FutureGen Is A Very Bad Idea – At least as formulated now

As I have said many times, collaboration between Environmentalists and Industry is never a good idea because the Environmentalists have to sacrifice some of their integrity to participate. We have no time for that now. Every little bit of the Earth that is unsullied is now sacred.

www.futuregenalliance.org

www.futuregenforillinois.com

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FutureGen


How can a project that has 2 of its own web sites and a Wikipedia listing be so wrong? Well let’s see COST?

Officials vow to

 not give up on

FutureGen

Durbin blames politics for decision to scrap plant

By DAVID MERCERTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHAMPAIGN — Officials promised Wednes­day to fight the Department of Energy’s decision to scrap a futuristic, low-pollution power plant planned for central Illinois, but the leader of the state’s congressional delegation seemed resigned to its end.Sen. Dick Durbin said he hopes to fund the $1.8 billion FutureGen power plant through ear­marks in the federal budget, but wasn’t opti­mistic it would work.“If the administration doesn’t support it, we’ve seen that this president is willing to use his veto pen over and over again,” Durbin said. “Without the support of the administration, it’s an uphill struggle.”Durbin spoke not long after Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said publicly what he’d told members of Illinois’ congressional delegation and Illinois economic development officials in a private meeting Tuesday.Rather than spend money on FutureGen, which was to have been built by a consortium of coal and power companies in Mattoon using mainly federal funds, the DOE plans to put its fi­nances into a handful of projects around the country that would demonstrate the capture and burial of carbon dioxide from commercial power plants.“This restructuring … is an all-around better deal for Americans,” Bodman, an Illinois native, said in making the announcement to scuttle the program.The department will now solicit industry ap­plications for participation in the new projects. The idea is for the government to pay for build­ing the carbon capture and storage facilities and industry to build the modern coal-burning power plant. Each project would be designed to capture 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the lead­ing greenhouse gas linked to global warming, of­ficials said.The coal and power companies planning to build the plant, known as the FutureGen Al­liance, issued a statement saying it “remains committed to keeping FutureGen on track” but it was unclear how that would be possible without the federal funding.FutureGen was envisioned as a unique re­search project that would trigger development of a virtually pollution-free coal plant where carbon dioxide emissions would be captured and buried deep beneath the earth.


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For a listing of the last ten AP postings on FutureGen go here.

Click on the Length of Search box and pick Archive, the type in FutureGen in the submit Box and click submit.

The Project escalated in cost from 750,000 million $$$ to 1.8 billion $$$ in a little less than 5 years. That is more than enough to build a “new generation” nuke on the same site. But think about this. What would it actually cost. We all know that typical Utility Construction Projects come in with at least 20% cost over runs and sometime as high as 40% is acceptable. Which means that the real cost would likely hover at just under 3 billion $$$. Can anyone say Too Cheap To Meter???

One More Day of Jokes on Planet Earth and I am done – it ain’t that funny day to day!

This site is real funny. I am only going to put a little of it up, but please visit. The site will put a smile on anyone’s face.

http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/Humor/index.html 

You are here: FreeEnergyNews.com > Directory > Humor

Alt. Energy Humor

The lighter side of light.  The gassier side of gas.

Finally found . . . the treasure at the end of the rainbow.
waste_treasure_at_end_of_rainbow.jpg

Waste to Energy: Treasure from Trash
(Thanks Nathan Allan)

* * * *

Galaxies Colliding

 

galaxies_collide_full.jpg

In the constellation of Pisces, some 100 million light-years from Earth,
two galaxies are seen to collide. (PhysOrg; Aug. 26, 2005)

AND WE THOUGHT WE HAD IT BAD
(Which planet’s insurance policy would cover that one?)

* * * *

Speed Demon

99mph_kid_ride_400pxw.jpg 

Instead of spanking, consider taking your kid for a ride and
giving him/her the manual windshield wiper assignment.
(Thanks Rich Kushinsky)

* * * *

Moose, Methane, and Madness in Finland

I have pledged to myself to be only funny for the next week. This energy efficiency stuff can get pretty grime, what with the US, China and India sucking the planet dry.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1949645.ece 

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Burping moose

bad for the

environment

Amidst all the talk about carbon dioxide emissions

and global warming comes news that Norway’s

national mascot may be contributing to the

destruction of the environment, through burping

 and other bodily functions.

Climate offender, me?

PHOTO: LARS AAMODT


Moose is a faily common site in Norway.

PHOTO: ROLF ANDREASSEN

The country’s so-called “King of the Forest” hasn’t been widely viewed as having any really nasty personal habits, surely none that could be considered an environmental threat.

But now some researchers linked to Norway’s technical university (NTNU) in Trondheim contend that moose are responsible for tons of gas emissions a year through their frequent burping and, well, farting.

“Shoot a moose and save yourself a climate quota,” joked moose researcher (and moose hunter) Reidar Andersen at NTNU to newspaper VG on Tuesday. He’s published a book on the life of a moose.

And he’s only half joking. The research web site www.forskning.no has calculated that the annual gas emissions from a moose are equal to those from an individual’s 36 flights between Oslo and Trondheim.

A grown moose will burp and pass so much methane gas in the course of a year that it amounts to 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide emissions.

Newspaper VG reported that a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit the same.

Bacteria in a moose’s stomach create the methane gas, which in turn breaks down the plant fibers the moose has eaten. Excess gas is (ahem) farted out, and methane gas is considered more destructive than carbon gas. Cows are also a source of such gas emissions, while pigs and chickens are more environmentally considerate.

VG reported that 120,000 moose wander around in Norwegian

 forests. This year’s looming moose hunt

(elgjakt), which begins

September 25, will eliminate an

estimated 35,000 of them.