Category Archives: fossil fuels and the United States’ Future

War Over Oil – Heh it even sounds sexy

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Right now we are involved in the largest war games ever held in the middle east in Jordan with 20 or so other nations participating. Isn’t that grand? And to top it off the President of Israel thinks the plan is worked out. This is so wrong in so many ways I lost count at 100. What a pitiful waste for so much promise in Obama.

http://www.infowars.com/u-s-ambassador-to-israel-plan-to-attack-iran-ready/

U.S. Ambassador to Israel: Plan to Attack Iran “Ready”

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 16, 2012

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shaprio, told a closed conference in Tel Aviv that the United States has completed preparations for a military strike on Iran. His comments were recorded by a reporter and aired on Israel’s Channel 2 TV on Wednesday night.

It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically, and through the use of pressure, than to use military force,” Shapiro said. “But that does not mean that option isn’t available. Not just available, it’s ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready.”

Shaprio’s comments were not intended for public consumption, the Times of Israel reports.

The finalized attack plan arrives as Israel and the United States prepare for joint military exercises in the United States. “The exercises, to be held in the coming months, will strengthen the relationship between the IAF and the US Air Force as they practice carrying out joint operations,” the Jerusalem-based online newspaper reported. “Israeli and US air defense forces are also to take part in a major joint drill later this summer in Israel to simulate a massive attack. Thousands of US soldiers are expected to arrive in Israel for the drills.”

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Earth Day – A trashy celebration to end this year’s posts

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This headline is priceless. The article is meh.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/local-parks-trashed-on-earth-day_n_1447179.html

San Francisco Parks Trashed On Earth Day: Celebrations Are Not Very Eco-Friendly, Huge Messes Left Behind

By Posted: 04/23/2012 5:52 pm Updated: 04/24/2012 1:39 pm

San Francisco may be the greenest city in the nation, but some residents have a funny way of showing their appreciation.

On Earth Day, Marina district residents took their celebrations a little too far, leaving behind a Fort Mason disaster zone.

Our friends over at SFist alerted us to this heinous trashing:

Not to get all hippie-preachy or anything, but this is kind of an offensive amount of trash, right? Do normal and reasonable human beings not look at that mess and say, “…maybe we ought to like, I don’t know? Take some of this trash with us? To a trash can?” or “Maybe we should bring that coffee table back home?” We’ve seen our share of litter-y days in Dolores Park and some embarrassing trash pileups in Golden Gate Park, but leaving actual pieces of living room furniture is a whole new level of prickish park use.

Fort Mason wasn’t the only park to take a hit on Earth Day. Mission residents also woke up to a severely less beautiful Dolores Park this morning.

One resident told Mission Local, “I’m not sure who angers me more, the people who came to enjoy the park on Saturday and left this mess or Rec and Park, which continues to ignore the complaints and warnings of neighbors about the park’s abuse.”

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Earth Day’s History is Fascinating – and 1970 was so long ago

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I celebrated the first Earth Day but I think it was Gaylord Nelson’s day, the April date. I do not know. I was a freshman in high school. I think I did it by myself because I don’t think anyone was interested. I think I drew a picture of the Earth and hung in my locker. Something like that. It was pretty lame, but you have to start somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth‘s natural environment. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,[1] and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.[2] In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.[3] Earth Day is planned for April 22 in all years at least through 2015.[4]

The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. He proposed March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. About the same time a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.[5][6] Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

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Coal Is A Thing Of The Past – Some people are slow on the uptake

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As my great Grandfather used to say, this guy is so full of pig manure it’s running out of his ears. But then he was a hog farmer.

http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/from-the-right/governments-war-on-coal-is-a-war-of-regulations-against-americas-way-of-life-148006215.html

Governments “war on coal” is a war of regulations against Americas way of life

Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 04:21 PM

The new EPA rulings will finally bring to fruition President Obama’s promise his policies will necessarily bankrupt the coal industry.

Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama explained his anti-coal energy policy in an editorial board meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle: “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad.”  “So if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can – it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”

But the 2010 elections saw a landslide defeat of those politicians in the house and senate who supported skyrocketing our utility rates through cap and trade and put an end to President Obama’s aspirations in a new energy tax.

But that didn’t put an end of efforts to kill the coal industry and the day after the landslide defeats of the 2010 elections, President Obama said  “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way. It was a means, not an end. I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”

After that the EPA began to enact regulation by bureaucratic fiat rather than the legislative process.

Even staunch supporters in the labor unions are beginning to wake up to the fact that they are being regulated out of a job if the Obama administration has its way.  The Keystone Pipeline rejection already has hit the labor unions hard by halting the creation of 20K plus jobs in the construction industry.

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Regrettably I must say, go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Building The Buildings Of The Future – No Air conditioning is a place to start

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This is an old piece but it is still as true today as it was then. Air conditioning and by that I mean cooling air when it is hot is very expensive both financially and with regards to energy consumption.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/buildings-without-air-conditioners-the-latest-in-energy-efficiency-5413/

Buildings Without Air Conditioners: The Latest in Energy Efficiency

Air conditioners consume an inordinate amount of power in the U.S. and they aren’t very efficiently used. To save energy, some say leave them out.

Michael Kanellos: December 22, 2008

Sometimes the most efficient air conditioning system is not having one at all.

To curb energy consumption, architects with projects in temperate cities – Seattle, Portland, San Francisco – have started to design buildings without mechanical air conditioners. These buildings will have heaters in all likelihood, but not air conditioning (see Can Greentech Make Housing Cheaper and Green Buildings No Subsidies Needed).

“There are only five days a year you need cooling in Seattle,” said Amanda Sturgeon, an architect and senior associate at the firm Perkins + Will, who recently designed a building without a mechanical conditioner.

In some cases, architects are putting in air-side economizers, i.e., computer-controlled windows that open to let in cooling breezes (see The Solar Window). The General Services Administration building in San Francisco uses openable windows on 12 of its 18 floors that let in cool breezes at night that, ideally, keep the offices cool in the daytime.  There is no mechanical cooling in the open office areas.

This shift comes courtesy of two trends. One, building developers and contractors have latched onto green buildings as an economic opportunity. Designing a building to LEED Silver or Gold standards – the environmental building standards promulgated by the U.S. Green Building Council – only adds around 2 percent to the overall cost or less, according to various contractors, architects and researchers. Designing to the LEED Platinum standard can add only 6 percent if carefully planned. The trick, say Sturgeon and others, is to exploit as many passive, design-centric techniques for scoring LEED points before moving on to the potentially more expensive, equipment-centric ones like biomass boilers or new types of lighting systems.

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Smart Meters – Not as smart as you think

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Those crazy Brits. Always planning their regulations in advance. Here they are rolling out smart meters left and right and no one has made a peep about regulations. I am betting that that is going to hurt in the long run.

http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/government-to-restrict-sales-and-marketing-around-smart-meters-3216.aspx

Government to restrict sales and marketing around smart meters

Energy efficiency news – by GreenWise staff
5th April 2012
Companies are to face restrictions around how they sell and market their products and around the data they can collect about their customers when mass rollout of smart meters gets underway.

Under new guidelines proposed today by the Energy and Climate Change Minister Charles Hendry, all sales will be banned during the installation of smart meters and installers will need the permission of customers before they visit if they want to market any products to households and businesses. There will be restrictions on data energy companies and other suppliers can hold about their customers. And, in a bid to help consumers save energy and cut their bills, smart meter installers will have to provide energy efficiency advice and all households will be offered an in-home display allowing them to see what energy is being used and how much it is costing.

The Government wants 30 million homes and small businesses to have smart meters installed by 2019. Smart meters give consumers access to accurate information and mean they no longer have to rely on estimated bills. But the cost of the rollout, set to start in 2014, has been estimated at £11.7 billion and consumer groups are concerned the programme could leave consumers short-changed and their privacy undermined.
“Tough guidelines”

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The Green Economy – This site thinks it is only a matter of time

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This real cool site believes that because energy prices now must be factored into every business, the green economy is only a matter of time. I hope so.

http://www.thegreeneconomy.com/corporate-investing-in-a-time-of-record-cash/

Corporate Investing in a Time of Record Cash

How to invest in an evolving economy?

As businesses — many of whom have record levels of cash on hand —  look for new opportunities, readers and experts chime in on where to put corporate investments.

In a recession, business hold fast, reducing costs and overhead while waiting out the slow economy. The return of the economy heralds a return — often very much like to the one that existed before the recession — except with some new efficiencies.

The Great Recession is different.

By the start of this year, we saw businesses reaching the conclusion that business-as-usual was not going to happen. There is a realization that oil and energy prices are now fundamental to decision making at all levels. (One example is the auto industry, which fought fuel efficiencies for years. Now they are entering new markets with innovative cars, and bringing back buyers who have bought foreign for years.) Limitations in global outsourcing — including customer dissatisfaction and the costs of doing business abroad — are making board rooms re-examine policies once held as best practices. There is talk about supply-chain efficiencies that are broader and more complex than ever before. Companies with the technologies and skills to manage that process are becoming the new Google and the new Microsoft.

Amidst the on-going malaise at the federal level, states and local communities are moving ahead with water and air quality policies. Innovative leaders are leaping ahead of those regulations, developing new products that manage resources better, either in the manufacturing process or as used by consumers.

Yet, with all this opportunity, at the beginning of January, Reuters reported that Apple Computer (APPL) had $93 Billion in cash, as well as long and short term investments. In September of 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that corporations had a higher share of cash on their balance sheets than at any time in nearly half a century, with the Federal Reserve reporting that non-financial companies had more than $2 trillion in cash and other liquid assets, up more than $88 billion from the end of March of last year.

 

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The Green Economy – Why the world passes the United States by

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I find this article to be both uplifting and sad. Uplifting for them and sad for us.

http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/AdvisoryServices/SouthAfrica/tabid/79056/Default.aspx

South Africa’s Pathway to a Green Economy

National Green Economy Initiatives

South Africa’s New Growth Path announced in 2010 sets out critical markets for employment creation and growth, implying fundamental changes in structure of production to generate a more inclusive and greener economy over the medium to long run through macroeconomic and microeconomic interventions.

South Africa launched a US$ 7.5 billion fiscal stimulus package in February 2008 covering the period covering the period 2009-2011.  Around 11% of this stimulus package, representing US$ 0.8 billion was allocated to environmental-related themes.

The South African Government hosted a Green Economy Summit in May 2010, to set the stage for formulating a Green Economy Plan.

In November 2011, South Africa unveilled a Green Economy Accord to launch a partnership between the government, business community, trade unions and civil society.

The Green Accord is one in a series agreed under South Africa’s New Growth Path. It sets goals to create 300,000 new jobs in contribution to the New Growth Path’s objective of creating five million new jobs by 2020, and to double the country’s clean energy generation.

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Go there and read tons. It is a UN site after all. More tomorrow

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Wind And Solar Cheaper Than Coal – Or so says Michigan

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Since we are in a Utility state of mind this week, the PSC of Michigan just released this report according to the folks at AWEA.

http://www.awea.org/blog/index.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1699=14546

Mich. Public Service Commission: Renewable energy cheaper than coal

Posted: 2012-03-02 Tom Gray

We often run “Fact check” articles on this blog when fossil-fuel-funded “experts” exaggerate the cost of electricity generated with wind power (for a particularly bald-faced recent example, see Fact check: American Enterprise Institute epic FAIL on study of wind costs, Feb. 29), but perhaps this one should be titled “Reality check.”

Reality: the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) recently issued a report that finds that electricity generated from renewable energy sources, at an average cost of $91 per megawatt-hour (9.1 cents/kilowatt-hour), is almost one-third cheaper than the cost of electricity from a new coal-fired power plant ($133 per MWh, or 13.3 cents/kWh).

Further, the report notes, “The actual cost of renewable energy contracts submitted to the Commission to date shows a downward pricing trend.  This was the case as of the filing of this report in February of 2011 and continues to be the case, as the two most recent contracts approved by the Commission for new wind capacity have levelized costs of $61-$64 per MWh.  This is significantly lower than the levelized costs of the first wind contracts submitted in 2009.” (emphasis added)

The report is one in a series required annually from the Commission to the state legislature, reporting on the impact of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), which requires utilities to obtain 10 percent of the electricity they provide from renewable energy sources by 2015.

Other highlights from the report:

– While utilities are allowed to charge customers extra for renewable energy, customers are also seeing savings due to wind.  Said the Commission, “While … surcharges have an impact on electric rates, there are also economic benefits attributable to an increase in renewable energy generation sources and improved energy efficiency. As noted in previous sections, the cost of energy generated by renewable sources continues to decline and is cheaper than new coal-fired generation.

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Utility Sized Storage For Electricity Has Never Been A Problem

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The alledged lack of utility size storage has always been the coal and gas minions excuse to the public for distrusting alternative forms of energy. It also has never been true. One of the easiest storage system was proposed in the 50s. That would be pumping water up hill to a reserve and then at night letting it run down hill through a turbine. This creates a complete energy loop that could in theory last forever. Another proposed in the 70s was to heat molten salts and then extract the heat later. The one that always excited me the most was actually proposed in several different places and times; and was actually proposed to capture lightening. All it is is a giant battery in the ground which uses the earth as an insulator. But now that the tech guys are getting into the act, I am sure the utility companies will just throw up their hands and toss in the towel.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/02/18/new-flow-battery-does-that-cheap-energy-storage-thing/

 

New “Flow” Battery Does that Cheap Energy Storage Thing

February 18, 2012 By

Scientists on the lookout for utility-scale, high efficiency batteries are developing new “flow”systems that that store energy more effectively than lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries, but there’s a catch. The flow batteries in operation now are about the size of a house and they cost more than the equivalent in lithium-ion batteries. The race is on to find smaller, cheaper alternatives and researchers at Sandia National Laboratories believe that they are on to the solution, which is, in fact, a solution of liquid salts called MetILs.

The limits of lithium-ion for wind and solar

Lithium-ion batteries have been the gold standard of energy storage solutions for a long time, but they fall short when it comes to the utility-scale systems needed to keep up with new high efficiency wind turbines and advanced solar technology. The cost of lithium-ion batteries is one factor. Another is their relatively short lifespan, compared to flow batteries. According to Sandia chemist Travis Anderson, a flow battery can withstand about 14,000 cycles, which adds up to about 20 years of energy storage.

Flow battery basics

Flow batteries work by converting chemical energy into electricity. Stephanie Hobby of Sandia explains it thusly:

“A flow battery pumps a solution of free-floating charged metal ions, dissolved in an electrolyte — substance with free-floating ions that conducts electricity — from an external tank through an electrochemical cell to convert chemical energy into electricity.”

Flow batteries charge and discharge rapidly, and they have a long lifespan, but all is not perfect in flow battery land. The most promising systems so far use zinc bromine and vanadium, both of which are “moderately toxic” according to Hobby. In addition, the price of vanadium can spike wildly on the open market.

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