What A Year For Energy And Related Fields – Cash for Clunkers, Caulk for Clunkers

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

Everywhere you look there are things a poppin.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24280/page1/

The Year in Energy

Liquid batteries, giant lasers, and vast new reserves of natural gas highlight the fundamental energy advances of the past 12 months.

By Kevin Bullis

Monday, December 28, 2009

With many renewable energy companies facing hard financial times (“Weeding Out Solar Companies“), a lot of the big energy news this year was coming out of Washington, DC, with massive federal stimulus funding for batteries and renewable energy and programs such as Energy Frontier Research Centers and Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (“A Year of Stimulus for High Tech“).

Credit: Roy Ritchie

But there was still plenty of action outside the beltway, both in the United States and around the world. One of the most dramatic developments (“Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map“) was the rush to exploit a vast new resource; new drilling technologies have made it possible to economically recover natural gas from shale deposits scattered throughout the country, including in Texas and parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Advances in drilling technology have increased available natural gas by 39 percent, according to an estimate released in June. The relatively clean-burning fuel could cut greenhouse gas emissions by becoming a substitute for coal. Natural gas might even provide an alternative to petroleum in transportation, especially for buses and taxis–if only policymakers could take advantage of the new opportunity.

Meanwhile a number of technologies promise to cut down on emissions from coal plants. Feeding heat from the sun into coal plants could at once increase the amount of power that can be generated from a given amount of coal and reduce the cost of solar power (“Mixing Solar with Coal to Cut Costs“). And technology for capturing carbon dioxide (“Scrubbing CO2 Cheaply“) and storing it (“An Ocean Trap for Carbon Dioxide“) is finally emerging from the lab and small-scale projects into larger demonstrations at power plants, even while researchers explore potentially cheaper carbon-capture techniques (“Using Rust to Capture CO2 from Coal Plants“).

I hate to Post The Whole Thing, but it’s so good.

This year was also the year of the smart grid, as numerous test projects for improving the reliability of the grid and enabling the use of large amounts of renewable energy got underway (“Technology Overview: Intelligent Electricity“). The smart grid will be enabled by key advances, such as superconductors for high-energy transmission lines (“Superconductors to Wire a Smarter Grid“) and smart networks being developed by companies such as GE (“Q&A: Mark Little, Head of GE Global Research“).

Cellulosic ethanol–made from biomass such as grass rather than corn grain–moved closer to commercialization, with announcements of demonstration plant openings (“Commercializing Garbage to Ethanol“) and scientific breakthroughs that could make the process cheaper (“Cellulosic Ethanol on the Cheap“). But at the same time, a number of companies are moving beyond cellulosic ethanol to the production of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from biomass–fuels that can be used much more readily in existing infrastructure and in existing vehicles. Exxon-Mobil announced substantial investments in algae-based fuels (“Big Oil Turns to Algae“). Remarkably, one startup declared its process–based on synthetic genomics and algae–could allow biofuels to replace all of transportation fuels without overwhelming farmland (“A Biofuel Process to Replace All Fossil Fuels“).

So? It’s the end of the year – sue me…

Still, most people think biofuels will only supply a fraction of our transportation needs (“Briefing: Transportation“). To eliminate carbon emissions and drastically curtail petroleum consumption will require plug-in hybrids (“Driving the Volt“) and other electricity-powered vehicles (“Nissan’s Leaf: Charged with Information“). Advances that could double (or more) the energy capacity of batteries and lower their costs could one day make such vehicles affordable to the masses. These include new formulations such as lithium-sulfur batteries (“Revisiting Lithium-Sulfur Batteries“), metal-air batteries (“High-Energy Batteries Coming to Market“) such as lithium-air batteries (“IBM Invests in Battery Research“), and batteries that rely on nanowires and silicon (“More Energy in Batteries“). A novel concept for super-fast charge stations at bus stops could make electric buses practical (“Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses“).

Getting the electricity to charge these vehicles–without releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide–could be made easier by a number of advances this year. A new liquid battery could cheaply store energy from wind turbines and solar panels for use when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing (“TR10: Liquid Battery“), making it practical to rely on large amounts of renewable electricity. Vast arrays of mirrors (“Solar Thermal Heats Up“) are being assembled in the desert to convert solar heat into electricity, and photovoltaic solar farms for converting light directly into electricity (“Chasing the Sun“) are getting a boost from the federal stimulus money. And researchers are finding ways to increase the efficiency of solar cells (“More Efficient, and Cheaper, Solar Cells“) and are discovering new photovoltaic materials to make solar power cheaper (“Mining Fool’s Gold for Solar“). And although progress on nuclear power is moving slowly, some advances on the horizon could help this low-carbon source replace fossil fuels (“TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor“). Researchers even fired up the world’s largest laser system–one that’s the size of a football stadium–for experiments that could lead to a new form of fusion (“Igniting Fusion“).

Last, and almost certainly least, researchers have decided to look beyond the conventional sources of renewable energy–solar, wind, and waves–to hamsters. Researchers at Georgia Tech fitted the rodents with zinc-oxide nanowire jackets (“Harnessing Hamster Power with a Nanogenerator“), and watched as they generated an electrical current while scratching themselves and running on a wheel. See a video of the powerful hamsters here.

Kevin Bullis is a journalistic GOD

http://www.shinygun.com/story.php?id=128

The Best Shopping Day Of The Year – But what if our economy wasn’t based on money

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

As I promised the second part of the Basil Economy…It is everything a holiday should be happy, joyous, warm and wonderful…Enjoy.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/25675

Anatomy of a community garden: The riveting 2nd installment of building a basil economy

Homeland Security

by North of Center | December 23, 2009 – 9:55am [Originally published June 17.]

by Danny Mayer

It’s 11 o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting on a stump in a shady spot of London Ferrell Community Garden, located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. There’s no other way to say it. I stink. Bad. For the past several weeks I have been trying to meet up for an interview with Ryan Koch, co-founder of Seedleaf, a non-profit created to help establish community gardens throughout Lexington. Although he’d never fess up to it, Ryan is a busy dude.

Thirty minutes earlier, in hopes of catching Ryan on my way home from a morning jog, I had detoured through the fenced-in, rectangular patch of urban community farmland that is London Ferrell. He was there—he’s always there on Saturdays, it seems—and relatively available so I quickly proceeded home, grabbed my recorder for an interview, and made haste back to the half-acre patch of newly productive land, where Ryan was busy negotiating a collection of citizen community gardeners, student volunteers, bitter salad greens, weeds, some donated extra tomato plants, and now one seriously smelly amateur journalist/jogger.

Ryan wasn’t always this busy. A little over a year ago I recall working several Saturday and Thursday mornings alone with him, both at London Ferrell and at a garden Seedleaf helped establish next to Al’s Bar. (Produce from the Al’s garden helped offset food costs at Stella’s Kentucky Deli and Al’s Bar—and to provide its customers with fresh veggies.) Ryan appreciated the morning conversation and at times even the semblance of work I offered.

DOT DASH DOT

“I see gardening as a long, slow conversion for me,” Ryan began between sips of coffee as he grabbed a stump next to me in the shade. “I was 18 and in a college lecture. A professor whose name I couldn’t tell you—and I couldn’t tell you about any of his lectures—read ‘Mad Farmer Liberation Front,’ that Wendell Berry poem. And he read it in the beginning of class and said ‘that doesn’t have anything to do with today’s lecture. I just liked the poem.’” While remaining an intermittent fan of Berry’s work, it wasn’t until 2004 when he married Jodi that the two “committed to trying to do a garden whenever we could as one of our habits of marriage. I thought lettuce was hard to grow. In our first year, I don’t know if we grew any lettuce, but we had a tomato. So we called it goal achieved for year one.”

Before I could get around to asking Ryan how he saw his connection to gardening as an intimate “habit of marriage,” a dog barked behind us in the old Episcopal Burial grounds located at the approximate east flank of London Ferrell. The two neighbors from Campsie who owned the dog began chatting with Ryan; meanwhile, my friend Andrew arrived, the first time I”d seen him since he returned from a two-week sojourn to western Canada and back. Before I noticed it, Ryan had slipped off to help out some other volunteers and neighbors, who asked questions, told stories and awaited directions as to what should be picked,what mulched, what turned under.

Oikos
Although I never recaptured that Right moment to follow up, Ryan’s comments resonated with me. Two weeks earlier I sat in the kitchen of Sherry and Geoff Maddock discussing a range of topics that circled around the ins and outs of what I clumsily call “a basil economy” and they called “food systems.” Through the course of our conversation, I asked Sherry about how she viewed her position as head of the North Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association (NMLKNA). Sherry explained that she viewed the neighborhood association as “as a civic unit for change. The capacity to work out change in our lives,” she continued, “starts in our own households and then with who we live next to.” Her position as NMLKNA head was simply a considered outgrowth of her everyday life.

Understood in this context, London Ferrell—which owes much of its rebirth as a productive space to the creative social energy of Sherry Maddock—seems like a logical next step. The plot sits less than two blocks from the Maddocks’ house. Its redevelopment as a community agricultural space reflects the Maddocks’ commitment to working out change alongside their neighbors.

DOT DASH DOT

“If you want to care for the earth more,” Ryan observes before ditching me, “put a basil plant in a pot and watch how much you care about when it rains. That’s been very real in my life. I really stress out after four dry days in a row. I never used to be that kind of guy. I’m irritable. I pray more. I’ve never prayed so much for rain. It’s changing me; it’s part of how gardening is converting me.”

Imagination and Action
I recall being mildly surprised when Sherry told me that, as a producer of food, London Ferrell does little to effect the larger presence of hunger in the greater Lexington area—our most immediate neighbors. It “doesn’t even make a dent in…the provision of local food,” she says. It’s too small; for it to have a tangible impact, London Ferrell would have to scale up its production, its volunteers, its space. All of these things have consequences of course—more labor, more dialogue about best use of the communal space, more places ready to receive and process the increased amount of food coming in. These things take time, Ferrell is a limited space, and meanwhile people are still hungry. Instead, Sherry talks about the garden’s main function residing “at the level of the imagination…it begins to stimulate people’s minds to possibilities.”

I’m normally skeptical of these assertions because they tend to ride into the more politically passive realm of symbol. As in, that London Ferrell garden is a “symbol” of change in the community. However true that may be, I tend to add more value to even the smallest material changes in people’s lives. Did anyone get fed because of the garden’s existence? If so, for me that outweighs any symbolic meaning that, like money, we can’t use to sustain ourselves for long. It’s a little like Obama’s message of “hope” in that way.

But I must admit, as important as those food routes may be for the nourishment of at least some North side residents, viewing its chief work as working “at the level of the imagination” makes a lot of sense. If taken correctly, London Ferrell is both model and challenge for action; Seedleaf is both an invitation to imagine gardens sprouting in most any place and a working pamphlet guiding us along through spring, summer, and fall plantings. One can already see people answering the call of Seadleaf and Ferrells’ challenge of our imagination. Seedleaf is up from three to ten gardens this year; some of the gardeners tending plots last year took the knowledge learned from watching things develop at London Ferrell and moved on to other lots—some no doubt at home, some in a friend’s yard, some at other community lots.

This year Ryan seems finally able to have a go at Seedleaf fulltime. He’s secured a little city money that will pay him to scale up his compost retrieval from area restaurants who would otherwise dispose of it. The increased amount of decomposing vegetable matter will ultimately overwhelm London Ferrell, so he will soon bring his scraps out to PeaceMeal Gardens, a twenty acre patch of rolling hillside at the back of the Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s (BCTC) Leestown campus that is being converted into a working suburban farm. Jessica Ballard, the farm manager at PeaceMeal, worked with her UK sustainable agriculture class to help Ryan develop good composting practices to more quickly and beneficially turn the scraps into usable compost and soil. Both Ryan and the sustainable ag class had their imaginations sparked by a visit paid by urban farmer and activist Will Allen. Some of Jessica’s salary is provided by the Catholic Action Center, who in conjunction with Rebecca have plowed under an acre of soil to grow things that will feed into their food kitchens for the hungry who show at their Godsnet location. Another portion of Jessica’s salary will be paid for through a market garden that will provide BCTC students a dearly needed dash of fresh produce in what is otherwise an educational food desert.

To paraphrase Sherry, there are a lot of imaginations being stoked here, a lot of new configurations of of power and productivity arising through these new food systems. Importantly, several people have done the hard work of translating the imagination into the realm of possibility and eventually actuality.

We need more of that.
:}

Is it too early to say have a HAPPY NEW YEAR? nawww never is.

How To Start Your Own Economy – Grow Basil MERRY CHRISTMAS To ALL

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

This is part 1 of a 2 part post that was published by the Smirking Monkey (God I love that name) on a Blog called North of Center…It has everything that a good Christmas has in it. Joy, Good Cheer, Love of one another, and warmth. But first I must say:

Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/25664

Building a Basil Economy: Growing, Gleaning, Gifting

Homeland Security

by North of Center | December 22, 2009 – 11:33amby Danny Mayer

[Originally published June 3 as “Building a Basil Economy: Part 1 of a 2 part series.”]

Last summer I was awash in basil. Mostly genovese, but also a sweet, a cinnamon, a purple, and a strikingly pungent lemon variety.

My basil crops were the result of a frantic burst of what might best be described as a month of youthful teenage exuberance germinating over a dozen years late. I spread my basil seed everywhere. I scattered it in a tiered garden tucked in the back corner of the Trinity Baptist Church parking lot (behind our former home) and in a hardscrabble spot hastily dug on an empty lot off MLK (next to our current home). I spread my seed in a hops garden, a lettuce garden, and a poorly tended garden in nearby Keene, KY, and I laid it down in a private double plot in the even more proximate London Ferrill Garden. I even spread some seeds in a couple of guerrilla garden beds around town.

My basil sprouted around squash, above watermelon vines, and between tomato plants. Some of it shaded late-season lettuce. One particular plant I recall growing to a size of three feet and looking like a great sticky pot plant. I imagined myself re-scenting the greater Lexington area, and in some spots, after a particularly unexpected breeze or a casual hand bent and teased the fields of leaves, I swear that scent took hold. I was a regular Johnny Basil-seed.

By late June, I had a curious and not wholly unexpected dilemma: how might I utilize or otherwise dispose of all that scent and flavor?

I say not wholly unexpected because the year before I had a similar need to get rid of basil—though not nearly so much—when I guerrilla gardened some roma tomatoes and basil at the top lip of a drainage ditch behind a stripmall on Winchester Road. I wound up bringing my excess basil to Enza’s Italian Eatery, now unfortunately closed but at the time only a short walk down Winchester from my guerrilla garden plot. Though I intended the basil as a gift born of seasonal excess, on occasion I ended up receiving balls of homemade mozzarella in exchange. It was an eye-opening process for me: come with basil, give it to Curtis to use in sandwiches, eat a caprese sandwich for lunch with my just-picked basil shredded on top, pay for the meal, and leave with an extra two or three or four balls of fresh mozzarella floating in a container of mozzarella water.

So when the great basil crunch hit me last summer, I was partially prepared. I began to harvest different plots weekly and and give my excess green freely away to interested restaurants that I often found myself eating at. And in return, I received from these restaurants more mozzarella balls, the occasional free meal, gift certificates to distribute to friends and dogsitters, and much good will. Not bad for about an $8 investment in seeds.

Growing a Different Economy
Much has been made, in print and on air, of Lexingtonians’ budding interest in growing and consuming fresh and local produce. We eat fresher food. We get to sample a greater variety of food. We grow community by gathering in groups at places like Farmer’s Markets to chat, eat, and purchase food for home. We nourish and reconnect to the earth. We support local farmers. We get outside and away from the television and the computer.

DOT DOT DOT as they say

Gleaning Networks and Free Stores: Giving Away Abundance
In a nation that has its own hunger problems, growing your own food ensures you will know abundance. Or as John Walker put it during our chat over tea at his Hamilton Park home, “I can guarantee that you will at some time have more than you know what do with.”

Walker, a native of England, has been gardening in the same Lexington backyard for fifteen years, so he knows something about abundance. Along with his work through Kitchen Gardeners Bluegrass teaching people how to prepare home-grown and home-cooked food, Walker has organized a loosely affiliated group of gleaners, the Lexington Urban Gleaning Network (LUGN), who this summer and fall will collect that agricultural abundance before it rots away. LUGN’s goal is to identify unused fruit trees and overwhelmed backyard gardeners in order to gather, or glean, unused food. From the gleaners hands, the food will pass through a number of food banks large and small for distribution to those needing food.

dot dot dot

I recall the trepidation with which passersby and “customers” initially approached my beaten down Nissan pickup truck. “You’re just giving this away?” they’d ask incredulously. “Sure, why not,” I’d reply casually. “Otherwise it’s in my compost.”

No doubt the measured first inquiries had much to do with me—a white boy—giving away the food, but I think something else was also at play. There’s a certain psychic barrier or socialized hurdle that we must all leap over or dig under before something like the Lexington Free Store makes sense. In that it emphasizes giving over buying, the distribution of excess rather than the selling of surplus, the store seemingly defies all rules for being a store. I can sustain myself for the very reason that the store depends on something that I can replenish for very little money. In other words, for the most part I can use food to cut money out of my economic transactions that represent my labor.

In return, at the Lexington Free Store I received as much as I gave. We exchanged no money and yet the transactions were fair. I met new faces, learned new recipes for using the produce I was giving away, and at times even had meals cooked for me. Without money, this was a different form of economic efficiency, one that saw both me and my “customers” mutually enriched by our transaction.

When food is your main currency, it becomes difficult to be a good capitalist.
:}

Please read the whole article, IT’S INCREDIBLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9CZjr7rf6E

Renewable Energy To Replace Coal And Oil – If they keep going like this they will

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

They are starting to build steam – oh what a mixed metaphor. But first I must say…

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14050919

World’s largest solar project prompts environmental debate

By Paul Rogers

progers@mercurynews.com

Posted: 12/22/2009 07:00:00 PM PST

Updated: 12/23/2009 07:24:46 AM P

Panoche Valley is known mostly for cattle and barbed wire, a treeless landscape in eastern San Benito County that turns green every spring but for much of the year looks like rural Nevada.

A posse of lawmen gunned down the famous Gold Rush bandit Joaquin Murrieta, an inspiration for the fictional character Zorro, near here in 1853. Nothing that exciting has happened since.

But now the remote valley 25 miles south of Hollister is finding itself at the center of a new showdown. A Silicon Valley company is proposing to build here what would be the world’s largest solar farm — 1.2 million solar panels spread across an area roughly the size of 3,500 football fields.

“This is renewable energy. It doesn’t

cause pollution, it doesn’t use coal or foreign oil, and it emits no greenhouse gases,” said Mike Peterson, CEO of Solargen Energy, the Cupertino company behind the $1.8 billion project.But critics — including some environmentalists — say green energy isn’t always green. In a refrain being heard increasingly across California, they contend the plan to cover this ranch land with a huge solar project would harm a unique landscape and its wildlife.

From the Bay Area to the Mojave Desert, green energy supporters are frustrated that a state that wants to lead the green revolution is facing roadblocks.

Peterson, a former vice president of Goldman Sachs, looked across the Panoche Valley last week and noted its attributes.

t sits 20 miles from the nearest town. It has 90 percent of the solar intensity of the Mojave Desert. Five willing sellers, mostly longtime ranching families, have signed options to sell his company 18,000 acres. And huge transmission lines run through the site, negating the need to build the kind of costly and controversial new power lines that have stalled similar projects.”From our standpoint, this is a perfect place,” he said. “If not here, where?”

Opposition mounts

The project would produce 420 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same as a medium-sized natural gas power plant, and enough to power 315,000 homes.

Wind made huge strides too.

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=3012

Wind Energy Industry Highlights of 2009

23 de diciembre de 2009

Reflecting on a year that opened with high expectations for renewable energy from the new Obama Administration and was buffeted by economic storms, AWEA identified the wind industry’s top accomplishments in 2009.

“Wind power is a symbol of hope in our economy and supports thousands of jobs, but U.S. wind turbine manufacturing is lagging at the very time that the global clean energy race is heating up,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “One of the most urgent measures that our government can enact is a national Renewable Electricity Standard, which will unleash in the U.S. a wave of manufacturing investment that will otherwise go overseas. Many companies are eager to enter or ramp up their activities in this sector, as this year’s highlights show, but all need to see a long-term commitment with hard targets to renewable energy in order to be able to invest.”

The top accomplishments and developments include:

* American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 Funds a Lifeline: The ARRA included several provisions to spur development of wind and other renewable energy industries along with the Treasury Grant Program, which by year end had supplied over $1.5 billion in crucial capital. Since the early July announcement to implement the stimulus bill, at least 37 different wind projects, using large and small turbines, have been recipients of the grant program, powering the equivalent of 800,000 homes and providing a lifeline for the industry and sustaining wind power as a bright spot in the economy.

* … But Manufacturing Still Lags: Wind turbine manufacturing, however, has fallen behind 2008 levels in both announcements and in production activity. While this is bad news, the good news is that a solution is readily available: A strong national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) will create the market certainty that manufacturers need in order to invest, enabling the U.S. to become a wind turbine manufacturing powerhouse creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

* Strong Support for a National Renewable Electricity Standard (RES): An RES is included in the House version of climate legislation passed this spring and in pending Senate energy legislation. The wind industry, backed by popular support, continues to advocate for swift passage of a strong RES. A poll released by AWEA in May showed that over 75% of Americans, including 71% of independents and 62% of Republicans, support an RES requiring that 25% of the nation’s electricity be generated from renewable energy by 2025.

* COP15: AWEA sent a delegation to the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen this month. AWEA’s participation at the conference is another indication of America’s reengagement in the international climate change process and of the key role that wind power plays today in the transition to a clean energy economy.

There is much more to the article please read it

THAT’S Amazing

In The Wake Of Copenhagen The Future May Be In Natural Gas – It could be a cross over to sustainable energy sources

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

Could it be that T. Boone Pickens was right. I mean not HIS natural gas as he presented it but the whole world’s natural gas…?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jkOuIcimVaOGqCJzYDMNtgf5ELmgD9CNK5A00

Gas could be the answer in global warming fight

By MARK WILLIAMS (AP) – 7 hours ago

An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands that the United States do more to fight global warming: It’s cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil and a 90-year supply is under our feet.

It’s natural gas, the same fossil fuel that was in such short supply a decade ago that it was deemed unreliable. It’s now being uncovered at such a rapid pace that its price is near a seven-year low. Long used to heat half the nation’s homes, it’s becoming the fuel of choice when building new power plants. Someday, it may win wider acceptance as a replacement for gasoline in our cars and trucks.

Natural gas’ abundance and low price come as governments around the world debate how to curtail carbon dioxide and other pollution that contribute to global warming. The likely outcome is a tax on companies that spew excessive greenhouse gases. Utilities and other companies see natural gas as a way to lower emissions — and their costs. Yet politicians aren’t stumping for it.

In June, President Barack Obama lumped natural gas with oil and coal as energy sources the nation must move away from. He touts alternative sources — solar, wind and biofuels derived from corn and other plants. In Congress, the energy debate has focused on finding cleaner coal and saving thousands of mining jobs from West Virginia to Wyoming.

Utilities in the U.S. aren’t waiting for Washington to jump on the gas bandwagon. Looming climate legislation has altered the calculus that they use to determine the cheapest way to deliver power. Coal may still be cheaper, but natural gas emits half as much carbon when burned to generate the same amount electricity.

Today, about 27 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions come from coal-fired power plants, which generate 44 percent of the electricity used in the U.S. Just under 25 percent of power comes from burning natural gas, more than double its share a decade ago but still with room to grow.

But the fuel has to be plentiful and its price stable — and that has not always been the case with natural gas. In the 1990s, factories that wanted to burn gas instead of coal had to install equipment that did both because the gas supply was uncertain and wild price swings were common. In some states, because of feared shortages, homebuilders were told new gas hookups were banned.

It’s a different story today. Energy experts believe that the huge volume of supply now will ease price swings and supply worries.

Gas now trades on futures markets for about $5.50 per 1,000 cubic feet. While that’s up from a recent low of $2.41 in September as the recession reduced demand and storage caverns filled to overflowing, it’s less than half what it was in the summer of 2008 when oil prices surged close to $150 a barrel.

Oil and gas prices trends have since diverged, due to the recession and the growing realization of just how much gas has been discovered in the last three years. That’s thanks to the introduction of horizontal drilling technology that has unlocked stunning amounts of gas in what were before off-limits shale formations. Estimates of total gas reserves have jumped 58 percent from 2004 to 2008, giving the U.S. a 90-year supply at the current usage rate of about 23 trillion cubic feet of year.

The only question is whether enough gas can be delivered at affordable enough prices for these trends to accelerate.

The world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., gave its answer last Monday when it announced a $30 billion deal to acquire XTO Energy Inc. The move will make it the country’s No. 1 producer of natural gas.

Exxon expects to be able to dramatically boost natural gas sales to electric utilities. In fact, CEO Rex Tillerson says that’s why the deal is such a smart investment.

Tillerson says he sees demand for natural gas growing 50 percent by 2030, much of it for electricity generation and running factories. Decisions being made by executives at power companies lend credence to that forecast.

Consider Progress Energy Inc., which scrapped a $2 billion plan this month to add scrubbers needed to reduce sulfur emmissions at 4 older coal-fired power plants in North Carolina. Instead, it will phase out those plants and redirect a portion of those funds toward cleaner burning gas-fired plants

For the REAL RAW raws try this sight:

http://www.newnaturalgas.org/

Or will it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/propublica/the-future-of-natural-gas_b_211062.html

The Future of Natural Gas Drilling

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica

ProPublica Images

Tomorrow a House Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee will hold its first hearing of 2009 on controversial issues related to the burgeoning natural gas drilling industry, which ProPublica has been covering for the last year. The committee is expected to grill a handful of state regulators and industry representatives about the environmental risks of drilling for shale gas and about the use of hydraulic fracturing, a process where water and chemicals are pumped underground at high pressure.

That fracturing process was exempted from federal environmental oversight in 2005 and now – amidst emerging evidence that it is damaging water resources across the country – Congress is preparing legislation that would reverse the exemptions and require the industry to identify the toxic chemicals it pumps underground. Last week ProPublica wrote in detail about that political effort.

Before the subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources could convene its quorum, the American Petroleum Institute gathered reporters for a conference call to explain why it is prepared to fight such legislation to the grave. Natural gas is the key to the country’s energy independence, representatives of the trade and lobbying group said, adding unequivocally that hydraulic fracturing is the critical process required to get those resources.

The Institute says state regulations are sufficient to keep water supplies safe, and that returning authority to the Environmental Protection Agency – which the bill being written by Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette would do – amounts to a cumbersome additional layer of regulation. The API repeatedly referenced a recent study claiming that federal oversight of the drilling process would cost the industry more than $100,000 per new well and threatened that thousands of jobs will be lost if tougher regulation is passed. It maintains that fracturing has been used reliably for over 50 years, and that is a safe technology proven not to harm water.

Asked what recent scientific studies support that notion, however, the Institute’s senior policy analyst, Richard Ranger, answered: “That’s a good question. I’m not aware of any.”

Abrahm Lustgarten is a reporter for ProPublica, America’s largest investigative newsroom.

Follow ProPublica on Twitter: www.twitter.com/propublica

Related News On Huffington Post:

Pennsylvania Faces A Tainted Wastewater Onslaught Due To Natural Gas Drilling Workers at a steel mill and a power plant were the first to notice something strange about the Monongahela River last summer. The water that…

Copenhagen Wraps Up With An Agreement As Thin As Gruel – Cold gruel at that

Posted on December 18, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

First it is Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVs6X9yIM_k

Things have gone pretty dismally in Copenhagen. The Developed Countries tried to bully the Developing Countries. The Newly Industrializing Countries sniffed at the DeIndustrializing Countries. The US yelled at China and China yelled back and jingled the coins in its pockets. After all that excitement I must say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t291-e4FLs

GRUEL

Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal— oat, wheat or rye flour, or also rice— boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked. Historically, gruel, often made from millet or barley, or in hard times of chestnut flour and even the less tannic acorns of some oaks, has been the staple of the human diet, especially that of the peasantry. The importance of gruel as a form of sustenance is especially noted for invalids^[1] and recently weaned children.

Gruel consumption has traditionally been associated with poverty. Gruel is a colloquial expression of any slop that is of unknown character, e.g. pea soup; soup is derived from sop, the slice of bread which was soaked with broth or thin gruel.[2

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM77dUW-DBI )

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-climate-change-summit-liveblog

Copenhagen climate change summit – final day live blog

World leaders are still trying to thrash out a last minute compromise climate deal. These are the final day’s main developments:
• In a disappointing speech Obama admitted that the talks are in the balance.
• Leaked documents showed a draft agreement is extremely weak.
• Obama held two crucial talks with the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

Posted by Matthew Weaver Friday 18 December 2009 08.14 GMT guardian.co.uk

4.43pm:
Greenpeace has expressed its disgust at the draft Copenhagen accord currently doing the rounds.

Its climate campaigner Joss Garman said:

This latest draft is so weak as to be meaningless. It’s more like a G8 communique than the legally binding agreement we need. It doesn’t even include a timeline to give it legal standing or an explicit temperature target. It’s hard to imagine our leaders will try to present this document to the world and keep a straight face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dnrosVyamY

All this haggling is going to get us right where the top 500 POLLUTERS want us, sucking up their soot and poisons:

4.57pm:
A third draft of the climate is agreement being considered by world leaders, according to AP. But they are some way off the pace, according to our environment editor John Vidal – he’s looking at sixth version.

For what its worth the third version reinstates targets omitted from earlier ones. It says rich countries should reduce their greenhouse emissions by at least 80% by the year 2050.

It adds that developing countries’ emissions should be 15-30% below “business as usual”.

Stay tuned for more details on that later version.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8jw-ifqwkM )
This not the way that JESUS would have acted:

5.28pm:
Tim Jones climate policy officer from World Development Movement, joins the chorus of disgust.

This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, and now appears to be culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that will condemn millions of people around the world to untold suffering. The leaders of rich countries have refused to lead and instead sought to bribe and bully developing nations to sign up to the equivalent of a death warrant. The best outcome now is no deal. Leaders of rich countries should go home and adopt new year resolutions to become low carbon economies and pay their climate debt. Then we may have a chance of a properly just and effective agreement in 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3354flS1KJs&feature=related

On A Happier Front:

Energy-thrifty White House turns deeper shade of green

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House complex and the federal government are going green — and not just with Christmas trees and holly.

As President Obama meets with world leaders at the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen today, the government he runs at home is quietly engaged in an unprecedented effort to reduce its carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, cut waste and more.

In the complex that includes the White House, that means more efficient heating and cooling systems as well as organic paint, low-flow toilets and lights that turn off by themselves. Even the 800 Christmas ornaments adorning the 18-foot tree in the White House Blue Room were recycled from previous administrations in a nod to the environment and the bad economy.

GREEN HOUSE: Eco-friendly living tips

In many of the federal government’s other 500,000 buildings, the effort to go green includes cutting the amount of garbage produced in half and installing more efficient lights.

“This is a big leap forward for the federal government,” says Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of Obama’s White House Council on Environmental Quality. And the effort will be “sustainable itself beyond this president.”

Sutley says the federal government is the country’s single largest energy consumer, using 1.6% of all the power used nationwide, so reducing energy consumption will mean big savings.

The nation is the world’s second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, behind China, and the cuts could help there, as well, environmentalists say.

Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth says, “There are many economies of scale that President Obama can achieve by forcing the federal government to rethink its energy habits.Dot Dot Dot (as they say)

Environmental groups say Obama’s efforts go far beyond what’s been done before. “There’s real substance behind the rhetoric,” says Joel Makower, editor of GreenBiz.com, which reports on the greening of mainstream business.

Under a 15-page executive order Obama signed in October, government agencies must implement a host of changes, Sutley says. Among the requirements:

• Agencies must reduce waste by 50% by 2015.

• Agencies must show a 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020.

• All new buildings and any major renovations to existing buildings must be eligible for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification given by the U.S. Green Building Council to environmentally responsible buildings. In and around Washington, the Pentagon and the ornate 121-year-old Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House are in the process of becoming LEED-certified.

• The government’s 600,000 vehicles must operate with 30% less petroleum by 2020.

Pentagon officials, Sutley says, are “thinking about how they can power their vehicles in different ways, so they don’t have to transport as much fuel,” a change that would save money and improve safety for servicemembers.

So Copenhagen was pretty much a bust but it’s Christmas so let’s rock out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQXMT_QhguI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYcCnL7cu10&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBKPhD1LIqA

Technology That Will Take Us From A Carbon Based Economy – And makes the world smell better too

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

This just in “let’s create electricity using the wind and NO Moving Parts”. Yes indeed. Though this has to be some kind of “static electricity thingy” if they can liberate enough electrons then why not. They can not say because it is proprietary but I must say:

This is pretty amazing and it is a sign of what is to come. As I said before when an old source of energy runs out or loses favor there is a flurry of innovation and creation. This happened right as whale oil was running out and the car was being developed. This could be really revolutionary though as reported here:

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/model-t-of-wind-energy-accio-energy-lands-250000-darpa-contract/

and here:

http://blog.mlive.com/businessinnovation/2009/02/ann_arbor_tech_companies_chall.html

Wind energy device without moving parts

‘Model T of wind energy’? Accio Energy lands $250,000 DARPA contract

Ann Arbor-based Accio Energy recently won a $250,000 federal contract to continue developing its potentially revolutionary wind energy device, which would generate electricity without the moving parts associated with a traditional wind turbine.

Accio General Manager Jeff Basch said the firm received the contract with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue the design and creation of its prototype device.

“It’s a real vote of confidence in us,” Basch said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIWTRwM9UKc

Basch said Accio (pronounced AK-SEE-OH) is considering expanding its laboratory facilities 5-fold to support the startup company’s growth. He declined to discuss the company’s personnel count but said the firm is hiring engineers.

The contract comes as Accio executives have been reluctant to discuss the details behind their potentially explosive technology until the “aerovoltaic” device is ready for a wider spotlight. The technology has yet to be proved on a wide scale.

But Accio President Dawn White, who also founded Ann Arbor-based defense technology firm Solidica, recently revealed some details about the technology in a speech to an entrepreneurial group in DetroiDot Dot Dot

Accio executives have said they believe their device could generate electricity at twice the rate per square meter of solar panels.

Among the details White revealed:

-The device, which wouldn’t using any moving parts or generate noise, uses the wind to separate electrical charges on thin engineered tubes and create electricity.

“Opposing electrical charges, just like magnets, are attracted to each other,” White said. “It takes energy to pull those charges apart. That energy is provided by the wind and we convert it directly to electricity in the same way that a solar panel takes sunlight. And we convert that directly into a current. It’s very much like what happens inside a thunderstorm actually.”

Dot Dot Dot

Accio is still reluctant to discuss the history behind its technology. Accio’s scientific developers have said they’re enhancing intellectual property that expired years ago, which would lead to competitive concerns that the technology could be duplicated elsewhere.

The basics of the technology, however, have impressed experts. The National Science Foundation in February distributed a $97,000 grant to Accio in an award generally seen as a validation of the device’s technological concepts.

The company also received $80,000 in early-stage venture capital financing from the student-run Frankel Commercialization Fund at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

I would be willing to bet that it is something like this:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4146800.html

The invention relates to apparatus for and method of generating electricity from wind energy.

The apparatus comprises means such as a foraminous condenser plate and a condenser surface, e.g., the earth, for producing an electrostatic field in the open through which wind can blow, means such as needle points and balls or fine wires and cylinders capable of creating a corona discharge or equivalent ion or electron generator for producing charged particles to be entrained in and carried by the wind against the direction of movement imposed on the particles by the field, which results in an increase in the electric potential across the field, means such as a second foraminous plate or the earth for collecting the charged particles and means such as a high voltage power regulator and converter for making the increased potential available for utilization.

The method comprises operations corresponding to the means, viz., producing an electrostatic field in the open through which wind can blow, generating charged particles to be entrained in and carried by the wind against the direction of movement imposed on the particles by the field, resulting in an increase of the charged particles and making the increased potential available for utilization.

This was proposed in 1979…wonder what happened to it? What if they were made out of nanotubes?

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

Electrical

Because of the symmetry and unique electronic structure of graphene, the structure of a nanotube strongly affects its electrical properties. For a given (n,m) nanotube, if n = m, the nanotube is metallic; if n ? m is a multiple of 3, then the nanotube is semiconducting with a very small band gap, otherwise the nanotube is a moderate semiconductor. Thus all armchair (n = m) nanotubes are metallic, and nanotubes (5,0), (6,4), (9,1), etc. are semiconducting. In theory, metallic nanotubes can carry an electrical current density of 4 × 10⁹ A/cm² which is more than 1,000 times greater than metals such as copper.

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes with interconnected inner shells show superconductivity with a relatively high transition temperature T_c = 12 K. In contrast, the T_c value is an order of magnitude lower for ropes of single-walled carbon nanotubes or for MWNTs with usual, non-interconnected shells

OHHHHH I like that…

AltaRock’s Project Blows Up In Their Faces – Hot Rocks Goes Bust

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

Ever since June, I have struggled with how to write this headline. This concept, Deep Hot Geothermal, has so much potential. It promises limitlessness pollution free energy BUT its execution requires great care. It also probably means more cost in drilling and a closed loop system rather then the current use of open loop rock fracture like for hot swimming pools or basements. The real issue was should I do a fun title like the above or a more serious title? But first I must say:

First there was the shut down of the Swiss project, (I mean really, deep well drilling in a historic district?), because of alleged earthquakes. Then there were Earthquakes off Jamaica caused by another smaller project. Finally there were the Earthquakes attributed to a deep well injection and rock fragmentation project in Texas. So it was only a matter of time. Tick Tick Tick. You know that drilling anywhere in earthquake prone California was going to be fraught with nightmares. Courtney Roby tackled the headline issue like this:

http://www.greenmomentum.com/wb3/wb/gm/gm_content?id_content=2930

AltaRock’s Little Earthquakes

Maybe, possibly, engineered geothermal systems like those being demo-ed by AltaRock bring an increased risk of small earthquakes. It’s not a reason to abandon their promise as an energy resource.

By Courtney Roby

June 25, 2009

AltaRock Energy, a California-based company specializing in engineered geothermal systems (EGS), was the subject of a story in today’s New York Times which was certainly alarmist, if not genuinely alarming. AltaRock is currently preparing to put into action a design for a demo geothermal project in California’s NCPA Geysers Geothermal Field area. This area, which has been producing geothermal energy from steam wells since 1983, is located in the seismically shaky San Francisco Bay Area. The same geological factors that make the area a good place for geothermal energy extraction make it a high-risk area for earthquakes, and it is on these fears that the Times article centers.

The article does not have much to say about the particular risks involved with AltaRock’s project. Instead, it recounts the story of a 2006 project run by the Swiss company Geothermal Explorers, which aimed to extract geothermal energy from the bedrock near Basel. Geothermal Explorers used a technique that involved shooting a jet of water into drilled holes, which then produced fractures (a technique known, to the delight of Battlestar Galactical fans everywhere, as “fracking”) in the hot bedrock below, where the water was heated, rose back to the surface, and upon expansion emerged as steam, which powered turbines to produce usable energy. The result was an always-on source of non-polluting, waste-free energy, which seemed like a good bargain until reports of small earthquakes started coming in. In response to these reports, the project was immediately shut down.

Then in September this:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10344441-54.html

September 3, 2009 6:59 AM PDT

Geothermal start-up AltaRock suspends drilling

by Martin LaMonic A new company pursuing an advanced geothermal energy technology has had to suspend its first attempt to drill a deep well in Northern California.

AltaRock Energy on Wednesday said it ran into problems during drilling for a demonstration project, “resulting from geologic anomalies particular to the formation” at the Geysers Geothermal field.

The project, said to be budgeted at $17 million, was partially funded by a Department of Energy grant given to several companies to explore the viability of enhanced geothermal systems. Sausalito, Calif.-based AltaRock was funded by Google and venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

dot dot dot

(Credit: AltaRock Energy)

Although technical difficulties are normal in drilling projects, the progress of AltaRock is significant because it is one of few companies pursuing enhanced, or engineered, geothermal systems. It’s a technology that holds great promise but that has raised safety concerns.

Traditional geothermal power draws on naturally occurring underground hot-water reservoirs to make electricity. With enhanced geothermal systems, wells are dug a few miles underground, and rock formations are fractured. Then water is injected into the wells, heated by the rock, and pulled back up. That hot water is converted to steam to turn an electricity turbine.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study two years ago found that using this enhanced method of geothermal power generation could supply 10 percent of the electricity in the United States. It could also be done in a wide variety of locations, rather than just the limited number of locations that have traditional geothermal resources.

In its statement, AltaRock didn’t offer many details on why it suspended drilling but said it is evaluating other locations to build a demonstration facility, including other spots at the site where it had been working.

Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET’s Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.

Then this 2 days ago:

http://www.theoildrum.com/

Drumbeat: December 13, 2009

Posted by Leanan on December 13, 2009 – 10:02am
Topic: Miscellaneous

Geothermal Project in California Is Shut Down

The company in charge of a California project to extract vast amounts of renewable energy from deep, hot bedrock has removed its drill rig and informed federal officials that the government project will be abandoned.The project by the company, AltaRock Energy, was the Obama administration’s first major test of geothermal energy as a significant alternative to fossil fuels and the project was being financed with federal Department of Energy money at a site about 100 miles north of San Francisco called the Geysers.

But on Friday, the Energy Department said that AltaRock had given notice this week that “it will not be continuing work at the Geysers” as part of the agency’s geothermal development program.

The project’s apparent collapse comes a day after Swiss government officials permanently shut down a similar project in Basel, because of the damaging earthquakes it produced in 2006 and 2007. Taken together, the two setbacks could change the direction of the Obama administration’s geothermal program, which had raised hopes that the earth’s bedrock could be quickly tapped as a clean and almost limitless energy source.

There’s more… (3458 words) | Comments (173) | Permalink | Without comments | PDF version

Too bad too because it has such promise…Still I like the title, AltaRock Energy Drills Dry Hole for all kinda reasons. For condolences please go to:

http://www.altarockenergy.com/

The Top 50 Environmental Blogs – All good things must come to an end

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

People have been saying to me, “There is climate summit going on, oil speculators about, and the EPA just declared it will regulate CO2 and other noxious gases because they threaten human health under the Clean Air Act and you are wasting your posting on the Blog about web sites. That’s just wrong.” To which I say nana nana toddle do” or something equally intelligent. I mean I will get to that but today we will finish up this list and then get to the HARD news reporting. Today’s post literally fell into my hands. But first I have to say:

As I said, this story literally fell into my lap. I was at a site that I have already sited in this series of posts. It is an accumulation of some of the most popular environmental sites around. There was a site listed there that I had never seen before but it was to cool to be true. When I clicked on it I went to a list of environmental sites and I though my work for the day is done:

Cool Site:

http://www.hippiemagazine.com/

Cool List:

December 9th in Resources by Cyrus .

18 excellent green blogs to follow

These are some of our favorite blogs that deal with the climate crisis. We strive to bring you excellent resources to incorporate into your green lifestyle. If you have your own eco favorites, feel free to add them as comments below!

I feel gratified that many of my faves are on the list but here are a few I overlooked.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

ALL EYES ON COPENHAGEN

Island Nations Fight For Survival.. WATCH: The Powerful Big Ag Lobby That Rarely Makes News.. WATCH: Climate Denier Lord Mockton Calls Activists “Hitler Youth”.. Follow The Events LIVE On Twitter

This name says it all:

http://poorplanet.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 7, 2009

“I am sorry” – Greenpeace 2020 Banners

The UN summit on climate change kicks off in Copenhagen as I write this. Many people have stopped believing in the head of developed countries as having the power and courage to take the right decisions, even if this means sacrifice. Barack Obama received the nobel peace price but ironically decided to send an extra 30,000 soldiers to war in Afghanistan. Let’s see if he can do better in terms of environment. The USA have to lead the world in taking action against global warming and other issues. How could we ask China or India to reduce their CO2 emissions if the leading countries are not doing the expected efforts?

Greenpeace, along other associations, are putting pressure on the leaders, or at least trying to. Since last week, travelers arriving in the Copenhagen’s international airport will come across the following banners. These depict different leaders of developed nations apologizing in 2020 (ten years from now) for not taking the right decisions. I’ll let you judge by yourself.

This is a very happy and upbeat site.

http://www.environmentastic.com/blog/

This past weekend (November 2o, 2009, to be exact), filmmaker Robert Stone introduced a showing of his newest film, Earth Days.

In Robert’s own words, he wanted to make a movie “not about the present, not about the future, not doom and gloom, but about how we got here.” In doing so, he hoped to show how today, politics tends to be the issue when it comes to environmentalism, and he also hopes that movie will “point a way forward.”I’m not a professional movie reviewer, in fact, I go to movies less often than your typical hermit, but I’ll do my best here to give this film it’s due.Stone immediately lays politics out as part of his statement, as the opening scene shows statements about the environment being made by presidents starting with John F. Kennedy, all the way through George W. Bush (who’s statements on the environment for his entire eight-year tenure in office were limited to, apparently, “We are addicted to oil.” Duh.).

Stone then introduces nine “pioneer” environmentalists, each with a different background and modus operandi:

“The Radical” – Stephanie Mills
“The Conservationist” – Stewart Udall
“The Astronaut” – Rusty Schweickart
“The Biologist” – Paul Ehrlich
“The Motivator” – L. Hunter Lovins
“The Futurist” – Stewart Brand
“The Organizer” – Denis Hayes
“The Politician” – Paul (Pete) McCloskey
“The Forecaster” – Dennis Meadows

The film speaks of some of the typical “demons” of the environmental movement, including the interstate highway system and automobiles, and theorizes that one of the core problems of the environmental movement is that it asks human beings to move outside of their instinctual “reaction” mode. Early humans faced many risks, and those who survived were the ones who, when faced with immediate threats or opportunities, made a choice rooted in the moment – without having to consider the long-term consequences of their actions. In other words, “cavemen,” when faced with a woolly mammoth, ran. They didn’t have to consider where to run, nor what they would do once they escaped the creature. Conventional business works – even today – in much the same way. Short-term considerations are most important, if the long-term is even thought about at all.

Many many many people will say that this should have been higher on my list, but it is just a catalog..I mean a damn good catalog:

http://www.inhabitat.com/

GREEN GIFT GUIDE: Gifts That Give Back

by Yuka Yoneda, 12/10/09

The holidays are a time for fun and family, but they’re also about the spirit of giving selflessly and charitably to those who are less fortunate. So this year, why not give a gift that is both meaningful and special to the recipient and gives back to a cause that is near to their heart? It won’t cost you any extra and if you need ideas, we’ve got a ton in our Gifts that Give Back Guide. Whether you want to give a stylish reusable water bottle that supports the environment or delight someone with an adorable rescued doggie or cat, check out our guide for our top picks!

This is another site that people would place a lot higher…again this is just stuff and if you have seen the stuff movie –http://www.storyofstuff.com/ you know that stuff is problematic still I can’t leave em off the list:

http://www.ecotoolbox.com/blog/index.php

4 Battery Solar Charger

No operating cost, charging by solar is safe, fast and easyWith unique design and can charge 4pcs “D”/”C”/”AA”/”AAA” size rechargeable batteriesWith all weather durable fiber glass board 7V solar panelFull set of multi-plug and cable wire is provided for easy connection to many appliancesWith adjustable stand for adjusting the best angle to absorb maximum sunlight for faster chargingA blocking diode is built into the circuit to prevent the reverse flow of electricity at night timeEquipped with a portable handle for easy carryingAll weather resistant:}

And Finally TADA

http://www.worldchanging.com/

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010868.html

Letter from Copenhagen: An Update from Alex

Alex Steffen, 9 Dec 09

I’m in Copenhagen, where I’m speaking at the Bright Green Expo (NYT coverage here) and the Copenhagen Climate Summit for Mayors, delivering a lecture for the Blekinge Institute of Technology, participating in several other events and giving a lot of media interviews. Meanwhile, the full mayhem of the COP15 summit itself is unfolding here.

COP15 is a pretty astonishing event, with thousands of delegates, journalists and advocates swarming around (or at least standing in lines in) Copenhagen’s large convention center. (You can get the flavor of the event by reading the dispatches from Katie Fehrenbacher, Jonathan Hiskes and Kate Sheppard.)

Though Worldchanging isn’t covering breaking news — I’m here in Copenhagen more to be quoted than quote others — I am updating my Twitter feed frequently, keeping folks abreast of the happenings. You can find follow me at @AlexSteffen.

That was harder than it looked

The Top 50 Environmental Blogs – This is business day

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I plan on breaking 35 Environmental Blogs viewed today. Today we are going to focus on Blogs that take a “business” point of view. This is a tough category and I picked these Blogs for their content more then that they are they the BEST. Everyone knows the place you have to start is Wall Street. But first I must say:

As I said all business practices start in New York City and it gets no better than this:

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/

December 8, 2009, 3:57 am ‘People’s Summit’ Sets Alternate Agenda

By LARS KROLDRUP

Lars Kroldrup Sandbags are part of a display highlighting the threat of rising seas in India and Bangladesh, at KlimaForum09 in Copenhagen — the “people’s summit.”

As the formal United Nations climate talks got under way in the belly of Copenhagen’s Bella Center on Monday, just up the road, a broad coalition of Danish and international environmental movements, civil society organizations and freelance campaigners were busy launching a self-described “people’s summit.”

“The Bella Center is the biggest case of disaster capitalism,” Naomi Klein, the author of a book on corporate backlash and the guest of honor at the opening, declared. “The deal we really need is not even on the table.”

KlimaForum09, as the event is called, is positioning itself as a shadow summit to the far more conspicuous one that has drawn tens of thousands of government officials, business leaders and environmental organizations for 12 days of talks in Denmark.

“We don’t represent vested interests such as bureaucrats, politicians, business or civil servants,” the Web site for the event has touted for weeks. “We do represent scientists, grassroots activists, academics, writers, artists and people from all walks of life.”

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/12/07/10-best-practices-building-green-teams

10 Best Practices for Building Green Teams

By Deborah Fleischer

Published December 07, 2009

GreenBiz.com and Green Impact have partnered to release a new report, “Green Teams: Engaging Employees in Sustainability.” Based on interviews with green team leaders from Intel, Yahoo!, eBay and Genentech, as well as a review of the latest literature on employee engagement and green teams, the report provides an overview of the best practices companies are using to support and guide green teams.

It is divided into four key sections: making the business case for green teams; getting started; four emerging trends; and green team best practices.

It is a great resource for companies and organizations just beginning to think about creating a green team and for those ready to take their existing program to the next level.

What is a Green Team?

Green teams are self-organized, grassroots and cross-functional groups of employees who voluntarily come together to educate, inspire and empower employees around sustainability. They identify and implement specific solutions to help their organization operate in a more environmentally sustainable fashion. Most green teams initially focus on greening operations at the office, addressing such issues as recycling in the office, composting food waste, reducing the use of disposable takeout containers and eliminating plastic water bottles.

This focus on operations is evolving and some green teams are beginning to focus their efforts on integrating sustainability into employees’ personal lives, while others are bringing consumers into the equation and aligning their efforts to support broader corporate sustainability objectives.

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/green_business/

Israel’s cleantech advantage

Posted by: Yoni Cohen on November 25

As Business Week recently reported, Israeli cleantech is red-hot. Need additional evidence? On Nov. 15, both authors of the House-passed cap and trade bill participated in conversations about the burgeoning Israeli cleantech sector. Congressman Henry Waxman spoke at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem while Congressman Ed Markey addressed a packed house at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge.

But can a tiny nation really be a global cleantech leader? Absolutely. There are several reasons to believe that Israeli cleantech is here to stay.

First, human capital. “Israel has one of the world’s highest concentrations of scientists and engineers. It is similar to Boston and San Francisco. Within a fifty mile drive, you’ve got a half dozen of the world’s top research universities, ” said Jonathan Shapira, a business lawyer at Goodwin Procter and the founder of the Boston-Israel Cleantech Alliance.

Second, natural resources and lack thereof. Israel has plenty of sun, which enables it to serve as a laboratory for solar innovation. It lacks water and oil, which provides a strong and persistent incentive for the country to be a world leader in desalination and wean itself off fossil fuels.:}

http://blog.businessgreen.com/

Obama’s cool climate moves leave opponents floundering

I know this is hardly original an original observation, but President Obama really is one very cool customer.

The administration’s ability to steadily advance its low carbon agenda while facing conflicting pressures from Republicans (and some Democrats) angry at the proposed US climate bill, and diplomats in Copenhagen demanding the US shows more ambition, has been little short of a master class in political positioning. There is a long way still to go before he can declare victory, but you get the impression Obama will see some form of climate legislation passed early next year – and what is more, his opponents will not be quite sure how he did it.

The influential political blogger Andrew Sullivan has repeatedly observed how throughout both his campaign and his first 12 months in the White House, President Obama has outmanoeuvred rivals through almost preternatural displays of calmness and detachment.

Echoing Muhammad Ali’s famous rope-a-dope strategy, Obama has let opponents expose their own position, unleash wave after wave of ill-conceived attacks, and reveal their strength and weaknesses, while all the time he quietly and coolly weighs up his options. Then, just when his rivals think they are heading towards victory, he has acted with swiftness and no little ruthlessness to land his own decisive blows and end up with exactly what he wanted.

http://webecoist.com/

Real-Life Water World: 12 Futuristic Offshore Building Projects

real-life-waterworld-main

As rising seas overtake the shores and the human population continues to grow, some experts believe we’ll eventually have no choice but to live in a real-life ‘water world’, building hotels, homesteads and even entire cities on the open ocean. Forward-thinking architects are already planning for this possibility, and their futuristic designs range from Star Wars-inspired marine research facilities to luxurious undersea hotels.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot

The denial industry case notes

My Guardian Comment column this week is about how the climate denial industry achieves its aims. What follows is a list of footnotes and references to go with that article

1 The public persuasion campaign

In 1991 the Western Fuels Association, National Coal Association and Edison Electric Institute set up a group called the Information Council for the Environment (Ice). Its founding documents were leaked. The text has been made available online by the scientist Naomi Oreskes. The strategy was spelt out in a document produced by the Western Fuels Association: to “reposition global warming as theory (not fact)”.

Ice was given $510,000 to test its messages in key markets, all of which happened to be the homes of members of the energy and commerce or ways and means committees of the US House of Representatives. The purpose was to “demonstrate that a consumer-based media awareness program can positively change the opinions of a selected population regarding the validity of global warming.” If it worked, Ice would “implement program nationwide”.

It identified “two possible target audiences”: “Target 1: Older, less educated males”. These people, Ice said, would be receptive to “messages describing the motivations and vested interests of people currently making pronouncements on global warming – for example, the statement that some members of the media scare the public about global warming to increase their audience and their influence … ”

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