legacy landfills, are financial liabilities to their owners whether they be a municipality, a county or the former operators or owners of the site. The owners of such sites may never see an end to the perpetual monitoring requirements mandated by federal and state laws governing solid waste disposal facilities. …

At press time, the 111th Congress was working towards a mid-December adjournment, after grappling with monumental issues—economic crisis and stimulus, energy and climate change, and health care—that left less global issues, such as brownfields, struggling to move off the back burner. From a direct brownfields and sustainable development perspective, little in the way of concrete legislative achievement has been realized so far in this Congress. We saw no brownfield program reauthorization, no permanent brownfield tax incentive passed, and no sustainability initiative enacted. …

Jason S. Lichtstein, president of the Florida Brownfields Association. Lichtstein is an environmental attorney and shareholder with the Akerman Senterfitt law firm in Tallahassee. He has significant experience in the cleanup, redevelopment, and reuse of Brownfields and other contaminated properties in Florida. Lichtstein's practice includes a range of environmental transactional, environmental regulatory compliance, and state legislative and agency advocacy matters. He was closely involved in the drafting, lobbying, and passage of the 2008 Brownfields legislation in Florida. …

No state cleanup law explicitly mandates that energy efficiency, water usage, air emissions, or the creation of waste be taken into consideration when selecting a remedy. Considering that the goal of these cleanup laws was to create a liability scheme and to clean up hazardous waste sites, it’s not surprising that other environmental considerations were not taken into …

LOCATION: 6539 4th Street, Marrero, La. (on West Bank of Jefferson Parish) SIZE: 18 - acres, redevelopment plans for Family Life Center for Progressive Church PREVIOUS USE: Auto salvage yard and undeveloped land FUNDING MECHANISM : $200,000 EPA Brownfield Cleanup Grant; $300,000 RPC BCRLF; Louisiana Brownfield Tax Credit AWARDS: Brownfields Excellence Award from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. SYNOPSIS: Progressive Church purchased the site from 2000 to 2003 to build a …

They say the best students are the ones who are driven. At Ohio State University, this hypothesis could be taken both literally and figuratively. Unleashing a high level of technological excellence that could potentially catalyze the automotive industry to embrace a "greener future," The Ohio State University earned top honors this past summer at the 2009 finals of the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge competition in Toronto, Canada. OSU's team of "eco …

LOCATION: Moss Point, Miss. SIZE: 1 acre PARTNERS: City of Moss Point and Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality COST: $3 million for Convention Center, $60,000 to address environmental issues BACKGROUND: In 2007, the city of Moss Point requested assistance from MDEQ through its Targeted Brownfield Assessment Program to perform an environmental assessment of the former Swifty Serve gas station to evaluate the environmental conditions. Environmental assessments were conducted by contractors …