In a week where environmental news was largely dominated by Al Gore's speech that called for theelimination of fossil fuels in 10 years, there were lots of other deserving stories that received much less attention. Here are a few of them:

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is shifting its shuttered coal mines into test beds for future alternative fuels, launching a program to grow switchgrass on the site of the former Broughton coal mine and pelletizing the grass for use in home heating stoves (Cleantech.com).

The state of Utah is going to a 4-day work week to save on energy costs. State employees, excluding police, university employees, prison guards, and other "essential" state employees will now get a three-day weekend and the state is expected to save $3 million annually (Maria Energia).

Compressed-air powered cars could take you over 800 miles on a single fill-up, at speeds of up to 96 mph. They should refuel in less than 3 minutes, and at speeds over 35 mph emit about half the CO2 of a Toyota Prius. Best part? You could see them in the US at the end of next year (gas2.0).

The world's first commercial-scale tidal power turbine is feeding to the electrical grid. The tidal current turbine, known as SeaGen, has briefly generated 150kW of power onto the grid as part of its commissioning work, ahead of it achieving full capacity a few weeks from now (CleanTechnica).

The EPA released a report stating that global warming and the resulting changing climate could result in "substantial" health risks, such as heat waves, hurricanes, and pathogens in the future. The report also claims that in Eastern cities, the warmer climate will create bad air days, similar to that of California. (Greenopolis)

Photo: World Economic Forum via flickr under a Creative Commons License