writeaboutwarming

November 26, 2012 - Making fuel from trash has been a kind of holy grail – long sought after, much desired.   Many have cried “Eureka,” only to find that either money or interest had dried up.   I suspect lack of interest was frequently the culprit, when energy companies were the source of funds.   Now, however, we have two companies that have built multimillion-dollar factories for the purpose of large-scale, commercial production of cellulosic biofuel.   One will, in fact, be shipping product by the end of this month. KiOR has built their plant in Columbus, Mississippi, at a cost of $200 million.   Its goal is the manufacture of 13 million gallons of fuel annually from wood waste.   How can they already be shipping fuel?   They have customers!   FedEx, Weyerhauser and Chevron, to be exact.   This sounds serious, for which we can all be grateful.   Here’s why:   No. 1 - KiOR’s fuel isn’t made from an edible crop, like corn. ...

June 17, 2012 - References to algae as a source of biofuel have been on the upswing, so I thought it might be time to find out if there's anything to it.  Climate skeptics have done the requisite piling on, accentuating their disbelief with snide comments alluding to "pond scum."  Funny thing is, that's exactly the kind of algae that renders the best fuel!  With over 100,000 species to choose from - kelp is one of them - it's fortunate indeed that the one that seems to work best can literally be found in just about everyone's backyard.  When we lived in North Carolina, we had a portion of a former farm pond on our property, which extended into our neighbor's yard.  Because we left the trees and grasses surrounding the pond in place, we had no problem with algae.  Our neighbors, on the other hand, had cleared away trees and undergrowth, allowing the sun to shine directly on their pond for hours.  Algae loves sunshine, and they had a pondful to prove it....

December 19, 2011 - I'd never heard of the website known as Minyanville ( http://www.minyanville.com/ ) before I read the article I want to discuss today.  The article, "Renewable Energy Crop Production Set to Soar in US," was first printed at oilprice.com, with no author's name shown. Biofuels have suffered from an image problem ever since Bush II prematurely decided they were a good idea, notwithstanding the fact they were made out of food.  The resulting starvation in countries accustomed to eating corn (which is actually low in calories, or energy) has been only one side effect of our least intelligent President's passing thought.  That's why a crop called camelina will solve multiple problems, not just the shortage of jet fuel. It's taken awhile to get biofuels up and running because of the lack of USDA federal crop insurance.  A wonder crop was needed, one that could withstand assorted growing conditions and still be a moneymaker.  A number of cr...

November 1, 2010 – October was National Energy Awareness Month. A lot happened, I’m happy to say. It was NOT brilliant of President Obama to say that much of what he does goes unrecognized (Jon Stewart wanted to know if he was going to throw a surprise party so he could tell us), but here’s some of the stuff he was talking about: I’m guessing you’ve heard that SOLAR PANELS will once again reside atop the White House, along with a solar water heater. The need for the President to set this example is so painfully obvious it sets my teeth on edge to realize it’s been lacking for 30 years. As you may not be aware, Bill McKibben and a fearless band of environmentalists had trucked the Jimmy Carter originals to Washington, as a way of pushing the issue. Good for them – they got results! The DOT and EPA announced the first-ever proposed NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS and fuel efficiency for HEAVY-DUTY TRUCKS, vans, and buses. This translates to a savings of 500 million ...