“The reason we keep trying to get fuel out of algae… is that we’ve put trillions of dollars into a liquid-fuel infrastructure around the world…For us to move to a hydrogen-based economy, or to go electric, would mean huge costs redoing the infrastructure.”
Rick Shangraw: Arizona State University VP, quoted in Biofuels Digest www.biofuelsdigest.com
…a large majority of voters want the government to regulate greenhouse gases and that they are solidly opposed to Congress interfering with this task. [60% support, 34% oppose]
From Politico’s Morning Energy:
FIRST LOOK: Obama for America pollster Joel Benenson is circulating HEARTENING POLL DATA FOR ENVIROS, who are quite concerned about coming attacks on the EPA (including efforts to strip or delay its authority to regulate greenhouses gases). The White House hasn’t said publicly that POTUS would veto such a measure.
Benenson writes in his memo: “Our recent polling for the NRDC Action Fund [1,401 registered voters, Aug. 10-15, +/-2.6%] shows that a large majority of voters want the government to regulate greenhouse gases and that they are solidly opposed to Congress interfering with this task. [60% support, 34% oppose] … 51% of voters say they have a favorable view of the EPA and only 40% are unfavorable. … 68% say they want the government to do more to hold corporations accountable … Just 37% support [a bill to suspend EPA power to regular greenhouse gases for two years], while 53% oppose
…
(Not if it’s algae, which loves bad and salty water!)
Biofuels Digest reports:
Researchers publishing last year in AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, have proposed that energy production systems be measured not only in terms of energy return on energy investment, but energy return on water invested.
In a note at CO2science.org, a trio of authors contend: “there simply is not enough freshwater on the face of the earth to make the production of biofuels a viable and significant alternative to the mining and usage of fossil fuels.”
Is this a red herring, or a real threat? How much water is there? What are the limits of irrigation, the options for brackish water? Does electric power production really use more water than anything else? All this, plus principles for sustainable use of water, at scale, for biofuels production, in our full report at at biofuelsdigest.com.
Nearly half of all profits could come from just ten percent of total “green crude” production.
Biotech Digest reports:
This week, a report from GIA projected that the renewable chemicals market would reach US$56.9 billion in sales by the year 2015. “Growth in the market is especially driven by factors such as a strong pipeline of novel products, government policies, energy prices, consumer awareness and concerns for global warming,” the authors said.
Plastics News warns: “Renewable-chemicals companies will face the ultimate test: competing against petrochemicals from oil companies able to wage price warfare against fledgling rivals.” But the same report from Plastics News, which profiles the rising fortunes at Elevance, which has reached $10 million in sales and is aimed to reach $1 billion in 2016.
“[They] are capitalizing on financial dynamics well-known to oil industry bean counters: 90 percent of crude oil goes into gasoline, but 40 percent of the profits come from petrochemicals,” the report says in defining the essence of the opportunity.
From NASA, a satellite photo of the section of the Petermann Glacier that recently broke off the Greenland coast: http://bit.ly/dwDnCu
Hat Tip to Politico’s Morning Energy
requiring 2,087 steel mills, cement works and other energy-intensive factories to close by Sept. 30, according to the New York Times.
“Earlier this summer, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China promised to use an “iron hand” to improve his country’s energy efficiency, and a growing number of businesses are now discovering that it feels like a fist. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology quietly published a list late Sunday of 2,087 steel mills, cement works and other energy-intensive factories required to close by Sept. 30.” http://nyti.ms/9tgqyo
Hat tip to Politico’s Morning Energy
dwarfing the $150 billion that Obama has pledged to invest into the U.S. renewable industry over the next decade, says Politico’s Morning Energy.
Bloomberg reports: “China will invest 5 trillion yuan ($738 billion) into renewable energy projects over the next decade under a development plan of the industry, China Securities Journal said, citing the State Information Center.” http://bit.ly/9WwQJm
It’s also becoming harder to see how the [US] administration will be able to meet even that [$150B] goal, since it was largely dependent on projected revenues from a cap-and-trade style climate change law, which is dead for the time being.
The US remains strong for R&D phase investment, and commercial opportunities abound elsewhere.
Riggs
“The whole thing just went kaput last night. POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn has the narrative: “Eighteen months ago, Barack Obama took office pledging to deal with a “planet in peril.” His party held big majorities in Congress, and the House answered by passing a tough cap-and-trade bill. A massive climate conference in Copenhagen, with Obama at the center of the action, focused the world on the need to address global warming. Then came the nation’s worst-ever environmental disaster, an oil spill in the Gulf that put momentum behind environmentalists and scarred the image of big, polluting industries.
“Add in a summer of record-high temperatures, and it would seem the stars had been aligned like never before for climate legislation. But by Thursday, the White House’s biggest energy and environmental initiative sat in tatters, relegated to an unknown election-year abyss after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he didn’t yet have 60 votes and would instead move to the lowest hanging energy fruit.” http://politi.co/aZbpan
The Administration will likely move to cap Green House Gas (GHG) emissions through regulation.
Riggs
The flight by EADS, maker of the Airbus and lots of defense and transport aircraft, was made in a Diamond Aircraft DA42 New Generation twin-prop plane at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin. A repeat flight will be made at the Farnborough Airshow in England.
In their press release, EADS notes that they hope to have a fully biofuel-powered test route operating within five years, with Paris to Toulouse (a distance of 365 miles) touted as a contender. They also note that by 2030 they aim to have 10% of their fleet flying on pure or blended biofuels.
excerpted from http://bit.ly/firstalgaeflight
Hat Tip to Maria-Christina
No one in his right mind is expecting a Climate Bill this congressional session. But the party’s over anyway.
Increasingly harsh regulation in the US and abroad is creating an existential crisis for carbon polluters. They HAVE to solve their CO2 problem or they won’t expand, won’t open new facilities, and may even close.
Politico made that point this morning:
“Big Coal’s friends on the Hill are telling them not to pop the Champagne too soon. Even without a climate law pricing carbon, the landscape is about to change for the worse for America’s most abundant — and dirtiest — source of fuel. New clean air and water regulations set to kick in next year, combined with a boost in new natural gas supply and a projected nuclear renaissance, mean that with or without a price on carbon, coal could soon go from the cheapest and most popular source of electricity to a pricey, onerous third choice. Already, new studies are showing coal’s market share set to decline significantly in the coming decade.”
POLITICO story http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39983.html