Environment

Purdue's Earth Day activities today (Mon) will feature exhibits, games and demonstrations along with campus and community project presentations.

The activities will conclude with a lecture by retired U.S. Marines Colonel Mark Mykleby.

Mykleby served as special strategic assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from July 2009 to April 2011.

His talk, titled "Sustainability: Our National Strategic Initiative," is set for 5:30 in Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering.

The Hoosier Environmental Council wants to see progress in bringing high speed passenger rail to Indiana, and wants the public to get involved.

The Midwest Regional Rail System plan goes back to the 1990s, with the goal of connecting Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit and Cleveland.

More federal funding has been made available in recent years, so states are jumping into action.

But Tim Maloney with the Hoosier Environmental Council says Indiana is lagging behind neighboring states.

Purdue will use $33.1 million to move away from coal-powered energy and toward natural gas.

The money comes from what was supposed to be used to build a clean-coal boiler, but that project was canceled last year. A state committee approved the financing deal Wednesday.

Administrators say Purdue is now focusing on natural gas projects, which are more viable for the future.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is designating more Indiana counties a disaster area due to the ongoing drought.

The additional 14 counties are: Blackford, Boone, Clinton, Delaware, Fountain, Henry, Madison, Montgomery, Rush, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Vigo and White.

Farmers and ranchers in each of those counties, and ones contiguous to them, are available for federal disaster assistance, such as low-interest loans.

As Indiana continues to suffer through weeks of extreme heat conditions, people are looking for ways  to save money on their energy bills.  Now, the state and its utility companies are offering home audits to help Hoosiers cut costs.