Energista

2009-11-15T05:24:00.001-06:00

New Home!

2006-08-23T14:14:00.000-05:00

Energista! has moved to a new home - Energista.org. Please visit our new home. You can create your own account if you want an identity for posting comments and such. If you have questions or comments about the switcheroo, please email me and I'll straighten you out.

This new codebase offers more features and supports local small business rather than relying upon the generosity of Google's services. Thank you for reading!

Slow Start to Nuclear

2006-08-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

Despite the Federal government sending a message to the private sector to push forward with building new nuclear power plants, the response has been tepid. A longish NY Times article looks at the business outlook on nuclear power plants. I found there to be a couple interesting tidbits. One is that the reasons companies decide not to build a new nuclear power plant are generally not the same as the reasons opponents are worried about:

“Opponents often cite the risk of accidents and the problem of nuclear waste, but the companies that do not want to build say that those are not factors in their decisions…the risk that really matters to utility executives is financial. Among the companies that would actually build these plants, executives focus more on uncertain factors like the future price of power, the cost of producing competing fuels, and the cost of cleaning up coal plants to meet standards for the pollutants that Washington does regulate — sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and soot.”

One energy company executive stated it clearly that their role is to maximize their shareholders profits. Even if nuclear power plants may eventually be more cost effective than coal plants they carry a much higher level of uncertainty and risk. An example is that typically when they build a new power plant they begin the process by selling the future power for a certain length of time (hedging). They then use these contracts to ease the worries of investors and bankers in order to get the outside financing necessary for the high capital outlay. Since nuclear power plants take on the order of 10 years to bring into production it is difficult to sell power 10 years from now for a 10 year timeframe.

Airline Emission Trading

2006-08-22T12:04:00.000-05:00

The World's 18 Aug, 2006 technology podcast discusses a proposed airline emissions trading program.

I seem to recall the statement that airline emissions are the fasting growing carbon emissions in Europe. So the EU may institute a trading program to reduce them.

The view is shared by a number of airlines which accept that their current exemption from tax on aviation fuel is not tenable in the long term. Many operators are alarmed at plans to slap a levy on tickets to generate funds for areas not related to aviation, such as development aid. Moreover some airlines see an advantage in the fact that it will take at least two or three years to get the measure through the EU legislative procedure.

A way to model the pollution impacts of distributed energy sources

2006-08-21T23:51:00.000-05:00

Ok, the last post for the day. Researchers in California have developed means to model the air quality impacts of small scale, distributed power sources.

“Using a supercomputer, scientists analyzed thousands of variables including land-use information, emissions data and atmospheric chemistry to determine the potential effect of distributed generation on Southern California air by 2010. Distributed generation – the operation of many small stationary power generators located throughout an urban air basin – includes fuel cells, photovoltaics, gas turbines, micro-turbine generators and natural gas internal combustion engines. The use of clean distributed generation in place of traditional power-plant generation cuts down on electricity transmission losses, reduces the need for unsightly overhead power lines and facilitates the use of generator waste heat, which further reduces electricity needs and emissions.”

Bioenergy crops on Industrial Brownfields

2006-08-21T23:26:00.000-05:00

In the hopes of being able to address two problems at once, researchers have been investigating growing bioenergy crops in brown-fields; areas that are not usable for other purposes without considerable cleanup.

“Right now, brownfields don’t grow anything,” Thelen said. “This may seem like a drop in the bucket, but we’re looking at the possibilities of taking land that isn’t productive and using it to both learn and produce.”

They are also investigating whether or not the plants will contribute to remediation of the pollution by taking up contaminants from the soil.

While the plants are not going to be eaten I think it is still going to be important to investigate whether or not the contaminants taken up from the soil impact the use of the biomass. The processes used for conversion of biomass to ethanol involve a number of yeasts and enzymes that could be adversely affected by many different compounds. If the biomass is to be burned the concern would be the level of contaminants in the emissions. We certainly don’t want to just be trading soil and groundwater contamination for air contamination.

Scientific American looks at Energy and Climate Change

2006-08-21T12:03:00.000-05:00

The Scientific American recently had a series of articles related to energy and climate change. Unfortunately, most of these require a subscription to access online. You can purchase them or buy the hardcopy.

A Climate Repair Manual [ INTRODUCTION ]
Global warming is a reality. Innovation in energy technology and policy are sorely needed if we are to cope

An Efficient Solution [ ENERGY EFFICIENCY ]
Wasting less energy is the quickest, least expensive way to stem carbon emissions

High Hopes for Hydrogen [ FUEL CELLS AND MORE ]
Using hydrogen to fuel cars may eventually slash oil consumption and carbon emissions, but it will take some time

The Rise of Renewable Energy [ CLEAN POWER ]
Solar cells, wind turbines and biofuels are poised to become major energy sources. New policies could dramatically accelerate that evolution

What to Do about Coal [ CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE ]
Cheap, plentiful coal is expected to fuel power plants for the foreseeable future, but can we keep it from devastating the environment?

A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check [ STRATEGY ]
Getting a grip on greenhouse gases is daunting but doable. The technologies already exist. But there is no time to lose.

Plan B for Energy [ SPECULATIVE TECHNOLOGY ]
If efficiency improvements and incremental advances in today's technologies fail to halt global warming, could revolutionary new carbon-free energy sources save the day? Don't count on it--but don't count it out, either

Fueling Our Transportation Future [ AUTOMOTIVE ANSWERS ]
New technologies, lighter vehicles and alternative fuels can lower greenhouse gas releases from cars and trucks

The Nuclear Option [ ROLE FOR FISSION ]
A threefold expansion of nuclear power could contribute significantly to staving off climate change by avoiding one billion to two billion tons of carbon emissions annually

Oil Profits and Arms Purchases

2006-08-21T11:38:00.000-05:00

An article at the TimesOnline links profits received due to the high oil prices to purchases of military goods. The month of July showed sales of $12.9 billion from the US to foreign governments – the largest single month during the Bush Administration. Besides being tied to the support for the US government’s foreign policy aims and other factors it is also related to oil profits.

"Other factors behind the leap in arms sales include the rising price of oil, which has given oil-producing nations more money to spend."

A New Look at Hydrogen Fuel Cells

2006-08-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

Sciency Daily has a story about a new imaging device at NIST that will allow researchers to watch the internal workings of hydrogen fuel cells.

""Better water management is fundamental to meeting targets for fuel cell performance, reliability and durability. Reaching these targets, in turn, is integral to efforts to replace petroleum with hydrogen to power cars and trucks by 2020--the goal of President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative."

"An expert panel described the imaging method as "one of the most significant analytical advances in the membrane fuel cell realm in decades." "

Still, nothing that should make one hopeful of having a viable hydrogen solution in the coming decade capable of widespread use.

Willow for Ethanol

2006-08-20T13:33:00.000-05:00

IT Conversations has a podcast about non corn ethanol sources (also not sugar cane). 15 minute interview with Stephen Hall, Chief Executive of Genesis R&D.

Ford Cuts Production Again

2006-08-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

Ford sees no end in sight for the high gas prices and cutting truck and SUV production as a result.

Looks like the specific cuts will be announced in September but will definitely impact St. Paul.

The change will result in more downtime at Ford's St. Paul Ranger Truck plant as well as nine other plants, officials said.

Might As Well Pack It In...

2006-08-18T14:35:00.000-05:00

Dang -- just as all this energy policy stuff was getting interesting, a bunch of smart Irish guys have figured out how to get clean free energy! So much for worrying about whether global warming is real, since it turns out basic physics is what turned out to be a hoax. Rather than waste time on those science journals (who would just try to ruin the party), they've taken out a full-page ad in the Economist challenging scientists to prove there's no dragon in their garage.

What I haven't figured out is how they plan to make money on this scam -- it seems like an awful lot of effort just to get email addresses to sell spammers.

Chicago Story

2006-08-17T00:27:00.000-05:00

Several blogs have been abuzz with a remarkable story from the Chicago Tribune. Paul Salopek tracked the origin and route of gas pumped from a nearby station. In essence, he de-fungized oil.

The oil industry largely refused to help him. Only Marathon - a gas station that consistently offers the cheapeast price in southern suburbia - aided Salopek's mission by sharing some data. He actually volunteered dozens of times to work at a gas station where he interviewed people (disclosing that he was a reporter) between janitorial tasks. He finished with a 4 part series for the paper. I would be surprised if he does not develop a book out of it.

I grew apprehensive at the first Matthew Simmons quote and discussion of peak oil, but Salopek integrates it well and does not become sidetracked with the peak oil debate. This is good reading. It mixes the daily lives of gas station attendents with those on the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. It hops between lecture and human interest. It even seems to be rather balanced.

U.S. refineries have dwindled from more than 300 to just 145 over the last 25 years. Industry blames this perilous bottleneck in the nation's gasoline production on environmental red tape and public opposition to new oil infrastructure--BANANA they call it, Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody. But critics claim that Big Oil actually likes the status quo; the inevitable shortfalls drive up gas prices.

This article may seem lengthy, but it rolls many insights into a few paragraphs.

Americans already get more oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia. By 2015, oil experts say, African states will supply a quarter of all U.S. imports, up from 15 percent today. The United States quietly signaled this shift in 2002, when the State Department declared African oil a "strategic national interest," meaning in diplomatic code that U.S. troops may intervene to protect it.

"I think the U.S. military would find our swamps worse than Iraq," snorted Austin Onuoha, a Nigerian human-rights activist who specializes in oil issues. "But at least they might build some infrastructure after they invade. Americans always do this, right?"

Onuoha's sarcasm was well-earned. He was talking in the dark, from his blacked-out house in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The electricity in Africa's petro-giant had winked out again. And this fit sourly into his main thesis: Oil is rotting Africa's frail democracies.

As for the people who think the United States need to install a windfall tax to capture some of the "unfair" profiting of oil companies, they must seriously freak out when they consider how it impacts the areas from which it is extracted.

Jeremiah's catch fetched 450 naira at the local market, about $3. His boat engine had swallowed $6 in fuel. As it happened, it was Oct. 27, the day when Exxon Mobil announced record quarterly oil and gas profits of $7.35 billion.

It's Easier Being Green

2006-08-15T21:58:00.000-05:00

Both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune's Red Eye edition recently had articles on the growing popularity of environmentally conscious lifestyles. On Sunday, The New York Times published an article about manhattan's green apartment buildings and Monday's Red Eye piece covered a broader selection of social trends towards environmentalist consumerism

While they do discuss the 'fad' potential, one thing they don't discuss are the demographics of interest in these things. My speculation would be that there's a bias towards childless members of the upper middle class.

Low Sulfur Gas

2006-08-15T17:28:00.000-05:00

Last week's "This Week in Petroleum" by the EIA discusses the BP pipeline shutdown, the phasing out of MTBE, and low sulfur diesel.

The second major transition is the move to ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD) for highway use. In June, refiners and importers of highway diesel fuel were required to begin providing at least 80% of their highway diesel fuel with no more than 15 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur, compared to previous highway diesel at 500 ppm. Terminals must be ready by September 1 with the new fuel, and retail facilities must be ready by October 15.

They use the word fungible!

2006-08-11T12:50:00.000-05:00

Nice Opinion in the Washington Post talking about the impacts of the next oil price shock...

Wind Round the World

2006-08-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

The city of Cape Town has signed a deal to buy wind-generated electricity, in what is set to be South Africa's first fully fledged wind power project.

BBC is reporting on South Africa's first foray into wind power.

The Danish government and the Development Bank of South Africa have provided most of capital for the establishment of the Darling Wind Farm.

They may be late in the game, but have an ambitious plan to provide 10% of its demand in 2020 by sustainable sources...

PacWind Generator

2006-08-10T10:34:00.000-05:00

The Energy Blog is covering a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) which looks interesting. Apparently it runs silently and does not run the risk of destroying itself in high speeds. It doesn't produce much power at low wind speeds but it seems like it might have some uses in urban environments if priced low enough.

Klare Interview

2006-08-08T23:27:00.000-05:00

I have long enjoyed reading Michael Klare books and columns. He is a Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College. Mother Jones interviews him about him Blood and Oil book. He paints a bleak future of resource wars and focuses on the importance of oil for the U.S. military.

I particularly like his reaction to this energy independence talk.

And the administration talks about 'energy independence' from the Middle East, by which they seem to mean, exclusively drilling in Alaska and other protected environmental sites. So, I want to avoid that word, because I think it’s become a sham expression to cover up a failed policy.

Wind economics

2006-08-08T16:43:00.000-05:00

I just posted a rather long-winded comment under the Vail post about how wind energy functions on the MISO market, if anyone cares to read it.

Agricultural subsidies -- Welfare Kings

2006-08-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

In this Op Ed, Jonah Goldberg levels some strong criticism toward current US agricultural policy. I post it here because of the strong influence that ag policy has on renewable energy policy. In particular, in Minnesota where the push to ethanol, produced from home grown crops, is so strong.

I don't think that the interconnection is fully understood but it certainly exists. It is also very complex and convoluted. One effect is what is sometimes called ag-driving-energy. This can be seen by the fact that the two leading sources of renewable liquid fuels are corn and soybeans...also two of the largest agricultural crops and also two of the heavily subsidized crops. Current US ag policy has been often criticized for its effect of reducing the varieties of crops grown by farmers. This affects energy in that it can result in a smaller established markets for those commodities of more interest for use in energy production; cellulosic biomass crops being the most significant.

Another impact is on the other side of the current successful liquid fuels production markets is that the farmers are seeing less of the benefit of increased demand for corn because of agricultural subsidies. For corn farmers, the largest form of subsidy is that of the loan guarentee. The way it works is that, for loans granted under this program, if crop prices are not above preset levels the government will kick in a portion of the difference to ensure that the farmers are able to avoid defaulting on their loans. Even if ethanol pushes corn prices above that preset level that portion of the increase necessary to cross the threshold needs to be ascribed as a benefit to tax payers not to the farmer.

I have not seen any good studies, yet, on the impact of agricultural policy on energy policy and vice versa. One good book that touches on many of the factors is 'Agriculture as a Producer and Consumer of Energy' with articles by Vern Eidman and Doug Tiffany at the University of Minnesota. I would love to hear if others have other takes on the issue or know of other good sources.

Gas prices to go up

2006-08-08T11:13:00.000-05:00

It was a busy day today in the local paper on energy items. This AP article in the Star Trib shouldn't be any surprise to anybody keeping up on energy issues. I filled up the car yesterday (we drive so little these days that I don't think to check and almost ran out on the way to a meeting) and the price was $3.066 at the BP down the road. Sounds like we can expect another 5 to 10 cents due to the pipeline shutdown. What I'm suspicious of is that, with all the publicity it's received, the oil companies will apply the price increase early and milk a few more profits out of the system before they feel the pinch.

MN Ethanol Roundup

2006-08-08T10:55:00.000-05:00

The Star Tribune's Neal St. Anthony recently explored the role of ethanol in the future. He correctly notes that ethanol can only ever be a part of the solution.

I have to wonder though - is the ethanol industry exploding too quickly? A recent "ethanol booms" article in the Bemidji Pioneer calls ethanol a modern day "bit of a gold rush."

A recent Science Friday episode on ethanol said that it would take the entire Iowa corn crop to meet the demand from all the Iowa ethanol plants. Is this a bad situation? Is there too much ethanol investment now?

During her recent ethanol tour, Nancy Pelosi said

"I believe you are going to change the economy of our country," she told farmers. "You are going to save the auto industry."

If she is talking about continuing to subsidize suburban sprawl, I hope ethanol offers as little promise as I think it does.

Pipeline Shut Down

2006-08-07T09:19:00.000-05:00

BP is shutting down 8% of U.S. oil production by closing an Alaskan pipeline. The pipeline is in danger of causing a big spill if not repaired. It is going to take days to shut down the pipeline. I cannot find an estimate for how long it will take to repair overall. Oil prices are up and may actually overtake the early 80's high according to some analysts.

pat robertson?

2006-08-03T15:30:00.000-05:00

yes pat robertson has finally been convinced that global warming is happening. is this a good thing?

Vail goes Green

2006-08-02T23:26:00.000-05:00

Good news from Colorado, Vail resorts will purchase wind energy credits to cover its electricity consumption. Though they aren't purchasing as many credits as Whole Foods, this will be a significant amount. Some of the wind farms selling Vail credits are based in Minnesota.

I am thrilled at this news but I really wonder if these sorts of actions even matter. Does action like this actually solve the transmission problems we are facing with wind? Or is it just a feel-good hey-we-tried approach to cleaning up our grid?

I guess the question is whether there is any substitute for good public policy on the matter? Would we have wind investment with libertarians running the joint?

The "Dirty Secret" Behind Kyoto

2006-08-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

Fortune published an article by Cait Murphy on the "Dirty Secret" behind Kyoto - that, surprise surprise, most countries that have ratified it are failing to meet their reduction targets. Murphy's premise is that countries have had to choose between cutting GHG and economic growth, and have chosen the latter, which puts them on par with the U.S. I don't need to harp on this false premise in this forum.

I was surprised to read that Canada, which has agreed to cut emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels, is a whopping 24 percent over 1990 levels. The U.S., by comparison is 15.8 percent over.

To me, this article highlights the major weakness in Kyoto, the fact that developing countries, in particular China and India, are exempted. The fact that China, for example, can build dirty coal plants (a gigawatt plant every 7-10 days) to provide cheap power to its manufacturers, poses an enormous barrier to Western countries that want to make GHG cuts but at the same time protect their industries. The architects of the next climate treaty will have to find some way to get developing nations on board, likely through greater incentives.

Brokaw on Broken Climate

2006-08-01T00:49:00.000-05:00

I finally watched Discovery Channel's Global Warming, What you Need to Know with Tom Brokaw. I still have not seen Gore's Inconvenient Truth, so I cannot compare it to that.

On its own, I was mostly impressed with it. It basically highlights the scientific case behind climate change - in accessible language. It addresses skeptics' claims without becoming bogged down in them - a significant feat when compared to others who are trying to do that.

I was particularly impressed by their discussion of climate history. They focused on NY and noted that throughout the history of that area, it was touching glaciers and at other times was mostly under water. This captures something that I think most people do not really understand. Things change!!

While people do grasp that things change on an intellectual level, I think we mostly harbor the idea that things change so slowly that NY may again be waterlogged, but probably not in our lifetime.

After a commercial break or two, we learn that the climate can change quite rapidly. This gives them a chance to use some computer animation to submerge Miami and a few other coastal cities.

But again, they do not fall into the trap of claiming this is unprecedented but carefully qualify it by noting it will be the fastest climate change in the history of human civilization. And that is exactly the point that I think many environmentalists and others forget. The earth is not dying. But we are radically altering it.

This may mostly rehash what we have been studying, but it is well worth at least recommending to others even if you cannot find the time to watch it.

The next showing is noon on 21 August - a Monday. Set up your DVR or request a reminder from the Discovery Channel site promoting the documentary.

This Week in Petroleum

2006-07-30T21:45:00.000-05:00

I try to remember to occasionally check in with the Energy Information Agency's This Week in Petroluem. The recent issue predicted gas prices around $3.00 per gallon for the rest of summer.

EIA expects gasoline prices to remain in the vicinity of $3.00 per gallon for much of the rest of the summer, with any significant price declines not likely to occur before September (after the Labor Day holiday) when demand typically drops sharply. It remains to be seen whether prices during one or more of the remaining weeks of summer will exceed the previous record level of $3.07 per gallon, set on September 5, 2005. Both August and September can be problematic when trying to forecast gasoline prices, as in August, the chance of severe thunderstorms affecting power to refineries rises, which can lead to less gasoline production than might otherwise occur. For both August and September, an increased likelihood of hurricanes, particularly this season, is another major uncertainty that can dramatically affect gasoline prices, especially if the hurricanes are powerful and hit the major oil producing and refining centers along the Gulf Coast, as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did last fall. Nevertheless, absent any major shutdowns as a result of hurricanes, severe storms, or other factors, U.S. gasoline consumers in many parts of the country could see pump prices dip significantly below $3.00 per gallon in September.

Kill-a-watt Monitor

2006-07-30T20:36:00.000-05:00

Anyone have one of these electricity usage monitors?

I would be curious to test some of the stuff around my apartment.

More on "swift-boating the planet"

2006-07-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

An op-ed piece in today's NY Times by Peter Doran, an atmospheric scientist at the U of Illinois-Chicago, provides yet another example of how global-warming "skeptics" have distorted scientific findings.

Doran and his colleagues published a piece in Nature in 2002 that found that portions of Antartica actually cooled from 1986 to 2000. Certain media outlets, global warming skeptics and professional crackpots like Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton immediately touted the findings as evidence against global warming, despite the fact that Doran and his colleagues made no such claim. These same people didn't acknowledge competing scientific research showing warming in the same region (which Doran himself acknowledges in the op-ed piece), nor models that show as the ozone hole heals over Antartica, more warming is expected.

Despite these facts, Doran's name is often included in lists of scientists who dispute global warming. He asks to be officially removed this list.

These kinds of misrepresentations, to put it lightly, are preventing a serious discussion on GW in the US. Instead of debating the best solutions to the problem, we are forced to defend the science.

UPS Goes Green

2006-07-27T00:12:00.000-05:00

The NPR weekly tech podcast alerted me to this story. I found more information on Autoblog, which reports that UPS and the EPA have developed a new hybrid delivery truck. This is not a conventional hybrid.

The Hydraulic Hybrid eschews batteries and electric motors, instead mating the truck's diesel engine to a hydraulic propulsion system, made up of a series of hydraulic storage tanks and pumps. This system replaces the conventional drivetrain completely, and offers similar benefits to gas/diesel-electric hybrids such as regenerative braking. The hydraulic system's ability to store and deliver larger amounts of power also can be used to provide launch assistance to the tune of 100 horsepower for 20 seconds.

Consider that these delivery vehicles (buses and garbage trucks are similar) require big engines mostly to overcome inertia - not to maintain speed. The problem is getting them moving. Once they are moving, they require less energy to maintain velocity.

The benefits of using a hydraulic hybrid system, according to EPA claims, are a 60%-70% increase in fuel economy (based on lab tests), a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions, and a lower "hybrid penalty" costwise, which can be recovered in as little as three years due to fuel savings (1,000 gallons of diesel/year) and reduction in brake maintenance costs.

This system shows a lot of promise. Other stories I saw suggested UPS could recover the additional $7,000 sticker price over non-hybrid truck in 2 years. These trucks may also qualify for tax breaks under the 2005 energy bill.

UPS operates 91,000 trucks on a daily basis (numbers helpful for future back-of-the-envelopes). Some UPS dude reported on NPR that they spent $2 billion on delivery truck fuel in 2005.

I think the same report also suggested that 1% of all fuel in the U.S. is used by delivery vehicles.

Future of Wal-Mart

2006-07-26T23:38:00.000-05:00

Energy costs are rising and Wal-Mart is increasingly getting into energy efficiency. I have long wondered if Wal-Mart's globalized supply chain can survive the end of cheap oil. The June, 2006, Atlantic Monthly suggests this could be a major concern.

"The New War Over Wal-Mart" by Joshua Green actually has nothing to do with Wal-Mart supply chain, their new greener outlook, or energy prices. But it does contain this nugget:

In 2005, Wal-Mart earned profits of $11.2 billion on sales of $312.4 billion—a hefty sum, to be sure, but a startlingly thin margin of less than four cents per sales dollar—about $6,000 in profit per employee. (Exxon Mobile, by comparison, earned around $300,000.)

I have to think that a company so dependent on transportation has to worry about rising costs - especially when sliding by on such a thin profit margin.

Venezuela and Citgo

2006-07-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

The Atlantic Monthly ran "The Talented Mr. Chávez" (subscription required) by Franklin Foer in the May 2006 issue. Mostly more interesting for the foreign policy folks than us energy geeks, it does have a passage explicitly for us.

We all know that relations between Venezuela and the U.S. have been deteriorating. Readers of this blog will already know that Venezuela supplies significant amounts of U.S. oil and is the 5th largest oil exporter in the world. What if Chavez decided to screw the U.S. and stop selling to it? This is over half of its exports and 1.5 million bpd.

Economics tells us that little would happen because oil is fungible. This is where Mr. Foer comes in:

Nature has tied Chávez’s arms. Venezuelan crude comes from the earth in a particular viscous form that requires specialized refineries, the type that exists in Louisiana and Texas, not China or India. The country’s fleet of tankers is geared toward transporting this oil to the Gulf of Mexico, and can’t be reversioned for longer hauls. What’s more, Venezuela doesn’t just export its oil to the United States; it actually sells the stuff there in the 14,000 Citgo stations that the state oil company owns.

None of these obstacles is theoretically insurmountable, but the barriers are so high that neither Venezuela nor its Asian customers have gone much beyond daydreaming of a new relationship. Turning those daydreams into reality would require significant planning, and the United States could simply rearrange its buying patterns—oil is a fungible commodity over anything but the very short term.

Since this article went to print, Citgo has made some interesting announcements. It is leaving 10 states.

Rodriguez said demand for Citgo’s petroleum products is outstripping the company’s in-house capacity to produce them.

It faces a 130,000 barrel-a-day oil shortfall, so it must buy gasoline this oil would have produced from other refining companies on the open market. This practice, Citgo says, places it at a competitive disadvantage.

So it has decided to sell only the gasoline that it can produce itself at its refineries in Lake Charles, La.; Lemont, Ill.; and Corpus Christi. It will withdraw from some markets, focusing on the Northeast, South and Gulf Coast.

I don't think this is some early manifestation of a major Venezuela switch, but it gives some insight into the oil trade.

Update: Venezuela has actually reduced exports to the U.S. by 6% from Jan thru April this year.

Diesel

2006-07-21T21:16:00.000-05:00

Looks like some automakers are moving toward diesel to offer consumers higher fuel efficiency. Though diesel now must be cleaner following new fuel standards, does anyone know how it generally compares to regular?

Queens Blackout

2006-07-21T20:54:00.000-05:00

The NY Times is reporting that 100,000 people are without power in Queens.

The number of people who have been without power in Queens for five days now is actually closer to 100,000, not the figure of 2,000 customers that officials of Consolidated Edison had cited in previous days.

Mayor Bloomberg said this discrepancy was "annoying." Great quote! In the face of this dangerous heat, some may not have power until Sunday. Yikes. Intersections are also without power.I have to wonder though - how big do batteries have to be to run LED-equipped traffic signals? I wouldn't think it would take too much but NY is using cops in those intersections apparently.

Kerry's Energy Independence

2006-07-21T00:12:00.000-05:00

TheWatt reported on Kerry's energy speech which Kerry erroneously claimed to be about energy independence. It wasn't. The speech is available in both audio and transcript.

Kerry's speech was long on rhetoric. Exceptionally long on political shots against Bush. Nonexistent in terms of actual programs. He frequently challenges those who dispute the science of climate change and does take a poke at Crichton - which I did actually appreciate.

We need to stop allowing these climate-change-nay-saying-fools to be our anchor. So long as we focus on refuting them, we are not focusing on making the changes we need and developing the technology we need.

Listening to Kerry, one gets the idea we use oil because of a conspiracy run by Exxon and Cheney rather than because it is tremendously useful liquid energy source which has an established infrastructure. If you are interested in what we would need to do to achieve this Epcot-world-of-tomorrow, don't waste your time on this speech.

He talks about mandating a reduction in oil use by 2015. Ethanol ethanol ethanol. The plan is to mandate ethanol capable vehicles and pumps to sell it. Biofuels. Not a word about mass transit. I would have appreciated a simple sound bite about changing settlement patterns rather than changing fuels.

His speech seemed almost calculated to ensure conservatives would not listen. He targets their leaders so relentlessly it virtually assures they will disagree with everything he says afterwards. This is not the way to make change.

At the same time, don't we have an obligation to clearly understand why we have the problems we do? Why shouldn't we point the finger at those who have acted so long against the public interest? Undoubtedly, we should. I guess the question is how to do it - and who should do it. I think Kerry is the wrong person. He is a partisan and is clearly more interested in partisan gains than meaningful changes.

This is most evident when he makes the specious claim that if Gore were inaugurated in 2000, the U.S. would lead the world in mitigating climate change. This is absolutely indefensible. Al Gore has become a major figure in this debate because he was freed from the same big business interests which so dominate both parties. Bush's actions on the environment have been largely negative but I do not believe for a second that Gore would have been the first Greenpeace President.

Judging from Kerry's speech, the Democrats continue to not understand the breadth of our climate problem. His "solutions" could be added to "too little, too late" in wikipedia unless coupled with the difficult solutions of changing our settlement and work patterns.

Brad Pitt

2006-07-20T23:24:00.000-05:00

Just for fun: Looks like Brad Pitt is all about rebuilding New Orleans with cutting edge, energy-efficient apartment buildings. He is working with Global Green to find the best energy efficient designs for buildings.

Toyota's Plug-ins

2006-07-20T19:24:00.000-05:00

I remember hearing someone on NPR's Science Friday recently predicting Toyota plug-in hybrids next year. It looks like that was a bit optimistic.

The Associated Press reports that Toyota doesn't even have a timeline for when these vehicles will be available.

President Bush has touted the potential of the technology but obstacles exist, ranging from making the batteries lighter, less expensive and more durable. Some observers have expressed concern about the ability of the electrical grid to support the vehicles, but supporters say most plug-ins would be recharged at night.

As we all know, if these cars are going to recharge at night, they will increase baseload demands. In Minnesota, this is mostly coal and some nuclear. I suspect these cars will hit the market long before renewable sources such as wind make up a dramatic contribution to the grid which means the cars will not be nearly as clean as we would hope.

However, plug-ins can become cleaner over time as we clean up the grid with renewable sources, so they certainly need to be encouraged.

The article suggests that Toyota is increasingly looking at E85 capable hybrids as well.

Thanks to the theWatt NewsBot for this story.

Big Stone II

2006-07-19T21:06:00.000-05:00

All those in favor of more coal power plants: stop reading now. The rest of us? The comment period for Big Stone II is open still according to an email that Stacy just forwarded me. Click that link for a Sierra club action notice.

I believe Big Stone II is supposed to be emissions neutral for criteria emissions because they are going to clean up Big Stone I as part of the deal. But I could be wrong - anyone else know better? The real issue in my mind is the problem with CO2 - which is not a criteria emission.

Carbon Value Analysis Tool (CVAT)

2006-07-19T13:31:00.000-05:00

I found something today that I thought others would find interesting and/or useful. The World Resource Institute has an MS Excel based tool to "help companies integrate the value of carbon dioxide emissions reductions into energy-related investment decisions."

ISLR gets Podcasted

2006-07-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

Renewable Energy Access featured the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self Reliance in its 6 July podcast.

I don't think we have talked about the new law which encourages plug-in hybrids. It passed unanimously.

The law instructs the state to buy plug-in hybrids on a preferred basis when they become available. It also encourages Minnesota State University-Mankato to develop flex-fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles, and creates a task force consisting of business, government and utility representatives to develop a strategy for using, and producing such vehicles in Minnesota.

David Morris discusses the strategies necessary to get legislation passed when dealing with the baggage around GHGes.

The interview also covers Ford's reaction to this. Part of the legislation seems to be aimed at keeping that Highland Park Ford plant open and working on hybrids. From what I have read, this could only be accomplished by demolishing the existing facilities and building a new factory. Ford seems reluctant despite the advantage of its cheap hydro electric power source on the Mississippi River.

This is a short podcast - 15 minutes - of which the interview takes up 5 minutes.

Energy and Heat

2006-07-18T12:34:00.000-05:00

Though I have escaped this heat wave across most of the United States, I feel for the rest of you. From the NY Times comes a reminder of the relationship between high temps and energy usage. Not only do record highs produce record electrical consumption, it also disrupts the grid (wires run hotter) and transportation systems.

G8: Energy

2006-07-17T13:12:00.000-05:00

Looks like the G8 discussions focused on energy. I'm not sure that much of this will come to pass, but they are leaning on oil-producing nations to produce reliable stats about oil reserves. This is one of the main issues that surrounds peak oil because no one really trusts what many oil-producers publish.

I wonder if the G8 is actually planning to crack down or it is just trying to sound tough. I have to imagine it would take a lot to change the game theory game of oil producers and reserve estimates.

They also discussed a plan for dealing with a world oil shock involving strategic reserves.

The group endorsed efforts by the Paris-based International Energy Agency to prepare for a possible world oil shock with a plan to coordinate the release of the Group of 8 countries’ emergency reserves, like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the United States.

This is interesting, but I have to assume that any shock large enough to cause such a problem would probably outlast the strategic reserves. I wonder if politicians actually understand orders of magnitude involved if terrorists were to successfully damage Kuwait and Saudi Arabian facilities in a meaningful way.

Design Renewable Energy into Carbon-Smart Buildings

2006-07-17T11:36:00.000-05:00

Renewable Energy Access posted an article from the SOLAR 2006 conference last week in Denver. In the plenary session they advocate for the need for a rapid transformation in architecture and building design as part of reducing GHG emissions.

Some critical observations:
* Buildings require 48 percent of US energy consumption today,
* Buildings have relatively long lives making it important to start immediately to make broad changes to the way we build them,
* "By 2035, three-quarters of the built environment in the US will be either new or renovated."

The range of changes they recommend look to focus upon the energy use by the building itself calling for incorporation of active and passive solar systems and consideration of energy consumption in siting decisions. What they don't talk about at all are the energy impacts of material selection, landscaping, transportation to/from building, the time the buildings sit unused, etc. This is a good start, though.

Of interest to the Humphrey students is that Socolow brings up the carbon wedges.

Clinton on Climate Change

2006-07-15T15:15:00.000-05:00

Here's the clip of Bill Clinton that aired recently on MPR.

Among many things that he said were two lessons he has learned since being in office about Climate Change:

* "It's a lot worse than I thought it was when I was President." Big Oil and Big Coal were really strong and the people who understood Global Warming were few. On whether signing Kyoto would have killed the US economy he offered Britain as a comparison to US. Similar economies but Britained signed on to Kyoto. Their economy is doing well and ours not so much.

* We need to get going because of Peak Oil but it will be a good thing. The general public needs to be much more aware and concerned about the oil supply problems. There is an opportunity to create a lot of new jobs in areas related to new energy sources.

Ethanol: Sweet or Corny?

2006-07-14T15:17:00.000-05:00

The Bemidji Pioneer reports on ethanol wrangling in Congress, a new report, and sugar V corn in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday issued a 78-page report which concludes that "with recent spot market prices for ethanol near $4 per gallon, it is profitable to produce ethanol from sugarcane and sugar beets, raw sugar and refined sugar."

But the price of ethanol is expected to drop significantly by next summer and make it not profitable to use sugar...unless CAFTA brings us unlimited cheap sugar imports.

Ah, global warming...

2006-07-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

I have been MIA for a while but I saw this article from the Pioneer Press online today, and couldn't resist...especially considering the high 90s weekend in front of us!

Last 12 months hottest for Minn. in a century

Wind Power Reports

2006-07-14T00:59:00.000-05:00

Anyone looking for some wind power research should head over to the collection of recent wind power reports on the Climate Change Action blog.

Anglo Nukes

2006-07-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

Looks like the UK is OK with nuke plants.

Trade and Industry secretary Alistair Darling said: "Our analysis suggests that, alongside other low carbon generating options, a new generation of nuclear power stations could make a contribution to reducing carbon emissions and reducing our reliance on imported energy."

...

The move to a pro-nuclear stance represents a fairly swift about-face from the government though, which in its 2003 energy review said the vast investment required by nuclear power stations made their economics unviable. The 2006 review says they could be financially sound based on "a range of plausible scenarios", but firmly puts responsibility for detailing those scenarios in the hands of the private sector.

So under the rubric of energy security and lowering carbon emissions (or rather the growth rate of carbon emissions I reckon) the UK is looking for ways to invest in nuclear generation facilities.

Update: Climate Change Action blog has some comments about this report and reports on some criticism of the report by UK groups.

Oil Spike

2006-07-14T00:04:00.000-05:00

Bloomberg News reports

Israeli planes attacked the main highway between the Lebanese capital Beirut and Syrian capital Damascus, the Associated Press reported. Sabotage on two pipelines yesterday forced Eni Spa's Nigerian venture to cut output at three pumping stations, the Lagos-based Guardian newspaper reported.

"There's real disruption to supplies in Nigeria, potential disruptions in Iran, and now you've got what's happening in Israel," said Tobin Gorey.

Meanwhile, Voice of America reports

Crude oil for August delivery closed at a record $76.70 in New York Thursday. The price continued to rise in after-hours trading, hitting $78.40 ...

In early Asian trading Friday crude oil was at $77.95 a barrel.

So we have a new record. The peak oil folks see this as more proof for their argument. However, I think this spike will subside. Perhaps it will get worse depending on Middle Eastern craziness or continued problems in Nigeria or hurricanes in the Gulf. But I hear that China's economy is supposed to stop growing so quickly next year because they are afraid of it overheating ( acute coolant shortage?).

I would certainly be surprised to see it drop below $70 a barrel anytime soon. But Saudi Arabia seems to be mostly siding with Israel in this Lebanon fiasco, so I wouldn't predict any geopolitical interference from producers over this. Though Iran certainly could do some damage to everyone if they cut exports.

IGCC replacing wind???

2006-07-12T11:46:00.000-05:00

Here is something that my first reaction was....oh my. Reported on the Legalectric blog is a reduction of wind capacity in order to fit in the production from the Mesaba IGCC plant. In order to add 600MW of production from the clean-er coal plant the MISO impact study proposes a reduction of 675MW of wind production in Southwest Minnesota. Not affected, though, is the level of production from the 600MW Big Stone II conventional coal plant planned for South Dakota.

I would love to hear the thoughts of those more up on electricity regulation as to the accuracy of this report (there are enough inaccuracies in the writing I have to question the veracity of the report) and the impact. If this is true then effectively the clean-er coal technology would actually be replacing wind production not conventional coal production.

Ford Fools

2006-07-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

Ford is shifting its focus from hybrid technology to biofuels. They appear to be conceding hybrids to Toyota and focusing on ethanol. Great.

We don't need to make inefficient cars guzzle a new fuel. We need cars that are more efficient. The article ends with an incentive discussion.

Environmentalists have questioned the motives of the automakers pushing for E85. Car companies receive a credit for each vehicle they produce that is capable of running on ethanol or a similar bio-fuel.

But Ford noted that there are also credits to the buyers of hybrid vehicles. "It's not a
credit-driven thing," he said. "We get credit either way." More important, he said, was to spend money on technologies that could lessen the country's dependence on oil. "We need to keep a hand in everything so that when a break comes, we can move fast," he
said.

Neither money nor consumption buys happiness

2006-07-12T08:59:00.000-05:00

Proving further to the world that Americans aren't happy people, a survey by a British think tank, the New Economics Foundation, found the US to rank 150th in the world using an index of consumption levels, life expectancy and happiness. The small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is apparently the happiest place on Earth.

"It is clear that no single nation listed in the index has got everything right, but it does reveal patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all while living within our environmental means," Mr Marks [one of the authors of the index] said.

I wonder what exactly "our environmental means" are... I would say the U.S. isn't really living within its environmental means even though we seem to afford our level of consumption, since our budget deficit is enormous, and we haven't figured out how to deal with the messes we are currently making or have made. But at what level of consumption would "our environmental means" be? How many people could that sustain? And truly, what is happiness?

Book Review

2006-07-12T01:19:00.000-05:00

The Climate Change Action blog has a book review of Big Coal: The Dirty secret Behind America's Energy Future by Jeff Goodell. Reviews would be great for this site also if anyone wants.

More on the Corrigan resignation

2006-07-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

The City Pages has a new article on the recent resignation of the MPCA commissioner.

"The official story—that Corrigan wanted to spend more time with her family before returning to the private sector—may have been correct; then again, that line or one like it is almost always invoked when a high-ranking political appointee abruptly resigns."

We may never really know the actual reasons behind the resignation but there have been many theories going around about the political motivations behind it. Governor Pawlenty has been making some noise on environmental issues and some view Corrigan as too big of a liability in an election year.

Price Ceilings

2006-07-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

Can you believe that people still try to implement price ceilings for fuel? TheWatt has a fun story that reveals many recent failures from this policy. Does anyone actually know of a situation where a price ceiling worked when dealing with fuel?

Ethanol, Practically

2006-07-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

More studies are showing that ethanol, despite being energy positive, should not be held up as the savior of our consumption habits. An article from Physorg.com details several recent ethanol studies, including one from the great Golden Gopher home:

As far as alternative fuels are concerned, biodiesel from soybeans is the better choice compared with corn-produced ethanol, University of Minnesota researchers concluded in an analysis Monday.

But "neither can replace much petroleum without impacting food supplies," the researchers concluded in the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I liked the conclusion of a different study, also cited:

Biofuels such as ethanol are "not a practical long-term solution," and their widespread use - even from nonfood crop sources - could have a "devastating" impact on agriculture, two researchers at the Magleve Research Center of the Polytechnic University of New York, argued recently.

We need to change our habits! No fuel will allow us the externality-laden luxury of one car per person commuting.

This article clearly makes an often muddled point:

He said the University of Minnesota study is only the latest to conclude that ethanol produces more energy than it consumes. "More importantly, there is a significant reduction in petroleum use with ethanol," he added.

While ethanol is energy positive, the energy it needs in production are less from fossil fuels (depending on production method, I believe - no coal) than that used for gasoline currently. So that is nice.

Nevertheless, this is at best a stopgap that can buy us some time to change our habits. It is not a practical solution without serious changes to our habits.

Advanced wind turbines

2006-07-10T17:35:00.000-05:00

Renewable technologies keep getting better. The Worldwatch Institute reports that wind developers in China recently unveiled the world's first full-permanent magnetic levitation wind turbine. They claim annual output can be boosted by as much as 20 percent over current technology, making it ideally suited for areas where wind output was not previously enough to make wind projects feasible and for getting electricity to more people in rural China.

New Podcast Available

2006-07-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

Ben has just published the latest podcast from theWatt. I am a panelist on this episode (65) and talk about our site briefly.

This was my first podcast and was loads of fun. The podcast is 50 minutes long and weighs about 20 MB. Give it a listen - we had good discussions about oil from tar sands, Al Gore, solar energy, and food scarcity. We also talked about butanol - which was something I hadn't heard of prior to this weekend. Anyone else know much about this one?

If you like it, use iTunes or your Newsreader to subscribe to the weekly podcast. I hope to be back on it in the future, but regardless, it features good discussion of topical energy issues.

When we reconvene in the fall, I hope we can start some sort of regular podcast to look at energy issues within Minnesota. We have tons of local people we could attempt to interview or include.

Wal-Mart

2006-07-09T00:48:00.000-05:00

Looks like Walmart is back in the news after asking Al Gore to speak to executives on sustainability. I think I would be more impressed if an expert spoke to them, but I suppose Al knows more than the average Vice President...

It seems like Wal-Mart is staying true to its recent enviro-friendlier pledges. While I like to encourage business models based locally, most aren't asking me. In the meantime, I think Wal-Mart's efforts could have a significant multiplier effect across the economy as Wal-Mart's supply chain is admired and oft copied.

I believe Wal-Mart will improve the efficiency of its supply chain and stores - reducing waste and fossil fuel usage. Others will copy their model and this will have a significant cumulative effect. We clearly have much work remaining, but so long as Wal-Mart is not going away, the more efficient it becomes, the better.

NJ: We Hardly Knew Ye

2006-07-07T21:52:00.000-05:00

Who knew that New Jersey recently created one of the most stringent renewable energy standards? Well, technically, the RES was old but recent amendments helped it to shed baby teeth and make way for bigger teeth.

Quote from the DSIRE USA Database:

New Jersey's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) -- one of the most aggressive in the United States -- requires each supplier/provider serving retail customers in the state to include in the electricity it sells 22.5% qualifying renewables by 2021. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) made extensive revisions to the RPS in April 2006, significantly increasing the required percentages of "Class I" and "Class II" renewable energy, as well as the required separate percentage of solar electricity. By reporting year 2021, 2.12% solar electricity is required.

This is projected to be about 1500 MW. I learned about this from a podcast via Renewable Energy Access.

The little light bulb that could

2006-07-07T16:48:00.000-05:00

At the beginning, LEDs were only useful for indicator lights. Small, low power consumption...and dim. In my previous life we used a lot LEDs to build lights for doing industrial machine vision systems. Since you only need to have the light on while the image is being exposed we would strobe the lights and overdrive the LEDs to increase the output (you can do that if you only have them on for milliseconds). Each LED only puts out a little light but they're small so you can put a whole bunch of them together to get a light with pretty good output.

When we first started, the only option with enough intensity was red. Over time LEDs greatly increased their intensity over a greater number of colors. Still, they were only available for fairly narrow frequency bands. The prices have also continued to drop considerably. LEDs became more widely used in lighting applications and even started appearing as indicator lights on trucks (they're also very durable).

Then, the holy grail came about...the white LED. This was a great feat that has opened a much wider variety of applications. In my previous line of work, their appearance coincided well with the increased use of inexpensive color imaging systems.....you can't get by with colored light for those.

When the white LEDs came out I was immediately thinking that they would make wonderful room lights once they price goes down and the intensity goes up. According to the Star Tribune we may be getting closer to that future (so....why didn't I buy stock in LED companies back then?) The white LED systems are still too expensive and the energy consumption is much higher than single color LEDs, but, it is all getting better. Maybe someday soon we can laugh about the days of using vacuum tubes and mercury infested light bulbs.

If Only Gay Sex Caused Global Warming

2006-07-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

There has been an op-ed floating around about why we humans are not able to properly appreciate and react to the dangers of global climate change. Here is a copy of it I found at the LA Times.

I've been reading the book Elizabeth recommended in Environmental Classics, "Rational choice in an Uncertain World" by Rastie and Davies, and it has a number of interesting things about how people are hardwired to not make rational choices. One that is relevant here that David Gilbert left out is the propensity to over estimate the unlikely (or smallest) and underestimate the most likely (or largest). This explains our focus on stopping terrorists or the bird flu but not on Global Warming or transportation safety, among other things. There is also the disproportional weight given to something that is very vivid or traumatic, like 9/11.

Science Friday

2006-07-06T15:24:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, Science Friday featured a 30 min discussion of the CO2 case before the Supreme Court (listen to it from the right sidebar). It featured a Sierra Club dude and some guy from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (they make those awesome CO2-is-great commercials). Actually, the discussion was very helpful if you want to understand exactly what is before the Supreme Court and why it is important for them to hear this case.

The second hour also featured 30 minutes or so on the electric car.

A Milestone

2006-07-06T12:29:00.000-05:00

Somehow we have quietly passed the 100 post milestone.

Good job Energistas.

Viva La Energista!

Carbon Tax

2006-07-06T12:17:00.000-05:00

It looks like Quebec is implementing a carbon tax. TheWatt has a brief look at this story and a couple of interesting comments about it with links to further sources. However, many of the links are from the Globe and Mail which apparently requires registration to view.

Wind-to-hydrogen project

2006-07-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

There was an article in yesterday's Mpls/St. Paul Business Journal that Xcel is collaborating with NREL on combined wind turbine/hydrogen engine demonstration project. The idea is to use the excess electricity to create hydrogen, which can power the engine when the wind isn't blowing.

I wonder how cost effective this would be. Generally, wind power is used when it's available, assuming the transmission is there. Also, as I recall, electrolysis is a pretty inefficient process...

Saving the Rock-Tenn plant

2006-07-05T15:12:00.000-05:00

The Pioneer Press had an article on June 28 on the effort to save the Rock Tenn paper-recycling plant in St. Paul. The plant has operated for the past century and provides good paying jobs. The plant relies on steam piped across the river from the High Bridge coal plant for its process heat. Unfortunately for the plant and its employees, the planned conversion of the High Bridge plant to natural gas as part of the MERP (Metro Emissions Reductions Project) agreement with Xcel, the plant will lose it supply of steam.

City and county officials are looking to switch the plant to burning garbage (formally, RDF) as a long term option. Understandably, at least one environmental group (Eureka Recycling, based in Mpls, who is consulting on the project) and some neighborhood groups are concerned about this. However, in contrast to the Minneapolis incinerator, the garbage would be sorted beforehand to remove noncombustibles, which is supposed to make the process cleaner.

An Inconvenient Truth???

2006-07-05T11:27:00.000-05:00

The Pioneer Press reported that the city of St. Paul has renegotiated a 20-year franchise contract with XCel energy to provide electricity and natural gas to the city businesses and residents. The new agreement is not much more than an extension of the status-quo. This is notable for a number of reasons.

First, it is a long term agreement making it the last best chance for the city to affect regional energy policy for a generation (there is a possibility of renegotiate at 10 and 15 years so this isn't entirely true). The agreement is particularly weak on several of the cornerstones of energy policy in a carbon constrained world: conservation, efficiency, and renewable sources. Instead of pushing for more aggressive efforts on any of them it largely stays with a continuation of the status-quo. XCel trumpets their industry leading customer conservation programs but that really just skirts the question of what should be done for the next 20 years. The city had the opportunity to specify more strenuous goals in each category than currently required by the state and passed on it.

Second, there has been a lot of interest in renegotiate the contract to increase the payout to St. Paul. The budgetary implications are that over the length of the contract, a greater portion of the burden will be transferred to property taxes, local government aid, and budget cuts (property taxes and budget cuts being the only two that city government can control). An interesting question is what is more regressive...Property taxes or increased electricity bills from a higher franchise fee? The franchise fee also varies depending on actual consumption in the city so it could vary considerably. Especially if the city should undertake their own conservation programs.

Third, is the political aspect. Mayor Coleman ran on environmental issues and has been making a lot of headlines for his efforts to make St. Paul a green city and cut the greenhouse gas emissions. He has been signing all kinds of agreements with other mayors across the country. Yet, when it comes time to actually make a very big tangible difference.....he whiffs. He once said "When the Winter Carnival can't have an ice sculpture contest,when we've canceled a softball tournament on ice, when we see this not just one year, but year after year after year, we no longer can pretend that this is not a serious issue. . (February 2, 2006, Page B1, St. Paul Pioneer Press(MN). It makes you wonder how much of his environmental courage is only due to the strong campaign of Green Party candidate Elizabeth Dickinson who made the XCel franchise negotiations a central part of her campaign. (full disclosure....she is a friend of mine). He is going to find that many of his former allies are gravely disappointed in him.

One step forward, Three steps back

2006-07-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

The NY Times had an article today on using coal to produce diesel through a process called Fischer-Tropsch. This is a logical step considering the cost of diesel compared to the cost of coal. Not only is it now cheaper to produce diesel from coal but it fits into the 'national security' goal by being able to rely on readily available domestic coal supplies instead of imported petroleum.

The technology is not new having been invented in the 1920's by German scientists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch. Coal-rich Germany used the process extensively during WWII reaching 124,000 barrels per day production levels in 1944. The appeal of the process is the ability to convert solid fuels into liquid fuels. The solid fuel mentioned here is coal but could also be biomass. The first step is gasification that produces a number of volitile compounds, gasses, solid waste, and syngas (H2 and CO). The Fischer-Tropsch process is then used to convert the syngas into liquid hydrocarbons. Compare this to the IGCC process that instead sends the syngas to a combined-cycle process to generate electricity.

Fischer-Tropsch plants require a lot of capital to get started, rely on continued high prices for petroleum, and have high operation and maintenance costs. They are are also heavy polluters especially of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Analyses have shown that Fischer-Tropsch processing of coal is a step backward on the environmental front resulting in even higher life-cycle releases of greenhouse gasses than even current petroleum processing. (Note: capture and sequestration of the process CO2 lowers the values by about a third although at a significant cost penalty. Some proposed FT plants are hoping to be able to capture and sell their CO2 for advanced petroleum extraction uses.) I've also hear reports of other environmental problems but don't have any readily available reports to that effect. On the plus side, though, FT results in low-sulphur diesel making it even more attractive with the new regulations taking affect.

However, in a world where valuation of environmental and social impacts is too low and without any internalization of greenhouse gas costs Fischer-Tropsch makes sense.

Next Green Revolution

2006-07-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

Wired featured a bunch of energy related stuff in its May, 2006 issue.

It takes a long look at Al Gore, takes a bunch of shots at the supposedly old school environmentalists, and profiles the "neo-greens" which talks about the importance of organic cotton.

It does profile a bunch of ways to "kick the carbon habit at home" but that was only in the print copy of the mag apparently. I was surprised by some of these ideas.

Regarding dishwashers - some now use less energy than used to hand wash apparently. They point people to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy site. I had never heard of them before. Anyone else? Is this a cool group or a front?

Smart Strips are power strips that detect when your computer shuts down and turns some of the outlets off so the peripherals stop sucking power - via the famous phantom circuits.

Sustainable Communities, Energy and Environmental Justice

2006-07-03T14:18:00.000-05:00

Please join a group of
Community Development and Environmental Advocates
For a Community Discussion on

Sustainable Community Development and
Environmental Justice in Minnesota

Invited guests
Dr. John Byrne and Dr. Jong Dal Kim
Drs. Byrne and Kim are founding members of Solar Cities – a pioneering program sponsored by the International Solar Energy Society to assist communities around the world in building sustainable and equitable futures.

They both have served as consultants to cities, states and the federal government on how plan for sustainable communities and have assisted in the implementation of several urban initiatives including a survey of twelve U.S. communities who are providing leadership in areas such as land use, water resource, energy, transportation, materials recycling, biodiversity and ‘green’ economic planning, in order to restore a balance and equity among social, economic and ecological concerns.

July 11, 2006
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Neighborhood House, Room 212
179 East Robie Street, Saint Paul
Contact martinezceci@comcast.net for more information

How can the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota pursue sustainable community development?

What are other cities doing to implement Sustainable and equitable Community Development initiatives?

How does our region compare to Sustainable Community Development efforts nationwide?

What should Minnesota policy makers be doing to promote social equity, environmental justice, a prosperous economy and a healthy environment for future generations of Minnesotans?

Sustainable Community Development
Social Equity
Energy Sustainability
Safe and Healthy Environments
Economic Prosperity and
Business Development
Environmental Justice

PUC should reject Big Stone II due to GHG pollution

2006-07-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

Speaking of the Big Stone II plant, this article appeared today about how opponents are asking the SD PUC to reject the application for permits on the basis of the GHG emissions. I don't know much about the South Dakota regulatory system but this seems like an odd place to expect any success. Commissioners are suggesting that it is not the place for state level PUCs to worry about regional, national, or international environmental impacts. This seems to me to be a poor argument but one that is likely to carry the day. Perhaps its really just an excuse to allow them to ignore anything that makes it difficult to just do what they were already going to do.

IGCC in South Dakota

2006-07-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

Preliminary studies are being done to build an IGCC plant in South Dakota. Mobridge is on Lake Oahe (part of the Missouri River) in north-central South Dakota. Huron is on the much smaller James River in the west-central part of the state. From the article it sounds like opponents to the Big Stone II plant proposed by Great River Energy may be supporting IGCC as a better way to use coal for electricity generation.

George Bush does 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday'

2006-07-02T12:12:00.000-05:00

This is not related to energy or energy policy but it was too good to not tell people about. This is evidence of someone having too much time on their hands.

George Bush does 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday'

MPCA Commissioner resigns

2006-07-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

Here's something I haven't heard much talk about. They following email was sent to MPCA employees last Thursday by Sheryl Corrigan, MPCA Commissioner. Tom Meersman also has an article in the Star Trib.

--------------------------------------

Dear All,

When the Governor asked me to be your commissioner, he told me it would be the best job I'll ever have. He was so right. These past years have been the most fulfilling of my career--and the most fun. You are an incredibly talented, committed, and vital bunch--and you make things happen. Thank you for welcoming me, and allowing me to work with you to move our agency forward and to create the environmental outcomes that are so important to our citizens.

Now it's time for me to seek out new challenges and new opportunities, and so today I am announcing my resignation. I plan to spend some much needed time with my family before pursuing opportunities in the private sector. My last day here will be August 1. Between now and then, Leo, Kristen and I will be working with the Governor's office in helping them find an acting commissioner.

Once again, let me thank you for everything you do. It's been a great honor and privilege to serve you and the citizens of this great state.

Sincerely, Sheryl

Sheryl Corrigan
Commissioner MN Pollution Control Agency
520 Lafayette Road North
St. Paul, MN 55155
Ph: 651.296.7301
Fax: 651.296-6334
E-mail: sheryl.corrigan@pca.state.mn.us
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Central Corridor LRT critique

2006-07-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

Related to the article on Metro Transit in the other posting is an article in the Pulse by Ed Felien that is very critical of the decision of where to locate the LRT line. He is advocating running it along the train tracks to the north of University. He doesn't seem to consider to be major impediments, though, that those lines are currently being used for long-haul freight and coal and that there is no development along the tracks to serve. Along most of the length they are several long blocks from the University corridor. It seems to be unimportant to build transit where the people are only where it seems less messy.

He also trudges out the apples to oranges comparison opponents of LRT down University like to use. That's the one comparing the time from downtown to downtown by LRT to that of the 94 bus. The thing is that they don't have comparable service. The 94 picks up at one downtown and jumps on the interstate to go to the other. The LRT is servicing the length of University. It is better to compare the LRT to the 16 or the 50 with the 50 being the most similar bus route. I'll have to find the numbers but what I seem to remember is that the comparison to the 50 is pretty comparable.

He also brings up concerns about safety to pedestrians and motorists sighting the accidents along the Hiawatha line. Ironically, today's Star Trib has an article about how the auto driver in one of those accidents was just charged with DUI.

What he does bring up that are good points are what the impact is going to be on the small businesses and residents along the route. Some of them are pushing very hard for the line. Others are feeling like they're getting trampled over in the rush. It might be interesting to ask Andy Driscol about it all since he's working for one of the groups.

LRT Update

2006-07-01T01:45:00.000-05:00

As for light rail in the Central Corridor, it is rolling along. MPR reports that the Met Council has approved the LRT plan.

As the plan is rather expensive (coming in at just under a cool billion), Council Chair Peter Bell is looking to cut some costs.

One idea is to shorten the line in downtown St. Paul, but that would prevent it from reaching its current endpoint, the Union Depot. Another is limiting the landscaping along University Ave., and a third option would eliminate a tunnel that would go under the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus.

November could prove an important election for transit - though it may not directly affect this project.

State voters could also play a role in the project's fate. The November 2006 ballot will ask Minnesotans to approve a constitutional amendment designating the state's motor vehicle sales tax to be spent only on transportation. The measure would raise tens of millions of dollars annually, with 40 percent dedicated to transit.

These may be baby steps. but they accumulate.

Al Gore on the Daily Show

2006-06-29T23:37:00.000-05:00

Jon Stewart interviews Al Gore about his documentary.

PV near SF

2006-06-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

Nanosolar Inc. is spending $100 million to build the world's largest solar cell plant [Press Release] [SF Chronicle article] [Daily Green Blog].

Apparently some element called silicon is used for PV. I dunno, but apparently silicon is in short supply for some reason so they are building this plant in what must be the valley of silicon abundance: Silicon Valley. So this company is going to be building these PV cells with techniques that use far less silicon.

Nanosolar is a global leader in solar power innovation. Nanosolar's solar electricity panels deliver unparalleled cost efficiency, enabling customers to use green power without paying more. With its proprietary nanoparticle ink and fast roll-printing technology, Nanosolar owns the processes and designs to produce the world's most cost-efficient solar cells and make them available in many versatile product forms. The company's headquarters are in Palo Alto, California, with European operations based in Berlin, Germany.

I have to wonder if Colorado's PV incentives have made it easier for this company to raise the capital for the plant because it requires such a large PV investment in coming years.

No Bar Code

2006-06-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

The May/June Mother Jones issue features "No Bar Code" by Michael Pollan.

I believe this story is one of the four he profiles in his new The Omnivore's Dilemma. At any rate, many of us have read his Botany of Desire or seen him speak. He is an interesting person and well worth reading.

This article examines Polyface Farm - an organic farm that acts locally. Only locally.

"Opting out" is a key term for Joel, who believes that it would be a fatal mistake to "try to sell a connected, holistic, ensouled product through a Western, reductionist, Wall Street sales scheme"—by which (I think) he means selling to big organic supermarkets like Whole Foods. As far as Joel is concerned, there isn’t a world of difference between Whole Foods and Wal-Mart. Both are part of an increasingly globalized economy that turns any food it touches into a commodity, reaching its tentacles wherever in the world a food can be produced most cheaply and then transporting it wherever it can be sold most dearly.

He will not ship his animals or food long distances - actually forcing the reporter to go to his farm in order to sample the chicken.

They were paying a premium over supermarket prices for Polyface food, and in many cases driving more than an hour over a daunting (though gorgeous) tangle of county roads to come get it.

This is the sort of thing that often causes us energy-focused-folks to slap our heads. But I have to wonder which uses more energy - shipping food out across the country or forcing people to drive cross-county to pick it up. I suspect it would depend on shipping methods and such things.

Nonetheless, the article suggests that the average Iowa Red Delicious apple travels a mere 61 miles to shelf whereas the average Washington Red D goes 1,722 miles to shelf. One can imagine how far the New Zealand Braeburns go.

Upon finishing this article - and seeing Pollen's interview on Colbert - I think I will spend more time trying to shop at local farmer markets rather than going with the quick-n-easy supermarket.

Coal into Ethanol

2006-06-28T15:56:00.000-05:00

I find it very interesting to read the trade mags for the "other side" - in "Ethanol Producer Magazine," there is an article about how ethanol plants are now being built to utilize coal instead of natural gas. Obviously coal is a lot cheaper than natural gas, and the price should be more stable (excepting the possible railroad price increases - future post). Apparently ethanol plants that use coal are more expensive up front - one plant found it to be 50 cents more per gallon than the comparable natural gas plant - but coal plants are predicted to recoup these extra costs within 5 years or so because of lower fuel costs. Interestingly, these ethanol plants are permitted and designed to run specifically on only one type of coal from a certain location - if they wanted to change from whom they purchased coal or switch from lignite to bituminous, there would be lots of modifications to do and permits to acquire.

We should be comforted to know that:

'A zero-emissions coal-fired power plant is very designable . . . using basically any coal on Earth,' Groenewold [director of the North Dakota-based Energy & Environmental Research Center] explains, noting that the expense of such technologies, while relatively high, is coming down every day due to research and commercialization.

But how many of these "zero-emission" plants are actually being built? And zero emissions of what? This is notably not explained. And we should remember that ND has lots of coal...

Oil pipeline rupture in Little Falls

2006-06-28T12:30:00.000-05:00

An example of one of the "small" oil leaks we read about in E's class happened last night in Little Falls, when an underground crude oil pipeline burst, sending oil shooting into a nearby field and trees. Apparently it wasn't considered serious enough to warrant an evacuation...

MPR feature on conservation

2006-06-28T10:13:00.000-05:00

MPR had a great report on conservation and efficiency when I woke up this morning. The reporter echoed CEE's basic position, which I agree with, that too often debates on energy solutions focus on supply-side solutions like wind or solar and overlook less-sexy, but cost-effective demand-side solutions.

theWatt

2006-06-27T21:50:00.000-05:00

I recently found another energy site that offers some good commentary and a kickin' podcast. TheWatt has a weekly podcast which is hosted by Ben Kenney and has had some good guests. Ben is from Canada, so it often offers a different perspective than the one we are most used to.

Energy and the environment are the most important factors influencing the quality and sustainability of our lives. We have to be careful not to abuse them and we have to respect them. theWatt is news, views, discussion, ideas and learning about all energy topics. theWatt podcasts are weekly audio versions of this. You can submit energy news or start your own discussions in theWatt Forums. Start discussing energy issues and help save the world!

A recent article updates the Cape Wind project and compares it to a new project off the coast of Texas.

Check it out - these podcasts are great ways to easily keep up on interesting energy issues. You can listen to them anywhere - I listen most often while I am at work. Or biking. If I were Nick, I might listen while brewing...

Duluth becomes Eco Municipality

2006-06-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

The Strib reports that the Duluth City Council has voted to become an "Eco Municipality", pledging to abide by a Swedish sustainability program. Duluth is the third US city to do so. Projects will include putting a "green roof" on city hall to lower A/C bills and switching the buses to run on biodiesel.

earthtrack.net

2006-06-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

By chance, I came across this site, which looks to be a good resource for learning about the effect of government subsidies in energy/environmental areas.

earthtrack.net

NYTimes: Ethanol

2006-06-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

To complement our recent spate of ethanol posts, I wanted to link to "Boom in Ethanol Reshapes Economy of Heartland.

I rarely see discussion about ADM when I read these starry eyed ideas about how ethanol will not only save our car-based lifestyle but also revitalize the heartland. How quickly will these ethanol IPO's give way to ADM and Cargill? Will the rise of ethanol actually substantially change Minnesota?

A Thirsty Fuel

2006-06-26T16:28:00.000-05:00

Another difficulty that is often overlooked when considering the life-cycle impacts of alternatives is the water usage required. In particular, how that couples with the location requirements of the manufacturing plants.

The Pioneer Press ran a piece yesterday on problems ethanol plants are having in Southwestern Minnesota with water availability. It turns out that it's actually somewhat difficult in rural Minnesota to determine beforehand whether or not sufficient water is available for the manufacturing processes.

Ethanol production is a somewhat water intensive process. It is also beneficial to locate the plants closer to the areas producing the corn in order to keep transportation costs down. As the plants are expanded and others built to keep up with the increasing demand for ethanol it is inevitable that they will run into water availability problems in areas without large surface or groundwater supplies.

As the plants get larger and ownership less local we'll probably start seeing less concern over keeping the plants near the corn producing areas. Corn is a relatively easy product to ship so it seems obvious to locate plants near rail lines that can bring in the large quantities needed from a wider area.

Cellulosic ethanol is another matter. At this time, it's much more difficult to transport and store the biomass feedstocks used in cellulosic ethanol production. That will make it more difficult to consolidate ethanol production. We'll probably see the water issue come up again down the road once this technology gets up and running.

Supreme Court to Hear Carbon Dioxide Case

2006-06-26T13:42:00.000-05:00

''The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming ... 'This is the whole ball of wax,' said David Bookbinder, an attorney for the Sierra Club."

A familiar name

2006-06-26T11:25:00.000-05:00

There was a familiar name that showed up in today's Star Tribune article on an urban/rural partnership in wind.

This is the first project in the country in which rural and urban counties have formed a partnership, said Sarah Johnson, who works for the Minneapolis nonprofit Windustry, which aims to increase wind energy opportunities for rural landowners and communities.

"This particular project has a challenge in figuring out the governance structure and who is going to own it," Johnson said. "They're pioneering a new model that's never been done before, so there's so many different directions they can go with this."

Outside Peak Oil

2006-06-25T00:17:00.000-05:00

Outside Magazine weighs in on the Peak Oil debate. This is mainly an article about James Howard Kunstler - author of The Long Emergency - and his work to alert everyone about the end of cheap oil.

Kunstler bases his predictions on a geoeconomic concept called "peak oil" that is gaining credibility even within the petroleum industry.

Just once, I want one of these articles to note that while peak oil is popular in some quarters, it is utterly rejected in others. Perhaps some balance. I suppose it would be too much to ask for a paragraph explaining why economists and others think peak oil is folly rather than framing it as a debate over how much oil is in the ground. As prices rise, demand goes down. For something as important as oil (read inelastic) it takes time and the transition may be tough.

At this point though, I have to wonder if "peak oil" is going to be seen as correct merely because it has become so diluted. My impression of peak oil was that originally, it was the idea that oil production would not only peak, but that its peak would cause immediate catastrophic price rises that would reverberate throughout the world economy and essentially make the rest of my life a pile of shit.

However, peak oil now seems to be more about the fact that oil production will no longer increase and will become more expensive. Duh. Something that I think most of will agree to. Though perhaps it will increase - I'm divided on this because I hope that stricter GHG policies will slow the development of tar sands investment and the like.

For the purposes of Kunstler though, I'm way off course. Much of what he says is important.

You're not going to run Walt Disney World and the interstate highway system on ethanol or hemp! Or biodiesel! Or hydrogen! Or solar power, or all of them together.

Amen! We need to immediately think about the way our lives are organized and redevelop while oil is still cheap. As hard as it is now, it will only get harder - especially if the economy slows down with rising energy prices.

On top of it, he isn't some partisan hack.

"And don't think anything's going to change if there's different political leadership," he says. "Bill Clinton was as much of a cheerleader for the suburban economy as anybody." And John Kerry? "He's just a haircut in search of a brain."

Inflammatory rhetoric aside, I think this is a very important point. Voting in a bunch of Dems isn't going to solve this problem. In fact, this is not a ballot box problem. This is vast sociological problem more related to american capitalism than to party ideology. Further, it strikes me that the Americans most responsible for wasting fuel and emitting GHGs and such things are also the ones who vote. They live in the suburbs and own cars. Even if we had real leaders to vote for, I wonder if they would have the courage to speak out against their constituents' lifestyle?

I'm curious to see what Gore is up to. His interview with Keith Olbermann (who's show is possibly the best daily news program not on Comedy Central) suggests that he understands just how bad most Dems are when it comes to energy and climate change.

IEEE Warms Up to Wind Power

2006-06-22T16:01:00.000-05:00

A major engineering professional organization finally gets on-board with efforts directed at wind power.

http://tinyurl.com/k8ms3

Ethanol articles

2006-06-22T13:56:00.000-05:00

There have recently been a number of things in the news about ethanol.

'Super ethanol is on its way'

"Alan Greenspan, the revered former chairman of the Federal Reserve with a big distaste for irrational exuberance, recently sang its praises before a Congressional hearing on energy security. Greenspan said cellulosic ethanol is the only alternative energy source that could be produced in enough volume to make a dent in gas usage. "

"...it's not unreasonable to expect ethanol to replace 40 billion gallons of gasoline in the near future."

'An Ear for the Market'
NYTimes Op Ed by David Morris

"CONGRESS is considering several bills to extend the 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol producers beyond its 2010 expiration date. But let's hope that our elected representatives don't make their decision in the grips of an ethanol haze. The state of the ethanol industry changed so substantially since the last extension, one year ago, that a fundamental and clearheaded redesign is in order."

His alternate plan is:
"First, tie incentive levels to an index comprised of the price of a bushel of corn and the wholesale price of a gallon of gasoline. (A similar index can be developed for biodiesel or cellulose-derived ethanol.)...
Second, transform part of the federal incentive from a gas tax exemption for those who market the ethanol into a direct payment to those who produce it. Minnesota did this in the 1980's, turning an incentive for consumption into one for production...."

There are some elements of this that are appealing but I'm not entirely sold. For instance, why tie the index to the price of corn and the price of gasoline? Corn is only one of the inputs that goes into making ethanol. There are other inputs who's fluctuation in price can wipe out plant profits, too. (e.g. natural gas, loan rates, etc.) It needs more thought but I wonder how that would be more effective than indexing it to the market rate for ethanol compared to gasoline.

The second idea I am in total agreement with but only as a part of the package. We need to push the current incentives for consumption onto production for the simple reason that we need more control over the method of production. We all know that ethanol is ethanol at the pump but it can make a huge environmental difference in how it is produced. A presentation by Nathanael Green of NRDC yesterday showed that ethanol made from corn using coal for plant energy was only slightly better than gasoline in life-cycle GHG outputs. Ethanol made from corn using no till practices and carbon capture and sequestration (CO2 is a by-product of fermentation) is a significant reduction. Ethanol made from cellulosic feedstocks with carbon capture and sequestration is an even greater reduction to the point that the net life-cycle GHG emissions are negative.

I don't think, though, that we should get entirely away from demand-side policies. It is looking like the EPACT2005 Renewable Fuels Standard is going to end up being almost totally useless as microeconomic forces have been dominating increases in ethanol consumption. It's quite possible that we could end up at nearly double the RFS goal (7.5 billion gallons) in 2012.

While this sounds good and like a reason for no intervention but I think it's just a testamony to the inadequacy of the policy. First, that is still a small portion of even today's gasoline consumption. The EIA is projecting about a 0.2 quadrillion gallon per year increase in gasoline consumption over the next 30 years or so. Second, that almost all ethanol is used in low-level blends (about 99.6%). If it is going to achieve a significant displacement of gasoline a significant portion of ethanol consumption will need to be in the form of E85. Minnesota leads the country in E85 programs but still only has about 230 stations in the state.

SUV Tax Breaks

2006-06-22T00:23:00.000-05:00

The Strib recently covered SUVs and tax breaks in a piece entitled "House SUV bills unlikely to get traction."

There are several bills to reduce tax breaks to businesses who buy exceptionally large SUVs. None of them are likely to get far as Republicans continue to claim the market will make the final decisions about which cars are economical to buy - as their defense of tax policies which purposefully DISTORT the auto market.

A recent Congressional Research Service review of tax preferences for SUVs found that the current law favors the purchase of heavy SUVs over lighter cars and trucks, because of depreciation rules that allow businesses to expense as much as $25,000 in the first year. In previous years, the deduction was as much as $100,000.

Consider this:

Republicans in Congress also are reluctant to revise the tax code to dictate car choices.

and this:

"The path toward energy independence shouldn't include the government telling families and small businesses what vehicles they can and cannot buy," said Rep. Mark Kennedy, a member of the Transportation Committee.

Mark Kennedy and this other dude from the "auto dealers group" are clearly either morons or liars. This is a false dichotomy of course, Kennedy seems to be both. Notice that this debate is not whether the government should intervene in the market. It is about whether the government should stop distorting the market (by encouraging the purchase of energy inefficient vehicles) or continue to distort the market (by encouraging the purchase of energy inefficient vehicles).

Absolutely no one is even considering telling American families and small businesses which vehicles they can and cannot buy. This is utter bullshit and classic clueless Kennedy.

I find it interesting that the paper continues to discuss fuel price "fluctuations" when we have now had some 2 (approximately?) years of the same high prices. When is it a fluctuation and when it is the new equilibrium?

Coal in Europe

2006-06-21T20:59:00.000-05:00

The NYTimes ran an article on Europe's continued reliance on coal to create electricity. This lengthy article covers some of the tensions and serves as a reminder that while Germany may have heavily invested in wind, it still relies heavily on coal.

In fact, they are continuing to build coal plants and will be phasing out nuke plants over the next 15 years or so apparently. It seems like the power companies over there are not as enthusiastic about Kyoto as some of the governments are (or announce they are). I don't really know how their electricity providers are regulated though.

Safe Climate Act

2006-06-21T12:36:00.000-05:00

At least one member of Congress is trying to do something about global warming. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has introduced the Safe Climate Act, which would cap total US emissions in 2010 and then reduce them by 2% through 2020, then increase the rate to 5% through 2050. The bill would create a national cap-and-trade system.

Let's hope that more Congress-people in both parties start to show some real leadership in regards to climate change, for a change.

L.A.

2006-06-20T20:51:00.000-05:00

I was reading an interview with Eric Garcetti - President of Los Angeles City Council - and he mentioned some interesting stuff.

Our real-time traffic information system is one of the best in the country. We're working hard this year on resynchronizing all of our traffic lights, which should improve traffic 7 percent to 10 percent by itself. That's a huge improvement for the amount of money involved.

LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] needs to be modernized, but people who live around the airport don't want any more pollution and air traffic. We own land in Palmdale where we could build a great airport that would essentially be a hub for the West Coast. But we need high-speed rail to move people in and out of there.

At the Port of Los Angeles, one-third of the pollution in the L.A. area comes from container ships idling on diesel fuel. They could plug in electrically like Navy ships do. We're trying to build the technological infrastructure for that through the city Department of Water and Power.

I have to wonder about his predictions about improving traffic by making the syncing the lights. I would guess that it might work briefly, but people will adjust and drive more often. Roads, no matter how efficient, cannot keep pace with a culture organized around one car per person.

You Light Up My Life

2006-06-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

Fascinating article in Science News about new lighting technology. A Boston research team developed solar-powered "lamps" that use small LEDs placed in fabric the size of a hand towel. LEDs can also be put into thin plastic sheets to cover tiles and walls, which would be an interesting effect: a whole room could glow, instead of the traditional spots of light.

Beyond these improvements, LEDs are touted to be a promising technology to reduce cost and pollution from lighting:

In the United States, for instance, $55 billion worth of electricity -- some 22 percent of the nation's total -- goes annually to light homes and businesses. That sum is roughly equivalent to the output of 100 large power plants. Pollution associated with the energy needed for lighting is also large: Annually, about 450 million tons of carbon dioxide and 3 million tons of smog-generating nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.

Researchers have predicted that these devices will replace incandescent bulbs and even fluorescents as the most efficient and widespread lighting technology within a decade or two.

Other technologies will be a sort of stop-gap fix: dimmers for fluorescent fixtures in offices and buildings when sunlight is strong or electricity is expensive, and a system that uses mirrors to direct sunlight into acrylic fiber tubes that glow like fluorescent lights.