Not sure whether we’re hitting Peak Oil or not? Join the rest of us.
This is a hugely important issue… because if we really are in trouble with oil supplies, then “we won’t begin soon enough on the decades-long effort to leave oil before it leaves us — and we will pay for it dearly.”
That quote comes from Energy & Capital’s Chris Nelder, guesting in Green Chip Review, “Debunking the Peak Oil Debunkers“.
In this article, Chris does a pretty good job of proving the Peak Oil denyers wrong.
Did you know that the $38 oil price is called a “Yergin”? That’s in honor of writer Daniel Yergin. Here’s the story as Chris [...]
Making Sense of Peak Oil
What About the Biofuel Bust?
Today’s Wall Street Journal ran this headline on Page 1: U.S. Biofuel Boom Running on Empty. The article went on to report on the sad state of our biodiesel and ethanol sectors.
One fact cited against biofuels: If the entire U.S. supply of vegetable oils and animal fats were diverted to make biodiesel, production still would amount to at most 7% of U.S. diesel demand.
That’s the problem: the feedstock. These industries are running on unsustainable feedstocks!
Algae can in fact make biodiesel refining profitable, through three factors: (i) improved feedstock availability (ii) enhanced carbon credits and (iii) selling both oil and biomass into the high-value co-products markets.
And algae can be fermented into ethanol, [...]
What’s COP-15?
It’s the Conference of Parties. More from the Green Chip Review:
If you haven’t heard of “COP-15,” you soon will. On December 7th, world leaders will assemble behind closed doors in a secured Copenhagan location… in what could be the most high-powered, most secretive meeting of the century.
… this meeting will determine how we go about our daily lives:
Which cars we’ll be able to drive. . .
How many hours we can run hot water in our homes. . .
How much we pay in electricity bills each month… and to whom we’ll end up writing out the checks.
Now, to those vaguely familiar, this meeting carries the very non-threatening moniker, Conference of Parties.
But to [...]
China will sign global treaty if US passes cap and trade
…That’s what a new report says:
Much of the fate of the U.N. climate treaty talks now rests in the U.S. Senate, according to a leading E.U. official, who says China would “lose its last reason” not to support an international pact if the United States passes a cap-and-trade bill.
“I know for the American Senate it’s absolutely crucial to know that China will sign the treaty,” said Sweden’s environment minister, Andreas Carlgren, whose country currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency…. “If the Senate would pass it, there would be no reason for China not to sign up.”
The report quoted Carlgren as adding: “it seems the Chinese are very serious” about [...]
Species Extinction Will Drive Climate Regulation
The Endangered Species Act is the giant lever that will drive the government’s action on climate change.
Consider this quiet announcement today:
Government protection “may be warranted” for 29 Western species, the Fish and Wildlife Service says in a notice being published tomorrow in the Federal Register.
The announcement launches a yearlong status review for the 20 plants, six mollusks, two invertebrates and one fish species — many of which are said to be at risk from habitat loss and climate change. The list also includes a fly that environmentalists say could become the tiniest emblem of the threats of climate change.
The meltwater lednian stonefly, which is no longer than a centimeter, may [...]
Aquamarine Power straps first Oyster device to seabed
I think wave action rocks. But it has been hard work putting projects into action. So the news that Edinburgh-based Aquamarine Power has bolted a prototype of its Oyster wave-conversion device into place on the seabed for the first time is such a win.
The Oyster device consists of a hinged flap connected to the seabed. Each passing wave moves the flap, which in turns drives a hydraulic piston to deliver high-pressure water to an onshore turbine which generates electricity.
More here: Aquamarine Power straps first Oyster device to seabed
Can’t wait to see more of this!
Riggs
Thanks to Recharge News
Hydrocarbon biofuels’ promise tops that of ethanol
Well, you knew I would like THIS one…
John Regalbuto, a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and director of the NSF catalysis and biocatalysis program, wrote in Science that biomass-derived fuels are not far from being part of the energy mix as a replacement for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
…”Hydrocarbon fuels can be directly produced from the sugars of woody biomass — forest waste, cornstalks or switchgrass — through microbial fermentation or liquid-phase catalysis”, he wrote. They can be produced by pyrolysis or gasification directly from the woody biomass. And they can be produced by converting the lipids of nonfood crops and algae.
…”I’m not a lobbyist [...]
Clunkers Is Working!
Despite flaws in the program which I’ve reported on, the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program is a runaway success by all accounts, and points to the kind of stimulus program that really works.
Even though required increase in mileage for the trade-ins was only 2 MPG, actual mileage increase in the program is nearly 10 mpg, because people are buying fuel-efficient cars such as the Ford Focus.
This has in turn dramatically raised the efficiency of all cars sold, as the Associated Press reported today:
‘Clunkers’ fueled major increase in efficiency of new cars — study
The fuel economy of new cars and light trucks sold last month noticeably increased as a result of the [...]
China softens opposition to emissions cap
Some Chinese economists are saying the nation may soon by wealthy enough to afford the changes necessary to reduce emissions. The country is also looking at what would be its peak emissions, the level at which emissions could be lowered while economic growth continued… (Shai Oster, Wall Street Journal
Thanks to Greenwire http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2009/08/06/8/
Half Our Homes Generating Power On The Microgrid?
Sounds like another moonshot challenge — up to half the homes in America could be generating their own power within ten years… But Houston, we have a problem: the utilities.
On 1 July, Fast Company reported on the microgrid revolution:
The evidence is growing that privately owned, consumer-driven, small-scale, geographically distributed renewables could deliver a 100% green-energy future faster and cheaper than big power projects alone. Companies like GE and IBM are talking in terms of up to half of American homes generating their own electricity, renewably, within a decade. But distributed power — call it the “microgrid” — poses an existential threat to the business model the utilities have happily depended [...]