By Jason Taylor
IOWA - A sister company to MidAmerican Energy is being sued for price gouging.
Texas bases J&M Plastics says MidAmerican Energy Services illegally jacked up charges by $54,000 after the February deep freeze.
J&M says the utility broke its fixed-price plan agreement.
MidAmerican Services has not commented on the accusations It serves customers in unregulated areas, including some in Texas.
MidAmerican Energy Services is owned by Warren Buffett and is based in Des Moines.
In its court filing, it s proposing a class action lawsuit and is expecting other companies to join in.
The lawsuit says the electricity supplier improperly charged commercial, fixed-rate plan customers with line-item fees during the winter storm that devastated Texas in February. The suit claims there were violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Dive Brief:
Biodegradable candy wrappers are the goal of a new two-year partnership between Mars Wrigley and Danimer Scientific, the companies announced. Mars plans to start creating biodegradable wrappers for Skittles. The company expects the new wrappers will be on shelves in late 2021 or early 2022.
Danimer Scientific has created a biodegradable packaging called Nodax polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), which is produced through natural fermentation processes using plant oils including soy and canola. The companies will work together to turn this material into a flexible package that meets the needs of the confectionery segment.
Many sustainability-minded food companies are looking at packaging improvements as a way to meet their goals. Several of these new packages are likely to hit shelves this year, including recyclable granola bar wrappers on General Mills Nature Valley brand, bottles made from 100% recycled plastic material for Coca-Cola and 100% plastic-free paper-based bottle
To support 900 lbs of batteries and electronics,
To sustain a 20G shock load,
To be watertight,
To prevent a road hazard from penetrating into the batteries,
To be a Class 1 fire retardant,
To be very lightweight (
To meet an aggressive cost target.
The design that met all of the requirements was provided by Performance Composites. According to the company website, one of the main challenges was meeting the enclosure s load specification while securing the batteries and components inside the structure. To meet these requirements meant that the enclosure had to be comprised of a hybrid sandwich construction consisting of biaxial fiberglass fabric, balsa core, and Kevlar fabric. A proprietary insert design was used at high load points.
By
January 12, 2021
Sustainability seems simple, doesn’t it? Just get people to recycle more stuff, and we’ll be on our way to reducing pollution, greenhouse gas generation, and trash going to landfills.
Unfortunately, the reality is a bit different. Recycling has a significant role to play in our environmental efforts, but it isn’t always the best way to prevent or alleviate major environmental concerns.
A Brief History of Recycling
Recycling as we know it initially came into existence as a lower cost alternative to using materials made from natural resources that were expensive to purchase and/or process. Such products included newspapers, cardboard, and steel or aluminum cans. These items are resource and energy intensive to constantly produce from raw materials such as wood, iron ore, or bauxite.