Category Archives: fraud

Nuclear Power Is The Future – Probably not…

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People who tout Nukes as the Future take for granted that there is fuel out there.

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421123231.htm

Questioning Nuclear Power’s

Ability

To Forestall Global Warming

ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2008) — Rising energy and environmental costs may prevent nuclear power from being a sustainable alternative energy source in the fight against global warming, according to a new study.

    In the article, Gavin M. Mudd and Mark Diesendorf investigate the “eco-efficiency” of mining and milling uranium for use as fuel in nuclear power plants. Advocates of nuclear power claim it has the potential to mitigate global warming. Detractors, however, link it to dangers such as proliferation of nuclear weapons and problems such as permanent disposal of nuclear waste.

The study points out that supplies of high-grade uranium ore are declining, which may boost nuclear fuel’s environmental and economic costs, including increases in energy use, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, newly discovered uranium deposits may be more difficult to extract in the future — a further drain on economic and environmental resources.

“The extent of economically recoverable uranium, although somewhat uncertain, is clearly linked to exploration effort, technology and economics but is inextricably linked to environmental costs, such as energy, water, and chemicals consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and broader social issues,” the authors say. “These issues are critical to understand in the current debate over nuclear power, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change, especially with respect to ascribing sustainability to such activities as uranium milling and mining.”
 

Don’t believe me? What about the guys and gals at MIT?

http://web.mit.edu/nuclearpower/

But the prospects for nuclear energy as an option are limited, the report finds, by four unresolved problems: high relative costs; perceived adverse safety, environmental, and health effects; potential security risks stemming from proliferation; and unresolved challenges in long-term management of nuclear wastes.

http://www.monthlyreview.org/080201furber-warf-plotkin.php

Or maybe the the Australian Monthly Review?

The following article on “The Future of Nuclear Power” by Robert D. Furber, James C. Warf, and Sheldon C. Plotkin, scientists with a long history of addressing this issue, seeks to lay bare the realities of nuclear power. Although much more difficult to read than the typical MR article, we encourage all of our readers to study it closely. Its conclusion?: “any building of new [nuclear] plants would be a serious mistake….the future of nuclear power, as we know it, is very poor at best.”

The careful analysis of Furber, Warf, and Plotkin thus points to the irrationality of current proposals to resort massively to nuclear power as an answer to global warming. In order for nuclear power to make a dent in the global warming problem it would be necessary to build hundreds of nuclear power plants around the world, each one taking ten years to construct, and each an enormous hazard to the earth, generating radioactive wastes lasting for hundreds or thousands or millions of years. The most important principle of environmental thought is that of safeguarding the earth for future generations. To turn to nuclear power as a solution to global warming would be to abandon that trust.—Ed.

:}
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Beware Of Energy Scams – this one over the internet, the sender: Gas Secret

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As I have reported with the State Journal Register and the National Geographic Magazine about advertising “Energy Conservation” space heaters and Gasoline Fraud…Now they have taken to the “broadband”. These people are scum so I will not post their internet address. Its enough to say that there are no secret ways to improve your internal combustion engine’s “performance”. Those engines have only been around for over 100 years. If you get this email, please reply – Kiss My Grits!

 “Did You Know Your Car Engine Wastes 20%
Of The Gas You Buy? – Ethos Is Easy
To Use, And Starts Saving You Up To 70¢
Per Gallon on Gas – Guaranteed.”

Now You Can Keep Your Engine Healthy, Create 30%
Less Pollution And Save Up To 70¢ Per Gallon Off Your Gas Bill.
With a 100% Natural Bio-Degradable Product, Made by a California
Based Emissions Company, with a 10 Year Old Track Record

 CRAP CRAP SCAM SCAM CRAP CRAP SCAM SCAM LIARS

:}

Let me tell you the story:

How The Smog In California Forced
Oil Companies To Do Something They
Didn’t Want To…

 I’m not sure if you ever had the chance to visit California in the mid 70s. It was a nightmare – environmentally speaking.

The smog was so thick you could hardly see 15 miles out.

There was so much smog and pollution in the air, that if you were to stand on your balcony facing the mountains in Southern California, the only way you would know that the mountains were there would be if you had a map showing you so.

Children in poorer families in the suburbs were getting asthma and lung problems at record numbers, the problem was really getting out of hand.

If someone didn’t do something about the air, L.A was heading to a future where wearing gas masks could be common.

CRAP CRAP SCAM SCAM CRAP CRAP SCAM SCAM LIARS

Kiss My Grits! 

:}

McCain’s Gas Tax Proposal – So the time for us has just about ran out

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John McCain like every other Republican in America wants to avoid what their 30 years of dereliction of duty has wraught. Nixon, Regan and Bush (my version of lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) all increased our dependence on oil and easy Chinese money. Bush in particular ushered us to the brink of a world depression. Grover Norquist, who wants to take us back to the 1930s is about to succeed:

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_norquist.html

BILL MOYERS: If states refuse to raise taxes to fix some of those problems we’ve just seen, that certainly won’t bother my next guest. He’s a sworn opponent of all taxes. He’s also the most powerful man in Washington not to hold a public office.

Officially, Grover Norquist heads an organization called Americans for Tax Reform where for almost 20 years now he has crusaded for lower taxes and less government. Unofficially he’s been the linchpin in Washington for the conservative revolution that now controls the government. His weekly meetings of activists became the politburo of strategy where all stripes of conservatives bear their differences in order to bury their hatchet in Democrats. From the Christian coalition to log cabin Republicans to the National Rifle Association on whose board he sits, this Harvard graduate keeps the troops on mission and on message. His success prompted Senator Hillary Clinton to muse aloud, if only Democrats had a Grover Norquist. Welcome to NOW.

GROVER NORQUIST: Glad to be with you.

BILL MOYERS: Well, you do have it all. You have the White House, the Congress, the regulatory agencies, the courts more or less. The last time Democrats, liberal Democrats, held that kind of power, they made some mistakes like the war in Vietnam that they couldn’t sustain the support of at home, emphasized parochial interests at the expense of the sort of bedrock universal values of American society. What are the errors you think conservatives running everything could make?

GROVER NORQUIST: I think it’s very important to always make sure that you’re talking to the entire coalition and to as many Americans as possible; not to go chasing after one little group or another. The Democrats would bring new groups into their party and not notice that larger groups are going out the back door. And so what I try and do whenever I work on an issue or work with political leaders is make sure that when you’re talking about a new approach, how does that…how does the entire coalition view that new approach? Is there a better or different way to do it that irritates fewer people and that satisfies a larger constituency?

BILL MOYERS: And that’s what you did at your Wednesday morning meetings? Those meetings became famous, for all kinds of conservatives being in there hammering things out.

GROVER NORQUIST: And we now have 27 versions of that at the state capital level, including one in New York City. So we’re taking the model of the “leave us alone” coalition from the national level to the state level as well.

BILL MOYERS: “Leave us alone?”

GROVER NORQUIST: Um-hmm. Look, the center right coalition in American politics today is best understood as a coalition of groups and individuals that on the issue that brings them to politics what they want from the government is to be left alone. Taxpayers, don’t raise my taxes. Property owners, don’t restrict or limit my property. Home schoolers, let me educate my own kids. Gun owners, don’t restrict my Second Amendment rights. All communities of faith, Evangelical Christians, conservative Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, people want to practice their own religion and be left alone to raise their own kids.

BILL MOYERS: Do you have any sympathy for those states we just saw a few moments ago? Under the president’s plan, those states do not expect any direct aid from Uncle Sam. Do you have any advice for them?

GROVER NORQUIST: Sure, two things. The most important thing for President Bush and the federal government to do is to create a pro-growth economic policy because its economic growth that brings in more revenue for states and local governments. At the state level what they really have to do is take a long run view and limit the growth of spending, put limits on how much you spend. And then California, the state owns a whole bunch of land and other things that it could sell off it doesn’t need, and it needs to figure out which of those government jobs need to be in government, and what can be privatized or contracted out.

BILL MOYERS: You’re on record as saying, my goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bath tub. Is that a true statement?

And the Holy Satanic trilogy of George Mason University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Chicago have supplied all the intellectual fire power. SMU is where George Bush, jr. will try to lock up his presidential papers and avoid jail,

:}

Oh but I digress…One of the finest posters at The Oil Drum JoulesBurn who Blogs at:

http://satelliteoerthedesert.blogspot.com/

Had this little cutey today:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3855#more

McCain’s Gas Pains: Gas “Tax Holidays” A Good Idea?

Posted by JoulesBurn on April 15, 2008 – 7:45pm
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: gas prices, John McCain, politics (list all tags)

For immediate release from John McCain’s campaign:

John McCain, who just hours earlier proposed a “tax holiday” in which the 18 cent federal tax on gasoline would be suspended during the summer driving season, has reconsidered and has instead proposed that the U.S. gallon be redefined to be equal in volume to the current U.S. quart. “This will immediately lower the price at the pump by 75%, providing visible relief to millions of Americans”, quipped McCain. “I rejected the idea of setting it equal to the liter, for obvious reasons”.When questioners suggested that this move wouldn’t actually change how much consumers spend to fill their tanks, McCain responded “Well, neither would my previous proposal”.

In unrelated election news, the McCain campaign announced that P.T. Barnum has been posthumously appointed as their policy director. Also, Hillary Clinton has proposed a suspension of the law of gravity, at least during the summer flying season, to help the beleaguered airline industry. Barack Obama reportedly had no comment on these suggestions, other than to say that Americans are definitely “atwitter” about gas prices.

We interrupt this vacation from reality with the following observations…(under the fold…)

  • As gasoline is a commodity for which prices are determined by supply and demand, lowering the price without increasing the supply will likely increase demand (usage). Prices will rise again to compensate.
  • The 18.4 cents per gallon that is now flowing into the US treasury, and which is then spent building roads, bridges, and mass transit, will instead flow to oil companies — particularly those in foreign countries, since the US imports over half of its oil.
  • Targeting the current gasoline tax instead for the development of alternative transportation and ways of using energy more efficiently will provide more lasting solutions to the current energy and economic crises than short-term attempts to fix the problem.

Weird Bird Friday – Man I feel like I just came out of warp drive or something

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After spending nearly 15 days discussing the environment and religion I feel like I need a work out or something…Its like being in the clouds and then landing. Your ears pop all the way down. Terra firma feels so good. Time to get back to the manly world of drilling for oil, digging for coal, and sailing the oceans loaded with Liquid Natural Gas. Oh sorry I mean hoisting Solar Water Preheat panels, riveting Wind Turbine towers and pioneering the Noncarbon Based Economy. HAHA

Thank God it is Weird Bird Friday TGI(WB)F!

So much local stuff has gone by while I was watching my navel. Wind Farms in Christian County…Some guys are building an alternative fuel car in Auburn (of All places) to compete in the XPrize Races…But here is a story I have wanted to cover for awhile. People have complained about the pigeon poop downtown for years. So 2 years ago the Mayor and the City Council of Springfield hired a guy from Decatur with a 164,000$$$ nobid contract. This guy is known locally as the “Bird Whisperer” because of his magical and secret methods….that he refuses to disclose because they are proprietary.

28324-birdman1.jpg

In reality he is a sad old man who uses pellet guns and poison to get the birds at night when they sleep and terrorizes them during the day with fire crackers…which cause the birds to move to another part of the downtown.

http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/28324.asp

or maybe he uses more fire power than that:

Bird whisperer’ could lose contract
Accused of firing rifle in downtown parking garage

By CHRIS WETTERICH
STAFF WRITER

Published Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The “bird whisperer’s” $164,000 no-bid contract with the city of Springfield is in jeopardy after Police Chief Ralph Caldwell said Tuesday that James Soules had probably broken the law by firing a .22-caliber rifle in a parking garage.
WEB EXTRA: Archive video of the ‘bird whisperer’ Caldwell told aldermen that an investigation had found probable cause to believe that Soules or one of his employees had fired inside the parking garage for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

“You just can’t shoot a firearm in downtown Springfield,” Caldwell said.

In a telephone interview, Soules, of Decatur, said later Tuesday that he does not even own a .22-caliber rifle. He said he had shot a sick pigeon inside the garage with an air rifle.

“I probably had 20 people say, ‘Why don’t you get those birds because they crap all over our cars?’” he said.
 

Soules said he does have a .22-caliber pistol but did not use it in the garage. Such a weapon would be useful only at close range, he said.

The Illinois State Police, the lead agency because the alleged offense occurred on state property, has turned its report over to Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Schmidt, who is reviewing it, Caldwell said. Soules could be charged with misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon.

Told of the findings at a meeting Tuesday, aldermen on the Springfield City Council’s finance committee unanimously forwarded an ordinance by Ward 8 Ald. Kris Theilen revoking Soules’ contract to the full city council for a vote April 15.

:}

Instead of doing the obvious. That is banning the feeding of wild life and enforcing it:

pigeons1.jpg

pigeons2.jpg

Not to be confused with the real Bird Whisperer, Ken Globus:

http://www.thebirdwhisperer.com/

Internationally known as The Bird Whisperer, Ken Globus has been taming “difficult” birds for more than twenty five years.  From handling literally thousands of birds, many of them terrified, extremely aggressive and considered “un-handleable,” Ken developed the kinds of hands-on bird taming techniques that have enabled him to do what few others can do: calm down even the wildest birds.          If a bird bites, flees, threatens or quakes with fear.  If it’s insecure in new surroundings or with new people.  If it prefers one gender over the other.  If it’s timid and unhappy. If it’s cage territorial, dominant or just plain aggressive.   If other approaches have failed to get you results, Ken can help.

   ken.jpg

Believe it or not the bird belongs to Steven Spielberg and Cate Capshaw…wow I knew I’d get a bird picture in there. AWW cute budgie.

:}

Juche – a simple name for a nasty idea. Kim Il Sungism

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Jodie Foster, Pregnant Man, Iran, Prince Philip, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, American Idol, Obama, China, Beyonce, Rolling Stones. (sorry for the deception but please read below)

Normally I wouldn’t bother to cover this but since it’s on the list I felt I needed to “dis” it as much as I could. I even took the time to get Buzzes top searches for the week to punch it up a bit. I even checked every category Energy Tough Love has to publicize this human indignity. The list of “Religions” that I used to start this meditation on the relationship between Religion and the Environment placed Juche well down on the list but with 18 million adherents that still alot of folks. I had never heard of it before and I even asked a couple of people if they had heard of it. Imagine my suprise when I typed it into a search engine and up popped this Prick who claimed he was god:

www.dictatorofthemonth.com

kim.jpg

During his lifetime he forced millions of people in North Korea to worship him. Can you imagine anything more degrading or disgusting then a man who points a loaded gun at your head and demands that you treat him like a god. You must pray to him. Oh most Divine Leader. Makes me want to puke. But then he is followed by this buffoon:

www.beconfused.com

jong.jpg

Now they are “worshiping” something no better than a trained monkey. If they had an ENVIRONMENTAL group in North Korea, I wish them the best of luck but I ain’t gonna publish it. I ain’t even gona type it into a search engine. If anybody ever deserved to get a nuke shoved up his poop shoot. This would be it.

National Geographic Magazine and State Journal Register Publish Fraudulent Advertisement

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I will not even publish the advertisements because they are designed to rip off Senior Citizens, Poor People, and the less educated/intelligent. Let’s just say that the Amish Heater (HeatSurge) and the EdenPure Heater are the biggest rip-offs since FREE GOLD COINS. Deregulated Capitalism produces the acceptance of theft as the normal course of day. Remember the Snake Oil salesmen of the 1930’s. (There Baaaaaack) Well they are back and George Bush thinks they are cute. Yah know, “Only a stupid (make up your own derogative ethnic or class descripter) would buy one of those. Heck they deserve it.”

For the Record. The most efficient use of electricity is to use it to generate work. In other words it is most efficiently used to run pumps and motors. It is not an efficient way to generate heat (or light for that matter)…though that can be a reusable byproduct of the work. To use it purely to generate heat is incredibly wasteful, BUT any Watt used to generate heat can generate something like 500 degrees of heat if used as efficiently as possible. Neither heater listed above is efficient. Resistance heating is the most efficient use of that electricity if a Person must use it that way. Anyone can go to the local hardware store and buy one for 30$$$.

I can understand the State Journal Register ripping people off with its new “advertising is everything” attitude, but the National Geographic? That is atrocious:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071129184202AAQF5w3

ga_ans_uh_logo.gif

   Just Wondering asked the

question; Do the Heat

–

 Surge Fireless Flame

heaters that the Amish sell

–

 really work?

Best Answer – Chosen by Asker

The ads (which are all over the country) are very misleading.

1. A coffee maker uses a large amount of electricity for about a minute. It’s true that the so-called “miracle” heater uses less electricity than a coffee maker DURING THAT ONE MINUTE. But you’re going to have the heater running for a lot longer than one minute a day. So it’s going to cost you a lot more to operate than a coffee maker does.

The heater will cost you around 12 cents per hour to operate. The average cost of electricity in the U.S. is 8 cents per 1,000 watts per hour, so 1,500 watts costs 12 cents per hour on average. This is true for ANY 1,500 watt electric heater.

2. The ads say that the heater produces an “amazing” 5,119 BTU (a measure of heat energy), but ALL 1,500 watt electric heaters produce 5,119 BTU. If an electric heater was 100% efficient, it would convert 1,500 watts of electricity into 5,120 BTU of heat. All electric heaters are nearly 100% efficient, and this has been true for decades. The “miracle” heater is no more efficient than any other electric hea

http://forums.howwhatwhy.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=machines&Number=262499&fpart=2

hwwlogosmallforums.gif

Quote:

Let me offer my thinking on the edenpure heater as I sit, somewhat cold, in my office trying to decide whether or not to buy one. As I understand this, a quartz infrared heater is good at heating objects rather than the air. This can keep a person relatively warm in a cool room if they stay seated or at least within the arc of the infrared lamp. That makes it relatively more efficient than heating the entire space around them, even if the cost/btu looks unfavorable.


Welcome to the forums marc13.
Did you notice that they don’t give a BTU rating, or a wattage rating? Your assumptions about quartz heaters are correct, but infrared I’m not sure of. I haven’t found much about that type, but do take notice of what some of us have suggested as alternates to this thing. In the sites I visited from other boards, I didn’t see even one post recommending them (any style). The edenpure in EVERY case was concidered to be highly overpriced and very INefficient. JM ( Junkman462 summed it up very well, have a look.

Quote:

The Edenpure seems to be a hybrid system. It uses an infrared lamp to heat a copper heat-exchanger. That would make it less efficient that using the infrared to heat you directly, but potentially more efficient in heating the entire room, because the infrared is (might be?) more efficient than oil or gas in heating the heat-exchanger.


May I ask where you found this information? I’ve looked all over the place and couldn’t find anything more than the manufacturers *claims. Nothing about copper heat exchanger. 

Quote:

If the room has relatively high humidity, this effect would be enhanced by the heat carrying capacity of the humidity (I just stepped over the bounds of what I think I understand).


But from what I understand, it doesn’t heat the room, just objects it’s pointed at.

Quote:

As an investment, the Edenpure also has the advantage of any portable heat source in that it is portable. So I’m still a little skeptical, but still considering it. Like virtually all technologies, but might not be the best for all applications, but it might be the best for some.


At that price, I seriously doubt it. 

Quote:

I’d appreciate any corrections on my thinking or understanding of thermodynamics. Thanks


Sounds like you have the jist of it, though I WILL bow to MANY others here.
Al
Why would anyone pay 300 – 400$$$ for something you can get for 30$$$. The offending publications say “ITS LEGAL”. The answer is so is Pedophelia if you don’t get caught or 7 years after the event.>

Taylorville Energy Center Is A Bad Idea – What are we to do when our protectors betray us

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Where I come from most Environmentalists and Energy Advocates would be filing lawsuit after lawsuit against any Toxic Deep Well Injection Site proposed in their area. Yet in an amazing sellout the organizations that could stop this are ADVOCATING For It. This is a sad and tragic turn of events.

This from Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center had this to say:

http://www.elpc.org/news/statementfuturegensiteannouncement.php

elpc_logo_protecting.gif

ELPC > Newsroom

Statement of Howard A. Learner on

 FutureGen Site Announcement

Contact: Shannon Rooney(312) 795-3720
Srooney@elpc.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2007

 

STATEMENT OF HOWARD A. LEARNER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & POLICY CENTER
FUTUREGEN SITE ANNOUNCEMENT

CHICAGO, IL – Illinois scored a major victory with today’s announcement that Mattoon, Illinois has been selected as the first site for the experimental FutureGen “clean coal” plant. It is designed to test an innovative carbon capture and sequestration approach to burn coal without emitting carbon dioxide pollution into the atmosphere.

“Illinois is now positioned to be an advanced clean energy technology leader. The proposed FutureGen technology, if it works, is the Holy Grail enabling the economic boost from using Illinois coal while avoiding global warming pollution that harms our environment,” said Howard A. Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “We look forward to continuing to work as a member of the FutureGen coalition to help this project succeed.”

The FutureGen plant is expected to begin operation in the fall of 2012.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) is the Midwest’s leading environmental, legal advocacy and eco-innovation organization. For more information go to www.elpc.org.

                                                                            ###

And then there’s this Letter To the Editor from Dave Kolata, Executive Director of the Citizens Utility Board, published in Springfield’s State Journal-Register.  It’s bad enough that he publishes this in the Illinois State Capital, but their web site claims he published something similar, in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, though their web site refused to give up the actual text.

 www.citizensutilityboard.org

February 28, 2008

State needs to get on with clean coal plans

We applaud your editorial supporting the Taylorville Energy Center (“A clean coal plant may yet be built in state,” Feb. 7). We agree wholeheartedly that despite the disappointing loss of FutureGen, Illinois still has a chance to show leadership on clean coal.

Using cutting-edge technology that gasifies coal to remove pollutants, the privately financed Taylorville project would be the cleanest coal plant in the world, dramatically reducing the exposure to harmful environmental triggers of asthma and lung cancer. At the same time, this $2.5 billion facility would create thousands of jobs, provide Illinois with a needed source of power, and reduce consumers’ energy costs by using coal instead of expensive natural gas to produce energy.

Indeed, the Taylorville plant could provide a badly needed boost to the state’s coal industry. Illinois is home to the second largest coal reserves in the nation, but with FutureGen off the table and our state having recently suffered the shutdown of the Crown II and Monterey mines, the Illinois coal industry needs a shot in the arm that only Taylorville can provide.

As your editorial points out, last year legislation that would have allowed the project to proceed got caught bogged down in Springfield and no final action was taken. Unlike FutureGen, the Taylorville plant is 100 percent within our state’s control. We urge the Illinois General Assembly to act quickly to secure our state’s energy future while doing right by consumers, the economy and the environment.

Phil Gonet President  Illinois Coal Association

David Kolata Executive Director Citizens Utility Board

Michael Carrigan President, AFL-CIO

Angela Tin  Director Environmental Programs American Lung Associationof Illinois


I mean really, you want to threaten downstate aquifers so the air can stay clean?  Where is the outrage here. And what is Angela Tin thinking? That us downstaters will trade Lung Cancer for Stomach Cancer when we drink polluted water? This is crazy, but even the Sierra Club gets into the act >.http://illinois.sierraclub.org/ >

December 18, 2007 Sierra Club Statement on FutureGen Siting
No New Coal Plants Until Technology Proven

Statement of Bruce Nilles, Director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign, in response to today’s announcement that Mattoon in East Central Illinois was picked as the site for the $1.8 billion FutureGen project — an experimental coal plant that would capture and store its carbon.

“If coal is to remain a part of our energy future, it must be mined responsibly, burned cleanly and not contribute to global warming. FutureGen will allow the coal industry to determine whether or not it is technologically and financially feasible to continue to burn coal without accelerating global warming

“It will still be years before we see if the highly experimental FutureGen project is successful in capturing and safely storing its carbon emissions–until then it is critical that no additional coal plants are permitted and constructed in the United States. We need to continue to invest in the demonstrated clean energy alternatives that are available today and don’t contribute to global warming, like wind power and energy efficiency.  

“We can expand our energy choices beyond the limited, unhealthy options of the past. We should be offering incentives for alternatives to coal that can meet our energy needs and save us money while boosting the economy, improving public health and combating global warming. Illinois and many other states are already reaping the benefits of transitioning to cleaner energy. While we continue to look for cleaner ways to use existing energy sources, we should also be investing and supporting alternative, renewable sources of energy and increasing efficiency.”

 ###

  

>This is heinous. There is no other word for State based groups selling out their own.
>

Taylorville Energy Center Is A Really Bad Idea – Deep Well Injection (DWI) is not good in Illinois

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First a slight mea culpa. A gentleman from an Advance Gasification Publication emailed me and took me to task for being a “know nothing” blogger. Is that great or what! He pointed out that my description of Gasification was flawed. On each Blog I put up all kinds of site addresses like Wikipedia and others so that people can “click and read” about any subject I Blog about if they wanted to. I do not view myself as a babysitter. Google being what it is (or any other search engine for that matter) I don’t even really have to put up the links. A reader can just type in the subject and get a list sources for their own selves. I do it to make it easy for people to READ about what I am writing about and to show the sources I am using.

If you go to the site below you can see the gentleman in all his indignant fury:

http://gasification-igcc.blogspot.com/

For the record the hydrogen to run the plant come from electrolysis like catalytic effect from steam heated in part by the coal. Also for the record this is a dumb way to generate electricity, almost as dumb using coal to make steam. Solar is more direct and more efficient than this crap ever could be. Also for the record, I try to write for the normal Joes and Jackies in the world. The only thing they care about is that the “lights come on when they flip the switch” and the health of their children. It’s the health and welfare of their children and their grand children where this whole project falls apart.

Back to DWI. Illinois is a real bad place to put a Commercial Toxic Waste Deep Well Injection Site and that is what Tenaska is trying to do. The Energy Portion of the Project is In One Sense is a smokescreen. If they get their financial way and get around regulation of the site By the ICC By declaring it an Independent Power producer AND pass Legislation Mandating the Purchase of the Power by Illinois Utilities then they could make a fortune. More on that later. Trust me much more. But lets say, for the moment that RATE BASING a 2 Billion $$$ Power Plant ain’t happening and that a 2 Billion $$$ Power Plant will be “Too Expensive To Meter” What’s the game here?

There are only 5 Commercial Toxic Waste DWI’s in the nation:

http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php

 deepwells.bmp

 

As you can see they all sit atop spent or partially spent rock trapped oil fields. Though there is no evidence that these sites are fool proof they at least have the intellectual possibility of succeeding. Most of the other Non-Commercial Toxic Waste DWI sites that are usually operated to get rid of human waste and wastewater have proved troublesome at best.

http://www.stopthetoxicwells.com/

http://eelink.net/EJ/well.html

 

Their failure rate for something that was supposed, “to solve the waste problems” in the US have not worked out so well.

When you look at Illinois, which has 3 major rivers the Mississippi, the Wabash and the Illinois, and a soft coal-filled  Center:

 

herrin_coal_map.jpg

 

then putting a Commercial Toxic DWI right in its center seems unjustified. But think about this for a moment once it is open who else might dump their Toxic stuff there as well? It is widely rumored in the Environmental and Energy communties that the only reason that Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin signed as a “supporting Governor” is that he believes he could ship some of his States sequestered carbon here. This is what a proper sequestration system in North Dakota looks like:

m-24_weyburn-co2.jpg

www.netl.doe.gov/…/core_rd/mmv/41149.html

 

Build a PIPELINE to the nearest  stone encased oilfield. Hint: It’s not in Illinois.

 

Taylorville Energy Center Is A Very Bad Idea – Pump Poison where they can’t monitor it

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FutureGen was a bad idea because it made Deep Well Injection (DWI) look like a possibility in Central Illinois. And get this it cost NOTHING. The Government didn’t spend a dime nor did the Energy Industry. But, it accomplished so much. FutureGen:

1. Got the citizens excited and made the appearance of their acceptance.

2. Got the State of Illinois hooked into something that does not exist…Clean Coal Technology.

3. Produced studies that claim that DWI will work in Central Illinois – its the Sandstone…its the sand stone..its.

4. Glossed over the toxics produced and the huge amounts of water it will consume.

5. Coopted the Energy and Environmental Groups

6. Paved the way for the real threat which is in Decatur and Taylorville in a classic bait and switch move.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS230346+31-Jan-2008+BW20080131

Taylorville Energy Center Receives Final Air Permit, Environmental Appeals Board Denies Sierra Club Appeal
             Project Can Begin Once Illinois Lawmakers Act
TAYLORVILLE, Ill.--(Business Wire)--In a critical milestone for the development of clean coal
technologies, the U.S. Environmental Appeals Board denied the Sierra
Club's appeal of the air permit granted to the Taylorville Energy
Center. The project is now poised to move forward once enabling
legislation is passed by the Illinois General Assembly.
   On June 5, 2007, following a two year application process, the
Illinois EPA granted the first U.S. air quality permit for a
commercially-sized Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power
generating facility to the Taylorville Energy Center (TEC), a $2
billion, 630-megawatt project being developed by Christian County
Generation LLC (CCG).
 
 

In CES’ last blog I covered what was in Coal because gasification uses huge amounts of it. Why? because gasification is only interested in the Hydrogen it can get out of the stuff, plus many of the elements they won’t use are flammable

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

thus they contribute to the BTWs in coal when it is burned. As a result they will need 2 or 3 times the amount of coal to produce the same amount of Electricity. Logically then they are going to produce at least 2 to 3 times the toxics and probably more. In the past, gasification sites just dumped all that nasty stuff on the ground. That has produced a fair amount of Superfund Sites and the irony is that one of them is in Taylorville. The second irony is that that site hasn’t even been cleaned up yet, and Tenaska wants to start another one.

But these people think its just a dandy idea:

http://www.cleancoalillinois.com/tec.html

While these people talk out of both sides of their mouths:

http://www.tenaska.com/newsArchive.aspx

Tenaska Proposes Nation’s First New Conventional Coal-fueled Power Plant to Capture Carbon Dioxide – February 19, 2008

Captured CO2 would be sequestered in the Permian Basin and help recover more than $1 billion of West Texas oil annually.

Tenaska, Inc. is developing a site near Sweetwater, Texas, upon which to construct a technologically advanced coal-fueled electric generating plant able to capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide would be sold for use in enhancing oil production in the Permian Basin, resulting in geologic storage.    

Did they coopt the Environmental and the Energy Groups who are supposed to stop this stuff? You bet your jammies they did:

   EAB questioned Sierra Club's arguments given the organization's
numerous past statements supportive of IGCC technology:
   For a number of years, Sierra Club has argued that IGCC technology
should be adopted as the best available control technology for
limiting air pollutant emissions from the burning of coal to produce
electrical power.

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

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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???