All Entries in the "Energy" Category
Fracking With Food: How the Natural Gas Industry Poisons Cows and Crops
Natural gas drilling operations have mucked up food from Colorado to Pennsylvania. So why is no one paying attention?
On the morning of May 5, 2010, nobody could say for sure how much fluid had leaked from the 650,000-gallon disposal pit near a natural gas drill pad in Shippen Township, Penn. — not the employees on site; not the farmers who own the property; not the DEP rep who came to investigate.
But there were signs of trouble: Vegetation had died in a 30’ by 40’ patch of pasture nearby. A “wet area” of indeterminate toxicity had crept out about 200 feet, its puddles shimmering with an oily iridescence. And the cattle: 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves were all found near water containing the heavy metal strontium. Strontium is preferentially deposited in cows’ bones at varying levels depending on things like age and growth rates. Since slaughtering 28 cattle on mere suspicion can devastate a farmer financially, nobody knows what, if anything, the cows ingested. They’re now sitting in quarantine.
The Shippen Township incident isn’t the first time hydraulic fracturing, a controversial gas extraction technique that involves shooting water, sand and a mix of chemicals into the ground to release gas, has been blamed for livestock damage. But for farmers in the northeast whose land sits atop the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation, it is a wake-up call – an event that raises questions about fracking’s compatibility with food production.
Full Story: Fracking With Food: How the Natural Gas Industry Poisons Cows and Crops | Food | AlterNet.
Renewable energy: Wind farm ‘mega-project’ is underway in California
The Alta Wind Energy Center — with plans for thousands of acres of turbines to generate electricity for 600,000 Southern California homes — officially breaks ground Tuesday.
It’s being called the largest wind power project in the country, with plans for thousands of acres of towering turbines in the Mojave Desert foothills generating electricity for 600,000 homes in Southern California.
And now it’s finally kicking into gear.
The multibillion-dollar Alta Wind Energy Center has had a tortured history, stretching across nearly a decade of ownership changes, opposition from local residents and transmission infrastructure delays.
Full Story: Renewable energy: Wind farm ‘mega-project’ is underway in California – latimes.com.
US scrambles emergency teams to new Gulf oil leak
The well, located about 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of New Orleans, was ruptured when it was struck by a dredge barge called Captain Buford pulled by a tug, Pere Ana C.
Reports of a giant fountain of oil were downplayed by US authorities who said only a light sheen was visible on the surface, some six feet (1.8 meters) above the damaged wellhead.
Unrelated to the massive gusher recently capped by BP deep down on the seabed, the incident did occur in a nearby part of the Gulf of Mexico and clean-up vessels were redeployed to surround it with 6,000 feet of boom.
Full Story: AFP: US scrambles emergency teams to new Gulf oil leak.
6 Reasons Nuclear Energy Advocate Stewart Brand Is Wrong
Nuclear energy is a Dark Age technology, defined by unsustainable costs, inefficiencies, eco-destruction, radiation releases and much more.
Stewart Brand has become a poster boy for a “nuclear renaissance” that has just suffered a quiet but stunning defeat. Despite $645 million spent in lobbying over the past decade, the reactor industry has thus far failed to gouge out major new taxpayer funding for new commercial reactors.
In an exceedingly complex series of twists and turns, no legislation now pending in Congress contains firm commitments to the tens of billions reactor builders have been demanding. They could still come by the end of the session. But the radioactive cake walk many expected the industry to take through the budget process has thus far failed to happen.
The full story is excruciatingly complicated. But the core reasons are simple: atomic power can’t compete, and makes global warming worse.
Full Story: 6 Reasons Nuclear Energy Advocate Stewart Brand Is Wrong | Environment | AlterNet.
Clean Energy and the U.S. Handicap: One Man’s Story
On-again, off-again federal support cripples emerging industries in the United States, America’s pre-eminent wind energy pioneer believes.
Jim Dehlsen, America’s most successful wind power innovator and entrepreneur, has been tilting at windmills since the early 1980s.
Back then, he installed one of the largest wind farms in the world in the mountains near Mojave, Calif., where a strong gust could snap a windmill blade in two. He called it his “Victory Garden.”
Today, at 73, Dehlsen is producing one of the most advanced and efficient windmills in the world, employing 300 people at a plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And he is building a plant in England to manufacture the largest offshore windmill in the world, creating 500 green jobs.
Full Story: Clean Energy and the U.S. Handicap: One Man’s Story | Miller-McCune Online.
Federal records show steady stream of oil spills in gulf since 1964
The oil and gas industry’s offshore safety and environmental record in the Gulf of Mexico has become a key point of debate over future drilling, but that record has been far worse than is commonly portrayed by many industry leaders and lawmakers.
Many policymakers think that the record before the BP oil spill was exemplary. In a House hearing Thursday, Rep. John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said, “It’s almost an astonishingly safe, clean history that we have there in the gulf.” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the industry’s “history of safety over all of those times” had provided the “empirical foundation” for U.S. policy.
But federal records tell a different story. They show a steady stream of oil spills dumping 517,847 barrels of petroleum — which would fill an equivalent number of standard American bathtubs — into the Gulf of Mexico between 1964 and 2009. The spills killed thousands of birds and soiled beaches as far away as Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Altogether, they poured twice as much as oil into U.S. waters as the Exxon Valdez tanker did when it ran aground in 1989.
Full Story: Federal records show steady stream of oil spills in gulf since 1964.
Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows that the United States should follow the example of South American socialists in nationalizing its energy industry, filmmaker Oliver Stone said Tuesday.
The Academy Award-winning director of “Born on the Fourth of July” and “JFK” said that America’s country’s natural wealth was too important to be left in private hands, telling journalists in central London that oil and other natural resources “belong to the people.”
“This BP oil spill is typical” of what happens when private industry is allowed to draw revenue on what should be a public good, Stone said.
“We shouldn’t make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons. All these industries should be public industries.”
Full Story: Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources – Yahoo! News.
Obama To Open Up 1.8 Million Alaskan Acres To Oil Drilling
The Interior Department is offering oil and gas leases on 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve while promising to protect critical migratory bird and caribou habitat.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the Bureau of Land Management will offer 190 tracts with bids to be opened Aug. 11 in Anchorage. The sale is one of dozens, mostly in Western states, that Salazar announced in November.
The petroleum reserve covers 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope. That’s an area slightly smaller than the state of Indiana.
Full Story: Obama To Open Up 1.8 Million Alaskan Acres To Oil Drilling.
Gulf of Mexico awash with 27,000 abandoned wells
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one – not industry, not government – is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.
The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3500 of the neglected wells – those characterised in federal government records as “temporarily abandoned”.
Full Story: Gulf of Mexico awash with 27,000 abandoned wells – report – World – NZ Herald News.
The push for energy deregulation threatens America’s heartland
David Sirota:
In recent weeks, Washington has provided ample evidence that the fossil-fuel industry remains as powerful as ever in the wake of the Gulf Coast apocalypse. Whether it’s Louisiana’s Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu demanding more offshore drilling as her state gets covered in sludge, or Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton criticizing the government for forcing BP to finance a spill-relief fund, major political players in D.C. still do energy firms’ bidding, leaving both national parties disinclined to champion stronger environmental statutes.
Such Beltway intransigence is certainly atrocious, and has rightfully generated media fury. However, congressional reluctance to proactively legislate eco-friendly regulation is less outrageous than the state-based push for full-on deregulation.
The key political battlefield in this little-noticed but big-impact fight is Colorado, which holds one of the country’s largest oil and natural gas reserves. In the state’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, former congressman Scott McInnis, a Republican, and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, have turned the race into a competition to see who is more enthusiastic about shredding the minimal energy regulations already on the state’s books.
Full Story: Opinion | The push for energy deregulation threatens America’s heartland | Seattle Times Newspaper.
“OPERATE TO FAILURE”
GLOBAL CATASTROPHE REACHES EPIC PROPORTIONS
As BP Oil Spill Lets the Genie Out Of The Bottle
Why has it been so difficult to put this GENIE (Oil & Gas) back into the bottle (Macondo Prospect, Gulf of Mexico)? Or at least keep any more of him from coming out?
There are many reasons, on many different levels, but let’s start with BP and the culture of corporate superiority that has evolved at this corporate behemoth since its founding in 1908. We’re talking about the granddaddy here – the Anglo-Persian Oil Company – which was the first to develop the oil and gas reserves discovered in the Middle East. Simply put, when you’re the biggest and the oldest in that neck of the woods, you get used to doing it your way, and ONLY your way.
Well, British Petroleum’s way of developing oil and gas throughout their planetary stomping grounds (Planet BP — a BP online, in-house magazine) is known to many insiders and outsiders alike by the catchphrase that goes like this – “OPERATE TO FAILURE”
Full Story: GLOBAL CATASTROPHE REACHES EPIC PROPORTIONS | Phoenix Rising from the Gulf.
Wind’s Latest Problem: It Makes Power Too Cheap
Utilities don’t like wind not because it’s not competitive, but because it brings prices down for their existing assets, thus lowering their revenues and their profits. Thus the permanent propaganda campaign against wind. The reality is that wind power brings prices down for consumers.
by Jérôme Guillet, President and CEO at Energy Bankers à Paris
Bloomberg has a somewhat confusing article about the newest complaint about wind power, but the gist of it is that wind power is an issue for the industry because it brings their revenues down:
operators in Europe may have become their own worst enemy, reducing the total price paid for electricity in Germany, Europe’s biggest power market, by as much as 5 billion euros some years
Windmill Boom Cuts Electricity Prices in Europe
On windy nights in northern Germany, consumers are paid to keep the lights on.
Twice this year, the nation’s 21,000 wind turbines pumped out so much power that utilities reduced customer bills for using the surplus electricity. Since the first rebate came with little fanfare at 5 a.m. one October day in 2008, payments have risen as high as 500.02 euros ($665) a megawatt-hour, about as much as a small factory or 1,000 homes use in 60 minutes.
The wind-energy boom in Europe and parts of Texas has begun to reduce bills for consumers. Electricity-network managers have even ordered windmills offline at times to trim supplies. That hurts profit for wind-farm operators, said Christian Kjaer, head of the European Wind Energy Association, which represents RWE AG of Germany, Spain’s Iberdrola SA and Dong Energy A/S of Denmark.
“We’re seeing that wind energy lowers prices, which is great for the consumers,” Kjaer said at his group’s conference in Warsaw this week. “We as producers have to acknowledge that this means operating the existing plant fewer hours a year, and this has an effect on investors” and profit.
Full Story: Windmill Boom Cuts Electricity Prices in Europe – Bloomberg.
The Upcoming Nuclear Peril: Worse Than the BP Oil Disaster
How many crises will it take? The recent destruction wrought by Big Finance and Big Oil will pale in comparison to the destruction wrought by Big Nuclear if we do not use the Gulf disaster as an opportunity to end our dangerous addiction to dirty fuels and to reject the illusion that any industry will “regulate” itself.
The nuclear industry has captured our government and governments around the globe. One single nuclear mistake, whether it be an accident or a security breach, could leave a 10,000-year path of destruction. Even while functioning properly and in accordance with the law, nuclear power plants produce cancer-causing poisons, which enter the bodies of humans at toxic levels.
Today we face a nuclear peril unlike anything we have ever known. We are approaching a tipping point in the global spread of nuclear technology because of a largely out-of-sight, worldwide free-for-all among nuclear power companies and their allied national governments to expand their share of the fast-growing international nuclear energy market. Unless we begin to confront the mounting dangers, we have little chance of keeping nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists and carcinogenic toxins out of our bodies.
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | The Upcoming Nuclear Peril: Worse Than the BP Oil Disaster.
‘Not enough money in world’ to pay every spill claim: oil fund czar
The prominent US lawyer managing BP’s 20-billion-dollar oil disaster fund said Wednesday not all claimants will be paid, especially some of those seeking compensation for falling houses prices.
“There’s not enough money in the world to pay every single small business that claims injury no matter where or when,” Kenneth Feinberg told the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business.
“You’ve got to decide in a principled way… and work out some definition in that regard,” he said, while stating his determination to “pay every eligible claim.”
Full Story: ‘Not enough money in world’ to pay every spill claim: oil fund czar | Raw Story.
Report sees need for 500 additional biofuels plants
More than 500 new biorefineries will be needed around the country to meet the nation’s goal of tripling biofuel consumption by 2022, according to a government study.
The Agriculture Department estimates in the report that the plants would cost about $168 billion, a price tag the USDA termed “substantial.”
There are about 200 corn ethanol plants now in operation nationwide, including 40 in Iowa.
A 2007 law required that refiners use 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, with all but 15 billion gallons coming from sources other than corn. Meeting that target will require building facilities that can convert a wide range of new biofuel feedstocks, including crop residue, forest thinnings, municipal waste, perennial grasses and other sources of cellulose. The industry is expected to easily reach 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol production by 2015.
“The bottom line here is that we need to make a commitment to this industry,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Full Story: Report sees need for 500 additional biofuels plants | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register.
U.S. to issue more flexible oil drilling moratorium
The U.S. government will revise its restrictions on offshore drilling, which could allow some deepwater oil projects to go forward after a court threw out the Obama administration’s blanket drilling ban, a senior official said on Wednesday.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a congressional panel the new moratorium would be adjusted and would include criteria for ending the ban. He did not provide more details on how the new moratorium would get around the judge’s ruling or when it would be released.
He suggested some drilling in proven oil fields might move forward. That would be good news for companies like Petrobras and Royal Dutch Shell, which were set to delay major projects on fields that offer the best new source of domestic crude.
“It might be that there are demarcations that can be made based on reservoirs where we actually do know the pressures and the risks associated with that versus those reservoirs which are exploratory in nature,” Salazar said.
Full Story: U.S. to issue more flexible oil drilling moratorium | Reuters.
The Coming Era of Energy Disasters
Isn’t it strange that, no matter how terrible the news from the Gulf, the media still can’t help offering a lurking, BP-influenced narrative of hope? Here’s a recent headline from my hometown paper, for instance: “Signs of Hope as BP Captures Record Oil Amounts.” The piece is based on a BP report that, last Thursday, its woefully inadequate, ill-fitting “top hat” had captured more than 25,000 barrels of the gushing oil — that is, five times more than it long claimed was spewing from its busted well (25 times more than it originally suggested).
With semi-official estimates in the range of 35,000-60,000 barrels escaping a day (and those numbers regularly on the rise), this represents a strange version of hopeful news. Ominously enough, by the end of July, with a new, larger, “tighter” cap theoretically in place, BP is aiming to capture up to 80,000 barrels a day (that is, 20,000 barrels more than it has publicly acknowledged might possibly be spewing from the floor of the Gulf). In all such articles, the real narrative of hope, however, involves the relief wells, the first of which is now within “200 feet” of the busted well. Usually, the date for one of those wells to plug the leak is given as “early August” or “mid-August” and it’s regularly said that the drilling of those wells is advancing “ahead of schedule.”
Whatever “signs of hope” do exist, however, they’re already badly beslimed by on-gushing reality. On the very day that BP announced its 25,000-barrel capture, huge amounts of methane were also reported to be pouring into the Gulf. Until now, this had evidently been largely overlooked (or under-reported), even though methane in high concentrations can deplete water of its oxygen and so suffocate marine life, creating vast dead zones and inhibiting the natural breakdown of the spilling oil. According to John Kessler, a Texas A&M oceanographer, the Deepwater Horizon spill represents “the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history.”
Full Story: Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Coming Era of Energy Disasters | TomDispatch.
U.S. to issue more flexible oil drilling moratorium
The U.S. government will revise its restrictions on offshore drilling, which could allow some deepwater oil projects to go forward after a court threw out the Obama administration’s blanket drilling ban, a senior official said on Wednesday.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a congressional panel the new moratorium would be adjusted and would include criteria for ending the ban. He did not provide more details on how the new moratorium would get around the judge’s ruling or when it would be released.
He suggested some drilling in proven oil fields might move forward. That would be good news for companies like Petrobras and Royal Dutch Shell, which were set to delay major projects on fields that offer the best new source of domestic crude.
“It might be that there are demarcations that can be made based on reservoirs where we actually do know the pressures and the risks associated with that versus those reservoirs which are exploratory in nature,” Salazar said.
“We will in the weeks and months ahead take a look at how it is that the moratorium in place might be refined,” he said.
Full Story: U.S. to issue more flexible oil drilling moratorium | Reuters.
It’s Official: First Commercial Production Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles for Sale
Yes, there have been a few commercial hydrogen fuel cell production cars built (such a by Honda and Daimler) but they have been for lease and not for sale. Yesterday I talked about hydrogen fuel cell Sysco forklifts and palette trucks powered by Plug Power Gendrive systems possibly being the first commercial production hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for sale on the market.
This was confirmed yesterday by Plug Power’s Teal Vivacqua and Sysco VP Gary M. Mills. Okay, perhaps forklifts and palette trucks are not as sexy as hydrogen cars. And, perhaps the fact that they operate in a warehouse away from the public eye also makes a difference along with the fact that not everyone will own one.
But, this is still an important milestone in the advancement of hydrogen vehicles. You see many people think that the first hydrogen fuel cell car of record was the 1966 General Motors Electrovan. And, they would be correct.
But, the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle actually predates this by 7 years. The first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle of record was a 1959 Allis-Chalmers farm tractor, developed by Harry Karl Ihrig.
Obama officials still approving flawed Gulf drilling plans
Despite President Barack Obama’s promises of better safeguards for offshore drilling, federal regulators continue to approve plans for oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico with minimal or no environmental analysis.
The Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service has signed off on at least five new offshore drilling projects since June 2, when the agency’s acting director announced tougher safety regulations for drilling in the Gulf, a McClatchy review of public records has discovered.
Three of the projects were approved with waivers exempting them from detailed studies of their environmental impact — the same waiver the MMS granted to BP for the ill-fated well that’s been fouling the Gulf with crude for two months.
Full Story: Obama officials still approving flawed Gulf drilling plans | McClatchy.
Billions of New Nuke Giveaways in Kerry-Lieberman Bill Exposed
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAX BREAKS FOR EACH NEW REACTOR UNDER KERRY-LIEBERMAN WIPE OUT RISK FOR UTILITIES ALREADY BENEFITING FROM MASSIVE LOAN GUARANTEES
Earth Track Analysis Finds That Just Two of the Subsidies Add Another $1.3 Billion to $3 Billion in Tax Breaks Per Reactor; May Make It More Likely Taxpayers Will Face Downside Risk.
Washington, D.C. — The nuclear industry could end up facing no risk under massive tax break subsidies in the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, according to an important new analysis conducted for Friends of the Earth by the research organization Earth Track. These tax breaks totaling $9.7 billion to $57.3 billion (depending on the type and number of reactors) would come on top of the Kerry-Lieberman measure’s lucrative $35.5 billion addition to the more than $22.5 billion in loan guarantees already slated for nuclear power.
Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said: “Doling out an additional $1.3-$3 billion in tax breaks per new reactor means the industry would be at the table playing almost entirely with taxpayer money. Industry will have little to lose when a reactor goes belly up. While taxpayers are bankrolling the industry’s nuclear gamble they would share in none of the reactor’s financial returns. In fact, all taxpayers will receive if the reactors are built is responsibility for disposing of the waste. By contrast, investors stand to make billions with no risk should their reactor gambit goes belly up and enter bankruptcy.”
Full Story: Billions of New Nuke Giveaways in Kerry-Lieberman Bill Exposed | Friends of the Earth.
Massive spill forces fossil fuels rethinking
It’s become clear after the recent BP oil disaster that the time to rethink energy resources has certainly arrived
s it possible to energize our civilization without fear? Fear of oil spills and oil wars, fear of nuclear meltdowns and nuclear waste, fear of global warming and polluted air and water?
It is, according to Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), among the world’s most respected authorities on alternative energy strategies. In a new video available at www.rmi.org/rmi/ReinventingFire#video, Lovins makes the case that a richer, fairer, cooler, safer world is now possible because saving and replacing fossil fuels works better — and costs less — than buying and burning them.
Events such as the U.S. Gulf Coast oil spill — the Three Mile Island of deepwater drilling — expose the true costs and dangers of fossil fuel. Supposedly, we use oil as a fuel because it is cheaper and easier to use — and more profitable — than alternatives such as wind, solar or conservation. But that assumption changes when drilling for deep-water oil goes awry and it costs the oil producer billions to deal with the mess.
Switching to alternative energy may not be a choice but a necessity. As author Jeff Rubin points out, U.S. President Barack Obama’s moratorium on offshore oil drilling is a potential game changer.
Full Story: Massive spill forces fossil fuels rethinking.
The Next Drilling Disaster?
How Long Will the Natural Gas Industry Run Amok in the Northeast? From Pennsylvania to Ohio, natural gas drilling is wreaking havoc on communities and landowners. What will it take to get stronger regulatory oversight?
A tour of Dimock, Pennsylvania, with Victoria Switzer is a bumpy ride over torn-up roads, around parking lots filled with heavy machinery and storage tanks, and past well pads that not long ago were forests. The winter here was quiet, but with the thawing ground came the return of the rigs, the trucks, the constant noise and lights of a twenty-four-hour-a-day gas drilling operation. “It’s a modern-day Deadwood out here,” Switzer says, likening the activity to the gold rush. “No rules, no regs, just rigs.”
The “occupation,” as she calls it, hasn’t just transformed Dimock into an industrial hub; it has also damaged the local water supply and put residents’ health at risk. After a stray drill bit banged four wells in 2008, Switzer says, weird things started happening to people’s water: some flushed black, some orange, some turned bubbly. One well exploded, the result of methane migration, and residents say elevated metal and toluene levels have ruined twelve others. Then, in September 2009, about 8,000 gallons of hazardous drilling fluids spilled into nearby fields and creeks. The contamination and related health problems have prompted fifteen families to file suit against Cabot Oil and Gas, the primary leaseholder in the area, alleging fraud and contract violation and seeking to stop the damage from spreading.
If she could do it all over again, Switzer says, she never would have signed the 2006 drilling lease that helped open Pandora’s Box here. But at the time, she’d never heard of hydrofracking—the Cabot representative didn’t mention the word to her when he gained the rights to drill on her land. The story of gas drilling in Dimock begins more than a mile below the earth’s surface in the Marcellus Shale, a huge rock formation that extends from New York to Tennessee. Some geologists estimate that the Marcellus contains enough shale gas to power the United States for two decades. But the gas is caught in millions of tiny pores and can be extracted only through hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, a controversial process that requires blasting millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals deep underground to create fissures that open the pores and free gas to rise to the surface.
Full Story: The Next Drilling Disaster? | The Nation.
Maryland, 12 other states form offshore wind partnership
Maryland has joined a dozen other Atlantic coast states to form a partnership exploring offshore wind power generation.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is organizing the Atlantic Offshore Wind Consortium, which will work to ease collaboration and coordination among coastal states to help launch offshore wind mills.
Other members are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Offshore wind power could help meet a Maryland goal of using 20 percent renewable energy by 2022. Achieving that proportion of renewable energy nationwide would take 54 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, according to the Department of Energy.
Full Story: Maryland, 12 other states form offshore wind partnership – Baltimore Business Journal.
Windmill Boom Curbs Electric Power Prices for RWE
On windy nights in northern Germany, consumers are paid to keep the lights on.
Twice this year, the nation’s 21,000 wind turbines pumped out so much power that utilities reduced customer bills for using the surplus electricity. Since the first rebate came with little fanfare at 5 a.m. one October day in 2008, payments have risen as high as 500.02 euros ($665) a megawatt-hour, about as much as a small factory or 1,000 homes use in 60 minutes.
The wind-energy boom in Europe and parts of Texas has begun to reduce bills for consumers. Electricity-network managers have even ordered windmills offline at times to trim supplies. That hurts profit for wind-farm operators, said Christian Kjaer, head of the European Wind Energy Association, which represents RWE AG of Germany, Spain’s Iberdrola SA and Dong Energy A/S of Denmark.
Full Story: Windmill Boom Curbs Electric Power Prices for RWE (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.
BP stock tumbles as feds announce oil-spill probes
BP’s stock plummeted and took much of the market down with it Tuesday as the federal government announced criminal and civil investigations into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP engineers, meanwhile, tried to recover from a failed attempt to stop the gusher with an effort that will initially make the leak worse.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who was visiting the Gulf to survey the fragile coastline and meet with state and federal prosecutors, would not say who might be targeted in the probes into the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
“We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response,” Holder said in New Orleans.
Full Story: BP stock tumbles as feds announce oil-spill probes – Yahoo! News.
Oil and gas development permits overwhelmingly approved by Louisiana
The catastrophic blowout of BP’s Deepwater Horizon, still spewing oil from the seafloor off the coast of Louisiana, has shone a bright light on the federal government’s lax oversight of Big Oil.
But Louisiana also has a history of accommodation to the industry’s role in coastal erosion, which devours the equivalent of a football field of the state’s wetlands every 38 minutes.
Any pipeline, oil well or other energy development in Louisiana’s 19-parish coastal zone needs a state permit, a stamp of approval saying the work results in “no net loss” of wetlands. State regulators are supposed to weigh a project’s environmental risks against its economic benefits, but the balance is tipped overwhelmingly in favor of oil and gas, a Times-Picayune review of five years of state records shows.
Full Story: Oil and gas development permits overwhelmingly approved by Louisiana | NOLA.com.
‘This Scares Everybody’ Says BP: Top Kill Fails, Imperils Gulf; ‘There Are No Solar Spills’
Juan Cole:
British Petroleum’s attempt to plug the petroleum gusher a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico through a “top kill,” pumping mud into the oil pipeline in hopes of plugging it up, has failed, according to Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.
The LAT quotes him as saying, chillingly, at a news conference Saturday in Robert, LA, “After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe it is time to move on to another option . . . This scares everybody – the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing or the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far.”
Worse, the best estimates of independent scientists for the amount of petroleum being released daily is now north, possibly well north, of 25,000 barrels a day.
To put this rate in perspective, it should be noted that oil companies routinely invest substantial resources to get fields going in places such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Iraqi Kurdistan that pump 7,000 to 15,000 barrels of petroleum a day.
Full Story: ‘This Scares Everybody’ Says BP: Top Kill Fails, Imperils Gulf; ‘There Are No Solar Spills’ | CommonDreams.org.
Poll: 51 Percent of Americans Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling
As the Deepwater Horizon leak continues to dump oil into the Gulf of Mexico, American opinions about offshore oil drilling have begun to shift. More than half now believe the risks of offshore drilling outweigh the benefits, according to a nationwide survey by Virginia Commonwealth University released today.
Views about offshore drilling are likely influenced by the major oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the survey. The leak has been ongoing since an April 20 explosion aboard a drilling rig. The leak raises the specter of environmental risks from offshore drilling when the process goes awry.
When asked specifically about the risk and benefit tradeoffs of offshore drilling, a 51-percent majority indicate the environmental risks outweigh the benefits; 35 percent think the benefits outweigh the environmental risks.
Full Story: Poll: 51 Percent of Americans Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling | LiveScience.
Renewable Energy Focus – More bioenergy than oil in Sweden
Bioenergy passed oil as the biggest energy source in Sweden in 2009 in final energy use.
Bioenergy represented 31.7% of the final energy use, compared to 30.8% oil, according to preliminary Swedish Energy Agency statistics presented by the Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio).
Svebios says the total share of renewable energy, using the definition in EU:s renewable energy directive (RED), was 46.3% in 2009 – well ahead of the EU target trajectory, and only 3.7% short of the EU target of 49% in 2020.
The major renewable energy source beside bioenergy in Sweden is hydropower. Wind power is still a relatively small contributor to the energy supply.
The main reason for the fast increase of renewable energy in recent years is the steady growth of bioenergy use, Svebio says.
Full Story: Renewable Energy Focus – More bioenergy than oil in Sweden.
FPL smart meters: FPL installing digital ‘smart meter’ devices to empower consumers
Devices wirelessly send information about electricity use to the Web, where it can be accessed by customers to drive conservation efforts
In the past year, Kevin Linn has cut more than $100 from his monthly electric bill simply by raising his thermostat to 79 or 80 degrees when he’s not home, turning off his pool pump six hours a day and running his water heater for only a few hours in the morning and evening instead of all day.
The Coral Springs resident credits a new “smart meter” installed last year in his home by Florida Power & Light with prompting him to make the changes by allowing him to track – and trim – his electricity use.
Linn is one of 550,000 FPL customers in South Florida – including 325,000 in Broward County and 225,000 in Miami Dade – with smart meters. But he’s about to get a lot more company. FPL, the state’s largest utility, plans to replace nearly all of its 4.5 million customers’ meters by 2014 and make other improvements to make the region’s power grid more reliable. FPL will start installing smart meters in Palm Beach County as early as this year and will have 670,000 there by 2012.
Full Story: FPL smart meters: FPL installing digital ‘smart meter’ devices to empower consumers – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.
Oil spill shows drilling is not the answer
Sen Bernie Sanders:
The lesson to learn from the oil spill it is that there must be no new offshore drilling. We must transform our energy system
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an unmitigated disaster. Its full consequences will not be known for decades. What we do know, however, is that BP president, Tony Hayward, was incredibly wrong when he stated that the spill will have “a very, very modest environmental impact“. Quite the contrary! In fact, one of the most beautiful and productive coastal regions of the world is being turned into a giant cesspool and, in the midst of a major recession, thousands of workers are going to lose their livelihoods.
It goes without saying that BP must pick up the full costs of the cleanup and the economic damages. BP earned $5.6bn in the first quarter of this year. BP, not the American taxpayer, must pay for the devastation it caused.
Further, we must learn that with any risky technology, whether it is offshore oil drilling or nuclear power, it is not good enough to be 99% safe. One event can have a calamitous and irreversible impact. We need a major investigation to understand how this accident occurred. We must make certain that precautions are put in place so nothing like it ever happens again.
Full Story: Bernie Sanders | Oil spill shows drilling is not the answer | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
The real cost of cheap oil
The Gulf disaster is only unusual for being so near the US. Elsewhere, Big Oil rarely cleans up its mess
Big Oil is holding its breath. BP’s shares are in steep decline after the debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. Barack Obama, the American people and the global environmental community are outraged, and now the company stands to lose the rights to drill for oil in the Arctic and other ecologically sensitive places.
The gulf disaster may cost it a few billion dollars, but so what? When annual profits for a company often run to tens of billions, the cost of laying 5,000 miles of booms, or spraying millions of gallons of dispersants and settling 100,000 court cases is not much more than missing a few months’ production. It’s awkward, but it can easily be passed on.
The oil industry’s image is seriously damaged, but it can pay handsomely to greenwash itself, just as it managed after Exxon Valdez, Brent Spar and the Ken Saro-Wiwa public relations disasters. In a few years’ time, this episode will probably be forgotten – just another blip in the fortunes of the industry that fuels the world. But the oil companies are nervous now because the spotlight has been turned on their cavalier attitude to pollution and on the sheer incompetence of an industry that is used to calling the shots.
Full Story: The real cost of cheap oil | John Vidal | Comment is free | The Guardian.
Oil drilling in Arctic called off
The Obama administration today will suspend planned exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska until at least 2011, a casualty of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The suspension will be part of a report that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will give to President Barack Obama, who’s likely to address the suspension as well as other proposals stemming from Salazar’s report, at a White House news conference today to address tough new safety rules on offshore drilling.
The move will stop Shell from drilling five wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off northern Alaska weeks before it had hoped to start work, an administration official told McClatchy Newspapers.
The move will stop for now a controversial expansion of oil drilling in a part of the world that could hold vast stores of oil and natural gas, but which environmentalists warn would come at great risk.
Full Story: Oil drilling in Arctic called off | cleveland.com.
Coast Pipelines Face Damage as Gulf Oil Eats Marshes?
Spill could hasten marsh erosion, leaving infrastructure vulnerable.
In addition to threatening wildlife, the thick oil oozing into U.S. Gulf Coast marshes (pictures) may be hitting the oil and gas industry where it hurts: in its own coastal infrastructure.
A vast network of pipes and platforms is woven into these wetlands, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could literally expose them to potential ruptures and wreckage, experts say.
If oil kills off marsh plants, wetlands will turn to open water, putting the shallowly buried coastal pipelines at risk of ships strikes, storms, and corrosive salt water. Each rip means more leaking oil, costly repairs and replacements, and in some cases, new wetland-restoration projects.
(Related: “Nuclear Reactors, Dams at Risk Due to Global Warming.”)
Even without the added threat of the Gulf of Mexico spill, Louisiana has the highest rate of human-induced coastal erosion in the country, according to the Texas-based Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies
Full Story: Coast Pipelines Face Damage as Gulf Oil Eats Marshes?.
5 turbines in the works for wind power project in Lake Erie
A local nonprofit development group racing to erect the first offshore wind turbine in the Great Lakes has reached an agreement with General Electric Co. to supply five turbines for a $100 million demonstration project in Lake Erie.
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., known as LEEDCo, and Gov. Ted Strickland are to announce the deal in Dallas today during the annual conference of the American Wind Energy Association.
The cutting-edge turbines would stand 300 feet above the lake and be clustered six miles or so off Cleveland’s shore, northwest of the city’s drinking water crib.
Full Story: 5 turbines in the works for wind power project in Lake Erie | cleveland.com.
US has approved 19 environmental drilling waivers since oil spill
On May 14, President Barack Obama announced that oil companies would no longer be given license to bypass environmental reviews of their drilling projects.
“We’re also closing the loophole that has allowed some oil companies to bypass some critical environmental reviews,” Obama said.
But in the month since the BP-run Deepwater Horizon (above right) exploded and collapsed into the sea, its drill site spewing an unending current of oil into the open ocean, the US government has granted at least 19 environmental waivers for gulf drilling projects and 17 drilling permits. Most are for deepwater drilling operations, similar to that conducted by the ill-fated rig.
Full Story: US has approved 19 environmental drilling waivers since oil spill | Raw Story.
Executive Order Expected to Raise Fuel Standards
President Obama has decided to use his executive power to order tougher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, accelerating the fight against climate change without waiting for Congress, administration officials said Thursday.
Mr. Obama plans to announce on Friday that he is ordering the creation of a new national policy that will result in less greenhouse-gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time and will further reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks beyond the requirements he has already put in place.
Under rules that were eventually formalized last month, new cars have to meet a combined city and highway fuel economy average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The administration said the new rules would cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by about 30 percent from 2012 to 2016.
The plan Mr. Obama will announce on Friday will order further improvements in fuel efficiency for cars and light trucks made in 2017 and beyond, and in medium and heavy trucks made in 2014 through 2018.
Full Story: Executive Order Expected to Raise Fuel Standards – NYTimes.com.
…it’s going to take 20 years to develop more efficient truck engines saving 3.7 miles per gallon?? AND, this is his response to the spill????? Really??????????
Arizona Official Threatens to Cut Off Los Angeles Power as Payback for Boycott
A member of Arizona’s top government utilities agency threw down the gauntlet in a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, threatening to cut off the city’s power supply as retribution for the city’s boycott of Arizona.
If Los Angeles wants to boycott Arizona, it had better get used to reading by candlelight.
That’s the message from a member of Arizona’s top government utilities agency, who threw down the gauntlet Tuesday in a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa by threatening to cut off the city’s power supply as retribution.
Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, wrote the letter in response to the Los Angeles City Council’s decision last week to boycott the Grand Canyon State — in protest of its immigration law — by suspending official travel there and ending future contracts with state businesses.
Full Story: FOXNews.com – Arizona Official Threatens to Cut Off Los Angeles Power as Payback for Boycott.
BP’s Own Probe Finds Safety Issues on Atlantis Rig
BP operates rig in Gulf without proper safety documents; experts say this can lead to a spill
The company whose drilling triggered the Gulf of Mexico oil spill also owns a rig that operated with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents, which one official warned could “lead to catastrophic operator error,” records and interviews show.
In February, two months before the Deepwater Horizon spill, 19 members of Congress called on the agency that oversees offshore oil drilling to investigate a whistle-blower’s complaints about the BP-owned Atlantis, which is stationed in 7,070 feet of water more than 150 miles south of New Orleans .
The Associated Press has learned that an independent firm hired by BP substantiated the complaints in 2009 and found that the giant petroleum company was violating its own policies by not having completed engineering documents on board the Atlantis when it began operating in 2007.
Stanley Sporkin, a former federal judge whose firm served as BP’s ombudsman, said that the allegation “was substantiated, and that’s it.” The firm was hired by BP in 2006 to act as an independent office to receive and investigate employee complaints.
Full Story: BP’s Own Probe Finds Safety Issues on Atlantis Rig – ABC News.
Shell Arctic Drilling Plan Gets Court Approval
A federal appeals court Thursday removed a legal challenge standing in the way of Shell Oil’s plans to drill wells off Alaska’s shore this summer.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a case that challenged federal approval of Shell’s exploratory drilling plans in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
The expedited ruling followed oral arguments last week in Portland, Ore.
The court determined that the federal Minerals Management Service met its obligations to consider the potential threat to wildlife and the risk for disaster before it approved Shell’s Arctic Ocean project.
Full Story: Shell Arctic Drilling Plan Gets Court Approval.
French Nuclear Industry Faces Meltdown
A much-awaited report on France’s nuclear industry — due out later this week — is understood to offer ways for France’s diverse nuclear industry to work together to garner big contracts around the globe.
It may succeed. That is, if the government can use it to end, or at least calm, a complex of feuds among the heads of France’s biggest energy companies.
The stakes are high. Clean nuclear power is enjoying a renaissance and France is home to some of the world’s largest players in the nuclear industry. Indeed, it is president Nicolas Sarkozy’s dream to streamline the nuclear power sector, from design to operation, working as a team to win high profile contracts around the world.
“All bosses of France’s biggest energy companies more or less hate or at least despise each other, for one reason or another,” an executive at one French energy company told Dow Jones Newswires under conditions of anonymity
Full Story: French Nuclear Industry Faces Meltdown – The Source – WSJ.
Poll: Support for More Offshore Oil Drilling Plummets
In the wake of the growing environmental disaster brought about by the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, Americans have turned far less supportive of increased drilling for oil and natural gas off the U.S. coastline, according to a new CBS News survey.
Forty-six percent of Americans now say the support offshore drilling – a 16 point drop from the 64 percent who backed such drilling back in July of 2008, when “drill, baby, drill” was an oft-chanted Republican campaign slogan.
Forty-one percent, meanwhile, say the costs and risks of offshore drilling are too great – up from 28 percent in the summer of 2008.
The Obama administration ended the moratorium on new offshore drilling off some coastal areas prior to the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig site, though no new drilling had yet been authorized. It has vowed not to authorize new drilling until the cause of the Gulf leak is clear.
Full Story: Poll: Support for More Offshore Oil Drilling Plummets – Political Hotsheet – CBS News.
Gulf spill reminds America: The era of ‘easy oil’ is over
To meet the world’s boundless thirst for oil, drillers are searching in the sand and mud of remote western Canada, the tough shale rock of North Dakota and more than a mile under the seas off the southern U.S. coast, where a drilling accident has sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Why are we going nearly to the ends of the earth and the bottom of the seas for oil?
The answer, say many experts, is that we’re consuming as much oil as we ever have but the era of “easy oil” is in our rearview mirror and receding fast.
Full Story: Gulf spill reminds America: The era of ‘easy oil’ is over | McClatchy.
Oil You May Never See
Center For American Progress
Large Portion of Gulf Coast Oil Is Exported
Even after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, many politicians continue to insist that the United States must expand offshore oil drilling despite the huge health, economic, and environmental damages in the event of a blowout. They assert that this oil is essential for U.S. economic health and national security. For instance, two weeks after the BP disaster began, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) reiterated that the United States needs “more environmentally responsible development of America’s energy resources.” These are code words for more offshore oil drilling.
More offshore drilling in the Gulf Coast region, however, may not do much to increase our energy security. A CAP analysis (.xls) of Energy Information Administration data found that a large portion of the oil produced in the Gulf Coast region is actually exported to other nations, and this undoubtedly includes some of the offshore oil produced there (see chart at right).
The entire nation is divided into Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts, or PADDs, which are “a geographic aggregation of the 50 States and the District of Columbia into five Districts.” PADD III is the Gulf Coast region of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas.
Full Story: Oil You May Never See.
First U.S. offshore wind farm receives approval
After almost a decade of federal study and analysis, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) approved the Cape Wind project, allowing the first U.S. offshore wind farm to move ahead.
Cape Wind is a 130-turbine wind power project on submerged federal lands in Nantucket Sound off the Massachusetts coast. DOI required the developer of the $1 billion wind farm to agree to additional binding measures to minimize the potential adverse impacts of construction and operation of the facility.
Located in a 25-square-mile section of Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, the Cape Wind project will have a maximum electric output of 468 megawatts (MW), with an average anticipated output of 182 MW. That’s enough to meet 75% of the electricity demand for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket Island combined. The Cape Wind developer hopes to begin construction by the end of this year. See the Cape Wind press release.
Full Story: First U.S. offshore wind farm receives approval.
Nuclear Power Nearly as Dangerous as Weapons, Critics Say
The quest for nuclear disarmament is likely to fail if governments and corporations continue to promote nuclear technologies as a solution to the world’s energy needs, say independent experts.
Their warning comes as international talks on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) continue here at U.N. headquarters in New York. The review meeting on the 1970 treaty is due to conclude by the end of this month.
At the meeting, many delegates from countries that do not possess nuclear weapons called for those nations who have them to take speedy actions towards disarmament. Citing the treaty, some also said it was their “inalienable” right to use peaceful nuclear technologies.
Just like the representatives of nuclear weapons states, almost none of the delegates from non-nuclear countries offered any views on the pros and cons of the use of nuclear technologies for so-called “civilian and peaceful purposes”.
Full Story: Nuclear Power Nearly as Dangerous as Weapons, Critics Say – IPS ipsnews.net.
Shell to court: We’re ready to drill Arctic Ocean
Shell Oil is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer and asked a federal appeals court Thursday to rule quickly on a challenge by environmentalists concerned about the risk of a major spill after the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Kathleen Sullivan, an attorney for Shell, said the company has spent at least $3.5 billion on Alaska operations in the past few years as it prepares for exploratory drilling set for July in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
“Shell has waited years to recover its investment,” Sullivan told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland. “We’re ready to go.”
“I’m sure Shell would like to win,” replied Chief Judge Alex Kozinski.
Full Story: The Associated Press: Shell to court: We’re ready to drill Arctic Ocean.
We Need a Road Map to a Coal Free Future
In the wake of the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, compromise and political machinations this spring have resulted in a regulatory crisis of failure; workplace safety in the mines, including the black lung scandal, has emerged as a national tragedy; toxic coal ash remains uncategorized as hazardous waste; mountaintop removal operations and devastating strip mining in 24 states continue under regulatory plunder, not abolishment; billions of taxpayers’ dollars pour down the black hole of carbon capture and storage boondoggles, increasing coal production; climate legislation hangs in the balance of political games.
In 1776, Thomas Paine challenged our country to embrace the cause of independence over compromise. In a moment of crisis, he declared: “We have it in our power to make the world over again.”
Our modern-day Paine, James Hansen at the NASA Goddard Center, has issued a similar clarion call: “Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet. Our global climate is nearing tipping points.”
Full Story: We Need a Road Map to a Coal Free Future | CommonDreams.org.
In wake of massive oil spill, support for offshore drilling has ‘fallen dramatically.’
At the end of March, after the Obama administration announced that it would “approve new oil and gas drilling off U.S. coasts for the first time in decade,” a poll by Rasmussen Reports found that 72 percent of U.S. voters believed that offshore oil drilling should be allowed — the highest level of support for drilling that Rasmussen had found in nearly three years of surveying. But now, in the wake of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Rasmussen has found that support for offshore drilling has “fallen dramatically”:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of voters believe offshore oil drilling should be allowed. But that’s down 14 points from 72% just after President Obama’s announcement at the end of March that he was lifting the ban on offshore drilling for the first time in years.
Twenty-three percent (23%) now oppose offshore drilling. Nineteen percent (19%) remain unsure whether it’s a good idea or not.
However, while most support drilling, 69% are at least somewhat concerned that offshore drilling may cause environmental problems. That’s up from 49% in March.
Full Story: Think Progress » In wake of massive oil spill, support for offshore drilling has ‘fallen dramatically.’.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill sparks calls for $10bn levy on BP and drilling ban
Arnold Schwarzenegger ends support for California oil expansion as political backlash against oil industry takes hold
The catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico set off a backlash against the oil industry yesterday, with a demand for a ban on future offshore drilling. The anger came as BP executives admitted in a private briefing for members of Congress that the gusher on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico could reach 40,000 barrels a day – eight times higher than the current estimate – if they cannot cap the flow.
It also carries the risk of a financial sting, with the White House yesterday backing a proposal by senators that would put oil companies on the hook for up to to $10bn (£6.5bn) for the cost of a spill.
The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the administration supported a proposal to make liability retroactive. The cap would be 133 times greater than the $75m bill that BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig, faces under existing US laws following its explosion on 20 April. “It’s time to believe our eyes and accept the obvious risks of drilling,” Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, told a press conference. “This is about making Big Oil responsible for its excesses.”
Full Story: Deepwater Horizon oil spill sparks calls for $10bn levy on BP and drilling ban | Environment | The Guardian.
Restoring Leadership in U.S. Solar Manufacturing
The U.S. has done little to maintain its place of prominence in manufacturing as the rest of the world caught up and eventually surpassed us. Now, we may add solar manufacturing to our growing list of losses.
After the end of the Second World War virtually anything produced anywhere in the world could and would be produced in the United States. American corporations founded many industries that are ubiquitous around the world today. We not only created the nuclear weapon, but its peaceful counterpart nuclear energy.
We created the first telephone systems, and then the first mobile phone systems.
We created the automobile and were once major champions of passenger rail.
We created the personal computer as well as the Internet, which has perhaps done more to integrate the world than any other product or system in existence today.
Full Story: Restoring Leadership in U.S. Solar Manufacturing | Economy In Crisis.
Second oil rig overturns in Gulf of Mexico, no injuries reported
Officials say an oil drilling rig on its way to a scrap yard has overturned in Louisiana.
No injuries have been reported.
The rig overturned about 80 miles west-southwest of New Orleans. The Coast Guard said in a news release Friday that the drilling unit overturned in the Charenton navigational canal.
It can carry about 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel, but Coast Guard officials did not know how much fuel was on board. Coast Guard investigators say no fuel leaks have been found.
Full Story: AP: Second oil rig overturns in Gulf of Mexico, no injuries reported | rgj.com | The Reno Gazette-Journal.
A New Way to Power the Planet?
In February 2010 Silicon Valley start-up Bloom Energy debuted what it believed was a true revolution in the electricity industry. Its creators heralded the small, elegant energy “server” as a modern marvel the likes of which had never been seen before. The device is made of cheap materials, can both store and generate energy, and is allegedly more efficient and flexible than other output technologies.
The Bloom Energy Server, often called the “Bloom Box,” currently generates electricity from a natural gas source. The methane goes in, goes through a series of catalyzed chemical reactions, and electricity comes out. Because of its usage of natural gas, the energy server is not a stand-alone solution to human-induced climate change or pollution.
However, the portability of the energy source itself does increase efficiencies. Instead of producing gigawatts of power at a central location and transmitting that energy across a vast power grid, individual consumers could purchase a “bloom box” and make energy at home. Natural gas burns much cleaner than coal, it is also easier to extract, and it is less hazardous to employee safety. More importantly, the U.S. has vast domestic supplies of natural gas that could be tapped to feed any Bloom-induced spike in demand.
Full Story: A New Way to Power the Planet? | Economy In Crisis.
Salazar approves Cape Wind
America’s “energy future” has trumped the most cherished sacred site of the People of the Dawn – the indigenous Wampanoags who welcomed the first European settler colonists to Turtle Island.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has approved the Cape Wind project, a controversial wind power factory in Nantucket Sound, despite objections from the Wampanoag nations, who consider the area sacred and from environmentalists and federal historic preservation agencies who fear the project will devastate the Sound’s rich biodiversity, and impact dozens of significant traditional, cultural, historic and archaeological properties.
“After careful consideration of all the concerns expressed during the lengthy review and consultation process and thorough analyses of the many factors involved, I find that the public benefits weigh in favor of approving the Cape Wind project at the Horseshoe Shoal location,” Salazar said in an announcement at the State House in Boston accompanied by Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick, a strong supporter of the project.
Full Story: Salazar approves Cape Wind | Indian Country Today | Content.
Official: Salazar to Make Wind Farm Ruling in Mass
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has made his choice about whether to approve the nation’s first offshore wind farm, off Cape Cod, and will make the announcement Wednesday in Boston with Gov. Deval Patrick, a supporter of the project, a Massachusetts Statehouse official confirmed Tuesday.
Salazar plans to brief the governor and other officials Wednesday before making his decision public at a Statehouse news conference, the official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak ahead of the announcement.
If Salazar approves, the decision on the controversial Cape Wind project would clear the way for a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound.
The plan to announce the decision with Patrick bodes well for advocates of Cape Wind, as the governor has been a supporter of the project. It also comes as Salazar’s boss and Patrick’s good friend, President Barack Obama, makes a two-day, three-state Midwestern trip, focusing on his economic and clean energy programs as job creators. On Tuesday, the president toured an Iowa company that makes blades for wind turbines.
Full Story: Official: Salazar to Make Wind Farm Ruling in Mass – ABC News.
Book’s Astounding Allegation: Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People | Environment | AlterNet
Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki according to a new book.
Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility.
The book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.
The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.
Full Story: Book’s Astounding Allegation: Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People | Environment | AlterNet.
Amtrak ridership is up, but passengers grouse about frequent delays
Amtrak’s Northeast Regional train No. 177 was scheduled to arrive at Union Station at 1:25 a.m., but at that witching hour, it had made it only as far as Philadelphia, where it was stopped cold.
A half-asleep passenger asked a more conscious traveler what had happened. “Someone got hit by another train” farther south, outside Wilmington, Del., he replied.
In the cafe car, the staff had laid out free bottled water, trail mix, shortbread cookies, crackers and a cheese spread. But the travelers wanted their beds, not a buffet. The train finally left Philly at 2:58 a.m., arriving in Washington a little over two hours later. The sun was rising, and cabs were scarce.
Full Story: Amtrak ridership is up, but passengers grouse about frequent delays.
7 Dirty Secrets The Coal Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know
The Dirty Secrets Of Coal (PHOTOS) -
Coal is a dirty and dangerous business. It produces more than half of the energy in the U.S. because it is a cheap resource, but it comes at a high human and environmental cost. The coal industry is the single largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions — and that’s just the beginning. We’re taking a look at some of the dirtiest secrets the coal industry doesn’t want you to know.
Coal is still deeply embedded in our energy culture because the supply is plentiful and cheap. It supplies more than half the electricity consumed by Americans. That means every time you switch on a light or charge your phone, it’s likely thanks to the coal industry. And according to a New York Times report report, big coal isn’t showing any signs of letting up– Peabody Energy, the largest private coal company, is thriving domestically and abroad.
Full Story: The Dirty Secrets Of Coal (PHOTOS).
Fuel Imports Putting U.S. At Risk
According to Prochaska, this year the U.S. is importing nearly 70 percent of its oil. Just 40 years ago the percentage of oil imported was just 24 percent. Because America’s oil reserves are dwindling, the percentage of oil America imports will only grow over time.
The minor pain that comes with greater fuel efficiency standards will be well worth the rewards, according to Joe Prochaska, a Nashville lawyer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Environmental Council.
“Our cars today will be a drag on the American economy and a yearly subsidy to anti-American regimes,” he writes at the Nashville Tennessean. “Americans must set some baseline rules to protect our economy against another sudden oil embargo or against the slow strangulation that comes from paying billions every day to dictators.”
Last year President Barack Obama announced new fuel economy standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The move will lessen greenhouse gas emission and America’s reliance on foreign oil, force automakers to innovate to achieve even higher fuel efficiency standards and help to decrease the exploding trade deficit.
Full Story: Fuel Imports Putting U.S. At Risk | Economy In Crisis.
Study Finds That Fossil-Fuel Subsidies Are Hurting Global Environment, Energy Security
A comprehensive assessment of global fossil-fuel subsidies has found that governments are spending $500 billion annually on policies that undermine energy security and worsen the environment.
The study, titled “The Politics of Fossil-Fuel Subsidies” by David Victor, a professor of political science with the University of California-San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS), was one of five released Thursday by the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
GSI’s goal is to reform, reduce and ultimately eliminate fossil-fuel subsidies, which are highest in Iran, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, India and Venezuela. The reform effort received a boost September 2009 when President Obama and other world leaders met in Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Group of 20 Summit. They agreed in a non-binding resolution to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies, but the measure didn’t attempt to resolve difficult political issues such as how governments would actually achieve a phaseout. Victor’s study addresses the political challenges.
Full Story: On The Hill: Study Finds That Fossil-Fuel Subsidies Are Hurting Global Environment, Energy Security.
Surprise Coal Mine Inspections: Feds Target 57 ‘Problem’ Mines
Nearly 60 problem U.S. coal mines have been hit with surprise inspections aimed at preventing another explosion like the one that killed 29 miners in West Virginia, the nation’s chief mine safety regulator said Wednesday.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration did not immediately reveal how many problems were found during the weekend crackdown. A spokeswoman said that information is still being compiled.
The raids targeted 57 mines, including 23 in West Virginia and 14 in Kentucky and involved 275 federal inspectors, MSHA said. Eight of the mines belong to Massey Energy Co., a $4.17 billion company that ranks among the largest coal producers in the United States.
Full Story: Surprise Coal Mine Inspections: Feds Target 57 ‘Problem’ Mines.
US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015
• Shortfall could reach 10m barrels a day, report says
• Cost of crude oil is predicted to top $100 a barrel
The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.
The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.
“By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day,” says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.
Full Story: US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015 | Business | The Guardian.
Calculate lives into the cost of coal
People in the mining camps of the Appalachian coal fields know the perils of the industry upon which, for generations, their fragile communities have depended.
The evidence cannot be ignored. It is around them in those mountain hamlets every day of their lives.
They hear it in the rasping coughs of gray-faced men, driven from the pits with lungs lacerated by years of breathing coal dust.
They see it in the shuffling gait of neighbors broken, disabled — often missing limbs — the victims of roof falls and mechanical mishaps.
Full Story: Calculate lives into the cost of coal – KansasCity.com.
U.S. Army To Court Martial ‘Birther’ Officer For Refusing To Follow Obama’s Orders
NBC News reports that the Army will court martial Lt. Col. Terry Lakin because of his refusal to deploy to Afghanistan. Lakin is part of the discredited “birther” movement, and as such believes that orders from President Obama are “illegal.”
Read more from NBC News here. Watch Lakin’s video below explaining why he believes Obama is not a natural born citizen.
WATCH:
Full Story: Terry Lakin, ‘Birther’, To Be Court Martialed By US Army.
Why Does Google Care About Your Power Bill?
Like most people, I don’t have much information readily available about my power use. A bill containing information on my energy use during the previous month arrives via email every month, and I pay what it says I owe the utility. I have no idea what appliances suck the most power in my house, or how I could best reduce my overall consumption. But now Google wants to make sure everyone has more and better information about how much energy we use.
Google has already released a prototype PowerMeter, a web-based energy monitoring tool that provides real-time information about home usage. The company is also eyeing the market for other tech innovations that could help cut consumer energy use. But in order to work, their system and most others require smart grid technology like meters that can connect homes with their utilities. They also require information from power providers that would make it possible to use these meters.
Thus, Google and other high-tech companies are ramping up pressure on the government to ease access to the information and innovations that would expand use of these products. The company hosted a summit on access to energy information on Tuesday at its DC office, and joined 45 other major companies, venture capitalists, and environmental groups in calling on the Obama administration to “adopt the goal of giving every household and business access to timely, useful and actionable information on their energy use” in a letter. By giving energy users better information, they write, government can help “unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses.”
Full Story: Why Does Google Care About Your Power Bill? | Mother Jones.
Chromasun lands $3 million for solar air conditioners
Chromasun, a developer of solar collectors designed to drive air conditioning chillers, has raised $3 million in its first round of venture capital, which was led by VKR Holding, a Danish investment firm. GoGreen Capital and two unnamed U.S. investors also invested in the deal.
Using solar energy to cool buildings is enticing because the hottest times of the day coincide with the best times to harvest sunlight. Rather than use solar panels to make electricity, though, Chromasun’s system converts heat into usable energy for cooling. The solar collector cannot completely cool a building but the idea is that the chiller will run on solar power during peak times, offsetting the most expensive periods to purchase electricity.
Founded in 2008, Chromasun has developed a solar thermal collector appliance that uses reflectors to achieve 25 times sun concentration. The reflector optics are made of aluminium mirrors that pivot in unison to follow the sun. The entire appliance is enclosed in a sealed glazed canopy that protects it from the elements and it can be mounted on rooftops.
Full Story: Chromasun lands $3 million for solar air conditioners.
Europe Finds Cleaner Energy Source by Burning Trash
The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock.
Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago.
In that time, such plants have become both the mainstay of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source across Denmark, from wealthy exurbs like Horsholm to Copenhagen’s downtown area. Their use has not only reduced the country’s energy costs and reliance on oil and gas, but also benefited the environment, diminishing the use of landfills and cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The plants run so cleanly that many times more dioxin is now released from home fireplaces and backyard barbecues than from incineration.
Full Story: Europe Finds Cleaner Energy Source by Burning Trash – NYTimes.com.
Obama’s Historic Offshore Drilling
Under President Obama’s offshore oil drilling plan, large areas of the nation’s Atlantic coastline, the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico and large swaths of the northern Alaska coastline would be opened to oil and natural gas drilling for the first time in three decades.
In an effort to gain bipartisan support for comprehensive energy legislation that would recognize the dangers of climate change and, for the first time in U.S. history, cap carbon emission, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday a plan to open large portions of coastal water to offshore oil drilling, garnering instead bipartisan scorn.
Under the plan, large areas of the nation’s Atlantic coastline, the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico and large swaths of the northern Alaska coastline would be opened to oil and natural gas drilling for the first time in three decades. The president also announced plans to strengthen fuel economy standards in domestic vehicles, the purchase of 5,000 new hybrid vehicles for the government’s fleet and spoke of the need to continue developing biofuels.
However, the focus remained on the plan to open up coastal areas to offshore oil and gas exploration, a move which Obama acknowledged would earn him detractors on each side of the political spectrum.
Full Story: Obama’s Historic Offshore Drilling | Economy In Crisis.
Foreign Companies Dominate Nuclear Energy Market
“If we’re going to start shoveling a lot of money at nuclear, and nuclear is part of America’s plan to get less oil-dependent, then we need to build it ourselves,” Thomas M. Conway, vice president for the United Steelworkers union said in a statement.
While proponents of nuclear power claim that increased usage of the technology would create countless jobs, provide cheaper energy and lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources, others claim that when taking into account the cost of clean up and subsidies and the fact that much of the production is foreign-owned, it is simply too costly.
According to D.A. Barber, writing in The Huffington Post, foreign-owned companies dominate the domestic uranium mining and milling market.
“Ironically, most mining and milling proposals of recent years are from foreign-owned companies … Even the newest enrichment plant to convert uranium to reactor fuel is wholly foreign owned,” he writes.
Full Story: Foreign Companies Dominate Nuclear Energy Market | Economy In Crisis.
OPS: Just one more reason to not go forward with nuclear power
New federal auto mileage rule on tap
The Transportation Department and EPA will roll out final rules Thursday that boost car and light truck fuel efficiency and create first-time auto emissions standards for carbon dioxide.
Thursday’s completion of the rules has long been expected. But it will provide the White House and environmentalists a chance to sing off the same song sheet, a day after President Obama announced a major offshore oil-and-gas drilling expansion that green groups strongly criticized.
President Obama touted the auto efficiency rules Wednesday during a speech announcing the drilling plan, casting the drilling as just one part of a broader energy policy that’s heavy on conservation and renewable sources.
Full Story: New federal auto mileage rule on tap – The Hill’s E2-Wire.
Big Energy Firms Blocking Solar Power in South
As citizens, businesses and non-profit organisations seek to transition to cleaner power sources like solar and wind, some big energy firms whose business models rely on polluting sources are standing in the way.
In Georgia, the energy company Georgia Power has lobbied for favourable public policies at the Public Service Commission (PSC) and State legislature that are making it difficult for the state's residents to transition to solar power.
IPS learned that the Dekalb County school system wanted to put solar panels on their schools, but could not do it because of state policies like the Territorial Electric Service Act of 1973 which gives Georgia Power a monopoly over the purchase of energy.
Full Story: U.S.: Big Energy Firms Blocking Solar Power in South.
Wall Street is driving up oil prices
Oil prices have risen steadily over the last year, and experts are worrying further increases could snuff out an already-fragile global economic recovery.
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday his plan to open oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. The proposal aims to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, which theoretically could hold down prices for U.S. consumers.
But analysts contend that the rise is prices is not a supply problem — it’s a Wall Street problem.
Full Story: Wall Street is driving up oil prices – Oil & energy- msnbc.com.
BP Solar Outsourcing Production of Solar Panels
The myth of America’s leadership in the world’s 21st Century “green economy” suffered yet another blow Friday as BP Solar announced the closure of a Maryland manufacturing plant that built solar panels.
The company announced that it would close its Frederick, Maryland, plant and move the production to facilities in India, China and elsewhere. The plant closing will affect some 320 workers at the factory.
The announcement comes just three years after the company received a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to promote alternative energy and wean the nation off its dependence on foreign oil.
Full Story: BP Solar Outsourcing Production of Solar Panels | Economy In Crisis.
Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time
The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward would remain closed to all oil and gas activity. So would the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.
The environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be protected and no drilling would be allowed under the plan, officials said. But large tracts in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska — nearly 130 million acres — would be eligible for exploration and drilling after extensive studies.
Full Story: Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time – NYTimes.com.
Leasing a Solar System: Some Questions You Might Want to Ask First
Richard Carter -
There are a number of new solar leasing companies arriving on the scene lately. Many claim to offer solar energy options that may appear much less complicated and cost less than installing one’s own system, and therefore be more affordable while still being able to contribute to the improvement of our environment.
Are such opportunities a good option for you?
As you would expect, “it depends”; and to better understand your options, we suggest you do your homework, get the opinion of more than one consultant (preferably an independent consultant who is not trying to sell you something), and have your accountant or other qualified advisor run the numbers for you.
Full Story: Leasing a Solar System: Some Questions You Might Want to Ask First : Greenenergycafe.com.
Is Solar A Do-It-Yourself Project?
It’s part of the American Dream. Own your home and be able to ‘putz’. Go to any home center on any Saturday and watch how many people purchase plumbing, water heaters, lumber, drywall, and wire. The numbers are staggering. At the same time, ever wonder how many people hire a certified professional to install all that new-found living space wealth and adornment?
I would speculate that very few do; at least on the first try.
Do-It-Yourself, aka DIY, has been an American standard of the remaining frontier to be conquered by most homeowners. They get an idea; they formulate the plan in their head somewhere and head off to the store. But is it the best way to improve our homes? More specifically, can solar be installed by the DIY’er?
Full Story: Is Solar A Do-It-Yourself Project? : Greenenergycafe.com.
Solar Thermal: The Next Generation : Greentech Media
The industry is getting standardized but new concepts continue to bubble up.
Last year we wrote an article comparing the four main solar thermal technologies: towers, troughs, Stirling dishes and flat plate reflectors.
Those four concepts still lead the industry and it has evolved pretty much as most have predicted. Companies with towers and heliostats such as BrightSource Energy and eSolar lined up a number of deals in the past year although they’ve had to face questions about environmental impact and financing.
Stirling system advocates have signed fewer deals in the past year, but have continued to make progress. Stirling Solar recently planted 60 of its systems on a 1.5 megawatt power plant. Meanwhile, Ausra, one of the flat plate leaders, experienced a somewhat moribund 2009. Then early this year it got bought recently by Areva.
Full Story: Solar Thermal: The Next Generation : Greentech Media.
Phony products impress federal Energy Star program
Federal investigators who submitted phony products, such as a gasoline-powered alarm clock, to the government's energy-efficiency certification program found it easy to obtain approval and say the program is “vulnerable to fraud and abuse.”
Investigators with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said they obtained Energy Star approval for 15 of 20 fictitious products they submitted for certification with fake energy-savings claims. Two were rejected and three did not receive a response.
Two of the certified products received purchase requests by real companies because four bogus firms, developed for the purpose of the investigation, were listed as Energy List partners.
Full Story: Nation & World | Phony products impress federal Energy Star program | Seattle Times Newspaper.
The Key to Solving the Energy Crisis: A Leaf?
Professor Nate Lewis is working on a process to mimic photosynthesis and create a fuel that provides energy in a convenient form.
Full Story: The Key to Solving the Energy Crisis: A Leaf? | CommonDreams.orgV.
Ambitious High-Speed Rail Projects
High-speed rails are appearing more frequently in government agendas, as it’s a more economical form of transportation that stimulates job growth, not to mention the numerous environmental benefits. The rails remove millions of passengers from the road and use only a fifth the energy of an automobile trip, while improving air quality and significantly lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
While the U.S. has been lagging in this department for some time, President Obama recently allocated $8 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants for high-speed rails across the country, the full list of which you can find here. China, who is miles ahead of us when it comes to high-speed rails, announced plans this month to bid for contracts to build developing high-speed rails in the U.S., deputy railway minister Wang Zhiguo said. According to Wang, “China is willing to share its mature and advanced technology with other countries to promote development of the world’s high-speed railways.”
We’re highlighting some noteworthy projects in the U.S. that have received federal funding, as well as some plans slated abroad. Take a look, and vote for your favorite rail plan!
Full Story: Ambitious High-Speed Rail Projects (PHOTOS).
OPEC seeks crackdown on speculators
The market must be regulated to avoid excessive price volatility, said Mohamed al-Hamli of the United Arab Emirates.
Oil speculators, including traders at hedge funds and investment banks, intensify crude price volatility and need to be regulated, ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said yesterday.
“Acute and excessive price speculation’’ is determining oil prices, Germanico Pinto, OPEC’s president and Ecuador’s oil minister, said at a conference in Geneva. “Prices are driven by something totally unrelated to supply and demand.’’
OPEC agreed last week in Vienna to keep production quotas unchanged as ministers expressed contentment with oil at about $80 a barrel. While prices are “not high at all,’’ and at a level that is acceptable to producers, the market must still be regulated to avoid excessive price volatility, according to the United Arab Emirates’ oil minister, Mohamed al-Hamli.
Full Story: OPEC seeks crackdown on speculators – The Boston Globe.
Tipping Point: Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production – Part 1
Recently, a 55 page paper called Tipping Point: Near-Term Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production (PDF warning) was published as the joint effort of two organizations:
Feasta, a leading international think-tank exploring the interactions between human welfare, the structure and operation of human systems, and the ecosystem which supports both, and,
The Risk/Resilience Network, an initiative which was established in order to understand energy induced systemic risk, the scope for risk management, and general and emergency planning.
This paper talks about the likely systemic impacts of peak oil, including the possibility of collapse. With a long publication such as this, it is difficult to know how to present a reasonable subset of the material. In this post, we are publishing the Summary as Part 1. Our tentative plan is to publish three additional excerpts from the paper later. Those who wish to read the paper now can download it from the link above.
The lead author of this publication is David Korowicz. You may remember him for his talk at the Oil Drum/ASPO Conference at Alkatraz, Italy last summer called Things Fall Apart: Complexity, Supply Chains, Infrastructure & Collapse.
Full Story: The Oil Drum | Tipping Point: Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production – Part 1 – Summary.
Nuclear Industry to Vermont: ‘Drop Dead’
Harvey Wasserman -
The nuclear power industry is sending a clear and forceful message to the citizens of Vermont: “Drop Dead.”
The greeting applies to Ohio, New York, California and a nation under assault from a “renaissance” so far hyped with more than $640 million in corporate cash.
The Vermont attack includes:
1) A direct threat to ignore the state Senate’s 26-4 February vote against renewing the Yankee reactor’s operating license. As a condition of buying Yankee, Entergy long-ago ceded to the legislature approval of any extension of an operating license, which expires in 2012. But Entergy now says it will spend all the corporate cash it needs to evict the current Senate and install one more to its liking.
Full Story: Nuclear Industry to Vermont: ‘Drop Dead’ | CommonDreams.org.
America’s Premiere Wave Power Farm Sets Sail
Wave energy is among the impressive list of renewable energy resources that is being developed in the United States. New Jersey-based developer, Ocean Power Technologies has launched a project that features the nation’s first commercial wave power farm off the coast of Reedsport, Oregon. Once the project is completed, wave energy will generate power for several hundred homes in Oregon. The wave power farm operates on the wave energy that is created when a float on a buoy flows with the natural up and down movement of the waves.
This action subsequently causes an attached plunger to follow the same kind of ebb and flow movement. The plunger is attached to a hydraulic pump that changes the vertical movement to a circular motion, which drives an electric generator to produce electricity that is sent to shore through submerged cables.
When the initial project is finished, the first $4 million dollar buoy will measure 150 feet tall by 40 feet wide, weighing 200 tons. Nine more of these crafts will be set in motion by the year 2012 for a total cost of $60 million dollars. About four hundred homes will receive electricity from Oregon’s wave power farm by the completion of the project.
Full Story: America’s Premiere Wave Power Farm Sets Sail.
Cracks found in critical reactor parts at Davis-Besse power plant
OAK HARBOR, Ohio — Inspectors working at FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse power plant near Toledo have uncovered the same kind of cracking in critical reactor lid parts that were the cause of massive corrosion found at the plant eight years ago.
In a routine report filed early today with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company said inspectors using sophisticated ultrasonic instruments had found indications of cracking in 12 of the 69 metal tubes that carry control rods through the reactor lid.
Davis-Besse has been down since Feb. 28 for regular refueling and plant-wide inspections and maintenance. Workers late last week began instrument-assisted inspections of all 69 of the corrosion-resistant tubes, known as “nozzles” in the industry because they protrude from the reactor lid several feet and resemble nozzles.
Full Story: Cracks found in critical reactor parts at Davis-Besse power plant | cleveland.com.
Restoring Leadership in U.S. Solar Manufacturing
The U.S. has done little to maintain its place of prominence in manufacturing as the rest of the world caught up and eventually surpassed us. Now, we may add solar manufacturing to our growing list of losses.
After the end of the Second World War virtually anything produced anywhere in the world could and would be produced in the United States. American corporations founded many industries that are ubiquitous around the world today. We not only created the nuclear weapon, but its peaceful counterpart nuclear energy.
We created the first telephone systems, and then the first mobile phone systems.
We created the automobile and were once major champions of passenger rail.
We created the personal computer as well as the Internet, which has perhaps done more to integrate the world than any other product or system in existence today.
Full Story: Restoring Leadership in U.S. Solar Manufacturing | Economy In Crisis.
“Peak Oil Period” to Be Attained By 2014, Alarm Scientists
This is serious issue of concern because as the definition of the term “peak oil” suggests, peak oil is the period when the oil production after mounting to its maximum, starts to turn down. Therefore according to the study, the highest oil production will be seen in 2014 followed by a further decrease in production. This will pose a serious threat to the human comfort as we are very much reliant on the petroleum and related products in almost everything, majorly our transporting system.
It has also been revealed that total of 54% of fuel has been used by now and the remaining will be reached within four years 2014 i. e. the highest of 79 million stock tank barrels per day. Scientists are terming this conclusion as “alarming” and are saying that their warnings are resulted only after considering “best available information”.
Full Story: “Peak Oil Period” to Be Attained By 2014, Alarm Scientists | TopNews United States.
Underwater Skyscraper is a Self-Sufficient City at Sea
Ocean levels are rising around the globe, so rather than tethering our buildings to the sinking shoreline why not suit them for a life at sea? That’s the approach behind the Water-Scraper, a futuristic self-sufficient floating city. A special mention in this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the design expands the concept of a floating island into a full-fledged underwater skyscraper that harvests renewable energy and grows its own food.
Touted as a self-sufficent floating city, Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum’s Water-Scraper utilizes a variety of green technologies. It generates its own electricity using wave, wind, and solar power and it produces its own food through farming, aquaculture, and hydroponic techniques. The surface of the submerged skyscraper sustains a small forest, while the lower levels contain spaces for its inhabitants to live and work. The building is kept upright using a system of ballasts aided by a set of squid-like tentacles that generate kinetic energy.
The architects “envision a future where land as a resource will be scarce; it is only natural progression that we create our own. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, even more if climate change has its way, hence it is only natural progression that we will populate the seas someday.” As anyone who has seen Waterworld will attest, it’s a grim future indeed — which is why it’s essential that we do what we can to stem the course of the world’s rising tides.
Full Story: Underwater Skyscraper is a Self-Sufficient City at Sea | Inhabitat.
Challenging conventional wisdom on renewable energy’s limits
In making the case for a rapid conversion away from heavily polluting energy sources like coal and nuclear power to cleaner generation, renewable energy advocates often confront the argument that their scheme is impossible due to the intermittent nature of sun and wind.
But a groundbreaking study out of North Carolina challenges that conventional wisdom: It suggests that backup generation requirements would be modest for a system based largely on solar and wind power, combined with efficiency, hydroelectric power, and other renewable sources like landfill gas.
“Even though the wind does not blow nor the sun shine all the time, careful management, readily available storage and other renewable sources can produce nearly all the electricity North Carolinians consume,” said author John Blackburn, professor emeritus of economics and former chancellor at Duke University in Durham, N.C.. He’s also the author of the books “The Renewable Energy Alternative” and “Solar in Florida.”
Full Story: ISS – Challenging conventional wisdom on renewable energy’s limits.
The Solar Bus Goes to Washington
In October 2009, the Solar Bus led a march to the White House to call for climate change legislation. The march was part of a global effort in which protests and rallies were held all over the world at the same time, organized by 350.org.
Wind vs. Natural Gas
Today's Wall St. Journal includes a very interesting article on the real-world competition between wind power and electricity generated from fossil fuels. At least in Texas, steadily increasing wind generation has apparently come mainly at the expense of natural gas, rather than displacing coal-fired power, as might have been anticipated by many wind advocates. That has implications for the effectiveness of renewable energy policy as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as for the utilities and independent power generators that are complaining that wind has been given overly-preferential treatment.
Texas makes an interesting laboratory for demonstrating the practical consequences of our shift towards renewable energy. ERCOT, the Texas grid, has little connectivity with neighboring grids; power generated within Texas must, for the most part, be used in Texas, while demand in Texas must be met mainly by generators within the state. That makes the relationship between wind and fossil fuel generation more transparent than it would be in another region with larger imports and exports. The resulting statistics on gas generation displaced by wind, as presented in the article, are unlikely to surprise those familiar with the technologies involved.
As I've pointed out periodically, wind power is unlikely to displace much coal, since most coal plants are run in baseload mode–essentially 24×7–because that suits both their operating requirements and the grid's need for large quantities of predictable, low-cost power to handle routine loads. By contrast, wind turbines rely on the availability of wind blowing at speeds within a specified range. On average they put out about 30% of the full power for which they're rated, in patterns that vary from day to day and season to season. Gas offers much more flexibility than either coal or wind and is thus the supply most likely to be adjusted up or down to accommodate the output from wind when it's blowing or back-stop it when it's calm. From what I can tell from the article, the complaint from gas-based generating companies isn't that this is occurring, but that when wind generators come up short vs. their day-ahead commitments to the grid, the penalty falls on everyone else, not on the responsible wind farms. This constitutes a hidden subsidy, on top of the ongoing benefit of the federal Production Tax Credit (currently available as an alternative Investment Tax Credit and payable as an up-front cash grant) and the Renewable Energy Credits generated under the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard.
Full Story: Wind vs. Natural Gas.
California’s High Speed Rail Future
Many experts and industry insiders believe that the United States will have to embrace a future on the rails if it hopes to cope with obstacles and changes in years ahead. By and large our dependence on gas-powered vehicles has proven to be both hazardous to our environment and disastrous for our wallet.
Anyone who has ever traveled around Europe, Japan, or increasingly China, has seen the dependence that passengers have on long rail networks. Railways in the U.S. are almost completely dominated by freight transportation; travelers utilize a small proportion of our network. Many millions of Americans use subways and regional, or municipal, transit; but there is very little infrastructure to travel long distances.
Many experts and industry insiders believe that the United States will have to embrace a future on the rails if it hopes to cope with obstacles and changes in years ahead. By and large our dependence on gas-powered vehicles has proven to be both hazardous to our environment and disastrous for our wallet.
Our nation may never completely break its addictive bond with automobiles, but it could potentially lessen the burden by rebuilding passenger rail systems that have long been an afterthought.
Full Story: California’s High Speed Rail Future | Economy In Crisis.
Nuclear Projects Waiting on Financial Backing
Obtaining financing for nuclear reactors, a key portion of the Obama administration’s alternative energy policy, is proving to be extremely difficult despite billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees, according to The Washington Post.
According to The Post, obtaining private capital for nuclear projects has always been a major obstacle to increasing the usage of nuclear power in the U.S. Extremely costly to begin with, the construction of nuclear power plants have a tendency to run over schedule and over budget.
The government has guaranteed up to $18.5 billion in financing, however, that may cover just one construction project. A proposed project in Georgia, which would build two nuclear reactors if approved, is expected to cost $14 billion.
Full Story: Nuclear Projects Waiting on Financial Backing | Economy In Crisis.
Coda Automotive to launch all-electric vehicle in the fourth quarter
As Coda Automotive prepares to launch its all-electric, China-built sedan in California in the fourth quarter of 2010, the Santa Monica company said it is focused on safety.
“We’ve worked to make it a safe car so [that], above all, families can use it,” said Dan Mosher, Coda’s chief financial officer at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco. “We are working to achieve the highest safety standards so that we can get a five-star crash rating. We’ll have a passenger-side occupant detection airbag, which is the most advanced 2011 model safety standard.”
In recent months, Coda has finalized the sedan’s engineering, settled on component suppliers and announced a joint venture with leading Chinese battery manufacturer Lishen. Last week, it also revealed that it had raised an additional $5 million.
Still on its to do list: meet the government’s safety requirements.
Full Story: Coda Automotive to launch all-electric vehicle in the fourth quarter | Technology | Los Angeles Times.
Opel to launch inner-city electric car
Ailing carmaker Opel is considering launching an electric car for inner-city use to tap what it sees as a high-potential market, the firm’s boss said in an interview Sunday.
“We are thinking about a small electric vehicle,” the chief of the General Motors unit, Nick Reilly, told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
“We believe there is strong potential for growth in cities across the world,” he added, predicting that “various governments are going to provide fiscal support for this kind of vehicle.”
An Opel spokesman said the new model — which would be smaller than the Corsa — was expected to be launched in three years, in both electric and conventional fuel versions.
Full Story: Opel to launch inner-city electric car – Yahoo! News.
Nuclear Power Renaissance Faces Serious Obstacles
The renaissance of nuclear power in the U.S. appears inevitable. It just may not happen as smoothly as the Obama administration and others hope.
The Vermont Senate’s vote Wednesday to block a license renewal for an Entergy plant shows that supporters of nuclear power still have big obstacles to overcome. Those include the growing costs for new plants, environmental worries and the age of the country’s existing nuclear fleet.
“I think if you said ‘ready, go’ today, any kind of meaningful addition would be 10 years down the road,” said Eric Melvin of Mobius Risk.
Full Story: Nuclear Power Renaissance Faces Serious Obstacles.
Nuclear subsidies put taxpayers at risk
Power companies call defaults unlikely
President Obama’s plan to kick-start the construction of nuclear power plants in the United States comes with a big catch: Because private banks won’t lend to an industry viewed as financially risky, taxpayers would be accountable for billions in government-guaranteed loans if plant developers default.
Precisely how much risk the public would carry remains a subject of lobbying by the industry, which is trying to minimize its financial exposure as the political climate in Washington has warmed in its favor.
Obama said last week that his administration had conditionally awarded a loan guarantee for the construction of two nuclear reactors at a plant in Georgia and said he wants to fund many more such projects under a program that could exceed $50 billion. But critics said the president has failed to address the potential liability to taxpayers for such loans.
Full Story: Nuclear subsidies put taxpayers at risk – The Boston Globe.
Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out?
Analysis by Lester R. Brown –
The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States. Initially led by environmental groups, both national and local, it has since been joined by prominent national political leaders and many state governors.
The principal reason for opposing coal plants is that they are changing the earth's climate. There is also the effect of mercury emissions on health and the 23,600 U.S. deaths each year from power plant air pollution.
Over the last few years the coal industry has suffered one setback after another. The Sierra Club, which has kept a tally of proposed coal-fired power plants and their fates since 2000, reports that 123 plants have been defeated, with another 51 facing opposition in the courts.
Full Story: ENERGY: Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out?.
