“This is an amazing achievement for the Energy Star program – but the real winners are the 1 million American families who have the chance to save money and keep harmful pollution out of the air. That’s great news for anyone who wants to cut costs and protect our planet,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We’re going to keep the number of Energy Star homes growing, because every new Energy Star home is a step towards lower costs, cleaner air, and communities that are environmentally and economically sustainable. We’re giving everyday American homebuyers the power to lower their bills and join the fight against climate change.”

To earn the Energy Star label, a home must meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by EPA. Those guidelines can be met through established, reliable building techniques available to most middle-class American homeowners. Those include effective insulation systems, high-performance windows, tight construction and ducts, efficient heating and cooling equipment, and high-efficiency lighting and appliances. In addition, an independent home energy rater conducts onsite testing and inspections to verify that the home’s performance meets Energy Star requirements.

There are more than 6,500 builders across the nation building homes that earn the Energy Star label and qualified new homes can be found in every state in the country. The top 20 markets for Energy Star qualified homes built to date include: Houston, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Las Vegas, Nev.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Greater Los Angeles, Calif.; New York, N.Y.; Tucson, Ariz.; San Antonio, Texas; Sacramento, Calif.; San Diego, Calif.; Columbus, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; Indianapolis, Ind.; Austin, Texas; Philadelphia, Pa.; San Francisco, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Denver, Colo.; Orlando, Fla.; and Oklahoma City, Okla.

 The Corps and EPA will work together during this review process to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act and the protection of this nation’s public health and environment. 
 

“The administration pledged earlier this year to improve review of mining projects that risked harming water quality. Release of this preliminary list is the first step in a process to assure that the environmental concerns raised by the 79 permit applications are addressed and that permits issued are protective of water quality and affected ecosystems,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We look forward to working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, with the involvement of the mining companies, to achieve a resolution of EPA’s concerns that avoids harmful environmental impacts and meets our energy and economic needs.”
 
In the next 15 days, EPA will be further evaluating the preliminary list of projects slated for further review and transmit a final list to the Corps.  After that, issues of concern regarding particular permit applications will be addressed during a 60-day review process triggered when the Corps informs EPA that a particular permit is ready for discussion. 
 
“This administration made a commitment to be more collaborative, transparent, and efficient in how it executes its responsibilities.  The enhanced coordination procedures in the MOU provide a path forward and certainty regarding how the projects will move through the process,” said Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.  “I am confident that this collaborative effort will strengthen our environmental reviews while allowing sustainable economic development to proceed.”
  
The enhanced coordination process, announced in June 2009, was created to strengthen the environmental review of pending mining applications and to address the backlog of permit decisions that occurred as a result of various challenges, including litigation. This process is one element of the Obama Administration’s commitment to improve the environmental review of permits for surface coal mining projects in Appalachia and look for ways to reduce adverse environmental impacts.  The process will also allow for greater public participation and transparency.  Since June, 29 projects have been removed from the list for various reasons, including circumstances where permit applicants have requested that their applications be withdrawn. 
 
The 79 pending permit applications on which EPA focused are for proposed surface coal mining operations in 4 Appalachian states. EPA’s initial review concluded that all of the projects would likely cause water quality impacts requiring additional review under the Clean Water Act.  The initial reviews were conducted in light of available project-specific information, the existing environmental condition of the watershed in which the project is proposed to be located, and the nature of environmental impacts predicted to result from construction and operation of the proposed mine.  
 
The list of 79 permits is being made available today on EPA’s Web site at the address below along with additional information about the nature and outcome of the EPA review process. As noted, the list will be available for public review for the next two weeks and then a final list will be published and provided to the Corps of Engineers to begin the next phase of review.
 
More information on the list of 79 permits:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/guidance/mining-screening.html

 “Price Chopper’s system is so effective at reducing the amount of refrigerant needed and the expected leak rate that it is truly a one-of-a-kind system in the U.S.,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “Refrigerants are a double whammy – both depleting the ozone and contributing to climate change – so Price Chopper’s efforts are highly commendable.”

The GreenChill Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry that works with stores to reduce their emissions of ozone-depleting greenhouse gas refrigerants. EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and reduced its emissions to the current GreenChill average, the nation could save the equivalent of 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 ozone depleting potential tons every year, all while saving $108 million in refrigerant expenses annually.

 GreenChill’s founding food retail partners created baseline measurements of corporate-wide refrigerant emissions in 2007 and set goals to reduce emissions in 2008. Through those goals, partners reduced their aggregated total corporate emissions rate by 8.5 percent in one year.

This year’s awards recognize partners’ most recent successes. Awardees include:

· Price Chopper’s Colonie, N.Y. store

· King Kullen

· Wild by Nature

· Whole Foods

· Hill Phoenix

· Supervalu, the parent company of Acme

King Kullen and Wild by Nature, both supermarkets headquartered in Bethpage, N.Y., received New Partner Awards. New partners pledge to go beyond regulatory requirements by measuring and tracking refrigerant emissions, and then setting reduction targets for those emissions. Partners also agree to use only ozone-friendly alternatives in all new and remodeled stores.

Whole Foods, a nationwide chain of supermarkets, received the award for Most Improved Emissions Rate. As a GreenChill Founding Partner, Whole Foods shares GreenChill’s mission to minimize supermarkets’ impact on the Earth’s ozone layer and on climate change. EPA recognized another food retailer that can be found nationwide, Supervalu, for achieving its emissions target in 2008/2009.

And refrigeration manufacturer Hill Phoenix also earned a Distinguished Partner Award for its advanced refrigeration technology, including compact chillers and secondary loop systems.

 GreenChill now has a total of 46 partners, including 37 food retail partners with over 6,500 stores in 47 states