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

Posted on February 27, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

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???

Acciona Energy Of North America – Causes happiness and sadness

Posted on February 26, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

I am very happy and proud that someone from Springfield would be in the forefront of financing nonburning forms of alternative energy. The lady is amazing. I am sad that the project is in Nevada and not Illinois. But the saddest part for me is that the company she works for is based in Spain and they don’t manufature their products in Springfield. When ever will US companies wake up to the fact that we are being left out of the New Economy?

http://www.sj-r.com/business/stories/25745.asp

Published Sunday, February 24, 2008

Springfield native finds energy in projects

A 20-year career in financing of energy projects wasn’t exactly what SUSAN DONATH NICKEY had in mind while attending high school at the former Ursuline Academy in Springfield in the mid-1970s. That career — including her role in a $266 million financing package for the world’s third-largest solar energy plant in Nevada — has landed her on a couple of national lists in the past year of women executives who have helped lead the way in development of wind, biofuels and solar energy. Last month, Women’s eNews, an independent online news service, named Nickey one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” on energy issues.

“I’m very optimistic after watching this industry through a lot of stops and starts,” said Nickey, now based in Chicago as chief financial officer for Acciona Energy North America. The company, based in Spain, world’s largest developers of wind, solar and other alternative energy projects.Nickey has helped arrange a variety of private-equity financing for alternative energy projects during four years with the company, but the commercial-scale Nevada Solar One is among the largest and most ambitious.The plant relies on a network of 180,000 solar panels covering the space of approximately 200 football fields to supply power to 14,000 Nevada homes. It took about a year-and-a-half to complete construction.

Nickey said Nevada is among a growing list of states, including Illinois, that have mandated increased use of alternative fuels. Traditional utilities in Nevada also were given incentives for long-term contracts for purchases of solar power.

Of course, Nevada has other advantages when it comes to solar energy.

“The sun shines a lot there,” Nickey said.

Nickey, whose father, Robert, still lives in the Springfield neighborhood where she grew up, graduated from Ursuline Academy in 1978 and the University of Notre Dame in 1983. She soon found herself in banking and energy financing after obtaining her graduate degree from Georgetown University.

“Early on, I had opportunities to work on energy projects, and that made the transition easy when the independent power industry began to develop,” said Nickey, who added that she returns to Springfield as often as possible.

On March 6, she’ll be among the panelists at the Union League Club of Chicago on ways to “Make Green from Green.” The Charter Financial Analysts of Chicago and the CFA (Cultivating Female Ambition) advisory group are sponsoring the event.

Long stretches of gloomy weather, especially in winter, make the Midwest a tougher sell for solar power. But Nickey said she has been encouraged by the steady progress of wind energy, including in Illinois.

Acciona also is among the world’s largest manufacturers of wind turbines.

“It’s the states that are driving the growth in renewable energy… they keep adding mandatory (energy) portfolio standards,” Nickey said.

“There’s always been a large group of European lenders active in the business, and they still are years and years ahead of us. Now, there are a lot of equity investors that see that growth her

Tim Landis is the business editor of The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at tim.landis@sj-r.com or 788-1536.

And What Has Susan Financed? Well lets see 300 acres of Solar Panels.

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/03/nevada_solar_on.html

Pete Seeger Says It All – We just got one place to live

Posted on February 18, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

We just keep screwing it up. Stop lighting things on fire. Stop burning things up. We don’t need to do that anymore.

http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/

Please see this new publication – as the heat turns up.

The Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Folks that are trying to move the US into the future..And they are only 200 miles from the home of CES

http://www.ateec.org/aboutus/eec.htm

Advanced Technology Environmental AND ENERGY Center

Environmental Education Center

The Environmental Education Center is located on the campus of Scott Community College (Bettendorf, Iowa) and is part of the Eastern Iowa Community College District (EICCD). The Environmental Education Center is home to several initiatives, including:

Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC), a center funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF);
Environmental Safety and Health division of HMTRI, which includes HAZWOPER, Industrial Chemical Spill Response, and many other health, safety, and environmental compliance offerings; and
EICCD’s Health, Safety, and Environmental Technology distance learning program, which includes online and correspondence courses.

Environmental Resource Center

ATEEC was established in 1994 as an NSF Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Center of Excellence to advance environmental technology education through curriculum development, professional development, and program improvement in the nation’s community colleges and secondary schools. The activities of the Center were driven by the following goals.

Strengthen science, math, and technical curriculum and instructional materials supporting environmental technology education;

Strengthen the nation’s environmental technician programs by providing professional development opportunities for faculty of community colleges and high schools;
Strengthen advanced technology environmental education by providing support services for program improvement.

The Center’s vision is to create a national network of community colleges supported through public and private partnerships that prepares an environmental technology workforce to address industry’s needs and to promote the transfer of secondary students to higher education. Since its inception, ATEEC has formed partnerships with numerous organizations, including:

National Science Foundation
Environmental Protection Agency
Partnership for Environmental Technology Education
Department of Labor
University of Northern Iowa
University of Wisconsin
Department of Education
Institute for Museum and Library Services
U.S. Department of Energy
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Private sector companies
Local public libraries and museums

Throughout its history, ATEEC has sought to become a comprehensive national resource providing a range of enabling activities to high schools and community colleges.

Local News Continued – One and Done

Posted on February 5, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

I have been remiss in posting both the State Journal Register and the Associated Press’ web sites were I steal…oh I mean “fair usage” all of these articles.

http://www.sj-r.com/

http://www.ap.org/

And the latest, while America fiddles the world burns.

U.N. Chief: Adaptation to warmer world could cost $20 trillion

By JOHN HEILPRIN

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS__________

UNITED NATIONS — Global warming could cost the world up to $20 trillion over

two decades for cleaner energy sources and do the most harm to people who can

least afford to adapt, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns in a new report.

Ban’s report provides an overview of U.N. climate efforts to help the 192-nation

General Assembly prepare for a key two-day climate debate in mid-February.

That debate is intended to shape overall U.N. policy on climate change, i

ncluding how nations can adapt to a warmer world and ways of supporting the

U.N.-led negotiations toward a new climate treaty by 2009, U.N. officials said

Wednesday. The treaty, replacing the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012,

could shape the course of climate change for decades to come. The Kyoto pact

requires 37 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases by a relatively modest

5 percent on average.Much of the focus has been on the United States, the only

major industrial nation to reject the treaty, and on fast-developing nations such as

China and India.

Many are looking to. next year, when a new U.S. president takes the White House.

The leading contenders in both political parties favor doing more than the voluntary

approaches and call for new technologies that President Bush espouses.

In his 52-page report, Ban says that global investments of $15 trillion to $20 trillion

over the next 20 to 25 years may be required “to place the world on a markedly

different and sustainable energy trajectory.” Today, the global energy industry

spends about $300 billion a year in new plants, transmission networks and other new

investment, according to U.N. figures. Srgjan Kerim, a Macedonian diplomat and

economics professor who is president of the U.N. General Assembly, told

The Associated Press that cutting greenhouse gases alone will not be enough

to pull island nations, sub-Saharan Africa and other particularly vulnerable parts

of the world back from the brink of irreversible harm.

Annie Petsonk, a lawyer for the advocacy group Environmental Defense,

said global warming will mostly affect poor people and minorities, because

the wealthy can spend more to adapt.

But then again it’s money well spent!

As The Tropics Move North

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

In Illinois we have a new phenomonon – Lightening and Snow Storms…Pretty creepy.

Study: Winters in Northeast are warming

By MICHAEL HILL

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS___________

ALBANY, N.Y. Earlier

blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells.

Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.

A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December to March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.

‘Winter is warming greater than any other season,” said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master’s thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.

Burakowski, who graduated

from UNH in December, found that the biggest snowfall decreases were in December and February. Stations in New England showed the strongest decreases in winter snowfall, about 3 inches a decade.

There were wide disparities in snowfall over the eight-state region, with average totals ranging from 13.5 inches at Cape May, N.J., to 137.6 inches at Oswego, N.Y. Some stations on the Great Lakes, where lake-effect storms are common, showed an increase.

The reduction in days with at least an inch of snow on the ground was the most pronounced at stations between 42 and 44 degrees latitude — a band that includes most of Massachusetts, a thick slice of upstate’New York and southern sections of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Burakowski cites two likely causes for the reduction in so-called snow-covered days: higher maximum temperatures and “snow-albedo feedback,” in which less snow cover to begin with allows more sunshine warmth to be absorbed by the darker ground, making it less conducive to snow cover.

The research has yet to appear in

a peer-reviewed journal, though meteorologists who have studied long-term climate trends said the observations appear to be in line with other research.

Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center looked at trends in snowfall totals nationwide from 1948 to 2006 and found that patterns varied regionally and seasonally. For the Northeast in winter, he found totals mostly decreasing along coastal areas, with an increasing trend along the Great Lakes. Art DeGaetano, of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, said regions around New York state have recorded negative trends in snowfall since 1970.

DeGaetano cautioned that snowfall totals can vary a lot from year to year. Last month, for example, snow totals were well above average for December across much of the Northeast.

Ski center operators also have noticed an incremental increase in temperatures over the decades, said Parker Riehle, president of the trade association Ski Vermont, but he echoed DeGaetano’s point that snow totals have gone up and down.

‘We’ve seen some erratic winters in recent years,” Riehle said. “The mood swings of Mother Nature, perhaps, are deeper than they used to be.”

But while ski slopes can fire up snow-making guns to compensate for lack of flurries, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers have complained about later starts and fewer trails covered with snow.

Cross-country skiers never even get in the right frame of mind during some winters, said Mark Boos-ka of the Hudson Valley Ski Club.

“They look out their window and they’re not thinking skiing,” he said.

More Local News That I was Too Busy To Cover

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

If every house in the US was designed like this we would not have a problem. Man was destined to live in very modern and comfortable caves…Like Hobbits. And they are SAFE.

Underground house is cozy abode for family in DeKalb

By KATE WEBER

THE (DEKALB) DAILY CHRONICLE

DeKALB — It took a lot of convincing before Diane and Don Harvey’s daughter would bring friends to their rural DeKalb home.

“She was embarrassed because we lived in a basement,” Diane Harvey said. “All her friends liked to come here when it stormed, though, because they figured it was the safest place in town.”

Since moving into the single-floor underground building in 1989, Diane and Don Harvey have converted the Old Mayfield Grange Hall on Five Points Road into a comfortable, normal-looking house. What now holds childhood memories for the Har-veys’ kids once was a simple gathering space for an entire farming community.

“Basically, this was the only place in the area other than church basements and their own lawns to hold receptions in,” said Wilma Womack, Diane’s mother. “Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts had their meetings

here, wedding receptions and anniversary parties — it was a meeting hall for everybody out here.”

When the building first went on the market, it was a hot property for those looking for a blank canvas.

“There were a lot of people who were very upset that we managed to scoop it up quickly,” Diane Harvey said. “There was one real estate investor who wanted to turn it into apartments, but we got the bid because we didn’t want to change the structure of the building.”

When the Harveys moved into the building, the only amenities were the four outside walls and a wall down the center of the structure, which was immediately torn down.

“We didn’t even have hot water,” Diane Harvey said. “We boiled water on the stove to take showers. It felt like we were pioneers.”

The children hung curtains from the ceiling and placed furniture along the outside of each makeshift room to create their own walls.

“We had to make do,” Diane Harvey said. “With three kids in high school, where is all our money going to go? It wasn’t going to put walls up, that’s for sure.”

After nearly two decades, the underground building still contains possibilities for the Harvey family, including a potential second floor. Two staircases leading to the ceiling of the home are used as storage space, but serve as reminders of what was once destined for the building.

“They were originally going to build a second floor, and we wanted to build on top as well,” Don Harvey said. “The ceilings have 24-inch footers, so it was meant to be built on top.”

Despite no plans for expansion, the Harveys are glad to have purchased the four cement walls they have made into a home. The low nature of the underground home provides protection from sound as well as weather.

“A tornado wouldn’t move the place,” Don Harvey said. “It might take the roof off, but we aren’t going anywhere.”

If The University Of Illinois Can Do This For Itself Why Not The Rest Of Champaign

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

‘Green’ residence

hall to be first for U of I

.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS____________

CHAMPAIGN — A $23 million residence hall under construction in Champaign will be the first at the University of Illinois to be certifi-ably “green.”

The eco-friendly features of the 262-bed Presby Hall include a geot-hermal system to heat rooms and water, water-saving plumbing, as well as environmentally friendly lighting and paint.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the building, expected to be the first U of I residence hall to receive certification from the U.S. Green

On the Net

Presby Hall: www.presbyhall.com

Building Council, is planned for this summer.

The Champaign-based McKinley Presbyterian Church and Foundation, which owns the property, took the initiative in pushing for a green hall, the private foundation’s director said.

“We wanted to be responsible. We wanted (the building) to be sustainable, and we wanted to give back to the world,” Heidi Weatherford told The (Cham-

paign) News-Gazette.

There are construction challenges.

One is the installation of the pricey, $650,000 heating system, which will use ground-source pumps to keep the building warm.

To install pumps and many miles of tubing, some old trees along a nearby street must come down, though new trees will be planted to replace them.

Weatherford said while the geot-hermal system is expensive, the costs will be recouped by the $40,000 in annual energy savings.

“The upfront costs are signifi-

cant,” she told The Associated Press on Saturday. “But the financial payback is almost immediate.” Factoring in the energy savings, Weatherford said, the heating system could pay for itself in about 10 years.

The Illinois Clean Energy Foundation recently awarded the foundation $100,000 to help pay for Presby Hall’s green features.

The university itself has said it plans a major renovation of a cluster of residence halls called Six Pack, saying it hopes that project also will get the green certification.

Chicago Well On The Way To Being The Greenest City In America

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Chicago

• Museum to build

‘green’ home

CHICAGO — A three-story, fully functioning “green” home is going to be built on the campus of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

Museum officials say the house will showcase the latest innovations in renewable resources and smart energy consumption.

For instance, guests will be able to see how wastewater from the shower and bath can then be used for toilets.

The 2,500-square-foot home is expected to be open to the public for nine months beginning May 8. It will be the basis for an exhibit called “Smart Home: Green Plus Wired.”

The modular home is being built on an assembly line in De-catur, Ind.

It’s expected to arrive at the museum in late February for final interior work, furnishing and landscaping.

Iran On The Other Hand Has Only One

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

But they seem just as upset as the rest of us about what the industrialists are doing to the planet.

http://www.earthwatchers.ir/

CAUTION!

The oil gas and petrochemical industries should stop the development projects that do not fully value the integrity and balance of the eco- systems of wetlands in Persian Gulf

CAUTION!

PERSIAN GULF is not the dumping ground of residues and waste materials of the oil and petrochemical industries