It’s already got the Green Monster. Now the rest of Fenway Park is going green, too.

The Boston Red Sox plan to make the team’s grand old stadium friendlier to the environment.

This week, for example, the Fenway staff began collecting empty water and soda bottles starting in the fifth inning. Future plans include more energy efficient lighting and equipment, an expanded recycling program and even locally grown, organic produce in the concession stands. (Hmmm. “Buy me some peanuts and ... carrot sticks?”)

The team also says it will consider putting solar panels on the roof to heat parts of the facility and reduce the need for dirtier energy sources. Could come in handy for all those games in October.

Last week’s contentious three-day hearing on the Black Nubble Wind Farm proposal near Sugarloaf is still generating heat.

We wrote about the political tempest surrounding the testimony by Pamela Underhill, who oversees the Appalachian Trail for the National Park Service. She has been a star witness for opponents who say the wind farm would ruin the rare wilderness experience in the western mountains.

Her latest testimony only intensified the criticism of Underhill, and added a former ally to the critics who say she’s a loose cannon. Here’s a letter sent this week from the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Conservation Law Foundation complaining to Underhill’s superiors about her statements.

The letter focuses on Underhill’s testimony that global warming is irrelevant to the decision about whether to open the door to development near the trail, and what sounded like a threat aimed at the Natural Resources Council for supporting the project. That Underhill said, was “not something we will forget anytime soon.”

That’s the colorful premise of an upcoming conference in Portland titled “Growing Maine’s Green Economy: Better Living Through Green Chemistry.”

Brown, in this case, refers to the Maine potato, which researchers are trying to convert into the raw material for a new bio-plastic. It’s just one example of how Maine agricultural and forest resources could substitute for hazardous chemicals and petroleum-based chemicals in consumer products.

The conference is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 26 at the University of Southern Maine. Look here for the details.

A marketing company has analyzed more than 40 million blog posts from the past summer to see who is writing about the environment and what it is they’re saying. Here’s what they found out:

Seven out of 10 environmental posts came from males, and about 70 percent of them were negative in nature.

Of course they also came up with some things we didn’t already know.

For example, baby boomers and members of Gen Y (teenagers and twenty-somethings) are pretty much carrying the conversation about environmental issues in the blogosphere, with Gen Xers chiming in only once in a while. What are people in their 30s doing online? Is that who's writing about Paris Hilton?

And there’s this uplifting tidbit: More than half of the people posting about the environment back up their posts by citing factual resources such as scientific studies. On the other hand, Al Gore, his documentary and his Live Earth concerts drove much of the conversation on environmental blog posts through the summer.

Probably the most troubling piece of the report is the reference to baby boomers as being at the old-age end of the demographic spectrum, at least as far as the blogosphere is concerned. And I was still coming to grips with middle age.

The report was put together by Umbria Inc., which says it is a market intelligence company that specializes in consumer-generated media. It says nearly 10,000 blog posts mentioning environmental issues each week is a sign of a growing green-marketing opportunity in the business world.

Here’s more about the study from Umbria.

If California, Maine and 10 other states ever do implement new fuel efficiency standards to combat global warming, it seems they’ll have to overcome heavy duty opposition from more than just the auto industry.

U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wrote a letter to President Bush Monday asking him to repudiate a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort against the states by Bush's Transportation Secretary and others. Waxman presented a trail of internal administration e-mails that suggest the effort was approved by the White House and was aided by the auto industry.

Federal courts have so far supported California’s plan to make cars and trucks more fuel efficient, despite the automakers’ argument that there should only be one nationwide set of standards. But California also needs a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been threatening a lawsuit if the agency doesn’t make a decision soon. When, or if, California gets permission, Maine and the other states can follow by requiring the California standards.

Waxman said his committee, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, found evidence that the administration was improperly trying to give the EPA grounds for a denial of the waiver by lobbying federal legislators and governors to come out in opposition to California’s plan.

A spokeswoman for White House Council on Environmental Quality said the communications were appropriate and routine.

Here is an Associated Press story on the accusations.

And here is Waxman's letter and the e-mails.

It used to be that each giant cruise ship entering Portland Harbor would make environmentalists queasy.

While merchants see a payload of pampered tourists, others see floating cities with all the baggage – sewage, trash, industrial wastes and smokestacks. And the industry gave them reason to be concerned, with recurring stories about dumping of waste at sea or even in port.

The arrival of the mega ship Explorer of the Seas this week generated a very different feeling among conservationists. A hopeful one.

“They’re making progress,” said Cathy Ramsdell, executive director of the Friends of Casco Bay.

Development projects in Maine are subjected to an ever growing list of studies – from traffic impacts to vernal pool impacts.

Will impacts on climate be next?

Plum Creek Timber Co.’s plan for the Moosehead Lake region appears to be the first project in Maine – and maybe in the United States – to undergo a detailed study of its potential impact on global warming.

Environment Northeast, a non-profit advocacy group, has calculated the potential carbon footprint of Plum Creek’s historic plan for 975 homes and two resorts. And, you know what they say – big feet, big carbon footprint.

“Initial land clearing alone would release some 222,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or about one-third the annual emissions of the Wyman power plant in Yarmouth, Maine,” Dan Sosland, executive director of Environment Northeast, said in the press release.

The analysis was part of written testimony filed with the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission on behalf of GrowSmart Maine, an official intervenor in the Plum Creek review process. Environment Northeast issued a summary and a link to its report this morning.

The report includes estimates of carbon dioxide emissions based on Plum Creek’s rezoning proposal. The ultimate impact would depend on the details, such as how many trees are cut for each building lot, the size of the buildings and the distances between the new neighborhoods and the grocery stores.

Here are some findings:

The clearing of trees to develop all the houses and resorts in Plum Creek’s long-term plan would generate between 387,378 and 501,081 metric tons of carbon dioxide, more than half the output of Wyman.

Transportation associated with the development would contribute nearly 10,000 metric tons of CO2 a year – the equivalent of emissions from 1,850 cars and trucks.

New buildings would release about 13,000 metric tons of CO each year, the equivalent of 2,525 cars and trucks.

Want to know more? Look here for the report.

Rachel Carson didn’t set out to begin the modern environmental movement. The role chose her.

That’s according to Kaiulani Lee, a Maine woman with a unique connection to the noted biologist and writer. Carson, she says, simply had a sense of wonder about the natural world and enjoyed studying the creatures in Maine tide pools or forest meadows. But, eventually, Carson simply saw so many danger signs that she had to stand up and say something.

That led to “Silent Spring,” the 1962 book by Carson that sounded the alarm over pesticides and, in a larger sense, the uncontrolled human manipulation of the environment.

Lee knows what it means to be chosen by a role.

She is a professional actress with deep family ties to midcoast Maine. She calls the Bath region home – the same part of the state where Carson spent her summers and studied nature.

Lee has played roles on and off Broadway, in such TV programs from “The Waltons” to “Law and Order,” and in such movies as “The World According Garp,” “Cujo” and “A Civil Action.” But she has spent much of the past 15 years playing a single role – Rachel Carson – in a play she wrote titled “A Sense of Wonder.”

The results are in, finally, from our “What’s-In-Your-Driveway” poll of the Maine congressional delegation.

As promised in an item posted last week, Down to Earth asked each of our four members of Congress what vehicles they use and whether they lease any cars at taxpayer expense. The questions grew out of a debate in the House of Representatives over whether to require members with taxpayer-financed vehicles to give up gas guzzlers for “low greenhouse-gas emitting vehicles.” As of last year, 136 of 435 House members were leasing cars at taxpayer expense.

It took anywhere from 10 minutes to five days for the press secretaries of all four members to give us the answers. Now, there are a lot more important things going on in Washington than our pesky poll, so we won’t name the slowpokes. Here are the responses in the order they were received.

They haven’t built a single windmill, but Maine’s newest wind entrepreneurs are joining the clean energy quest as near royalty.

Former Gov. Angus King and environmental activist Rob Gardiner have been quietly scouring the hills and mountains of Maine for the past several months, looking for suitable sites with steady winds.

Now, they’ve found what they want and gone public as new players in Maine’s emerging wind energy market.

“It’s a technology I’ve been interested in for a long time,” King said on Friday. “The time is right.”

The fuel-efficiency debate is getting a little personal in Congress.

A congressman from Missouri who travels in a van fueled by cooking grease wants to require that his colleagues who lease vehicles at taxpayer expense downsize into “low greenhouse-gas emitting vehicles.” He actually got the language into a major House energy bill, although it’s facing resistance from colleagues, including ones who get around their districts in SUVs or luxury cars.

The Kansas City Star found last year that 136 of the 435 House members, including members of both parties, were leasing cars at taxpayer expense. Here is a story the newspaper published this week about the fuel efficiency debate.

Now, it’s generally a good idea to focus on one’s own carbon footprint before pointing the green finger at someone else. But, these are vehicles we taxpayers are paying for and these are elected officials who are debating legislation to get us out of our gas guzzlers.

Seems like a good time to poll our Congressional delegation, yes? We’ll find out whether or not any member has a taxpayer-financed vehicle, and, if any do, what kind of vehicle it is. And, while we’re at it, we’ll find out what other vehicles they use. I'll post the answers as soon as I get 'em.