Eighteen months ago, three of us – Jerome a Paris, Devilstower, and I – initiated what we hoped would become the foundation of a Democratic energy policy to replace current energy policy in the spirit of Jimmy Carter’s policy, set forth 30 years ago. We chose not to talk in generalities but rather write a broad-based package of legislative items, 20 of them to be achieved by 2020. And we chose to invite Kossacks to join us in fine-tuning the package, which hundreds did.
Some of those hundreds, ultimately about 20 people, participated intensely. Out of their efforts and the ideas of those others came five drafts of Energize America 2020. A panel of four – Jerome a Paris, Devilstower, George Karayannis, and A Siegel – presented the EA 2020 YearlyKos 2006.
Since then, many of the 20 have drifted in and out of the effort to bring to fruition our original goal: making this collective, open-source project the framework of an innovative Democratic Party energy policy. And while the credit still belongs to the many, one person has done more than any other not only to keep EA 2020 alive, but also to reach the right people with clout in Congress to make the package happen. That person is A Siegel.
In the past couple of weeks, he and several other Kossacks, including chapter1, MarketTrustee, and Rick Winrod, have been rushing to meet a March 14 deadline – turning proposals into draft legislation at the request of a senior member of Congress who has met with them. No easy matter. Again, the open-source, collective process was employed and scores of Kossacks joined in to assist.
The legislation: Continuity of Community Services Act, Neighborhood Power Act, Efficient American Homes of 2007 Act (EAHA), Net Metering Bill, and a proposal to use wind turbines to produce fertilizer.
The following Diaries cover the proposals:
A Siegel: ENERGIZE AMERICA: Community Continuity of Power Act (CCPA)- First Draft: This diary lays out a concept for a new Federal Government grant program, from within the Department of Homeland Security, for renewable energy programs within every single Congressional District in the nation focusing on continuity of power in the face of natural or man-made disasters.
A Siegel: ENERGIZE AMERICA: Continuity of Community Services Act (FOR DELIVERY TO HILL NEXT WEEK!!!). Second Draft (with legislative name-change).
A Siegel: ENERGIZE AMERICA: Neighborhood Power Act, round 3: Final Review, Two questions: This is a final draft (please) of The Neighborhood Power Act one-page summary.
A Siegel: ENERGIZE AMERICA: Neighborhood Power Act, backgrounder material: This diary lays out backgrounder material for the Neighborhood Power Act.
Chapter1 ENERGIZE AMERICA: Join the Grid Act Draft: Below the fold is a draft of part of the plan that we will introduce. This part concerns Net Metering, and includes the work of 5 or 10 team members. Now it’s over to you. What works? What doesn't? What can be improved? Remember... A senior member of congress has offered to listen to our community. That doesn't happen every day.
chapter1 ENERGIZE AMERICA: draft 2 of Net Metering Bill (w/ poll): Below the fold is a new version of the Net Metering Bill (formerly known as the Join the Grid Act). It incorporates changes suggested by the community in comments to my diary on the previous version. Wind power continues to get cheaper as well. Although wind is often most economical as large windfarms, some of the windier parts of the country would allow electrical entrepeneurs to sell excess power generated from small, home turbines. In modern-day Denmark, over 100,000 Danish families own wind turbines or shares in small co-ops.
chapter1 ENERGIZE AMERICA: Selling Power in Sodom: Right now, the US (and much of the world) may be approaching the brink of multiple energy revolutions. The price of solar power is dropping dramatically-- it cost $100/watt when Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the roof of his (White) house, and costs around $5 a watt today (for residential installations; it costs less on a commercial scale). With existing state-subsidies, it is already cheaper than grid power in some places. If the price falls by another factor of 5 or 10 (which it shows every signs of doing, thanks to advances in thin-film solar and non-silicon technologies like CIGS) it will be cheaper than grid power almost everywhere. We will all put solar panels on our houses, and many us (or the companies we work for, or churches we belong to) will become electrical entrepeneurs, selling excess power to neighbors, displacing electricity generated from natural gas and goal.
MarketTrustee ENERGIZE AMERICA - Home Efficiency Deadline Edition: Last week I started discussion about the economics of fossil fuel efficiency in American households. Turns out, since the oil shock of the '70s, the market and our government have relied more on "energy-saving" than "energy-efficient" measures to meet GHG policy goals. ... Following is a more formal version of EAHA. Give it a good read, please. Let us know what you believe are the Top 5 points that can move our recommend[d]ations out of committee and onto the floor.
Rick WinrodEA2020: Replacing Natural Gas with Wind Power: This diary lays out a concept for using wind power to replace natural gas in the production of America's fertilizer.
Kudos to A Siegel for keeping the fire burning on this crucial effort and to all who participated with ideas and other help.
Later in the Eco-Diary Rescue, I’ll highlight some other energy Diaries that appeared in the past eight days.
As usual, jillian offered us an extensive roundup of environmental stores from a variety of sources in BREAKING!...the Earth (VII).
The effect of environmental rapine and/or stupidity gets far too little attention, but the Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse offered a window into Environmental Human Rights & Justice: Killing The Inuit & Culture: It's no secret that US policies have caused environmental degradations and contributed to global warming. The devastating impact on Inuit communities -- which are located in Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia -- should be a wake-up call to the environmental crisis we face. The Inuit are suffering deaths, injuries, illnesses and losing their culture. The bodies of the Inuit and sea animals are contaminated with toxic chemicals from our pollution while their land, food and water are disappearing. Now, the Inuit are fighting back by seeking to hold the US responsible for violating their human rights based on our role in climate change. Please look at the sweet face of this little girl and tell her that she does not have a human right to a toxic-free environment.
Students for Bhopal, who last wrote Daily Kos in March 2006, visited us again with a nasty little story, "We asked for safe water to drink, they kicked us and beat us with sticks":
Three hundred of us women had gone with our kids to see a high official of the local government. Our wells are poisoned by chemicals leaking from the Union Carbide factory. We have no other water at all, we can’t afford to buy it. We are all ill. Children’s skin erupts in boils. People’s bodies are filled with aches. Some get so giddy and breathless. Two doors from me is a man who has gone so anaemic he can hardly stand up. Many people are too sick to work. Neighbours help each other, but we are all of us rather poor people, rarely’s there anything to spare. A year ago thanks to a friendly lawyer, we petitioned the Supreme Court for help, The Supreme Court ordered the local authorities to supply us with clean drinking water. They simply ignored the order. More than a year has passed but next to nothing has been done. I wanted to say to this big official, ‘My daughter’s sick. Our water is poisoned. Why have you ignored the Supreme Court’s order? Why won’t you help us?’ ... We were told the man wasn’t there. Riot police came, carrying shields and thick sticks. They began beating us. They hit so hard that stick-shapes are bruised on people’s bodies.
Polar bears were the focus of two Diaries since last Monday, Mark H’s long-running series and AudreySchulman’s.
In Mark H’s continuing Marine Life Series, we learned Why Polar Bears Aren’t Really White: A polar bear reacts with light just like a big pile of snow. There are actually two layers of fur; an under layer made up of soft, wooly hairs which help to insulate the skin, and a top layer with longer, stiffer hairs (called "guard hairs") which are covered in oil to keep the bottom layer from getting wet. Even after an ocean swim, the bear simply shakes the water off this top layer and the skin is completely dry. Both of these layers have hairs that are translucent shafts. Together the hairs act just like the snow piles described above. When sunlight hits the body, the photons of each wavelength ricochets through the hair and is scattered by the air pockets until they shoot back out again, making the animal appear to be covered in white fur.
Edged off the Earth is the sad story related by AudreySchulman: For several years before this trip I'd been writing a novel about polar bears and the research had culminating in my taking a trip up to the arctic to stand here openmouthed, facing a carnivore who on four feet stood almost as tall as I did on two. From my research, I knew during the summer and fall, there wasn't enough sea ice for the bears to walk cross the ocean to get to the ringed seals they eat. With a creature as large as these bears, there aren't a lot of other animals around that could satisfy their hunger. During the ice-free months, the bears lost on average a third of their weight. At this moment, it was October and the animal standing in front of me was bony with starvation.
Good news is the almost extinct category is always welcome, and clone12 delivers with Rare Mekong Dolphin... Making a Comeback:This is a far more enjoyable entry than my previous diary: "Rare River Dolphin... Extinct" in reference to the extinction of the Chinese River dolphin. ... As a strobusguy commented in that diary, "We've lost a lot, and we continue to lose battles. But we can occasionally bring back a species, or a place...", and sometime one must balance out the sadness of loss with enouraging news. And so it is nice to hear this: "Cambodia's rare Mekong dolphin is making a tentative comeback from the edge of extinction after net fishing was banned in its main habitat, Cambodian and World Wildlife Fund officials said on Wednesday." ... What is particularly striking to me is that Cambodia, which is a developing economy like China, nonetheless had the will to protect its own biological heritage. To me this is enouraging because it means extinction does not have to be the price of development.
Not such good news in Naturegal’s Diary, Bush Declares War on Wildlife Refuge System: Did you know that the Bush administration is now in the process of removing 20% of the staff in the National Wildlife Refuge System? Did you know that this massive staff cutback will force many refuges to end environmental education programs for thousands of school children, will end biological surveys, will close Visitor Centers for multiple days each week, will limit hunting and fishing access, and will even close some refuges entirely? There’s a lot you should know, and there is something you can do to help.
johne got steamed over How Republicans protect our water: "Colorado Springs, in response to Fountain Creek pollution lawsuits, admits it ‘may have’ discharged untreated sewage, fecal coli bacteria and other dangerous substances from its sewage system." ... Thank God the city says no one is going to suffer an imminent threat to their health, you know just like in the dark ages. Not everyone then died immediately of dysentery, typhoid, dengue fever, hepatitis, and other infections and diseases.
cookiebear gave a shout-out in Okies, Listen Up: Manure & the Agribiz Creep: ...I want to direct all Okies' attention to a bill by Don Justice which passed the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee, and defines animal waste as non-hazardous. ... So, in essence, Justice's head is so deep up the backend of agribiz and Tyson that he somehow missed the recent e. coli events, among other things.Oh wait, I know the Republican solution - bottled water.
In another cookiebear Diary, an installment of Vegetables of Mass Destruction: Biodiversity Matters - Lessons from the Potato Famines, we are reminded that: Most of us have at least passing knowledge of the Irish Potato Famine, a catastrophe of epic proportions during which one to one and a half million died from starvation and disease. What many may not know is that there are important lessons to be learned from it --- because, you see, the Potato Famines in general, and the Irish Potato Famine in particular, are classic examples of the dangers of monoculture and dependence on a single food source, and the importance of biodiversity.
What My Dog Taught Me About Environmental Destruction is the exquisite example used to evilpenguin in an offering on sustainability: Last night I finished reading Jared Diamond's book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed in which he describes one of the reasons societies fail to see looming disaster as "creeping normalcy." I was instantly flung back to my recent experience with the relative size of the dogs in my life. My Great Dane taught me everything I need to know about creeping normalcy. If you follow the issues of social stability, sustainability, and global warming, this little diary isn't going to tell you anything you don't already know, but in an odd way, the experience of the incredible shrinking dog shook me to the core.
natasha reported that the USDA Recalls GMO Contaminated Rice Seed: Weeks before planting season, GMO contamination in a non-engineered strain of rice puts what a USDA staffer described to me as being about half the U.S. stock of rice seed out of commission. Farmers are going to be hit hard by this and the inspections are going to cost taxpayers a bundle. It's either recall the rice or lose the most lucrative export markets for the year entirely.
One third of David Brin’s Diary was environmentally oriented. Sustainability, Tax Reform and Excellence: Suggestion #20: THE SUSTAINABILITY ACT will make it America's priority to pioneer technological paths toward energy independence, emphasizing economic health that also conserves both national and world resources.
No doubt it would be denied, but I’ll bet there is plenty of glee left at Land of Enchantment house over one of the great victories of 2006, which recently gathered another giggle or two, as related in CA-11: McNerney Named to Global Warming Panel (Pombo #59): It's almost unfair to refer to this as a Pombo diary. Except that it's another reminder what a great improvement Jerry McNerney is over Richard Pombo. Lost in last week's Libby & DoJ news avalanche is some good news: Freshman Congressman Jerry McNerney, professional wind engineer, has been named by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the new House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Sheer poetry, but of a melancholy sort, characterized Chimes of Freedom’s Diary, Half the trees are dead or dying: The Mississippi Gulf Coast, inland from the beach itself, is heavily forested. Thick stands of pine and white oak, dogwood and mayhaw and river birch line the highways going west to New Orleans. This is Brett Favre country. The quarterback grew up in Kiln and still lives down here, just a few miles from the Gulfport/Biloxi airport.
deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans
way back up in the woods among the evergreens...
The region teems with wildlife: deer, opossum, raccoon, wild turkey, squirrel, duck, dove, all have habitat and hunting seasons here. The calls of mockingbirds and cardinals still echo through the evergreens, but the piney woods are dying.
And, according to Crazycab214, that’s not all that’s dying in the Gulf. New Orleans in Danger from Loss of Wetlands: Times Picayune: The New Orleans Times-Picayune has three-part story on the shrinking wetlands in Southeast Louisiana the last few days, and I've got to say it's pretty scary. ... A) Louisiana is losing about a football field worth of wetlands every half hour; B) in about 10 yrs. the water level will rise between 4 and 20 feet; C) by 2020, the water might be too close to New Orleans and could make it very dangerous to live there.
gmokereprises a piece from the past in Raspberry Gobble: I wrote this piece in 1999. It describes a situation in Cambridge, MA, in the 1980s. Now the only raspberries left are in the community gardens. Seems that public and community greens get decimated every decade. Longer term planning and planting might make more sense, building in resilence in the event of climate and other possible changes. From mid-August to first frost, I usually picked a few raspberries each morning from the canes next to the Pearl Street sidewalk. On the other side of my small garden, there was a bunch of grapes hidden in the leaves ripe for the picking, so many that I told my neighbors to help themselves. And once a week I'd go down to Magazine Beach to gorge on the berries hidden near the Cottage Farm Pumping Station. Fat, juicy berries I could pick by the handful for my raspberry gobble. I kept telling myself, "The more you pick, the more that grow."
As usual, there were a plethora of global warming Diaries, which, although you may be sick of them, do focus on what only a few can deny is the environmental issue of our era. Among those few deniers, wrote
bernardpliers, was one of our faves, Dobson Purging Global Warming Believers: James Dobson (Focus on the Family) has demanded that the National Association of Evangelicals fire Rev. Richard Cizik who has been trying to broaden evangelicals political interests to include global warming. ... In a letter this week to the board of the NAE, which claims 30 million members, Dobson and his two dozen co-signers said the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE's vice president for government relations, has waged a "relentless campaign" that is "dividing and demoralizing" evangelicals.
Of course, the key deniers – though they deny they are denying – can still be found in the Bush Administration, as told by Steven D in Global Warming Denier: "Scientists are the Bad Guys": Scientists are the Bad Guys. This is the new talking point for the Exxon-Mobil lobby, as evidenced by the director of a new "documentary" to be shown on British television entitled "The Great Global Warming Swindle". Here's how that director, Martin Durkin, characterized his film: Controversial director Martin Durkin said: "You can see the problems with the science of global warming, but people just don't believe you - it's taken 10 years to get this commissioned. ... I think it will go down in history as the first chapter in a new era of the relationship between scientists and society."
Acting on their denial (for the umpteeth time, Lefty Coaster took notice of a Gag Order for U.S. Scientists Traveling Abroad: In an astoundingly corrupt move reminiscent of the Soviet Union, the Bush Regime has moved to gag U.S. government scientists traveling to abroad on the subject of Global Warming.
Liberal Thinking also finds a hold-out media denier in The Sun Also Doesn’t Rise (with Poll): I just read, in the San Jose Mercury Old News, an op-ed piece by Robert Cohen entitled "Scientific ‘consensus’ on global warming doesn’t exist." You say, "Consider the source." I say, "Does the Merc have stupid editors or are they trying to get gullible people to believe this?" (Take that, Merc. How do you like a false dichotomy?) Being a Taurus (my sun sign, not my car), I couldn’t help but charge after this big, red cape with an LTE entitled "No Scientific Consensus Sun Will Rise."
The Bush Administration had made it exceedingly difficult to know for sure when something is parody, almost running The Onion out of business, so if you went looking for mainstream media confirmation of xxdr zombiexx’s satire Bush: Global Warming essential to replenishing petroleum., you probably weren’t alone: This is the looming energy crisis of or time. And contrary to all the liberal slander of this bold leader, George Bush has a plan to deal decisively with the looming end of petroleum. Petroleum, of course, is a fossil fuel, known to be the result of vegetation and dinosaurs having died and seeped into the ground where it all got brewed together in huge underground oceans over millions of years. Bush's plan is as sweeping as it is simplistic: we are running out of fossil fuel, therefore we need more fossils.
The Cunctator has been doing a terrific job keeping us informed about global warming hearings on Capitol Hill, and let us know that Global Warming Committee Formed!: Last week Speaker Pelosi announced the formation of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Committee chairman Ed Markey: "We are facing an issue that will test the capacity of democracy to respond in time to affect the fate of the planet. We have the technology, the ingenuity, and the experience to reverse the inexorable buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. I look forward to working with my colleagues to find the consensus needed to move boldly and quickly." This is a big deal. Jurisdiction over global warming is a tangled thicket, as can easily be seen from the many many hearings each week.
Hill Global Warming Week: 15 Hearings in 4 Days! [UPDATED]. The Cunctator presented a calendar of House and Senate committee and subcommittee sessions between 3/6 and 3/19 on everything from carbon capture and sequestration to market constraints on advanced energy technology. And took notice of a couple of hearings at Live-blogging House Global-warming hearing and Live-blogging Kerry Global Warming Hearing
bmaples claimed It's Cold -- But It's Heating Up: It's pretty simple, really: if you don't want to give up your addiction, you point to little stories that seem to fly in the face of the facts. Our addiction to a lifestyle that damages the earth is an addiction we are loathe to face, so we joke about low temperatures in Green Bay, even as we continue to wreck the only Earth we've got. It's time to stop joking and get in recovery.
Keeping track of presidential candidates’ views on global warming has been a special project of Primarily Green, who took notice of Edwards on Global Warming: Say what you will about John Edwards's support or electability, but he has his global-warming message down. Combined with poverty and the war, he has found a stump speech that touches on many of the actions needed to combat climate change. Overall, his message and discipline are laudable.
And McCain on Global Warming: His climate policy proposals are generally sound, minus the nuclear stuff. His leading bill in the Senate with Lieberman is projected to achieve major reductions that could perhaps be just enough to prevent the "whole-different planet" scenario.
And Hillary on Global Warming: The fact that she is one of the few candidates who has offered energy-plan specifics. Mind you, much of the funding relies on oil-industry taxes which may have difficulty getting through to begin with. However, she's done the job of listing her priorities and has said how she would allot the funding she obtains. The negatives are her significant focus on "clean" coal, which is far from environmentally sound at this point, and "clean" diesel. She even introduced her plan from one such coal plant.
Global warming whoring has taken on a new meaning, according to lale in Sex, global warming and ski resorts: Talk about an unanticipated consequence of global warming! As reported in Salon Magazine, Brothels in the ski resorts of Bulgaria are reporting staffing shortages since the lack of snow has left guests seeking alternative activities. Petra Nestorova, who runs an escort agency in Sofia, said: 'We have hired students, but they are temps and nothing like our elite girls.'
Poetry seemed rife in the eco-Diaries the past week, and Bob Guyer gave us some in All Along the Watchtower, Parsifal, and Climate Change: Bob Dylan’s song, All Along the Watchtower, contemplates a crisis approaching on the horizon, where rapid action is required, and most people are blind to the rapidly approaching peril. Global warming and man made climate change fit that pattern, so lets start a conversation using Dylan’s images and poetry as a backdrop.
"There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief" ...
I know I’m mostly preaching to the choir, but a kick ass choir, with a lot of allied thieves working the audience gives us a shot. Gaining momentum now is more about people and communication than it is about technology. We have the technology to turn this around but don’t have the political leverage. Fighting the climate change deniers where you find them is one thing each one of us can do and your inner thief can help. One way I have used the thief in confronting climate change deniers when they say global warming and climate change are fictional is to ask them if they want to bet on it and see where the conversation goes.
The EU agrees to 'ambitious' climate plan, reported jhritz: Challenging the world to follow suit, the twenty-seven member European Union's president, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that this needs to be done, even if it requires a change in lifestyle. ... A change in lifestyle either way, since climate change will be (and is) forcing a change in lifestyle for everyone. The EU's plan? 20% green power by 2020. They say they can reach 30% if other nations join them (hint: China, India, US...). Not that the agreement was easy to come by. There were bumps in the road vis-a-vis nuclear energy. The EU nations finally reached their consensus after giving in to France's request for the inclusion of nuclear energy as an alternative to coal and greenhouse producing power plants.
DeanDemocrat took on a couple of eco-morons in I want you all to live in a hut. (Global Warming Conspiracy): Did you know I want you to live in a hut, with only the light of a candle to keep you warm? Furthermore I want you to defecate into a hole you dug in the ground and eat only the charred flesh of the animals you hunted and killed. And I want you to walk everywhere you go. In fact I want the entire country to revert back to a time when men used clubs and wore dead animal skins. I want to uninvent the wheel! Why? I have no clue. But apparently I want these things because the likes of Ann Coulter and Christopher Horner told me so.
Moderation vs Conservation was robertdfeinman’s view of why energy efficiency alone won’t be enough: Now that global warming is on everyone's radar it is time to consider if the discussion are leading in a useful direction. I'm going to define two approaches and point out that only one has received any notice. The preferred direction to solve not only climate change issues, but impending shortages of key raw materials, is via conservation. I define this as doing the same with less. That is, an improvement in efficiency. My take on the issue is that this will be insufficient. What is needed is doing less with less. That is, moderating our impact on the world.
pale cold wrote that Health Canada Tries to silence whistleblower: Cancers at the Tarsands: Last year I read an interesting article on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) website about an Alberta Dr who had noticed a high number of occurrences of unusual cancers. All within the area of the Tar sands. ... This report also from CBC reports that Health Canada had looked at the situation and not found any higher incidence of cancers. But many residents remain unconvinced, as they say that the study was done with little detail.
There was continuing controversay over Gore and Green Power Switch, a related by elender: Some of you may remember Peter Schweizer's hit-piece which the USA Today happily published as "news". Schweizer boldly claimed that "there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy". Now it turns out, thanks to another right-wing hit-piece which then prompted some journalists to take a closer look at Gore's energy bill, that he in fact has signed up for green power big time, paying for 108 blocks ($432 plus/month) which covers his total electricity usage. ... Funny how one wingnut can discredit another if both try very hard to discredit Gore.
After a bit of a confusing start, dotcommodity followed up with [Update] Green Power Switch Thanks Gore For Growth: ...Electric bills obtained by The Tennessean, however, showed that Gore is paying a premium on his bills to be part of the "green power" program. Gore purchased 108 blocks of "green power" for at least each of the last three months, according to a summary of bills from Nashville Electric Service. That’s a total of $432 a month spent to pay extra for solar or other renewable energy sources. NES power – outside this program - is derived largely from coal, which emits carbon, a green house gas. No (a spokeswoman told me), his entire bill is covered by his purchase of units for Green Power exclusively, and (that) $400 (is) something average.
dotcommodity also recommended that Kossacks: Lobby the Senate with Al Gore: ...Al Gore is going to be riding right into the Senate this month on his white horse, after being worked over and roughed up by the Fossil Fool attack-machine over spending too lavishly to help grow more green energy. ... And we can all go in there with him, because ... amid the boos and snickers of the vast rightwing Fossil Fool conspiracy in the Senate, The Goricle walks in and starts handing out cards to Senators ... and what’s this? Why it’s all of US. And we're right there in the Senate Hearing Room in the belly of the beast. ... Barbara Boxer hands out the Thank You cards from all of us to Al Gore. And Al Gore hands out our messages and these photos to the Senators.
In a highly technical Diary about ethanol, deb9 urged us to push for Putting More "Renewable" in Renewable Fuels: So, in conclusion, food and oil prices are likely to be very interconnected, as the need for a gasoline substitute in the U.S. evolves/becomes more prominent. Which means that as oil prices rise, so will corn prices. A powerful rural lobby will insist that corn prices stay connected to [ethanol] production/stay connected to the rising cost of oil and oil derivatives, like gasoline, as the alternative is the (up until late 2006) continued impoverishment of rural America, as well as the dumping of cheap foods into 3rd and 4th world countries. However, for the carnivores among us, dire choices await. They can either cut back on the meat ingestion, or pay up. Odds are, the carnivores are not going to be happy campers adapting to the choice of meat or veggies in return for no fuel or fuel for the ‘mobile.’
imagine80 took the negative view in Coal-fired corn ethanol plant: what's wrong with this picture?: Okay, I'll be upfront about my point of view. I think corn ethanol is a bad idea. Yesterday I read about the construction of a coal-fired, corn ethanol plant in Heron Lake, Minnesota. That's right, a group of farmer investors are behind a $97 million corn ethanol plant that will burn greenhouse gas producing coal in the process. Why are they doing this? Because the price of natural gas is increasing, and coal is cheaper. The Heron Lake plant, located in an area known for its duck hunting, will save $5 million each year by burning coal rather than natural gas.
With a cartoon and a narrative, StormBear also took on Middle East Oil vs Nebraskan Corn:
Ethanol is not the be-all solution to our energy problem. You could plant all of the U.S. in corn and still not have enough to provide all our energy needs, if you used sugar cane, those figures would dramatically improve. However, corn-based ethanol is a great way to make changes NOW. America has an ungodly infrastructure to grow, harvest and transport corn. Using that corn for ethanol is no-brainer. Plus it helps family farmers... a group the government has habitually abused for decades.
And yinn said that Ethanol Rules in Illinois: A quick check of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) website shows that the ethanol boom continues here. As of the year 2000, four ethanol plants were in operation but by the time I first wrote about ethanol last summer, there were a half-dozen plants operating with about 20 more proposed for our state; and as of February 1, there are 53 plants and expansions in various stages of the permitting process, half of them applications submitted within the past six months.
gmoke continued the series on Solar, As Seen on TV (3): However, "This Old House" is not the only WGBH show that is going solar. "Bob the Builder" did a solar electric conversion on a trailer this week, too. As a matter of fact, solar is busting out all over the TV screen. I was watching the 11 o'clock news on WBZ and there was a commercial from Local 103 IBEW lauding their experience and enthusiasm for solar. Local 103 has a windmill that supplies most of the energy for their union hall and is visible from the highway every day as tens of thousands of commuters drive past it. They are also installing PV panels on their roof if they haven't done so already.
As if he hadn’t already done yeoman’s work, A Siegel weighed in with Is the West leading the way toward a sustainable and prosperous energy future?: The Western Governor’s Association (WGA) merits credit on the energy front. Schwarzenneger (well, maybe credit for appearances rather than reality) ... Schweitzer ... those Schxxer guys are pushing forward on the energy front. But, the letter before them might merit a bit more credit ...
And yet another, this time a reprise of 25 years of lousy energy policy, Inefficient Governance? DOE misses Energy Efficiency Deadlines over and over again: Energy efficiency -- saving power (Negawatts) -- should be the simpliest portion of the path toward a better energy future. We have the technolgoies and they are (highly) cost effective. Sadly, the Department of Energy has been systematically sabotaging energy efficiency -- having not met a single Congressional deadline for setting energy efficency standards. Ever!
Contributing Editor and Energize America 2020 mover-and-shaker Devilstower gave us some more of the grim in Racing the Oil Endgame: While conservatives continue to play Pollyanna politics, insisting that all is well, life is good, pay no attention to the terrorist behind the curtain -- researchers looking at the global oil situation are coming to a different conclusion. For a number of years, Mexico's largest oil field, Cantarell, has been in decline. Every field goes into decline eventually, but Cantarell is going into decline years ahead of expectation. Officials of Mexico's Pemex at first rushed to deny any news that Cantarell was unable to sustain previous production levels, but despite an extensive program of drilling and nitrogen injection, Catarell's decline continues. Production at Cantarell has fallen sharply since peaking above 2 million barrels a day. Pemex says it expects Cantarell output to average 1.53 million barrels a day this year. The decline of Cantarell is important for several reasons. Mexico is a primary oil supplier to the US and making up this production elsewhere means we are becoming even more dependent on Middle Eastern oil. The revenue lost as Cantarell declines means ever larger shortfalls for Mexico's government, and we could be facing greater instability in Mexico along with a change in US-Mexico economic relationships. ... We need an oil alternatives summit. Not a conference at which people can present papers, or a broad discussion of energy policy in general. Not a seminar on what we might do three, or two, or even one decade from now. We need a meeting to hammer out a unified, achievable approach that can be pressed into legislation. And we need to do it quickly, because that sky looks pretty shaky up there.
ornerydad asked the community How much is YOUR electric bill? w/POLL: This is a serious diary. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. But if you want to go straight to the payoff, it’s down below at soft energy path and getting off the grid. Now, then – the question! Your electric bill.
The Richardson Solution, , an advocacy group seeking to elect Bill Richardson to the presidency noted that Richardson signs strongest national protection against Oil and Gas Drilling: The law, effective July 1, requires that companies notify landowners 30 days prior to drilling-related operations, describe in detail what will go on and propose an agreement covering compensation for the use of and any damages to the land.
No doubt a good idea to paprog who gave us a link to an Oil and Gas Drilling Aerial Slideshow: The organization that I work for, Allegheny Defense Project, recently had the opportunity to fly over the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania to document the impacts of oil and gas drilling. We have a slideshow of those photos on our website. As you can see from the photos, the impact of oil and gas drilling is a sprawling fragmentation. This has serious consequences for wildlife that depends on large tracts of undisturbed forest habitat. It also has significant impacts on recreation. Who the hell wants to hike, camp, backpack, fish, or hunt in areas that have been completely industrialized by this type of development?
NoMoreLies claimed that Our Landscaping Choices support ExxonMobil: Now that I have your attention, suffice it to say that our default landscape choices, turf grass and non-native trees and shrubs, increase our dependency on Middle Eastern oil, increase our patronage of Big Oil, and by extension indirectly supply Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda with petrodollars. Not only that, but they contribute millions of pounds of greenhouse gases, promote weeds and undesirable invasive plants, contribute to the destruction of the protective wetlands along the Gulf Coast, and other natural areas, contaminate ground and surface water with pesticides and excess nutrients, waste scarce groundwater resources, waste money, and contribute to increased surface water runoff and flooding. (plus a quiz)
Seth Baum focused on what he called the Most efficient vehicle ever!!!:
This vehicle is the most energy-efficient vehicle ever created! Not even the swimming salmon (#2) or the human walking is as efficient as this! (link) This vehicle will slash the greenhouse gas emissions of the transport sector, which are almost as large as emissions from livestock! (link)
elishastephens advised us to learn from How Cuba Survived Peak Oil: a review: In "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil," the filmmakers combine footage of life in Cuba with interviews with a variety of Cubans and others to explore how Cuba dealt with a situation which, while not a "real" "peak oil" situation, effectively became one for Cubans, as they adjusted to life with fewer energy resources than they were used to. The scope of the Cuban response, and the film's coverage of the response, covers a wide swath: agriculture, education, health, transportation, housing, and energy alternatives. Agriculture gets the most focus, as the film discusses how Cuba shifted almost completely (80%) to organic farming, with its use of pesticides dropping from 21,000 tons in the 80's to less than 1,000 tons now.
And then, then there was the nuclear debate:
Nuclear Power Industry Wins First Site Approval in 30 Years, reported shpilk (pronounced like "milk"): Got to love the Bush Administration, always trying for new and novel ways to screw the public and give money to industry. Give The Bush Administration a chance. They will screw it up, just like they have everything else. 'New and previously untested' sounds especially promising, if you are an investor. Not so much if you happen to live near this proposed plant, perhaps.
fake consultant considered On Unknown Languages, Or, Nuclear Is Bad, Mmm'kay: But let’s say for a moment that nuclear power does turn out to be safe and clean, despite our concerns. And let’s say vitrification can be accomplished effectively and economically, and that the facility is actually sealed after the waste is in the tunnel, and there is no failure of the waste containment. After all that, there’s still one more potential problem: the meddling humans of the future. NPR reports: "The trefoil radioactive symbol was doodled on a notepad at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley in 1946." This means we have 60 years of familiarity with the symbol.
We know, today, that if we see it, we better get away.
But what about 10,000 years from now? 50,000? 500,000?
NNadir, whose eloquent Diaries have drawn him a lot of praise and just as much criticism took on his favorite topic again, nuclear in several new entries: Corrosion at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant Generates Huge Concern: (Immediate disclaimer for anyone not familiar with my position: This is a pro-nuclear diary.) ... The Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant, near the place I swim in the ocean, is up for relicense. It is the oldest operating nuclear power plant in the United States. According to this link, if we fail to address climate change, the Oyster Creek Nuclear Station and the entire neighboring towns, all wonderful, populated beach cities on the Jersey shore will be no more. ... Oh. Oh. I can see the headlines: "Nuclear Plant Under Water!" I am surprised that Greenpeace types aren't all over this. On the other hand maybe they are. I have a low tolerance for their line of pathetic consumerist crap, to be honest, and don't care what they say.
And he looked at "Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl," Some Comments: My task at DKos - should you be unfamiliar with me - is to talk about nuclear energy, the truths and the myths surrounding it, and the role I think it should play in the desperate fight against climate change. I make my arguments mostly in a technical way, but I try, within the limits of my abilities, to inject enough humor, human history, personal history, and analysis to make the subject fun, even though there is nothing very funny about climate change.
And there was his NYT: Dangerous Fossil Fuel Waste to Destroy Water Supplies for Hundreds of Millions:The happy thought here is that the people most responsible for releasing the dangerous fossil fuel waste - the Western world, where people show far more concern for so called "dangerous nuclear waste," even though it stays within their own damned borders - will not be effected as much as poor people living in other people's countries. The primary sufferers will be Africans and Latin Americans, not Europeans and North Americans.
And Irish Trade Unions Call for the Legalization of Nuclear Fission in Ireland: It is illegal in Ireland to fission uranium or any other element for any purpose, including medical reasearch or medical treatment.
Wind energy investor Jerome a Paris posited A 'wider perspective' about nuclear energy: As NNadir, who does not hide his (pro-nuclear) biases, I'll start by stating mine: I'm favorable to nuclear, as it is vastly superior in all respects to the coal-fired plants that dominate the industry in many countries, but I think we should focus policy first on conservation, then on renewable energy (in particular wind power, the sector I finance), and then only on nuclear. But that does mean that I consider nuclear to be invitable and thus necessary. I would like to note also that I am influenced by the French experience, which is highly successful, and has a number of traits which I think are desirable for the industry (strong State involvement, including for the financing of the sector, strong and independent regulation) and which may reflect my personal biases (the engineers that built and run the sector are alumni of the same university as me).
Without naming names, Joy Busey made her point of view crystal clear in The Nuclear Shills Among Us: No, I won't identify the shills' pseuds, as they're bound to turn up in the comments to lob ad homs at me (and anyone they suspect of sympathies with Greenpeace, Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, EnviroWatch or any other notably left-progressive leaning organization dedicated to environmental responsibility. They make no secret of their disgust for environmentalism and environmentalists. They also make no secret of their belief-in and associations with the nuclear industry, its lobbying fronts and its PR operatives. Last November the people of this nation made it entirely clear that they are fed up with Business as Usual in DC by turning both the US House and Senate over to Democrats, who had not held legislative majority in a dozen years. The proverbial writing is on the wall, so the Guidos (my shorthand for the Nuclear Mafia) must now move firmly to convince the left that a new resurgence of nuclear energy production in this country is absolutely necessary due to global warming and the uncomfortable fact that we cannot continue to trade American blood for Middle Eastern oil.