Tax-Free Holiday Helps Conserve Water, Energy

Georgians will be able to purchase certain water- and energy-saving products without paying sales tax during the tax-free holiday Oct. 2 through Oct. 5.

“This is a great opportunity to save money on products that will help conserve some of our state’s natural resources,” said Pamela Turner, a housing specialist with University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

During the holiday, products with a WaterSense or ENERGY STAR label purchased for noncommercial or personal use will be state and local sales tax free. Specific faucets, toilets, refrigerators and dishwashers, light bulbs and air conditioners are on the list. Online purchases delivered to Georgia addresses are eligible for the sales tax exemption, too.

WaterSense

WaterSense-labeled products can add up to real savings. “If one out of every four Georgia households would use WaterSense-labeled bathroom fixtures it could save nearly 10 billion gallons of water a year,” she said.

Toilets with the WaterSense label use 20 percent less water than the current federal standard for toilets. The faucets and accessories reduce water flow by 30 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. All products must meet EPA criteria before earning the WaterSense label.

ENERGY STAR

A broad range of products marked with the ENERGY STAR logo will be tax-free. Specifically, though, the exemption applies to dishwashers, clothes washers, air conditioners, ceiling fans, compact fluorescent light bulbs, dehumidifiers, programmable thermostats, refrigerators, doors and windows.

Products must be less than $1,500 and purchased for personal use.

An ENERGY STAR refrigerator uses less electricity than a 75-watt light bulb. When compared to a refrigerator made before 1993, according to the EPA, it can save up to $60 a year on energy.

To earn the ENERGY STAR rating, a refrigerator must be at least 20 percent more efficient than the national standard. Dishwashers must be 25 percent more efficient. Washing machines with the rating save enough water to wash an additional 300 loads of laundry and save up to $55 a year in energy costs.

Replacing standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones saves energy, too. Compact fluorescent bulbs use 68 percent less energy than a standard bulb and last 10 times longer, according to the EPA.

To learn more about ENERGY STAR go to the Web site www.energystar.gov. To learn more about WaterSense go to www.epa.gov/watersense.

Some Georgia counties offer rebates for high-efficiency toilets. For a list of counties that do go to www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_rebate.htm.

By April Sorrow
University of Georgia

April Sorrow is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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UGA Gets $2.5 Million in Grants to Study Plants to Make Biofuels

University of Georgia researchers were recently awarded two grants totaling $2.5 million to help find better ways to produce biofuels from switchgrass and sunflowers.

UGA was one of eight universities to receive grants from a program jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy. The program aims to accelerate research in biomass genomics and further the use of cellulosic plant material for bioenergy and biofuels.

“Developing cost-effective means of producing cellulosic biofuels on a national scale poses major scientific challenges,” said Raymond Orbach, a DOE undersecretary. “These grants will help in developing the type of transformational breakthroughs needed in basic science to make this happen.

“The USDA is committed to fostering a sustainable domestic biofuels industry at home in rural America,” said Gale Buchanan, a USDA undersecretary. “These grants will broaden the sources of energy from many crops as well as improve the efficiency and options among renewable fuels.”

The UGA grants were awarded to scientists in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Steven Knapp, CAES professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Jeff Dean and Joe Nairn, UGA researchers, Mark Davis, DOE researcher, and Laura Marek, USDA researcher, received $1.2 million to study the genomics of sunflower.

“Certain wild species of sunflower produce woody stems and high biomass yields, often reaching heights of 18 to 21 feet,” Knapp said. “Our grant focuses on understanding genetic mechanisms underlying wood production and biomass accumulation in sunflower.”

In addition, Knapp is working with Mark Davis at the DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado to study the biofuel properties of sunflower.

“They will be providing us with state-of-the-art chemical measurements which are needed to identify genetic factors affecting wood formation and cellulosic biomass accumulation,” Knapp said.

Jeffrey Bennetzen, the Norman and Doris Giles/Georgia Research Alliance professor of molecular genetics in Franklin College, received the second grant for $1.295 million. It will fund a cooperative project with Katrien Devos, a CAES professor of crop and soil science and plant biology. They hope to develop genetic and genomic tools to study foxtail millet, a close relative of switchgrass.

Switchgrass is an excellent source of biomass for producing ethanol. Unlike corn, which is used now to make most U.S. ethanol, switchgrass is a perennial that grows on poor soil with little water, fertilizer or pesticides.

“Ethanol from switchgrass is a very different story from ethanol from maize grain,” Bennetzen said. “Ethanol from maize grain requires large inputs and produces no net carbon capture to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Switchgrass captures carbon dioxide very effectively and will not lead to increased food costs because it does not take acreage away from food production.”

But switchgrass has limitations, he said. Researchers need to find more efficient ways to convert lignocellulose—the material that makes up wood, leaves, stems—into ethanol.

Learning more about foxtail millet, he said, will help. It’s easier to study than switchgrass.

“Once the foxtail millet genome is sequenced, we will be able to quickly find the genes involved in making lignocellulose in foxtail millet, and this will make them easy to find in switchgrass as well,” Bennetzen said.“We can then study these genes and find ways to improve this performance so that switchgrass is easier to convert to ethanol.”

Improving this process is part of another project at UGA called the BioEnergy Science Center.

“For the average Georgian, the outcome of the research in this project will be less expensive liquid fuels, less dependence on foreign oil, lower food costs and less release of carbon dioxide into the environment,” Bennetzen said. “We won’t see these outcomes in the next year or two, but there is every reason to believe that they will come into effect over the next five to 10 years.”

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Gingrey supports American Energy Act An “All-of-the-Above” Approach to Energy Independence

U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey released the following statement after joining his House Republican colleagues to introduce the American Energy Act, a comprehensive energy bill to help reduce gas prices by increasing the supply of American-made energy, improving conservation and efficiency, and harnessing renewable and alternative energy technologies.

“Georgia families have now been paying north of four dollars a gallon for gasoline for over a month,” said Gingrey. “As a nation in crisis, we must realize that there is no single solution that Congress can enact that will provide both short and long term solutions. Instead, this crisis requires a multi-faceted – ‘all-of-the-above’ – approach that increases domestic energy supply, thereby reducing our dependence on foreign oil and providing immediate relief to the pain we are all feeling at the pump.”

“The American Energy Act is just what the doctor ordered, and will put us on the road toward energy independence. I call on Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leadership to do the right thing for hardworking Americans and immediately bring the American Energy Act to a vote on the House floor.”

Rep. Gingrey will be leading an in-depth discussion of the American Energy Act this evening as he hosts a special order hour on the House Floor. You can view this energy discussion on C-SPAN.

Increases the Supply of American-made Energy in Environmentally Sound Ways

Opens the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), which will provide an additional three million barrels of oil per day, as well as 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which will provide an additional 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.

Increase the supply of gas at the pump by cutting bureaucratic red tape that essentially blocks construction of new refineries.

Allow development of our nation’s shale oil resources, which could provide an additional 2.5 million barrels of oil per day – a total of 1.3 trillion barrels of oil currently under the lock and key of the federal government.

Promotes renewable and alternative energy technologies

Spurs the development of alternative fuels through government contracting by repealing the “Section 526” prohibition on government purchasing of alternative energy and promoting coal-to-liquids technology.

Establishes a renewable energy trust fund using revenues generated by exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and ANWR.

Permanently extends the tax credit for alternative energy production, including wind, solar, hydrogen and biomass, as proposed in H.R. 5984 – the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act, introduced by Representative Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland.

Eliminates barriers to the expansion of emission-free nuclear power production.

Improves energy conservation and efficiency, the legislation

Provides tax incentives for businesses and families that purchase more fuel efficient vehicles.

Provides a monetary prize for developing the first economically feasible, super-fuel-efficient vehicle reaching 100 miles-per-gallon.

Provide tax incentives for businesses and homeowners who improve their energy efficiency.